Political Quotes

“I rise to speak to 9/11, the 20th anniversary, but before that, I would like to address some of the remarks made by the minority leader just a few moments ago. He discussed, in the context of the Biden Presidency, what he called a ``reckless decision to retreat from Afghanistan with an arbitrary deadline.'' What the Senator failed to include was the efforts made last year, before Joe Biden was elected President, by the previous President, Republican Donald Trump, through his Secretary of State, Pompeo, in direct negotiation with the Taliban, to establish the deadlines for the evacuation of Afghanistan. The idea didn't come with the new President, Joe Biden; the idea started under the previous Republican President, Donald Trump, who sent our Secretary of State to directly negotiate with the Taliban leaders. One of the things that they negotiated, incidentally--I want to make a record of it--was the release of 5,000 prisoners by the Afghan Government the Taliban wanted released, and President Trump negotiated their release. Now, the Republican leader in the Senate comes and notes the fact that four Guantanamo prisoners are now in positions of power in the Taliban administration. Well, of course, that speaks for itself. But honesty would require us to note the fact that they were among the very same Taliban team President Trump negotiated with last year and now have positions of authority. There is no blame for President Biden in that score.…”