Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman and Mr. Rogers from Alabama, the ranking member, for bringing this forward as a bipartisan effort. Mr. Speaker, I rise as one of those who opposed the waiver for General Mattis. People ask me, well, what is the difference? Mr. Gallagher raised this. You change your mind. Let me tell you what makes the difference for me, Mr. Speaker. I think this law is a very relevant law. It is a very important law. It anticipated, when the Congress passed it, that there would be reasons for waiver, or it would not have included it. It would have made a preclusion. It did not do that. It said under circumstances that the Congress considers, it may be well be in order to have a waiver. This, I think, is one of those times. Very frankly, one of the reasons I voted ``no'' on Mr. Mattis is because Mr. Trump did not know Mr. Mattis, his outstanding military service. {time} 1445 General Mattis really didn't know Mr. Trump; and that relationship did not go well, unfortunately. In my view, General Mattis was a great tower of strength and independence in leading the Department of Defense. So I congratulate him for his service, although I participated in a meeting in the White House in which President Trump was very harsh in his analysis of General Mattis, which I thought was unfortunate. But this difference that I see today is a very important one. What is that difference?…”