The House Judiciary Committee erupted Tuesday when Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., quoted the Declaration of Independence while discussing religion and God-given rights.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," Bishop recited.
"Not to Mr. Cohen," Bishop said and someone responded, "Nope!"
Bishop criticized Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., and the Democratic Party for their "modern view" that it's not about God or tracing rights to the existence of God, which they believe to be "passé."
"I'm certain that this country succeeds because of a beneficent and forgiving and caring God," Bishop continued.
A Democratic congressman interrupted him to ask if he would yield for a question.
"Look I'd be defensive, too," Bishop said. "I've tried to intercede, I'm into going to yield! I'm not going to yield!" he said while being interrupted. "I'm not going to yield because I'm going to make this statement really clear so that even Democrats can get it."
"You do what you want to, you reject God if you want to, you tell Americans that if they embrace God you're going to persecute them with the FBI if you want to," he added.
"Oh, God," someone is heard to say in a microphone.
"You go get ‘em, call ’em White supremacists, why don't you," Bishop said. "Let's set everybody against one another as enemies based on whatever thing that you can dream up to do."
"You do that, I'm going to stick to God, I'm going to cling to God like Barack Obama talked about, you do you," he added.
A few moments later, amid crosstalk one member on a microphone said, "How about clinging to the truth?"
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Bishop later tweeted the exchange where he furthered his argument that the rights of Americans come from God, not the government.
"Democrats seem to believe that rights come from the government, not from God," Bishop tweeted along with a video of the exchange. "They demonize and attack Americans of faith. I'm sticking with our founders - all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. Not endowed by the government."
