Charles Rangel: “First, I would like the record to remain clear that in my opinion the gentleman from California stole the election in…”

“First, I would like the record to remain clear that in my opinion the gentleman from California stole the election in Florida, and I just want to get that out of the way. But having said that, I think that this agreement that we reach today gives us an opportunity to see what we could be doing, especially as it relates to international treaty agreements, if we attempt to work together. The government of Morocco has been friendly to the United States for years, and it is a developing country that has strived to have a relationship between organized labor and to work to improve the quality of life for its workers. We Democrats truly believe that we should have a bipartisan approach to these types of issues and that there are certain principles we think should be in all trade agreements, and that is that you protect American jobs and that you provide for basic international labor standards in these agreements, and you do no harm. There are certain provisions here that deal with intellectual rights that we really approve of, but we also believe that we should never allow ourselves to deprive people of medicine that they may need for their health and, indeed, for their life.”