During debate on the House floor, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) tore into House Republicans, and spoke in opposition to GOP-proposed legislation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Gentleman reserves the gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized. Thank you Madam Speaker and I want
00:05to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes and I yield myself such
00:10time as they may consume. Madam Speaker, yesterday the Republican Party released their new platform
00:18and I heard Republican pundits saying that this platform was going to be more moderate.
00:22I saw reporters even claiming that Republicans are softening their radical extreme views on abortion
00:29and on same-sex marriage. I even saw one Republican senator on TV yesterday defending the platform
00:36and trying to spin it to make Trump sound like a normal rational moderate person which is an
00:42impossibility by the way. Then I actually read the platform and it's more of the same old same
00:50old more of the same fear-mongering and divisive politics that they've been pushing for years now.
00:57They're not kicking MAGA extremism aside. They're doubling down on it. Talk is cheap around here.
01:03Look at their look at their legislation. Look at the bills before us this week. If someone looks
01:08at these bills and thinks the Republican Party is normal or rational or moderate, I think they
01:14need to get checked out because they're living in a fantasy world. These bills are getting crazier
01:20and crazier the longer they're in charge. Here's the Republican agenda for this week. More attacks
01:26on the LGBTQ community. More attacks on immigrants. More attacks on voting rights because they know
01:32they can only win if fewer people vote. And more attacks on working families and more giveaways
01:38to special interests and billionaire companies. There is nothing new here. Just more division,
01:44more destruction, more disarray. Now there's been a lot of talk about Project 2025 lately.
01:52The Republican plan to dismantle the government, get revenge on their political adversaries,
01:58weaponize the White House and install Trump as a dictator. The former president recently made
02:03a laughable attempt to try to distance himself from its extremism. And what do you know? Now
02:10Project 2025 is right here on the House floor because it's what Republicans actually believe.
02:17That's what this SAVE Act is about. It is a voter suppression bill that lays the groundwork for them
02:24to undermine the next election so they can justify another January 6th style attempt to seize power
02:31even if they lose. They'll use this gotcha bill to say Democrats want to give non-citizens the
02:37ability to vote in federal elections. Let me say now that is a lie. It is a total lie. It is a lie
02:46that Democrats are against preventing non-citizens from voting in federal elections. That is already
02:53illegal. What we are against is making it harder for American citizens to vote. And that's what
03:01this bill does. Republicans in this bill want to require all this new documentation for an
03:08individual just to register to vote. They say well you can use your passport. Well what about
03:15someone who can't afford a $130 passport? What about someone who doesn't have the time to take
03:20a day off from work to get their birth certificate? What about someone who recently got married and
03:24changed their name so their birth certificate doesn't match their ID? The Republican answer
03:30here is too bad. You can't vote. They are going to disenfranchise millions and millions of people
03:40in response to what we know has maybe been a couple of dozen cases of voter fraud over the past
03:47over the last two decades. But this isn't about voter fraud. Let's be clear. This is not about
03:52voter fraud. It's about them trying to cheat in the next election. It's paving the way again for
03:59another violent insurrection if their candidate does not succeed. And you know and I should say
04:07Madam Speaker, the key witness in the House Administration Committee on behalf of this bill
04:15is one of the architects of Project 2025. I mean they're all linked. And let me throw one other
04:23thing out there for members to digest. The chairman of the House Administration Committee,
04:28the Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee, I asked him point blank whether Trump
04:33lost the election. He couldn't give me a direct answer. What the hell is wrong with these people?
04:39You know I mean they are so detached from reality. They are so oblivious to the truth.
04:48This is dangerous stuff. This is dangerous stuff. You know and then another Project 2025
04:57priority, more giveaways for polluters and attempts to dismantle the entire federal government's
05:02effort to protect the environment. You know it's shocking actually. They want to take away free,
05:08they want to take freedom away from women. They want to take freedom away from the LGBTQ plus
05:13community. They want to take freedom away from families who want to use IVF. But freedom for
05:20fridges? Sign them up. They want freedom for refrigerators and dignity for dishwashers
05:26while they take away rights from actual people. It is sick and for the record if somebody wants
05:34to keep their 50-year-old refrigerator, go for it. This bill has nothing, nothing to do with that.
05:41This bill gives billion-dollar companies the ability to cut corners when they make appliances.
05:46I guess nothing says freedom to Republicans quite like forcing their constituents to pay more on
05:51their electric bills. Republicans don't want to talk about how extreme they are. I mean you know
05:58the bottom line is we should want companies to make appliances more efficient. Why? Because it
06:07saves consumers more money. The only reason to be against that is to help the big energy companies
06:15so they can charge consumers even more. My Republican friends don't want to talk about
06:20how they want to ban abortion nationwide and take away the right to choose in every state.
06:24They don't want to talk about how their own members want to ban IVF. They don't want to talk
06:30about their obsession with attacking the LGBTQI plus community. They want to turn their back,
06:37they want to turn the clock back on voting rights. And the legislation that we are seeing on the
06:43on the floor today is just more of the same. And while Republicans desert the American people
06:49in service to Donald Trump, Democrats will remain committed to doing our job, lowering the cost of
06:56living, standing up to the special interests and big corporations, protecting the right to vote,
07:02and defending the freedom of our constituents. We are proud to stand on the side of democracy,
07:08on the side of the American people, and on the right side of history. And with that,
07:13Madam Speaker, this is just an awful, awful rule. I'll say more about that later.
07:18I urge a strong no and I reserve my time.