-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, I find myself pretty upset today. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to deceive the American people. Democrats are only bringing up these bills today because 46 days from a midterm election they want the American people to suddenly and miraculously believe that they care about the crime crisis plaguing our Nation.

There were 219 Democrats who voted to defund the police and take away resources from law enforcement, including qualified immunity. There were 219 Democrats who voted for legislation that effectively destroyed the profession that I love so much. You can laugh, Mr. Chair, I wore the uniform of local law enforcement, and that smirk upsets me.

Make no mistake, Democrats are the reason recruitment, retention, and morale of law enforcement officers is at an all-time low and crime is at an all-time high. The timing of these bills is an insult to the law enforcement community and the American people.

To my Democrat colleagues: Where were you when the protesters came to my State of Minnesota and set up GoFundMe pages to raise money and bail out violent criminals who assaulted and beat innocent people?

Where were you when a Member of the California delegation came to Minnesota to stir up aggression and hatred toward my brothers and sisters in the blue and brown?

Where were you when officers were being violently assaulted and killed each day across this country?

Where were you when America's police officers and their families were begging for support and needed elected officials to have their backs? Where were you?

I will tell you where you were. They were here in this Chamber pushing police departments to be defunded. They wanted to defund, dismantle, and disarm the police.

Regardless of how I vote today, I have to tell you that I am furious that days before an election, and for political purposes only, these bills are being brought up by my colleagues. The American people have suffered enough, and at the end of the day the American people and our law enforcement community do not appreciate being used as pawns for political gain.

To the American people, I know the crime crisis you and your families are facing is very real. I will not stop my work to reinvigorate the law enforcement profession, to hold lax prosecutors accountable, and to put violent criminals away.

Mr. Speaker, my time in uniform may be over, but my watch will never end.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source