Political Quotes

“I have deep and tremendous respect for my friend from South Carolina. I am not a Senator from the South, but my family hails from the South, from Monroe, LA, to Alabama, to North Carolina. I know my roots, and I know the challenges of Jim Crow, and, thank God, we are not in a time of Jim Crow. The history that my friend talked to, I know. I know his history, and I know my colleagues in the Senate know his history. We are all not blind to what happened in terms of racial oppression going back to the founding of this Nation. The Constitution that people have been waving around, it is hard not to read that and not see that many of the compromises were based upon an acquiescence to that original sin of this Nation--slavery. We know the violence of what he said and talked about. I am frustrated that we can agree that there has been overwrought language on both sides of the political aisle around this issue, but we should be focusing on the facts. I have a hard time listening to people that want to talk about this issue and don't talk about facts. In the United States today, it is more difficult for the average African American to vote than the average White American. That is not rhetoric. That is fact. We know that Black voters, on average, are forced to wait on line twice as long as White voters. We began this session today swearing an oath to that flag, saying that this would be a nation of liberty and justice for all.…”