Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to talk about the U.S.-Saudi Arabia relationship in the broader context of America's interests in the Middle East. I want to begin by responding to an op-ed Secretary of State Pompeo published in the Wall Street Journal in which he called the U.S.-Saudi Arabia partnership ``vital.'' That statement reflects a distorted view of the U.S.-Saudi Arabia relationship that has permeated the Trump administration in which the United States is somehow dependent on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for regional stability and security cooperation. It is a view perhaps best articulated by the President's own unhinged pre-Thanksgiving statement in which he suggested that selling weapons to the Saudis was more important than America's enduring commitment to human rights, democratic values, and international norms, or the President and Secretary Pompeo's continued, incredulous insistence that we still don't know whether the Crown Prince is directly responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Desperate to justify this myopic view, Trump officials whimper that Saudi Arabia's military operations in Yemen are the only means to ``root out'' Iranian influence and defend the status quo of U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition. To put it another way, these morally blindered and blinded individuals believe that to advance America's interests in the region, there is no other option than dependence on Riyadh and no other way than business as usual.…”