Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding, and I thank my good friend from South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I stand in full support of Joe Wilson's good bill to counter the butcher, Assad. The gentleman from South Carolina and I spent a great deal in 2023 traveling the Middle Eastern region talking to our partners in the Arab world, warning them of the consequences of readmitting Assad back into the Arab League. While official U.S. policy does not support normalization with Assad, we have U.S. Government officials, like Brett McGurk and Assistant Secretary Barbara Leaf, watering down that position of U.S. policy, encouraging Arab countries to ``get what you can for normalization.'' What did we get? Madam Speaker, we got more war. The Arab countries said: Let's cut out Captagon trade and drugs. Let's return refugees from Jordan and Turkiye and Lebanon back to Syria. Let's eliminate Iranian influence in Syria. Madam Speaker, did we get those things? No. That is why this bill to counter normalization is so important, because Syria, for the American people, is a giant aircraft carrier for terrorism--Israel being attacked from Syria, Iraq being attacked from Syria, Americans killed because of attacks from Syria. Madam Speaker, I support Mr. Wilson's bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.”