Excerpts from Sen. Rubio’s remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday after the “silencing” of Sen. Liz Warren.

One of the great traditions of our nation is the ability to come forward and have debates. But the founders and the framers and those who established the US Senate and guided it for over two centuries understood that debate was impossible if matters became personal.

I don’t know of a single nation in the history of the world that has been able to solve its problems when half the people in a country absolutely hate the other half.

I was not here when then-Sen. Hillary Clinton was nominated to be secretary of state. But I can tell you I am just barely old enough to know that some very nasty things have been written and said about Secretary Clinton. And I think the Senate should be very proud that during her nomination, to my recollection, not a single one of those horrible things that have been written or said about her were ever uttered on the floor of the Senate.

I happen to remember in 2004 when then-Sen. John Kerry ran for president. Some pretty strong things were written and said about him. I was here for the vote when he was nominated and confirmed to be secretary of state. And I don’t recall a single statement being written into the record about the things that have been said about him.

And I want everybody to understand at the end of the night, this isn’t a partisan issue.

Turn on the news and watch these parliaments around the world where people throw chairs at each other, and punches, and ask yourself: How does that make you feel about those countries? It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence in them.

Now I’m not arguing that we’re anywhere near that here, but we’re flirting with it. We have become a society incapable of having debates anymore.

In this country, if you watch the big policy debates, no one ever stops to say, “I think you’re wrong, I understand your point of view — I get it. You have some valid points, but let me tell you why I think my view is better.” I don’t hear that anymore.

Here’s what I hear, almost automatically, from both sides of these debates. As soon as you offer an idea, the other side jumps and says, “The reason why you say that is because you say you don’t care about poor people, because you only care about rich people, because you’re this, or you’re that.”

And I’m just telling you, we are reaching a point in this republic where we’re not going to be able to solve the simplest of issues.

I don’t pretend to say that I’m not, from time to time in heated debates outside this forum, guilty of hyperbole and comments I’m not proud of. But I have to tell you I think what’s at stake here is the ability of the most important nation on earth to debate, in a productive and respectful way, the pressing issues before us.

One thing you learn about US senators is whether you agree with them or not, you understand why every single one of those other 99 people are here. Because they are intelligent people, they are smart people, they are hardworking people, they believe in what they are saying, and they articulate it in a very passionate and effective way.

And when my colleagues stand up and say something I don’t agree with, I try to tell myself, “I don’t agree but I know why they’re doing it; because they represent people who believe that.”

And I’m so grateful that God has allowed me to be born and to live and to raise my family in a nation where people with such different points of view are able to debate those things in a way that doesn’t lead to war, that doesn’t lead to violence. You may take that for granted. Right now, all around the world, there are people who if they stood up here and said the things that we say about the president or others in authority, they’d go to jail.

I’m not saying that’s where we’re headed. I’m just saying don’t ever take that for granted. And the linchpin of our free debate is this institution.

That’s what’s at stake if the Senate ceases to work, if we reach a point where it becomes acceptable to say just about anything about anyone. For I have seen over the last year and a half things said about people, about issues, about institutions in our republic, that I never thought I would see.

If we lose this body’s ability to conduct debate in a dignified manner, then where in this country is that going to happen? In what other forum in this nation is that going to be possible?

And so, I would just hope that everybody would stop and think about that. I know I have only been here six years, so I don’t have a deep reservoir of Senate history to rely on.

But I know this: if this body is incapable of having those debates, there will be no place in this country where those debates can occur. I think every single one of us, to our great shame, will live to regret it.

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