They Stole the Vote

THEY STOLE THE VOTE -- (House of Representatives - July 09, 2004)

(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the Congress voted to restore civil liberties yesterday, and then the Republican Party stole the election. Again.

In America, you get to vote once, but not in a Republican America. In Republican America, they vote again and again and again and again until the Republicans get the preordained outcome the administration decrees. That is what happened yesterday in this Chamber.

The House has gotten to the point where the U.N. will have to send election monitors to ensure the votes are not rigged in the elections on November 2.

The vote was rigged yesterday. Today, they can spy on your private lives. Today, they can see what you read, what you watch, and play with your mind about what you are thinking. Today, they say America is safer because everybody is afraid. America is only more vulnerable and less free.

Yesterday's vote was not about anything but controlling the American people's freedom to read and dissent. This administration wants to end dissent. They want no one to say anything about anything they do whether it is in a prison at Abu Ghraib or giving contracts to Halliburton or anything. That is what yesterday was about.