Political Quotes

“I make this motion to commit the reconciliation bill to the Armed Services Committee on behalf of myself and Senator Schumer because President Trump, earlier this year, solicited and accepted a $200 million gift from the Government of Qatar, a Boeing 747 jet to be retrofitted supposedly for use as Air Force One. Make no mistake, this transfer is illegal. It is a blatant violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, which prohibits exactly this kind of foreign gift, risking undue foreign influence. It is also abhorrently wasteful, costing taxpayers at least $1.5 billion to strip it down and install all the necessary security systems. And it won't even be ready before the end of Trump's term. And now we learn from the Air Force Secretary just last week that the money will be transferred from modernization of our nuclear arsenal, the Sentinel Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Program. It is a sacrifice of our national security. Illegal, exorbitantly costly, dangerous to our national defense--we should stand up to this corrupt self-dealing. This motion, which I have worked on with Senators Schumer and Schatz, would send the bill back to the Armed Services Committee with instructions to add a prohibition on using funds for this unconstitutional, wasteful self-enrichment.”