Political Quotes

“Mr. President, what we have here is a clear case of quid pro quo. If Turkiye releases its hold on Sweden's membership in NATO, then Turkiye gets America's F-16s. You may remember the last time we had a famous case of quid pro quo here. Boy, everybody was all up in a lather, and they said that we had to impeach Donald Trump because it is a quid pro quo. Apparently, it depends on what the quid is and what the quo is. Quid pro quo, though, is actually more the norm than it is actually the exception. The speakers you have seen here today were adamantly against Turkiye and adamantly against them getting the F-35 because they possess a Russian defensive weapon system that may well allow exploitation and allow Americans to become more vulnerable. But now they are adamantly for it because it got Sweden into NATO. Thank God Sweden is in NATO. We can all rest easy. Rewarding Turkiye with the sale of $23 billion of F-16 fighters, though, has some repercussions, and we should think about it before we do it. I maintain that there are deep concerns about the sale as it was initially proposed in 2021, and I have maintained my opposition given Turkiye's dismal human rights record, its unreliable behavior as a NATO ally, and its disruptive military actions in the Middle East, the Caucuses, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Congress must not serve as a rubberstamp for President Biden's side deals.…”