Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first of all, I want the record to be absolutely clear. This is not a gift to Turkiye; this is a sale to Turkiye. They are going to pay for the munitions they are going to get, the aircraft they are going to get. As I stated when I started out, Turkiye is very, very less than a desired or good ally in the current NATO framework, and certainly, as I said, we have a long list of complaints with them. One thing I think that I would disagree with my good friend from Kentucky--the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO was a huge, huge matter. It wasn't something that was just a parenthetical thought. It added 800 miles of direct border against Russia, which is what NATO was created to push back against. And the same thing with Sweden. Sweden has a very, very robust defense system itself. With all due respect to my friend from Kentucky, I wouldn't put this in the vein or argument that we are going to come to the defense of Sweden. Sweden is going to come to the defense of NATO and in a very, very robust way. Yes, we wanted them, and yes, that is exactly why I withheld the F-16 sale and refurbishment--so that we could get those two. It was extremely important. Also, my good friend has reiterated some human rights violations that this country has. I would remind my good friend that Russia does the same thing.…”