Political Quotes

“Madam President, first let me thank my two colleagues, both distinguished members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator McCain and Senator Durbin. Their work and their leadership on this issue has created the type of bipartisan spirit that I think is incredibly important in general but certainly in foreign relations. They both added greatly to the legislation that came out of committee with a strong bipartisan vote that we are considering on the floor. Last week some of my colleagues in this Chamber were sanctioned by Vladimir Putin for standing up for the Ukrainian people, standing up for freedom, standing up for their democratic aspirations, standing up for the sovereignty of Ukraine. As I said in Brussels at the German Marshall Fund this weekend, if I have been sanctioned for those reasons, then I say, by all means, Mr. Putin, sanction me. I urge all of my colleagues to be supportive of the legislation. They may be sanctioned at the end of the day, but that is really what standing for Ukraine is all about at this critical moment and what it means beyond. When we look around the world, we realize that every so often we face a critical juncture at a time of great upheaval and change. With the backsliding of Russian leadership to a pre-1991 posture, we are at such a juncture.…”