Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the vote the Senate will soon take on a resolution to disapprove the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, is both momentous and historic. I, along with my colleagues, have carefully and conscientiously reviewed this agreement. We have each applied our independent judgment as to whether or not it achieves the primary objectives the President set out in the negotiations when they began in November 2013--to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Since the conclusion of the negotiations, I have reviewed the text of the agreement, attended and participated in hearings of the Armed Services Committee and Banking Committee with government witnesses and nongovernment witnesses, received a series of classified briefings, and reached out to Rhode Islanders for their views. These venues--all of them--provided a full range of views and opinions and were critical in my review and decision with respect to the JCPOA. In my view, evaluating the JCPOA rests on three factors. The first is the sufficiency of the provisions to cut off all Iranian pathways to a nuclear weapon. The second is the ability to conscientiously and continuously monitor and verify adherence to these provisions. Finally, we have to evaluate whether this agreement will leave us in a better position than a rejection of the agreement. This last point of whether the agreement leaves us in a better position than rejecting it touches on two alternatives suggested by opponents of this agreement.…”