Political Quotes

“I, for many, many decades, have had a strong and very deep commitment to the people of the Republic of Georgia. As a matter of fact, after Russia invaded South Ossetia and Abkhazia in 2008, I traveled to Tbilisi, and spent a week there, with a people at war. As it turned out, there were three young people from my district who were stuck behind enemy lines. One being held up in and very fearful in Abkhazia, and two who were in South Ossetia. And when I went, several Members of Congress gave me names of people that were also behind the South Ossetia and Abkhazia Russia-dominated lines. It was very tense, with Chechens walking around with guns, drunk and committing atrocities. We were all concerned. Within a week or so, we got all of the children out. We worked with the OSCE mission there, we worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and with the French, who had the chair in office that year for the European Union. That ambassador actually traveled to the place where the two children in South Ossetia were, put them in his car, and brought them to safety. So, Georgia and the importance of our strong friendship with the Georgian people, and their heroic resistance to Russia, has always been close to my heart. And also, I note that past is prologue. The same justifications Putin used for invading Crimea--that they were going in to liberate Russians--was the exact same pretext used in Georgia. What a lie and deception that was and is.…”