Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Shaheen. In reserving the right to object, in 1978, before I was elected to Congress, I had the opportunity to take a trip to the Soviet Union and spend 3 weeks there. I saw a lot. In addition to the visits to Russia and Moscow, we visited countries like Lithuania, where my mother was born, and I witnessed firsthand the vision of Vladimir Putin and the Soviet Union. Make no mistake, his goal is to restore the Soviet Union, to take vulnerable countries and to subsume them with his own ego and his own view of the world. To visit Lithuania and see what they had done to the freedoms that we just take for granted in America was an eye opener to me: to see the cathedral in Vilnius, with its beautiful frescos whitewashed by the Soviets because they didn't want people to practice religion; to realize that they controlled everything--radio stations, newspapers--and to realize that they dictated who would win an election. There was no freedom in that country. That is the communist view. That is the Soviet view. That is the Vladimir Putin view. Are we in favor of that, Senator? I don't think so. I know you aren't personally, and you don't want to see that lifestyle imposed on people around the world any more than I do. In Ukraine, they had the courage to stand up and say to Putin: We will fight you to the death to stop this from happening. They have surprised a lot of people.…”