Louie Gohmert: “I do appreciate this bill coming to the floor. I do not think it is a travesty against our civil rights. Some people…”

“I do appreciate this bill coming to the floor. I do not think it is a travesty against our civil rights. Some people have some confusion, I think, over civil rights versus rights in a time of war. Believe it or not, and I think most of you should understand, we are in a war. We didn't know it in 1979 when war was declared against us, but we are at war. There are those in the world who believe that freedom and liberty necessarily leads to debauchery and degradation. Therefore, we must have a dictatorial, brutal leader, religious leader that tells us what we can and can't do. If you don't, then they have the right to cut off your head and destroy our way of life. Now we happen to believe when you declare war against us and you want to cut off our heads and destroy our way of life, then we have a right to protect ourselves. In criminal law, it is called self-defense, and that is an exception to some of the rights others may have. What some have confused, I think, is civil rights versus rights of those declare war against your way of life. This is not a bill that will allow surveilling American citizens on American soils. But the message is this: If you declare war on this country and you are a foreigner, we may just listen in on your conversations and you can be prepared for that.”