By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Wednesday, Congressman Mo Brooks (R) from Huntsville spoke on the House of Representatives floor warning that the White House is acting in a way that risks undermining the trust that the American people have in our federal government.
Representative Brooks said, “America is in uncharted waters when our own federal government aggressively undermines our rights to freedom of speech and association . . . rights won with American blood on the battlefields of Lexington and Concord, Trenton and Princeton, Saratoga, Cowpens and Kings Mountain, and Yorktown.
Rep. Brooks said, “America seeks the proper balance between our privacy rights and national security, one thing stands out. Americans must be able to trust our federal government to do the right thing with the privacy information Americans give up.”
Congressman Brooks said that the administration has: used the Justice Department to target Associated Press, Fox News, and other journalists; the State Department and White House contrived a false story about Americans murdered in Benghazi; used the IRS to targets law-abiding citizens in the Tea Party movement; has sent in heavily armed SWAT teams to raid Gibson Guitars for importing the same wood as Martin Guitars, but leaves Martin alone because they support Democrats while Gibson supports Republicans like Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn; had Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius unethically, and perhaps unlawfully, shake down the companies she regulates for donations to support ObamaCare; rewarded “illegal conduct by giving illegal aliens work permits in direct violation of American law; and this “White House manages the ‘Fast and Furious’ gunrunning scandal that left hundreds of Mexicans and an American border patrol agent dead.”
Brooks warned, “Fifty years ago, our foes were well-known nation-states like the Soviet Union and Communist China. Now, our enemies may be foreign neighbors, foreign tourists, or even foreign students. Foreign terrorists seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction that can destroy an American city or murder hundreds of thousands of Americans in a single attack.”
Rep. Brooks said, “If we cannot trust the federal government to use our privacy information solely for anti-terrorism purposes, then the balance shifts. We will not give up our privacy information, thereby increasing the risk of a successful weapon of mass destruction terrorist attack on an American city.”
Congressman Brooks said, “More and more, our own federal government disregards the rule of law that is essential to avoid the strife and bloodshed of anarchy. More and more, the federal government targets American citizens who differ politically with the White House. While the IRS, Gibson Guitar, Benghazi, Fast & Furious and numerous other scandals are troublesome, the bigger picture is that this White House, this Administration, has breached the public’s trust. The bigger scandal is that this White House, this Administration, by their breach of trust, has undermined America’s national security and thereby risked American lives.”
Congressman Mo Brooks represents the Fifth Congressional District of Alabama. The second term conservative congressman sits on the House Armed Services Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
