Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am placing a hold on the nomination of David M. Satterfield, who has been nominated to serve as Ambassador to Turkey. My objection comes down to one increasingly irrefutable point: the State Department's, through Ambassador Satterfield, consistent efforts to protect the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization from liability and thereby undermine the rights of American victims of Palestinian terrorism. This stands in sharp contrast to the intent of Congress. Last year, I introduced the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act, ATCA, in response to recent court decisions that gutted the jurisdictional reach of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1992, which I also authored. These decisions made it substantially more difficult for American victims to hold sponsors of international terrorism accountable in our nation's courts. The ATCA expressed a clear principle: If you accept taxpayer-backed assistance or maintain a presence in the United States, then you should be answerable in our courts if you are alleged to have supported terrorism that harmed or killed Americans. The bipartisan bill was considered through regular order, with markups in both Chambers, as a standalone bill, passed Congress without objection, and was signed into law by President Trump in October. Never once did the State Department or the administration raise a single concern.…”