Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I will be very brief, just to respond to my good friend from Arizona who said that the Senate not taking up Pompeo would be contradicting the will of the people. That is not the case at all. This is about whether the Senate is going to be a rubberstamp and whether the Senate is in effect going to abdicate its responsibility to do oversight. Let me just mention four points real quickly. No. 1, this nomination has not been considered in the Intelligence Committee. It could have been. It was not. No. 2, we have not been able to get answers to our questions. A major question in particular, this body voted to sideline a law that collected phone records on law-abiding Americans. Congressman Pompeo has proposed something that makes the law we sidelined look like small potatoes. He is talking about collecting lifestyle information on all Americans. We are trying to get an answer about whether there are any legal boundaries at all. We have not been able to get them. That is argument No. 2. Argument No. 3 is that we have never confirmed on inauguration day a CIA Director. That is the history of this particular nomination. No. 4, I want to talk about the realities of national security because I share the view of the chairman of the committee that this is a dangerous time. That is not up for debate. There are lots of people out there who do not wish our country well.…”