Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to oppose the confirmation of Congressman Mike Pompeo as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I respect Congressman Pompeo's background and service to our Nation. However, I strongly believe that his positions on at least three key issues undermine his qualifications to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. First, he has supported broad surveillance programs that allow the government to spy on the American people--programs that were far- reaching, invasive, and violated law-abiding citizens' constitutional rights to privacy. These programs were hastily passed as a part of the PATRIOT Act in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I was one of only 66 Members in the House of Representatives to vote against the PATRIOT Act. Since then, we have learned through reviews by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, as well as the unauthorized disclosure of programs by Edward Snowden, that these programs did go too far. There is no doubt about it. They did go too far. The government collected massive amounts of personal cell phone information, with no probable or reasonable cause to justify the collection, and the PATRIOT Act was used to obtain hotel records, car rental records, apartment leasing records, credit card records, and other personal information. While the government collected personal information from innocent Americans, there is no credible evidence that it made us more secure.…”