During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) debated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) after he countered her bill condemning vandalism against Teslas with one condemning the violence and pardons of January 6 insurrectionists.
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00:00Senator from Tennessee. Thank you, Mr. President. There can be no doubt Elon
00:05Musk is a patriot. He has revolutionized entire industries, whether it is PayPal,
00:12Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink. Across his businesses, there are so many things that
00:21he could be working on, but when President Trump asked him to join the
00:26administration, he answered that call. He said yes, and he committed himself to
00:33serving the American people and helping get this fiscal house in order. In many
00:39ways, he is tackling one of the biggest threats to our nation's sovereignty, and
00:46that is our debt. Thirty-six trillion dollars in debt. He understands that our
00:52fiscal path is unsustainable, and today we are spending more money to service
00:59our debt than to fund our entire military. And as this debt grows, it will
01:08become more and more difficult to fund basic government functions. That is why
01:15he is leading the Department of Government Efficiency, trying to rein in
01:21reckless spending and to get this country back on the track to fiscal
01:27health. Now, so far, Doge has had a lot of success. In just two months, they have
01:35identified a hundred and thirty billion dollars in potential savings by
01:41eliminating waste, fraud, abuse across the federal government. They hope that that
01:48number, and they fully expect that number, to reach two trillion dollars by the time
01:54we get to Independence Day next year, which, by the way, will be our 250th
02:01birthday. Every American should be applauding this effort. Our children and
02:07grandchildren's future depends on a free America, but because he has been helping
02:16President Trump, he has become a target for the radical left, which has launched
02:23a domestic terrorism campaign against his company, Tesla. In Las Vegas, suspects
02:31set Tesla vehicles on fire with Molotov cocktails. In Oregon, a man shot up a
02:38Tesla dealership. And across the country, Tesla owners have had their cars
02:43destroyed with arson and vandalism. Now, some of these Democrat-aligned groups
02:50are organizing a global day of action on Saturday to target Tesla. The reason for
02:58this campaign is simple. In November, the American people rejected the left's
03:04radical agenda. They said, enough of this. Well, our friends across the aisle have
03:12lost the debate, but instead of making a better pitch to voters, they are trying
03:17to stop Republicans with violence and intimidation. The Democrats spent the
03:24last four years denouncing domestic terrorism and supporting EVs. Yet now,
03:31they are eerily silent. And when they do comment, they celebrate Tesla's setbacks.
03:39Tim Walz, Democrats' failed VP candidate, claimed he gets a daily boost from
03:46checking on Tesla's stock price, which has declined amid the terrorism campaign.
03:52Democrat ally and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel seemed to endorse the violence,
03:58sarcastically telling his audience, and I quote him, don't ever vandalize Tesla
04:04vehicles, end quote. Last week, Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said that
04:11all she wants for her birthday is to see Elon taken down. This rhetoric is
04:18inexcusable, and as the world's greatest legislative body, we should jointly
04:23condemn political violence. That's why I'm asking for unanimous consent to pass
04:29the resolution that condemns the horrific acts of violence, arson, and
04:35domestic terrorism committed against Tesla dealerships and facilities. There
04:41is no reason why Democrats should oppose this resolution. Mr. President, as if in
04:49legislative session and notwithstanding Rule 22, I ask unanimous consent the
04:55Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 146, which is at the desk. Further, I
05:02ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the
05:07motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
05:12intervening action or debate. Is there objection? Mr. President. Senator from
05:19Connecticut. Mr. President, thank you. Reserving the right to object. Listen,
05:23come on. This resolution is not about violence or domestic terrorism. It just
05:28isn't. This is a resolution that says one thing, and one thing only. Elon Musk is
05:34in charge. He matters more than anybody else.
05:39Musk is subject to a different set of rules than everybody else. The Trump
05:44administration serves him, not us. The Republican Party serves him, not us. Elon
05:50Musk right now is effectively stealing from the American people. He is combing
05:54through our government, awarding himself contracts, canceling contracts for his
05:58competitors. He's shutting down agencies that stand in the way of his business,
06:02his growth. He's giving himself access to secret information about government
06:07enforcement actions against his competitors. He is also, at the same time,
06:12currently the largest funder of Republican politics in the nation. He
06:16spent a quarter of a billion dollars backing President Trump's campaign. He
06:20recently told the president that he would contribute another 100 million
06:23dollars to the president's political arm. And guess what? At that same time, the
06:28president stood on the White House lawn to give a taxpayer-funded commercial for
06:32Elon Musk's cars. That's corruption at a scale that we have not seen before in
06:38this country. The integration of the Trump White House and the Republican
06:43Party and the business interests of the richest man in the world. It's wrong. Now
06:50this resolution claims to say something about domestic terrorism, but the only
06:54terrorism, the only violence it mentions, is violence carried out against, you
07:00guessed it, Elon Musk. On an annual basis, there are 11,000 reported incidents of
07:08domestic terrorism. 11,000. Only a handful of them impact Tesla dealerships, but
07:18they're the only acts of violence mentioned in this resolution. 52% of the
07:24reported attacks were based on racial or ethnic targeting by radicalized
07:28attackers, but they aren't mentioned in this resolution. Only Elon Musk is
07:32mentioned in this resolution, because a different set of rules apply to him.
07:38Because he is in charge and he deserves protection that no one else gets. He
07:44deserves a White House TV commercial for his cars. He deserves to give himself
07:48contracts and steal from his competitors. He deserves to have his own resolution.
07:52And people are asking why? Why does the richest man in the country get this
07:57special treatment? To most people, it feels pretty fishy. It definitely feels
08:03wrong. Now I hate violence of any kind, whether it's perpetrated against right,
08:09left, or center. I've spent my life on this floor fighting violence, but I also
08:14hate inconsistency. So I'm gonna make my colleague a pretty reasonable offer here.
08:19At the same time that President Trump is saying that he's gonna vigorously pursue
08:24people that attack Tesla dealerships, he's giving pardons to the people who
08:28beat the hell out of Capitol Police officers. So I don't think that we should
08:34consent to a resolution that says we care about violence, but only when it's
08:38committed against the business interests of the richest man in the world. I have a
08:44way to solve that problem. Senator Murray has a really simple resolution. A
08:50resolution that expresses our disapproval of the pardons that were
08:56issued for the very specific set of individuals who on January 6th brutally
09:02attacked Capitol Police officers. I understand that many of my Republican
09:06colleagues think that the people who trespassed here shouldn't have been
09:09prosecuted. Let's set aside that disagreement. This resolution just says
09:14that the specific set of people who viciously attacked police officers, the
09:20ones that hit the police officers over the head with metal poles, that those
09:25people shouldn't have been given a get-out-of-jail-free card. And so why
09:30don't we just be consistent? Why don't we say that violence matters when it's
09:34committed against Elon Musk's dealerships, and it matters when it's
09:39committed against the people that protect us. And so my offer is to just
09:44pass both resolutions right now. Right now. We could just agree by unanimous
09:49consent to your resolution, and we could agree as a body that you shouldn't
09:54pardon the people who brutally beat the people who show up every day to protect
10:01us. They matter too. Elon Musk isn't the only person that matters. Capitol Police
10:07officers matter too. So I'd ask the Senator to modify her request to add the
10:12following, that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further
10:16consideration, and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 42, a resolution condemning the
10:21pardons for individuals who are found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police
10:24officers, that the resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be
10:29considered made and laid upon the table. If we agree to move forward on this
10:35unanimous consent, I think we can move forward on the Senator's request as well.
10:41Is there objection to the modification? I object. Objection is heard. Is there an
10:49objection to the original request? Mr. President? Mr. President, there is.
10:55Objection is heard. To speak on my objection, I think it's important to note
11:02that the resolution I presented does not mention Elon Musk. The resolved title in
11:09this, and by the way, it's really short, that the Senate condemns the horrific
11:15acts of violence, arson, and domestic terrorism committed against electric
11:21vehicles, car dealerships, and charging stations across the United States. Now,
11:26for years, my Democratic colleagues have come to the floor and supported EVs. Just
11:32last year, my colleague from Connecticut claimed, and I quote him, if you want to
11:38cut emissions and save the planet, we need more electric cars on the road,
11:42end quote. And as domestic terrorists target the largest EV company in the
11:47world, they refuse to condemn the violent actions. And in the past, he's also
11:54condemned vandalism and political violence. Now, as BLM rioters rampaged
12:01through American cities in the summer of 2020, he posted on X that, and I quote,
12:07looting and property damage is bad. He deleted that post, but I'll give him
12:13credit. His sentiment was right. And after an assassin's bullet almost took
12:18the life of then-President Trump, he said, and I'm quoting, there is no room
12:23in America for political violence. He was right on that quote. And as we see a
12:30wave of political violence in our country today, Democrats should have no
12:36problem condemning it. Now, to the resolution from my colleague in
12:42Washington, I find it interesting that they want to talk about lawlessness. For
12:48years, they've pushed policies that weaken law enforcement and promote
12:54crime. As BLM rioters rampaged through Seattle in 2020, my colleague called on
13:03the Department of Homeland Security to remove federal agents from the city who
13:08were trying to quell the unrest. The U. S. Senate should be able to stand up to
13:15violence and support law and order. And today they are stopping us from doing
13:23that. And when it comes to pardons, I think we should talk about pardons. In
13:28his final weeks in office, President Biden abused his pardon power to
13:33protect family members, free violent criminals and make our country less
13:38safe. For years, President Biden claimed he would not pardon his son Hunter. Yet
13:44in December, Biden gave him an unconditional pardon for any federal
13:49crimes he may have committed over the course of a decade. Such an abuse of
13:54presidential pardon power has never happened in our nation's history. Just
14:00months before, Hunter had been convicted of federal gun crimes and tax offenses
14:06totaling $1.4 million. At the same time, evidence continued to mount that
14:12Hunter sold access to his father in foreign countries, including China and
14:17Russia. This was a multimillion dollar influence peddling scheme and a Biden
14:23family affair. That's why just minutes before leaving office, the former
14:28president also pardoned his siblings and their spouses. They joined more
14:33than 8000 people who received pardons and commutations from Joe Biden,
14:40including many violent criminals and murderers. With one foot out the door
14:46before leaving office, he commuted the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men on
14:54federal death row, including get this Thomas Sanders, who kidnapped and then
15:01shot a 12 year old girl and he cut her throat. That's who Joe Biden decided to
15:11commute a sentence on Anthony Battle, who murdered an Atlanta prison guard
15:17with a hammer in 94 while serving a life sentence for raping and murdering
15:23his wife and Caboni Savage, who was convicted of committing and ordering the
15:30deaths of not one person or 2 12 people, 12 people, including four little
15:39Children. If we should be condemning any pardons, we should start with
15:44violent criminals. To be clear, Senate Republicans strongly oppose any
15:50violence, especially toward our nation's brave law enforcement. Our
15:55resolution states that all acts of violence are entirely unacceptable in
16:03the United States. I would encourage my colleagues to join me in passing this
16:09resolution. Instead, they've decided to play games with a sham counter
16:15resolution.
16:17Mr President.