Political Quotes

“last year, I made a visit to Caracas, Venezuela. It was a surprise that they even offered me a visa to journey to that country. In the course of several days, I saw firsthand what life in Venezuela was like. It was terrible from every aspect-- malnutrition, children fainting in schools, hospitals without the basic medicines, the return of diseases which had been eradicated decades before, people on the street emaciated and working day in and day out in a runaway inflation country. At 11:30 at night, there were queues by ATM machines where people stood patiently in line for hours to make the maximum withdrawal from their savings account, which was the money they needed the next day to take the bus to work. It is a terrible situation. In the course of that visit, I met with President Maduro and talked to him directly about his plans to schedule an election. It was clear to me this election was rigged. He had intimidated and even jailed his opponents to make certain that there would be no serious opposition, and I told him there would be no credibility in that election. It wouldn't be accepted by countries around the world that he was the legitimate leader of that country. Yet he persisted and went through with the election. During the time that I was there, I had a chance to meet with some of his political opponents. His tactics against these opponents were harsh. Leopoldo Lopez, a popular opponent, was put under house arrest for years.…”