Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today as co-chair and founding member of the Polish, Hungarian, and Ukrainian House Caucuses. I am also a strong defender of NATO and of its purpose in linking the free nations of Europe and the United States through this historic, hard-won alliance and security treaty among Europe's sovereign nations that respect the rule of law and our shared passion for liberty. Our Nation and NATO's members paid the ultimate price in the last century for our priceless gift of liberty. We won the cold war, and our most treasured democratic values of life, liberty, freedom of assembly, press, and religion are under siege today by a predatory and repressive Russia. Go no further than any major business in your district and ask them how many times they are hacked daily by Russian predators--to get a sense of what is going on. My purpose this morning is to remind our citizenry of the continuing and major, real threat to our NATO alliance and to the destabilization of Europe by Russia that necessitates our strengthening the alliance, not weakening it, to ward off Vladimir Putin's expansionist dreams. I must say I am concerned by our President-elect's loose talk about Russia. His naive assumption that personal friendships with Russia's oligarchs--some of whom are active members of Russia's notorious mafia--can overcome strategic, expansionist imperatives that fill Vladimir Putin's mind are truly not in America's interest. So let's review some recent history.…”