Protect Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I rise to support the efforts of my colleagues to bring the unanimous House bill establishing legal procedures for dealing with White supremacy to the floor of the Senate. I do so in honor of four Virginians.

In August of 2017, a group called Unite the Right held a White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA. They started on a Friday evening, when Jewish residents of Charlottesville were gathering in synagogues and when students were coming to the University of Virginia to start their academic careers. They rampaged through the campus and community chanting slogans from Nazi rallies like ``Jews will not replace us'' or ``Blood and soil.''

As if that were not terrorizing enough, on the next day, they escalated physical attacks against many. Heather Heyer was a Charlottesville resident and paralegal with an amazing background and story who was peacefully protesting that day, and a White supremacist from another State revved his car up, hit her and killed her.

DeAndre Harris was a special education instructional aide in Charlottesville, and he was set upon by a number of White supremacists and beaten severely with objects.

There were two Virginia State Troopers, Jay Cullen and Berke Bates, both of whom I knew. Jay Cullen often flew me in a helicopter when I was Governor, and I met Berke Bates, the trooper, because he was part of Governor McCullough's security detail. They were called out on that day, which would have been a day off. They were called out on that day because they needed to provide extra security as this White supremacist rally ran amuck in Charlottesville. On that day, both of them lost their lives as their helicopter malfunctioned.

I stand on the floor of the Senate thinking of these four Virginians--two of whom I knew, three of whom lost their lives, and one who was injured severely in this Unite the Right rally--to say that it is time we have laws in this country that would enable us to appropriately deal with the chief source of domestic terrorism. For that, I thank my colleague.

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