Patsy T. Mink: “I think it is astounding that, if this report is accurate, the French President would dare to come here to instruct us…”

“I think it is astounding that, if this report is accurate, the French President would dare to come here to instruct us on what should be our national posture on all of these critical issues on the pretense that the French Government serves as any kind of role model for the rest of the world in its conduct, when it denigrates the will and the passions and the emotions of the people of the Pacific region by flaunting these tests notwithstanding the fact that 170 countries all across the world have filed their protests. I hope that our colleagues will pay attention to our protest and our deeply felt feelings about this. As the chair of the Congressional Pacific Asian Caucus, I hope that they will follow our leadership and not grace this Chamber to allow the president of this government to come and lecture to us about how we should conduct our affairs when he has violated the fundamental principle of peoples across this country and the world; and that is to live in peace, not to be disturbed, not to be harmed and injured in this way in perpetuity.”