Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this week, of course, we remember and honor our colleague and an American hero John McCain. He embodied our most cherished values of service and sacrifice, and he understood the principles that make our country great. One of those principles, as we know, is our First Amendment protections for a free and independent press. Something I always admired about Senator McCain, even before I got to know him well many years ago, was his openness with the journalists, the workaday reporters who were doing their jobs every day and who covered him on behalf of the American people. He didn't hide from the people he served, and he was always willing to stand up for freedom of the press. When those freedoms came under attack, he stood up and said to journalists: ``The fact is we need you.'' He wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in January that I would like to quote from. This op-ed was partly in response to the President's declaring several times, repeatedly, that the media are enemies of the people. John McCain put that to rest with these comments: Ultimately, freedom of information is critical for a democracy to succeed. . . . Journalists play a major role in the promotion and protection of democracy and our unalienable rights, and they must be able to do their jobs freely. Only truth and transparency can guarantee freedom. Senator McCain was right. We will miss his moral leadership on this issue and his moral leadership on so many others.…”