Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I want to echo the sentiments of my colleague from Virginia, who is also my colleague in the Foreign Relations Committee, for taking action on authorization for use of military force against ISIL. This is an issue that has confronted us for a while, and the Senator from Virginia has stood up forcefully time and again to insist that Congress fulfill its necessary role here, and yet we have not. As he mentioned, the United States has led a multination coalition since September of last year to achieve the President's stated objective to ``degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.'' The White House insisted when operations began that it didn't need an AUMF for this mission because it was on solid legal footing by using the AUMF which Congress had passed in 2001--2001--14 years ago. That authorization for use of force went after Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the wake of the 9/ 11 attacks. Many of us took umbrage with the assertion at the time, and we pushed for the administration to work with Congress to authorize a mission against ISIL. It was important then and it remains important now for Congress to voice its support for the mission and to signal to our allies, as well as our adversaries, as well as our troops who are in harm's way, that our commitment will not change based on prevailing political winds. It wasn't until the Foreign Relations Committee took initiative to consider its own view on that, that the administration was forced to engage with Congress.…”