Political Quotes

“Mr. President, once again, I object to the Senator's request for reasons I have previously stated. But in addition, on Tuesday night, Secretary of Defense Austin released a statement stating that he had received the Independent Review Commission's recommendations and that the administration will work with Congress to remove the prosecution of sexual assault and related crimes from the military chain of command, a recommendation I agree with. I made that clear for weeks now. And this statement makes it clear that the argument before us is not about removing sexual assault or crimes connected to sexual misconduct from the chain of command. The argument is about removing felonies like barracks larceny, destruction of government property of a significant value, and crimes that have been handled by the military chain of command effectively for years and years and years. In addition, Secretary Austin notably praised the comprehensive nature of the IRC's assessment across all four lines of effort, not just military justice reforms, but, as importantly, prevention, climate and culture, and victim care. The necessity to approach this issue in a holistic and comprehensive manner is vitally important if we want to actually reduce the incidence of sexual assault in the ranks. We would be naive to believe we can simply prosecute ourselves out of this problem. That isn't how this will work.…”