AND STILL I RISE: CENSURED BUT NOT SILENCED

On 2025-03-27, Representative Al Green (D-TX-9) delivered a floor speech titled "AND STILL I RISE: CENSURED BUT NOT SILENCED" in the House. The speech addressed taxes and also covered foreign policy, labor policy.

AND STILL I RISE: CENSURED BUT NOT SILENCED

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 56 (Thursday, March 27, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 56 (Thursday, March 27, 2025)] [House] [Pages H1322-H1325] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] AND STILL I RISE: CENSURED BUT NOT SILENCED (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Green of Texas was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.) Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, proudly I stand here today proudly to say: And still I rise. And still I rise, a proud, liberated Democrat, unbought, unbossed, and still unafraid. And still I rise, Mr. Speaker, not only as a proud, liberated Democrat, but also, Mr. Speaker, censured, not silenced, censured but not silenced. I still carry my cane, which has been called many things, but for me it provides comfort. It provides comfort because I am a believer in the 23rd Psalm, that part about ``Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil . . . Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.'' This is my comfort. Mr. Speaker, there are people who don't believe that I should have the free speech that the Constitution affords me, and I am not always in the company of people who can protect me. So my cane has become my staff and my rod that comforts me, Mr. Speaker. I wish it were different, but it is not. We seem to live in a society now where if you are willing to speak truth to power there are consequences beyond simply having those who differ with you give their retorts. There are some who want to do more than give retorts. So we have to find ways to comfort ourselves when we no longer have those who are assigned the responsibility of providing us comfort. Protection is another way of saying comfort. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I want to expose what has been called to our attention in many different ways over the last many hours. Mr. Speaker, we are at this moment in our country engaging in a big lie coverup. It is a part of a chat-gate, a big lie coverup. Chat-gate, Mr. Speaker, is a security breach not defined as such because the person who would define it as such, if he should do so, would inculpate himself. So the Secretary of Defense, who has the responsibility of defining whether certain information is classified or not, chooses not to define that which is intuitively obvious as classified, he chooses not to define it as classified. He does not want to inculpate himself. So he has the ability to exculpate himself by simply saying something that clearly is classified saying that it is not. Mr. Speaker, while he can say so, I think the American public will have the final word and will be the final judge. I am honored to tell you who the players are in this coverup. One person is, quite frankly, a person who merits a lot of accolades. He is a person who ought to be acknowledged for the courage that he has demonstrated. He is a person who brought this to the attention of the public. He is a person who had no desire to be a part of this coverup, but he is only there in that he was the person who, in a sense, acts as a whistleblower. I am talking about Mr. Goldberg with The Atlantic magazine. Mr. Goldberg is the person who had messages sent to him that he did not seek and that he did not ask for. According to the reports that I have read and you have probably seen and heard televised, he was there minding his own business when he received messages, messages that were intended for a select group of people, many of whom I will name in just a moment. In receiving these messages, he was made privy to information that should not have been exposed to the public. In the opinion of many experts, they should not have been exposed to the public. I will read some of the information that was captured by Mr. Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg captured this, and this comes from The Atlantic magazine. They published this information. It has been made public. My belief is that the persons who engaged in this coverup had no desire to have this published, but once it was, there was a decision made by the person who had the power to do so to say: Well, it is simply not classified information, so no big deal. Here is the big deal. Mr. Goldberg indicates that at 11:44 a.m. eastern time--he gives the name of the person, it is the Secretary of Defense, posted in the chat in all caps: ``TEAM UPDATE:'' Then, Mr. Goldberg indicates that the text beneath this began: ``TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED''--with, it says w--``w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.'' We are a go for mission launch. Let's go on. These are excerpts. I shall not read it all. The next comment reads: ``1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)''. Thereafter: ``1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)''. Thereafter: ``1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts--also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.'' Now, all of this was intended for a select group of people. It was not intended that this be published, but since it has been published, the Secretary of Defense has indicated that this was not classified information. Now, if the Secretary of Defense who was a participant in this chat, what I call the ``chat-gate,'' if the Secretary of Defense sincerely believes that this is not classified information--and there is more of it, I have only read you some excerpts--if he sincerely believes this, then he is not the person who should be charged with the responsibility of making a decision as to whether this type of information is classified. That is because there is no way a person who has intelligence at heart and an understanding of it within the mind to conclude that this is not classified information. Too many experts differ with him. We had persons who are on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the House to indicate that this was clearly classified information. In fact, they indicated that things that are less serious in nature have been classified. But the Secretary of Defense has the ability to exculpate himself, so his exculpatory statement is that this is not classified information. [[Page H1323]] I believe that if any other person beneath the Secretary of State had allowed such information, the same information, to be exposed to the public, then I don't think the Secretary of State would have come to the same conclusion. The Secretary of State has sacrificed his honor and his dignity by indicating that this is not classified information. But he didn't do it without the aid and comfort of some others. Let's just talk about the other people who were on this call--pardon me--this chat with the Secretary of State: We had the Vice President of the United States of America as a part of the chat. Now, I don't believe that the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President of the United States would get on a chat and have this type of information that I have called to your attention much more available, they would not get on a chat and have this be exposed to the public. There was no desire that it be exposed to the public. They said it is sensitive information. It is sensitive because it is classified information that has not been declared such because it would inculpate the Defense Secretary. So you have the Vice President of the United States on the chat, then you have the CIA Director. Now it is the Vice President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and the CIA Director, and this is not classified information that they are discussing. They are just having a little talk that could be exposed to the public, but they chose not to but for it having been sent to Mr. Goldberg. Mr. Goldberg, by the way, deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor. He is the hero in this story. He is the person who has had the courage and also the wisdom and insight to understand that before you release this, you need to do some checking. So he did his due diligence before releasing information. Mr. Goldberg, the person who released it, has been called many names by people who would not have him release the information. Mr. Goldberg has been scorned. He is a person who called to our attention something that was done improperly, and yet he is being made the villain. He is not the villain. He is the hero in this process, and he ought to be acknowledged as such. I am going to have a flag flown over the Capitol of the United States of America in honor of Mr. Goldberg for what he has done. I will not allow his reputation to be tarnished without a fight to protect it. I am going to do what I can to protect his reputation. So we have the Director of National Intelligence on the call, on the chat. The Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State were on the chat. Again, the Defense Secretary, the Vice President, the CIA Director, the Director of National Intelligence, and also Special Envoy Witkoff were on there. Witkoff was on there, and by the way, he was in Russia at the time he was on. We all know that you should not be on an unsecured line if you are going to be in Russia talking. Those of us who have been to Russia are very much aware. Of course, the Secretary of State was on. {time} 1200 These are the players. All of them were on a chat and all of them are engaged in the coverup of this big lie. It is a coverup because they all have at one time or another implied or stated explicitly that this was not classified, that this was not classified. They had the cover of the Secretary of Defense to give them this opportunity to contend that it wasn't classified because he had to protect himself. To protect himself, he declassified what should have been classified. He avoided being inculpated by declassifying this information that should have been classified. Now, this is egregious. It is always said that the coverup is more egregious than the action that precipitates the coverup. It is true. The coverup is more egregious than the action that precipitates the coverup. There is some