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[Page H2612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I was listening to the colloquy earlier. I
have listened to comments here during debate. I have seen comments made
in the media by some of the folks here in the House over the vote that
was taken, basically, on an anti-hate resolution that was originally
intended to address anti-Semitic remarks that were made by a Member of
the House.
Yet, instead of addressing the anti-Semitic remarks, it was made a
global, general: Oh, we are against almost all hate--well, not all
hate. Apparently, not the kind of hate for Republicans that would cause
our minority whip, Steve Scalise, to be shot and almost killed; not
the violence being perpetrated on supporters of President Trump,
including on college campuses. But even they, as horrendous as they
were, have no moral equivalence to the Holocaust.
Expanding the resolution from a simple condemnation of anti-Jewish,
anti-Semitic remarks to a panoply of other items--actually attempted to
give everything ever done to anyone, except a few hate-filled actions,
of course--attempting to give them the moral equivalence of the
Holocaust where none exists, that is tragic.
And then to compound that regrettable action by the majority in
trying to please everyone, instead of standing up and calling out anti-
Jewish, hate-filled remarks, biased, bigoted remarks, then came here
and condemned those of us who call them out for not standing up against
anti-Semitic remarks and accuse us of being hate-filled because we took
a principled stand against anti-Semitic remarks that needed to be
singularized, needed to be addressed, needed to be condemned.
And not only that, to come in and also take the occasion to slander
Steve King, saying: Well, he should have been called out 10 years ago.
No allegations, no specifics. Let's just generally slap somebody down
because we don't like them; we don't like what they have said.
This is outrageous. This was no place for any of those actions, any
of those comments, and I deeply regret people for whom I have had
respect who would come in here and try to draw moral equivalence to
every little action.
Look, I bet most of us--I know a lot of us have had plenty of death
threats. We have had plenty of nasty comments made. But we don't go
running to the media every time somebody threatens to kill us or
somebody makes these outrageous threats or allegations.
The Holocaust was different. The suffering caused during the years of
slavery in the United States really were unforgivable. It was a
horrible thing to inflict on anybody.
I was shocked to find out here in February that there are more slaves
in the world today--40 million--than there have ever been in the
world's existence. That is horrendous.
We ought to take actions to stamp out slavery wherever it is, against
whatever race or nationality, whatever. It has no place in the world.
But we know what leads to a Holocaust, the killing of millions of
Jews simply because they were Jewish. It starts with maligning comments
against Jews.
At first people will say, you know, that is really not appropriate.
But then it gets watered down to where, well, there are a lot of bad
comments against all kinds of people. You know, we are not for any of
those.
And that is where we find ourselves this week in the House of
Representatives. It has started.
People in this body knew which Members have made anti-Semitic
feelings known in the past, so it is kind of hard to imagine that
anybody would put someone who has espoused very strong anti-Semitic
feelings in the past, put them on the committee where they can do the
most damage to Israel and our relationship with Israel and then act
like they had no idea: Let's just say that there are problems with all
kinds of hate.
Well, there is a problem with not calling out the kind of comments
that start the ball rolling toward another Holocaust.
{time} 1300
Those of us who believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
believe, as it says up here, in that God we trust, that is the God it
is talking about. That is why Moses, his full face, is up here in this
body, because of the respect for the moral laws that he gave.
But there is a danger to any civilization, any country, that will not
call out anti-Semitic comments when they happen. It is not enough to
put in language so that if you accuse somebody of anti-Semitic comments
because they have actually made them, but they happen to be of a
certain race or religion, then you get condemned. They say, oh, you are
against this race, or you are against this religion, because you called
them down for their anti-Semitic remarks.
That resolution yesterday leaves that kind of ambivalence out there
and available to people who make anti-Semitic remarks.
It needs to stop. It needs to be called out before this body loses
its moral relevance to make a difference in the world.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________
