Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Tillis on the floor today as he discusses Turkey and Pastor Andrew Brunson. I applaud Senator Tillis for his continued commitment in seeking justice for Pastor Brunson. Since March, Senator Tillis, Senator Lankford, and I have joined together to keep pressure on Turkish President Erdogan. We are not driven by diaspora politics, we have no hidden agendas, and we are not agents for Gulen or other actors like the Turkish papers have claimed--quite the contrary. As cochairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, Senator Tillis and I are ardent supporters of NATO. We value Turkey's importance as an ally. We want U.S.-Turkey relations to improve. Yet, supporting Turkey and the Turkish people should not mean appeasing the Turkish President. It is clear that the less we push back as a nation against Turkish President Erdogan, the more emboldened he becomes. Five years ago, if you had asked any diplomat or military official whether Turkey would stoop so low as to take innocent Americans hostage and leverage them for political gain, no one would have said that this was a possibility. Yet that is where we are today. Turkey has not only joined the ranks of Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela as a hostage-taker, but it has shifted its orientation away from NATO and toward Russia for no other reason except for Erdogan's financial and electoral gain.…”