Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I have the opportunity to chair the U.S. Helsinki Commission. I am taking this time--I understand there is a break in the action in regards to the underlying bill. If I am wrong on that, I will yield the floor to someone in regards to moving us forward, but I understand that we are not ready for the next issue yet. So with that in mind, let me just take this time as the Chair of the U.S. Helsinki Commission representing the U.S. Senate. In the Helsinki Commission, my Republican counterpart is Senator Wicker. Senator Wicker, by the way, is the vice president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, and I am the Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance. The Helsinki Final Act speaks very clearly against all forms of intolerance and discrimination. And we have seen in recent months current events trigger latent bias in our community. We go back to 9/11, where we saw the uprise of hate against the Muslim community, which was translated into violence against Muslim Americans. We saw during COVID-19 latent bias against the Asian-American community. As a result, we saw a rise of hate, of anti-Asian activity, bias, and violence, and this body took action. And, once again, as a result of recent violence in the Middle East, we see a rise of anti-Semitism here in the United States and around the world.…”