On the recordMay 18, 2022
Mr. Speaker, this bill, or a bill substantially like it, has come up before, and it enjoyed substantial bipartisan support, and now that has changed. Why is that? It is because it has become evident that the majority seeks, for political reasons, to conflate the extraordinarily serious issue of domestic terrorism with half of the country with their political opposition. It is evident that the administration has pursued a concocted attack on the credibility on the First Amendment activity of parents who were engaging in First Amendment-protected activism in school boards. The administration has engaged in a deceitful refusal to account for that activity, and whistleblower accounts have now revealed that, indeed, FBI agents went to interrogate parents over their activism. When Members of the majority recite events in every one of their comments today, they are selective and mischaracterized. {time} 1900 They do not mention the Brooklyn subway shooter. They do not mention the Wisconsin fire bombing. They do not mention Waukesha, Wisconsin. They do not mention Boulder, Colorado. Why do they not? Why is it so consistent that those are not mentioned? It is exactly the same issue in which there is always a focus on a particular type of hate--white supremacy. Let me tell you something. I have no hesitancy to say that the twisted butcher in Buffalo, New York, was a white supremacist. More than that, it is evident that he was mentally ill.…