as Governor of 4 million American citizens residing in Puerto Rico, what I pledged to do was to try to get Congress to actually sponsor a process--a balanced and fair process--so that the voters would be guaranteed that they had a fair…

I sense pushback on the first round of votes.

All Americans believe in democracy. In Puerto Rico, we believe in democracy, and the only thing we want is the right to decide for ourselves our future in a level playing field.

I want to commend you and thank you for standing up for the American citizens residing in Puerto Rico...

The next step would be coming back here, probably having new Federal legislation.

What is wrong is to, after 112 years, have formerly American citizens residing under conditions that are so unequal to their counterparts in the mainland.

What should Congress do, then? It should simply declare its intention to put an end to colonial rule in Puerto Rico.

Essentially, they had said that we could retain American citizenship, we would retain all of the Federal funding that we're getting today and, actually, then some more.

I would respectfully pose to you that if the 'free beer and barbeque' option had been one of the options in Alaska, you would not have gotten a 2 to 1 margin.

the voters must understand that what Commonwealth means, as the author of that amendment states to Pedro Pierluisi and I, is the present status quo, which is a territorial status.

I believe the average voter understands fully what Statehood means.