Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in a few minutes, the Senate is going to vote on the nomination of John Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence. I have come to the floor to discuss this important nomination. Senators often come to this floor to talk about the importance of speaking truth to power. John Ratcliffe, in his statement before the Intelligence Committee and in his written responses, revealed he would not speak truth to power; he would surrender to it. He demonstrated that he is so eager to serve power, he will twist the truth, and he showed this again and again. For example, in the name of helping power, we saw him dance around direct questions about whether he would respect or even understood the law. John Ratcliffe made a number of extremely disturbing statements that make it clear that he has and will misrepresent and politicize intelligence without a moment's hesitation. I asked the Congressman at his hearing about a law that requires a public, unclassified report on who was responsible for the murder of the Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident, Jamal Khashoggi. This was a law passed by the Congress and signed by the President of the United States. This law required the Director of National Intelligence to produce that unclassified report on who killed Jamal Khashoggi and what the circumstances were in February. That has never happened. At his nomination hearing, I simply asked the Congressman whether the government was bound by the law.…”