Political Quotes

“As we are sitting here in this Chamber, right now off the coast of Groton, Connecticut, 30 miles from the Groton Navy Sub Base, which is the oldest submarine base in America, there is a Russian spy ship, the Viktor Leonov, that is loitering--as was reported this morning from the Navy and news sources--off the coast, again, within the bare minimum of international waters. I can attest to the fact that--having just flown down from Connecticut a few days ago--anyone who would loiter off the coast of Connecticut is not doing it because of the great climate and weather. It is freezing weather out there. They are doing it, obviously, with aggressive intent, to say the least. Mr. Speaker, this is part of a pattern that is going on right now not just off the East Coast of the U.S., but also overseas. The USS Porter, which is a Navy missile ship, was buzzed by military aircraft from Russia on February 10. They came within 200 yards of the ship. Again, because we have such incredibly competent and professional leadership that captain those vessels, an incident was avoided. However, the danger of jet aircraft moving within 200 yards of a U.S. naval ship obviously is just common sense to anyone how high risk that is in terms of creating an incident that could have huge ramifications.…”