Political Quotes

“I rise to make sure today that everybody in this body understands a serious problem for a family in State College, Pennsylvania; and a problem for, I think, the security of this country. On my left is Edmond and Cheri Pope. They are a couple who have lived for many years in State College, finished raising their family there, highly regarded and respected there. Edmond Pope was a businessman who traveled the world, often went to Russia to do business. Eleven weeks ago, Edmond Pope was arrested and thrown in a Russian prison. For 11 weeks, Cheri, his wife, had no communication, could not get a letter to him, could not get a phone call to him, could not get any kind of communication from him; really did not know what was happening to her husband. Visas were canceled. Finally, last week, I helped arrange a trip where two of my staff went with her. She went to visit her husband for the first time in 11 weeks. I will just read to my colleagues a little bit of a news story on that. ``On Tuesday, they met for the first time in 3 months, just a few feet from a watchful prosecutor in a Lefortovo prison. Edmond and Cheri Pope hugged and belatedly wished each other a happy 30th anniversary. Then Cheri Pope said the first thing he said to me was, `Cheri, I didn't do anything wrong.…”