Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am doing something this week I wish I didn't have to do. As a matter of fact, for the past several weeks I wish I didn't have to do this, but I have to draw attention to something that is very important to me and should be important to everybody in the United States and every person on Capitol Hill. It is about a man who has been held in prison in Turkey for 628 days, most of that time without charges, in a cell that was designed for 8 people that had 21 people in it. This man's name is Pastor Brunson. He is a Presbyterian minister who has spent most of the last 20 years doing missionary work in Turkey, sometimes going into Syria, visiting Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, living in and around the Izmir area. In October of 2016, after the coup attempt, President Erdogan started sweeping up thousands of people, including people who were doing nothing but trying to bring the Word to those who wanted to hear it--in this case, in the country of Turkey. He was actually accused of being a part of plotting the coup attempt. He subsequently has been accused of plotting terrorist activities against the people and the Government of Turkey. We have been working on this case for well over a year. We treated it like constituent work. We were doing everything we were supposed to do, working with the State Department, working with the various agencies, reaching out to the country team to ask: Why can't we get this pastor free? Why is he being held without charges?…”