Chris Murphy: 'Some Of Our Republican Colleagues Have To Speak Out' To Defend Alex Padilla

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In remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) reacted to the removal of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) from Sec. Kristi Noem's press briefing.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. President. I agree with my friend from Maryland. This has to be a moment where we

00:12just drop our political affiliations, where we decide that we are Americans, that the

00:18Constitution matters, that dissent defines America, and we say and do the right thing.

00:25And I think there is still time for our Republican colleagues here to speak out. I understand they

00:34may still want to collect more facts, but as each minute and each hour passes, it's becoming

00:42clear that the main justification seems to be simply that Senator Padilla was showing some level

00:52of disrespect. And the first comments from our Republican colleagues, I think if you're

00:59an American who cares about free speech, are really concerning. One of our colleagues in

01:07the Senate said this, Senator Padilla has a responsibility to his constituents to show up

01:13at work not to try to make a spectacle of himself. Well, that is certainly a legitimate opinion,

01:23right? You can criticize any of us for engaging in spectacle, but spectacle is not illegal.

01:31Raising your voice is not a crime in this country. Protesting your government does not, cannot,

01:39not, and should not, result in you being delivered to the ground by law enforcement and handcuffed.

01:50Another of our colleagues says, was he disruptive? Well, he got what he wanted.

01:58Once again, the standard here seems to be disruption. That if you are speaking truth to power,

02:06you are going to be met by violence. The definition of this country, the fundamental nature of America

02:17is that protest is not met with violence. Protest is celebrated in this nation. That what defines America

02:28against the rest of the world, against the totality of previous human history,

02:35is that we protect the right of human beings living in the United States of America to raise

02:42protest, loud protest, sometimes disruptive protest against their government.

02:48And frankly, we protect that right equally if it is a United States senator or an ordinary citizen

02:57with no formal power. And so we can say today, well, this is really dangerous that a United States

03:06senator got thrown to the ground and handcuffed simply because they spoke up at a press conference,

03:11but it is no more concerning that it is happening to a United States citizen than what is happening to

03:17many other citizens and residents of this country right now who are being met with equal physical force.

03:22We don't expect any different treatment of United States senators than of ordinary citizens.

03:29But many ordinary citizens in Los Angeles right now are being treated with the same kind of force

03:36that Alex Padilla was met with today. And so there is still time for us to come together and say,

03:45in this country, speaking truth to power, even in a disruptive way is never rationalization for violence.

03:56But I will tell you the first couple statements from my Republican colleagues are deeply worrying.

04:02They misread the fundamental nature of this country. And if we now live in a world where simple disagreement,

04:12vocal disagreement, vocal disagreement, where protest with this administration becomes justification

04:21for violence, I don't know how you can define that as America any longer. And as someone who was

04:36sitting in this chamber, I think this very same desk on January 6th, it shouldn't be lost on us

04:47that there are forms of political protest that are protected by this administration, celebrated even.

04:57And then there are forms of political protest, as you saw today, that are met with violence.

05:05There are individuals out on the street today in America who just,

05:12a few years ago, were in this building or on the outskirts of this building beating the hell out of police

05:19officers, viciously, savagely attacking police officers, tasers to the throat, rendering those

05:27police officers unconscious, metal poles being hammered onto the heads of police officers.

05:37In an exceptional moment, the President of the United States, in celebration of their violence,

05:42the United States, pardoned them, put them back out on the street, sending the unequivocal message

05:50that if you engage in violent protest on behalf of the White House, you get out of jail free.

06:03Pair that together with the message that is being received by the American public,

06:08now on a daily basis, most prominently and visibly today.

06:13That if you engage in peaceful protest, Senator Padilla was asking a question.

06:20He identified himself as a United States Senator.

06:25Of the administration, you will be met by violence.

06:28You carry out violence on behalf of the White House, you are excused.

06:32You lodge normal, protected protest against this White House, you are thrown to the ground and

06:43handcuffed, even if you're a United States Senator, though it should not matter.

06:54And so the early reaction here, it should be chilling.

06:59Because once this becomes normalized, I don't know how you put it back in the bottle.

07:08We shouldn't assume that this democracy survives forever.

07:12This is a revolutionary experiment 250 years in.

07:17It's fragile.

07:19This idea that we govern ourselves, this idea that we respect,

07:24through rule and force of law, people who disagree with us.

07:300.0001% of humans have ever lived under a system like that, in which they decide for themselves the law,

07:40their protest, even against the most powerful people in the country, is protected by law.

07:46That idea is unnatural.

07:51It is, in some ways, almost destined to fall apart.

07:54And yet, for 250 years, we have not let it fall apart.

07:58We have decided that our fealty to that idea of free speech, of protected free speech,

08:05even if it rubs up against the ruling elites, the ruling class, the White House,

08:12the most powerful people in the country, in an uncomfortable way, will be protected.

08:22And so for 250 years, we have together, Republicans and Democrats,

08:27decided that that principle of free speech was more important than our political stripes,

08:33than loyalty to our party's leader, or our party's ideas.

08:38And so at some point tonight, a Republican has to come down to this floor.

08:45At some point this weekend, some of our Republican colleagues have to speak out.

08:53On behalf of this fundamental American idea, on behalf of the United States Senate, on behalf

08:59of our colleague, we can still fight on tax policy and immigration policy.

09:07We can have big disagreements about the reconciliation bill.

09:10It will not harm my Republican colleagues' ability to render argument on the things that matter to them.

09:19It's okay for us to agree that what happened to Alex Padilla two hours ago, crosses a line.

09:29It doesn't compromise my Republican colleagues' integrity as Republicans,

09:38to decide that there is still right or wrong, that not everything is black or white.

09:42That two plus two sometimes has to still equal four.

09:49What happened to Senator Padilla should not have happened.

09:51He identified himself. It's not true that he didn't identify himself.

09:58What happened to him in the room is not justifiable, but certainly what happened to him outside the room

10:04isn't justifiable. Once he was removed from the room, being thrown to the ground,

10:07as he is identifying himself as a senator, being handcuffed, can't be justified.

10:16So, we're going to hang around on this floor in hopes that at some point,

10:24somehow, and I know not all of our Republican colleagues are still in town,

10:29speak up on behalf of this basic, this basic premise, this basic foundational idea of

10:35America, that even when protest rubs you the wrong way, even when you don't like the form or substance

10:41of it, that we just, we are no longer the country that we love, the country that we teach our kids

10:48about, if we don't find a way to come together to object to protest being met with this kind of violence.

10:57I yield the floor.

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