Political Quotes

“Madam President, reserving the right to object, let me start by pointing out that this is a national security bill. And the reason that it is a national security bill is because--to paraphrase a famous author--the United States is engaged in a clash of civilizations. And I describe that clash of civilizations as between rule of law countries like the United States and countries that are run by kleptocrats and oligarchs and criminals or subject to control by traffickers and international criminal organizations. Now, if you are an oligarch or a kleptocrat or international criminal, the thing you want more than anything else is to be able to hide what you stole. And you don't want to hide what you stole in your own corrupt and crooked country. You want to hide what you stole behind rule of law. And the result is that the United States and other countries on the rule of law side of this clash of civilizations are giving aid and comfort to our enemies by helping them hide their crooked assets. The concern for the United States was made pretty clear by Treasury Secretary Yellen, who admitted ``there's a good argument that . . . the best place to hide and launder ill-gotten gains is actually the United States.'' So we are trying to clean that mess up. And it is not just this administration.…”