Replacement of Bust of Roger Brooke Taney with Bust of Thurgood Marshall

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCARTHY. Madam Speaker, you have been a dear friend for a long time. You have been in my office, and you sat on the couch. I sat across, in the chair. And you know the portrait that hangs in my office, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. I am proud that he was the first Republican President of the United States. I am proud of the action that he took in a defining time of our Nation. The greatest challenge ever to our Constitution was the Civil War, by long and by far.

The bill we are voting on today we voted on before. I supported it then, and I support it now.

But let me state a simple fact: All the statues being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats. Madam Speaker, as I heard the Speaker talk earlier about removing the four portraits of Speakers in the hall, the same answer goes for that, as well. They were all Democrats.

What is interesting is the statues that need to be removed were sent to the Capitol by States that were a majority controlled by Democrats sent to a House that had a majority controlled by Democrats accepting of these statues.

I think the bill should go further. Maybe it is time the Democrats change the name of their party. They may be desperate to pretend their party has progressed from the days of supporting slavery, pushing Jim Crow laws or supporting the KKK.

But let's be honest, at any place at any time if those fundamentals rest somewhere, we cannot let them.

Let's go through some of the words and actions of a few Democrats. Just a few years ago then-Vice President Joe Biden praised Democrat Senator Robert Byrd. He was an ``exalted cyclops'' of the Ku Klux Klan. In his eulogy for Byrd he said: ``For a lot of us, he was a friend . . . mentor . . . and guide.''

Another leading Democrat who praised Byrd at the time was Speaker Pelosi. She called Byrd a friend, a great person, and a great American patriot.

Madam Speaker, today the Democratic Party has doubled down on what I consider this shameful history by replacing the racism of the past with the racism of the critical race theory.

They continue to look at race as the primary means of judging a person's character. We saw this just last week. Senate Democrats voted to confirm one of President Biden's appointees who said: ``We must do everything in our collective power to realize Dr. Kendi's vision for America.''

Let me be clear about what that vision is. Kendi, the author of ``How to Be an Antiracist'' proposed in his book that the solution to past discrimination is present discrimination. Now that is what the person who is now in charge of the personnel of the entire Federal Government is endorsing. And this divisive vision isn't confirmed or just confined to one person or department.

The Navy included Kendi's book on its official reading list for sailors and the Department of Education has praised the debunked ``The 1619 Project,'' citing it as an example of what should be taught to our children.

Critical race theory is the governing ideology of what we are now finding in the Biden administration. By advocating for it Democrats continue to fuel hatred and division across the country.

I agree with Senator Tim Scott: America is not a racist country.

America must reject critical race theory for the simple reason: State-sponsored racism is wrong and always will be.

It was wrong when it was segregated lunch counters of Jim Crow, and it was wrong when it was segregated classrooms of critical race theory.

Madam Speaker, many times I wonder what would America have looked like had Abraham Lincoln not been assassinated? Malice towards none. What would America have looked like had the agreement to remove the Federal troops from the south because Joseph Rainey was elected to Congress, and Jim Crow laws were passed by Democrat-controlled offices in the south?

Our Nation was built on a unifying vision from the beginning. As Lincoln said, we are conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that we are all equal.

I will vote for this bill today, just as I voted for it before, but, Madam Speaker, if we have not learned anything, we should not divide our Nation based on race.

I applaud the Democrats for standing up, removing Democrat statues from Democrat-controlled majorities sent to a Democrat majority House that accepted them. It is about time. But, Madam Speaker, to continue along in a critical race theory where you would teach an individual that they are right or wrong based upon the color of skin goes against everything that we are voting about today.

Madam Speaker, you know my heart, and I know yours. There are times we might disagree on philosophy or how best to run a government, but we never disagreed by judging somebody by the color of their skin.

And I hope we take this moment and this opportunity as we promised before to strive to be a more perfect Union.

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