{"id":195813,"date":"2025-09-28T11:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=195813"},"modified":"2025-09-28T11:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T18:03:21","slug":"on-the-censure-of-ilhan-omar-rep-tom-mcclintock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=195813","title":{"rendered":"On the Censure of Ilhan Omar ~ Rep. Tom McClintock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;On the Censure of Ilhan Omar, Remarks by Rep. Tom McClintock, House Floor.  Mr. Speaker: Freedom of speech is the beating heart of a democracy.  It is the entire reason this building exists \u2013 to talk out our differences.  Free societies do not fear free speech \u2013 even when that speech is hateful, malignant or stupid.  Free societies recognize that the only way to separate fact from fiction, love from hate, truth from lies, wisdom from folly or good from evil, is to put them side by side and trust the people to know the difference.  No central authority must ever be given the power to take this vital freedom away from the people or to punish anyone solely for expressing their opinions.   <\/p>\n<p> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vgHkiJ0HoCQ\" title=\"On the Censure of Ilhan Omar\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We have based our entire form of government on the assumption that when exposed to all sides and all viewpoints, more than half the people are going to get it right more than half the time.  This assumption has served us well through the centuries.<\/p>\n<p>The left rejects this premise.  For many years, leftists have told us that speech is violence and can be answered with violence.  This justifies their shouting down opponents and disrupting peaceful assemblies.  We have repeatedly watched leftist mobs burn our cities, loot shopkeepers and assault people on our streets, while leftist politicians egged them on.  We see the growing physical attacks on law enforcement.  The left used the FBI to suppress debate on critical issues ranging from Covid lockdowns to Biden family influence peddling to climate hysteria.  It has called for government commissions to regulate it.  In Europe, leftist governments now criminalize it. <\/p>\n<p>I raise these points because a member of this House recently made some truly vile and despicable remarks about Charlie Kirk after his brutal assassination.  Her words should be loudly and universally condemned. <\/p>\n<p>On the House floor, a resolution of censure was brought against her in the name of Charlie Kirk to formally punish her for her hateful rhetoric.  But what did Charlie Kirk say about hate speech?  Five years ago, he said, <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy position is that even hate speech should be completely and fully allowed in our country.  The most disgusting speech should absolutely be protected\u2026 The ACLU used to hold this viewpoint.  The American Civil Liberties Union sued so that (actual) Nazis could march through downtown Skokie\u2026Now why would the ACLU do this?  They said, as soon as you used the word \u2018hate,\u2019 that is a very subjective term.  Because then, all of a sudden, it is in the eyes or is in the implementation of whoever has the power.  So here\u2019s my belief: the more speech the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We must never allow the left to become our teachers.  If we ever do, we will lose our country.  There will be no moral high ground, no changing of minds, no rebirth of faith and freedom that we so desperately need. <\/p>\n<p>Free societies do not fear words and thoughts, even those that are hateful, ugly, evil or obscene \u2013 because the same freedom that protects these darkest impulses of our nature also protects the right of men and women of good will to confront them, expose them and reject them.<\/p>\n<p>The only true way to expose them as wrong is to do exactly what Charlie Kirk did until his last breath and with his last breath. <\/p>\n<p>When they call us Nazis and fascists and murderers \u2013 this might be hateful and hurtful \u2013 but it is speech nonetheless.  It should be criticized in the strongest possible terms as irresponsible, outrageous, revolting and wrong.   It should be ridiculed and shamed.  Businesses have every right to protect their reputations; schools have every right to protect their children. But we should defend their right to say what they will and trust that the vast majority of Americans see it for what it is.<\/p>\n<p>There are only two ways to resolve our differences: there is reason and there is force.  The American Founders gave us a Republic governed by reason and illuminated by freedom of speech.   <\/p>\n<p>That is the civilization that Charlie Kirk lived for \u2013 and died for.  He devoted his life, and ultimately GAVE his life &#8212; to restore, strengthen and perpetuate a free society based on discourse and reason.  What a tragedy it would be if, in our outrage and grief, we were to throw it all away.<\/p>\n<p>Congressman Tom McClintock represents California\u2019s 5th Congressional District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;On the Censure of Ilhan Omar, Remarks by Rep. Tom McClintock, House Floor. Mr. Speaker: Freedom of speech is the beating heart of a democracy. It is the entire reason this building exists \u2013 to talk out our differences. Free societies do not fear free speech \u2013 even when that speech is hateful, malignant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Fullscreen-capture-9282025-110123-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195815,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195813\/revisions\/195815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/195814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}