On the recordMay 7, 2014
As I close, I want to remind all of my colleagues, several references have been made to the oath that we take every 2 years in this Chamber. Every 2 years we stand in this Chamber and we say: I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It is the first words we say. It is interesting that at the beginning of that swearing in is that we will defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Yesterday we had a very interesting argument in rules when one of the members of the Rules Committee questioned whether when one becomes a public employee, whether they then lose their rights as an American citizen. It is clear that those rights do stand, no matter whether you are a public servant or whether you are a janitor at some coffee shop. We are in a situation today where we need to be very clear what is happening. Not since McCarthy has this been tried, that is the stripping away of an American citizen's constitutional right not to incriminate themselves and then holding them in contempt criminally. McCarthy. We are better than that. We are so much better.…
