Political Quotes

“I appreciate being able to come to the floor to speak about something of great urgency for people in Michigan and all across our country who have family and friends who are trapped in Lebanon--and certainly people in Israel as well--as a result of what is happening with the violence in the Middle East. We understand those Americans in Israel are able to leave and come home, but we have literally up to 25,000 Americans who are in Lebanon and trapped and unable to leave. They are frightened, and family members here are worried about their families in desperate situations, and they are asking for us to act much more quickly than has been occurring. It is deeply disconcerting to me as I watched other countries, such as Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and France, on Saturday beginning to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon, taking them to Cyprus or taking them to other places to safety, and yet I understand that even though we have had some helicopters that have gone in--and I am grateful to the Department of State for that because we have families from Michigan who have been evacuated because of medical emergencies--the vast majority of people are waiting for ships. One ship was supposed to come today. I understand that was delayed, and now they are waiting until tomorrow. And there will be, I understand, two ships--one that will allow 1,400 people to leave, and one that will allow 1,800 people to leave.…”