Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I stand in opposition to the proposed amendment. On August 24, 2021, the Secretary of Defense issued a legal order directive that all personnel in the U.S. forces should be vaccinated against COVID-19. At that point, it was an approved FDA pharmaceutical. It is a legally binding order. We need a healthy and ready force to defend the United States, and I think we've forgotten where we were before the vaccine. For example, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most important aircraft carriers in our fleet, and particularly in the Pacific, was effectively put out of commission when 27 percent of her crew were infected with COVID. Hundreds were hospitalized. The carrier had to dock in Guam for 2 months. For 2 months, we did not have the striking power of an American aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Since Secretary Austin's mandate, we have had no repeat incidents where a naval vessel had to be, essentially, taken out of service, nor in the other services have we seen anything like that. Mandatory vaccination is not a new issue for military personnel. Servicemembers are commonly required to get 17 different vaccinations when they enter the military or when they deploy to serve overseas areas, including measles, mumps, diphtheria, hepatitis, smallpox, and flu. In fact, the first mandatory vaccination was ordered by General George Washington for the smallpox during the American Revolution. The Department of Defense issued the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.…”