Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding to me here this afternoon. I come to the floor here of the United States House of Representatives with a specific purpose today, and that is to address an issue that has become a controversy. I regret that I made a freshman mistake a week ago today when I took a call from a reporter from the New York Times, and that was a 56- minute interview, without a tape, that resulted in a long article. In that article were snippets of the 56-minute interview. Part of that inquiry was about the history of immigration policy in this country for over the last, say, 18 or so years, of which I have been a significant part, especially in Iowa, as we have a voice to shape policy and help these presidential candidates move on to the Oval Office. I am grateful that much of the policy that was debated then is in the Oval Office today, and it is being debated all over this country. But one phrase in that long article has created an unnecessary controversy. That was my mistake, Mr. Speaker, so I want to start this out with some context of that discussion, and that is this: That if you can control the language, you can control the policy. Labels have been hurled in this country at people like we have never seen in this history of America. I made a point of this in a September 12 tweet that I sent out as a component of this broader dialogue, and here is the tweet, verbatim, Mr.…”