Political Quotes

“I come to the floor again to seek unanimous consent for a resolution that commemorates the Armenian genocide. In October, the House of Representatives passed a version of this resolution by a vote of 405 to 11--405 to 11. This vote was historic, and I applaud the bipartisan courage of those in the House to stand up for what is right. For those here in the Senate who would consider objecting to this request, I urge you to think long and hard about what it means for your reputation, what it means for history, and what it means for the Senate as an institution. History is watching, and it will not look kindly on those who object to recognizing genocide. In recent speeches before the Senate, I have laid out the case for why we must move forward on this resolution. The simple threshold question for this body comes to this: Do we recognize a clear case of genocide when it happens, or do we let a country like Turkey determine our own views, determine our own sense of history, determine our own moral obligation, and determine the public record--a Turkey that today is committing atrocities against the Kurds in Syria, a Turkey that has teamed up with Russia and the Kremlin in purchasing the S-400 air defense system and just recently used it against an American F-16 to see if it works, and a Turkey that works to block forward movement in NATO on key national security objectives of the United States? At what point do we say enough is enough?…”