Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 645

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, before we break for the Fourth of July recess, I think it is important for the Senate to go on record condemning the rising tide of mob violence that we see across the country and the increasingly prevalent mob mentality that is fueling it. The violence struck home for me this week when one of my constituents was shot after an armed mob surrounded his vehicle in Provo, UT.

This resolution is not controversial. Even in these divisive times, it is something, I think, we can all agree on, and I want to read through some highlights right now so you get a feel for it.

The United States of America was founded in 1776 on universal principles of freedom, justice, and human equality.

Throughout our nation's history, Americans have struggled to realize those ideals . . . but nonetheless [have made] greater progress toward them than any [other] nation on earth.

[The United States is a diverse nation] committed to cultivating respect, friendship, and justice across all such differences, and protecting the God-given equal rights of all Americans under the law.

America's law enforcement officers do an extremely difficult job extremely well, and despite the inexcusable misconduct of some, the overwhelming majority of such officers are honest, courageous, patriotic, and rightfully honored public servants.

In recent weeks, people across the United States have organized legitimate, peaceful, constitutionally protected demonstrations against instances of police brutality and racial inequality.

[Some of these Americans have organized these peaceful protests, asking for investigations into serious problems meriting investigation and reform.]

Some Americans, unsatisfied with peaceful and positive demonstrations, have instigated and indulged in mob violence and criminal property destruction, not in service of any . . . coherent cause, but simply as an arrogant, bullying tantrum of self-righteous illiberalism and rage.

These mobs have demonstrated not only contempt for public safety (as evidenced, among other crimes, by an unprovoked physical assault on a Wisconsin State Senator and the [more recent] shooting of a motorist in Provo, Utah) and common decency (as evidenced by their . . . obscene berating of law enforcement officers standing their posts to protect their communities), but also their manifest ignorance and historical illiteracy (as evidenced by their destruction of public memorials to historical heroes like Ulysses S. Grant, St. Junipero Serra, Miguel Cervantes, George Washington, Hans Christian Heg, and a reported plan to target a statue of Abraham Lincoln financed in 1876 entirely by private donations from freed African-American slaves).

It is the sense of the Senate that the rising tide of vandalism, mob violence, and the mob mentality that feeds it--including its cruel and intolerant ``cancel culture''-- should be condemned by all Americans; [that] peaceful demonstrations and mob violence are different in kind; [that] physical assault and property destruction are not forms of political speech but violent crimes whose perpetrators should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law; and [that] the innocent law enforcement officers, public officials, and private citizens who suffer the mob's violence and endure its scorn while protecting our communities from them deserve [every American's thanks and appreciation].

As I say, it is very straightforward.

As we saw in Seattle this week, these mobs are not going to stop until they are stopped. A nonbinding resolution is the tiniest first step of a response--the merest exercise of the Senate's atrophied institutional muscles. We need to do much, much more, and I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to develop the legislation to do it.

Yet, in this divided political moment, heading into the 244th birthday of the greatest, freest, most tolerant, and prosperous nation the world has ever known, I think showing that Senate Republicans and showing that Senate Democrats can work together and speak with one voice against woke mob violence and in defense of equal justice and civic peace would be a welcomed step.

Therefore, Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 645, submitted earlier today.

The point here is that without pointing to any one specific individual, we should all be able to acknowledge, as a sense of the Senate, that we do hold these truths as self-evident; that our country was founded on these very strong ideals. Even if, as the resolution itself acknowledges, we have failed at times to live up to them, we have still done it.

So I would accept the modification but only with the removal of the words ``especially the President of the United States.''

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, what is happening here? This is the U.S. Senate. Just so everyone is clear about the bat guano-inspired insanity we just witnessed, I just proposed a nonbinding resolution condemning mob violence, and Senate Democrats objected. I don't know whether to be outraged or embarrassed for them. This isn't even a bill; it is just a statement that says mob violence is bad. Democrats can't say mob violence is bad without simultaneously taking a jab at the President of the United States?

By the way, what about the mayor of Seattle? What about the city council of Minnesota? What about the countless other people who have perpetuated or enabled or facilitated or coddled mob violence across the country?

It is one of the reasons why we are not going to engage in this task of making it a political tit-for-tat. It is not that. People are being shot. Businesses are being looted. Innocent Americans are being attacked and threatened. Lives are being ruined. Communities are burning--literally burning.

So whose side are you on? This resolution was designed to be unifying. It avoided controversial subjects.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, the resolution was designed to be unifying. It avoided controversial subjects. All it asks of us is basic dignity and respect.

As long as we are on the topic of rule XIX, it is unbecoming to accuse a colleague of using language that is supremacy simply by reflecting on language in the Declaration of Independence, simply by reflecting on language that acknowledges the incivility and intolerability of mob violence. But apparently that is too much to ask today. I guess we should be thankful for clarity. And now we know. We don't have to ask. They told us how they feel about this resolution.

You can't really oppose this, it seems to me, without being on the side of the mobs, of mob violence, of mob mentality, of cruelty and intolerance and terror. Now we understand what this resolution is about. I don't think one can oppose this without being comfortable with those things. These mobs are not progressive. These mobs are not enlightened. These mobs are not edgy. They are not hip. They are frauds. They are dim-witted, phony, drama addicts----

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Mr. LEE. Failed by an education system and addled by a social media culture that taught them to be victims instead of citizens. A privileged, self-absorbed crime syndicate with participation-trophy graduate degrees, trying to find meaning in empty lives by destroying things that other Americans have spent honest, productive lives building.

Today we learned--today we learned--that there are those who are comfortable with this. There are those who are at least not inclined to vote for this resolution, which simply condemns mob violence. Now we know. Now we know.

I want all my colleagues to know that when we return from recess, we are coming back to the Senate floor and we are not just going to be debating nonbinding resolutions. It is long past time to expose the shiftless idiocy of the anti-American, anti-science, anti- establishment, anti-Constitution mob and remove their snouts from the Federal trough.

Colleges and universities that punish free speech and discriminate against conservative and religious students; city councils that defund their police departments and refuse to protect public safety; States that force doctors to mutilate confused children without their parents' consent; school districts that embrace the ahistorical nonsense of the 1619 Project; the smug, sneering privilege of all of the above and much more--the whole garbage fire that is the so-called ``woke'' ideology-- depends on Federal money.

The mob hates America on America's dime. It is time to cut off their allowance. I think the American people would be very interested to know who stands for them and who stands for subsidizing the mob. I intend to show them.

Mr. President, this debate is not ending today; it is only the beginning.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, all I asked in my counter was that we remove the words ``especially the President of the United States.'' Why? Because it is different than the entire approach taken by the resolution.

As long as we are calling each other out on casting aspersions on each other's intentions, no one's intention here is to shield anyone from anything, as evidenced by the fact that, as my proposed modification would have provided, it would have said that ``our elected officials should not incite violence or legitimize those who engage in hate-fueled acts.'' Last I checked, the President of the United States was and is an elected official. This would apply to him. My counter in no way insulated--not him, not any elected official, not any of us from this resolution, which simply condemns mob violence.

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