WASHINGTON, DC –U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules, today took to the Senator floor to tell Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to stop engaging in character assassination against the Koch family and to abandon misguided attempts to amend the First Amendment to stifle free speech of the American people.

Senator Roberts made the remarks following the decision by Majority Leader Reid, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to ignore rules regarding use of space in the U.S. Capitol complex to premier a movie with political content attacking Charles and David Koch.

The following are Senator Roberts’ remarks as prepared for delivery:

I take no pleasure in making these remarks today, but the circumstances give me no choice.

Our distinguished Majority Leader recently came to this floor and declared that his minority colleagues were “addicted to Koch.”  

To those who regularly watch our proceedings, however, I think it is clear who is suffering from this addiction. 

Practically every morning, our Leader starts our session by giving a speech personally attacking David and Charles Koch and their families.  The only thing he seems to do more often than block Republican amendments is attack the Kochs.  

As distasteful as that is, it is apparently no longer sufficient. 

The problem with addiction, of course, is that as a tolerance develops, more and more of the drug is needed to satisfy the craving. 

So now we have learned, not only does the Majority Leader spend his mornings attacking the Kochs, he spends his evenings doing so as well.

Last night, the Majority Leader attended an event in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) to promote a movie attacking the Kochs…Never mind that regulations prohibit the use of CVC space for any “campaign, commercial, promotional or profit- making purpose. ”

As House Administration Committee Chairwoman Candice Miller said, “We cannot hold partisan political rallies or fundraisers on the grounds of the Capitol, or within its walls. Our work in this hallowed building must solely be in the interests of the American people and not in the interest of any political cause.”

This event is just the latest demonstration of an apparent belief that the rules do not apply to the Democratic leadership. We now have another new precedent: A Majority Leader appearing in and then promoting a movie in the United States Capitol.

It also further demonstrates the hypocrisy of the majority’s quest to stifle dissent.  They celebrate and promote films that attack their opponents, but want to outlaw films that criticize the majority members and their agenda.

The irony of promoting a film to advance their campaign to restrict speech is apparently lost on the majority…. So, it is worth reminding them what the Citizens United case was about. 

It was about a movie. 

Hillary: the Movie, to be precise.

Hillary: the Movie was made in the wake of Fahrenheit 9/11. 

Anyone who saw Fahrenheit 9/11 knows that the purpose of the film was to convince people that George W. Bush was not worthy of the presidency and should not be given a second term. 

Anyone who saw Hillary: the Movie knows the purpose was to convince people that Hillary Clinton should not be elected President of the United States. 

I suspect many of the people who went to see the movie in the CVC last night thought Fahrenheit 9/11 was great and Hillary: the Movie was terrible. 

The point of the Citizens United case was – that it doesn’t matter.  

It doesn’t matter which film a majority in Congress might prefer – the producers have the right to make and distribute either one, and they can raise the money necessary to do so as they see fit, not subject to restrictions or limitations imposed by the Congress. 

They are guaranteed that right by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and this Congress CANNOT take it away. 

Is that a difficult concept to grasp?  Isn’t it obvious? Of course, it is. 

Yet the majority has spent the last four years misrepresenting it and now even wants to amend the Constitution to reverse it. It’s incredible.

In a press release announcing an upcoming hearing on the majority’s amendment to the First Amendment, it was declared that it was necessary to ‘build support for amending the Constitution to ensure that all Americans can exercise their First Amendment rights.’

Mr. President, it’s not necessary to amend the First Amendment to ensure that all Americans can exercise their First Amendment rights. 

Those rights are already guaranteed by the First Amendment as written. 

The amendment the majority wants to impose would allow them to once again curtail those rights. 

Let’s be honest about it.

Because of the Citizens United decision, people of all points of view now have the opportunity to make their views widely known. 

Even people who disagree with the majority here in the Senate have that right.

We should all be grateful for that.

I know the majority preferred a system where those who wished to criticize them were restrained in their ability to do so. 

They want to re-impose those restraints. They will not succeed, but we should make clear what they want to do.

In their view, a corporation that happens to own a network like NBC or CNN, should be able to broadcast the movie they promoted last night, as much as they want.

If the networks wanted to show the movie every night of the week for two hours, that would be just fine with the majority.

BUT - if someone wanted to buy a 30-second ad during the airing of the movie to present an alternative point of view, that would be unacceptable.

A two-hour movie?  No problem. A 30-second ad?  Terrible. Can’t be allowed.  That’s absurd. 

But that was the reality before the Citizens United decision. 

Media corporations could do or say whatever they wanted – other corporations could not. 

Citizens United ended that ridiculous distinction, and the majority has been trying to reinstate it ever since. 

The majority claims they are concerned about wealthy donors. 

They are not. 

They are concerned about wealthy conservative donors.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the very film they promoted last night received financing from foundations and large individual donations. But those donations were ok, I suppose, because they went to promote a cause the majority supports – attacking the Koch family.

Likewise, billionaires who support the causes of the majority are not targeted.  Billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer has indicated he intends to spend over $100 million dollars to influence the mid-term elections.

Does the majority have any problem with that?  Of course not.

Spending huge amounts of money in politics only concerns them if it is spent against them, or on behalf of their opponents.  If it is spent to promote the majority and their agenda – no problem.

The Majority Leader has convinced himself, however, and seeks to convince the rest of us, that the Kochs are somehow unique -- that they present some kind of evil threat that other billionaires with different points of view do not pose. 

He seems to think that for everything bad that happens – the Kochs are to blame.

Recently he claimed that they were one of the main causes of climate change.

He said, ‘Not a cause, one of the MAIN causes.’  

What to make of such a statement, Mr. P President? Could anything be more absurd?

There are over seven billion people on Earth, but our Majority Leader believes two men are a main cause of climate change? What?

And just yesterday, the Majority Leader blamed the Kochs for the wildfires in California.The wildfires in California…What next?

Maybe the Kochs are to blame for planes lost in the Bermuda Triangle; how about the volcanic eruption at Pompeii….even Mr. President, the futility of the Chicago Cubs.

The Majority Leader convinces himself that his Koch obsession is justified because he believes their political involvement is motivated only by their own financial interest.

It is inconceivable to him that people might exist who simply disagree with him and his agenda and want to see the country take a different path.

The reality is there are millions of Americans who want to see this country take a different path.

The Koch family proudly supports that goal and has made donations to help achieve it. 

You will never hear it from the Majority Leader, but it is time someone presented the rest of the story.

The Koch family has pledged or contributed more than $1 billion dollars to cancer research, medical centers, education, the arts and to assist public policy organizations.

One BILLION dollars, Mr. President.  

Is that the act of a family motivated solely by financial interest? 

Of course not.

Just consider a few of these gifts:

$100 million as prime contributor for cancer research at MIT;

$100 million to New York-Presbyterian Hospital to help build a new ambulatory care center, plus $28 million to other research causes;

$20 million to Johns Hopkins University for a cancer research center;
$30 million to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City;
$26.5 million to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston;
$26.2 million to The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City for the 'Building on Success' campaign and other causes;
$35 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History to renovate the dinosaur hall, which will include one of the largest and most complete T. Rex specimens in the world.
$20 million to the American Museum of Natural History;
$65 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Likewise, the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation gave $100 million for the preservation and renovation at Lincoln Center, home to the New York City ballet and the New York City opera.

Mr. President – all these acts of extraordinary generosity are completely ignored by the Majority Leader.

They are ignored because the Koch family has committed one unforgivable sin – they have opposed him and the Democratic  majority and President Obama.

They present a threat to the Democrats’  hold on power. 

That is why they are being demonized.

That is why they are being attacked.

That is why they are being vilified.

That is why they have become his obsession.

They have had the temerity to challenge the agenda of this majority and its Leader. 

And the Leader is not happy about it. He wants it to stop.

He will do anything he can to make it stop, up to and including amending the Constitution of the United States. 

It is a disgrace.

It has demeaned this institution and it should stop.

The First Amendment doesn’t exist to protect those of us in this body. It exists to protect the people.

It is there to prevent us from silencing our critics, and thank God for that.

I wish the majority would recognize that they do NOT have the power to silence their critics.

The First Amendment denies them that power.

I wish the Majority Leader would stop engaging in character assassination against citizens who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights.

I wish he would stop acting like he is the only person on earth who can say whatever he wants. 

He isn’t.

We all have the right to express ourselves. All of us. From Michael Moore to Citizens United. From Tom Steyer to the Koch family. All of us, have that right Mr. President. All of us.

Let’s stop trying to deny it. Let’s stop trying to change it. It is beneath us. It demeans this body.

And it is wrong.

I yield the floor.   

 

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