Political Quotes

“I remember over the period of the last Presidency joining my colleagues on both sides of the aisle at various times when statements were made that we are just going to leave Iraq or we are going to leave the Kurds in Syria, and I think that was shortsighted, those statements, so I joined my colleagues on both sides. But, yet, today, we are debating the repeal of the 2002 AUMF as if we all somehow believe that we are going to magically repeal this and then come up with some narrow replacement that is going to authorize, when we can't really agree that the sky is blue in this group. But I want to, for a second, look back and say what would have happened when this was introduced originally. So in January of 2014 this repeal was introduced. Let's say we passed it. What happened since January of 2014? Well, I will tell you. In June of 2014 we began airstrikes against ISIS. Because of the 2002 AUMF, we were able to assist our allies to defeat ISIS in their capital of Raqqa, their stronghold in Mosul, and we even destroyed their caliphate throughout the region. I know my colleagues who support this legislation have the right intentions in mind, but even President Biden's own Statement of Administration Policy admits that this repeal would have an impact on our military operations. That is why we don't call for a blanket repeal, but a narrowly crafted replacement. Let's do that first.…”