Political Quotes

Willie Hefner: “I have heard a lot about free speech, but I have not heard anything that talked about, when you send mailers or what…”

On the recordJuly 14, 1998
I have heard a lot about free speech, but I have not heard anything that talked about, when you send mailers or what have you, truthfulness. When you talk about somebody's voting record, you take just partial voting records or amendments that were in the committee or what have you and distort them, then do not identify who sent it out, this is absolutely not free speech. You do not stand up in a theater and holler fire. The whole thing, the Doolittle, in my view, the Doolittle amendment opens it up. If some group wants to get together and say, like happened in my district, we had a mailer that said Bill Hefner and Mike Dukakis, if you want to kill babies, vote for Mike Dukakis and Bill Hefner. This is not a voter guide.
Said by
Willie Hefner
Democratic · North Carolina
Source
govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of the Doolittle amendment on political mailers and truthfulness in campaign messaging.

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