Political Quotes

“I am pleased to be here to join my colleague Senator Gillibrand in expressing my concerns about how we address sexual assault in the military. For the past several years, we have all become increasingly aware of the prevalence of sexual assault in our military. Personally, I know I share the outrage of all Americans that one of our Nation's proudest institutions is afflicted by this level of criminal violence. In 1989, Secretary of the Navy H. Lawrence Garrett III established a policy of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and sexual assault. Two years later, the Tailhook scandal happened at a convention attended by the Secretary and the Chief of Naval Operations. On June 2, 1992, Secretary Garrett wrote a memo to his military leaders that said: While each individual must be accountable for his or her own actions, commanding officers have a unique responsibility for leadership in ensuring appropriate behavior and attitudes of those under their command. In the end, the Tailhook scandal resulted in 90 victims--83 women and 7 men--140 officers facing possible punishment and zero criminal prosecutions for incidents of assault. All of these events occurred under the same zero tolerance policy that military leaders espouse today. The Tailhook scandal was only the beginning of our awareness of the silent crisis within the military. Since that time, there have been numerous scandals in every service.…”