Political Quotes

“I am here for what I hope will be the last time to talk about a subject I have come to the floor and discussed virtually every week we have been here since I went and visited a man who has been in a Turkish prison since October 7, 2016. His name is Andrew Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister from North Carolina who, in 2016, under emergency orders in Turkey, President Erdogan ended up ordering the arrest of a number of people, many of whom I think were probably involved in the illegal coup attempt. To the extent that evidence demonstrates they were, they should be held accountable for their actions, but, unfortunately, thousands of people--journalists, people of faith, and a number of other people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, like a NASA scientist who already spent 2\1/2\ years in prison--were also arrested. They were also put in prison. In the case of Pastor Brunson, he spent almost 17 months in a Turkish prison, in a cell designed for 8 people that had 21 people in it. None of the others were even English-speaking. Then, about 17 months into it, he had an indictment against him. It was about a 70-page document. It is a document I have read. Quite honestly, I don't think a first- year law student or a magistrate anywhere would consider the allegations in this indictment as worthy of any prosecution--certainly not enough to keep somebody in our U.S. justice system in prison overnight, let alone now 734 days.…”