Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today we begin to consider S.J. Res. 7, which is a joint resolution that directs--and I quote from the resolution--``removal of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in Yemen.'' This is the second time, of course, that we have considered this. We passed it, the House passed it, and the President has vetoed it, and it is now in front of us, under our constitutional responsibilities, to consider whether the resolution becomes law, notwithstanding the President's signature. I am going to urge a ``no'' vote on this, that it does not become law, and we sustain the veto the President has made. As I have stated before, the premise of this resolution is fundamentally flawed and I believe a mischaracterization of the actual facts on the ground today in Yemen. I want to start basically by, once again, making it absolutely clear what is and, more importantly, what is not happening with respect to U.S. engagement in Yemen. What isn't happening is the injection of U.S. troops into active hostilities in the Yemen civil war. To put it simply, our troops are not cobelligerents in this conflict. What we are doing, however, is providing limited noncombat support to the Saudi-led coalition, including intelligence sharing and practices that have been developed to minimize civilian casualties--I am sure a goal everybody in this body supports.…”