Mike Pence: “I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, I think this is a great debate. As a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, as someone…”

“I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, I think this is a great debate. As a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, as someone trained in constitutional law, I find the passion that I hear on this floor today for the First Amendment truly inspiring, and I respect it immensely. In fact, would that we had heard that same passion for protecting the free speech rights of Americans when last year this Congress adopted severe limitations on campaign speech in the so-called campaign finance reform legislation. But that is a battle for another branch of this government and another day. I rise today, rather, Mr. Speaker, to try and express from my heart what I believe this amendment means to millions of patriotic Americans who support it, and I do so with a sincere heart, to speak to those millions of patriotic Americans who oppose it. After surviving the bloodiest battlefield since Gettysburg, a squad of Marines trudged up Mount Suribachi on Sulfur Island with a simple task: to raise the American flag above the devastation below. When the flag was raised by Sergeant Mike Strank and his men, history records that a thunderous cheer rose from the troops on land and on sea, in foxholes and on stretchers. Hope returned to that field of battle when the American flag began flapping in the wind. It is written, Mr. Speaker, that without a vision, the people perish.…”