Political Quotes

“Mr. President, once again, I object to the request from the Senator from New York for the reasons I previously stated. I will repeat again: I support removing prosecution of sexual assault and related crimes from the chain of command, but we must take care that we do it thoughtfully, in a manner that does not stress the military justice system or distort it in a way that would affect the efficiency and operation of the military. The best way to do that, in my view, is to consider these matters in the context of the annual Defense bill, which we will be marking up in a month. Mr. President, I would also point out that this week, Jeh Johnson, who served under President Obama as the Department of Defense general counsel, and then Secretary of Homeland Security, wrote an article addressing the scope of Senator Gillibrand's bill, urging caution that we focus on legislative solutions tailored to address the problem we are trying to solve. And to remind my colleagues, as the DOD general counsel, Secretary Johnson oversaw all legal services performed within the Department of Defense. He advised the Secretary and all government officials on military justice matters and oversaw the annual review of the Manual for Courts-Martial. He is an informed and expert voice on these matters. During his tenure as DOD general counsel, he was no stranger to momentous change, leading the implementation of the repeal of don't ask, don't tell.…”