Political Quotes

“Mr. President, 3 weeks ago, my colleagues across the aisle tried to pull a fast one on the American people. Behind closed doors, with no public hearings and no public debate, they decided that some of the names of our Nation's military bases must be removed, stripped, replaced, erased, and they decided that war memorials of fallen soldiers should come down. I objected to that effort then, and I object to it now. The national defense legislation that we are considering, the legislation that funds our military and protects our citizens, should not be turned into a vehicle for the cancel culture. The cancel culture that I think you know what I mean--the cancel culture that is tearing down statues of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt now, for heaven's sake--this cancel movement seeks to divide us, not unite; to erase our history, rather than to reckon with it; to turn away from our long and shared struggle to forge a more perfect Union, and, instead, to build an entirely different America of a kind of woke fundamentalism. I am here to advocate for a better way. All I ask for is a vote on an amendment to have this discussion in public, to have the discussion about renaming our military bases and about the future of these war memorials in public, to conduct open hearings where military families and veterans and the local community can be heard and where we can seek and find common ground together. That is all I am asking for.…”