Political Quotes

On the recordMay 22, 2015
I rise today to speak to the evolving situation in the Middle East. I have grave concerns, as do a majority of Americans, with the President's handling of the current situation in that region of the world. Under this President's watch, the world has become increasingly unsafe. Under this President's watch, despots have dug in, and the most horrific terrorist organization we have ever seen has risen to power and thrives. This week the reality of this failure was brought to the forefront of the world's attention. The fall of Ramadi marks the capture of another major city. We lost more than 1,300 U.S. soldiers in Anbar Province. Thousands more were wounded. We fought across every foot of Al Anbar and now a handful of ISIS fighters have seized its Provincial capital. For those in Ramadi, this was not just a setback; this cost them everything. Hundreds have already been executed at the hands of ISIS. But the White House does not see it that way. The White House has tried to spin a different narrative, downplaying the significance of this defeat. When this narrative is challenged, the White House doubles down. The White House Press Secretary said: ``Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a setback in the campaign against ISIL?'' Such comments are dumbfounding and disturbing.…
Said by
John Thune
Republican · South Dakota
Source
govinfo.gov
May 22, 2015

Share

More from John Thune

Jul 24, 2026

The math on that hasn’t changed.

rollcall.com
Aug 20, 2026

If you look at Maine, in North Carolina, in Ohio, in Iowa, in Alaska, you know, it's the Indy voters, it is the middle of the electorate, and we are not talking to them when we are arguing with each other over whether or not to eliminate…

foxnews.com
Jul 29, 2026

If the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster, we don’t have the votes to do that and so that’s not a — that’s just not a realistic option

talkingpointsmemo.com
Aug 3, 2026

We need to ensure that they do not face a third.

abcnews.com

Other voices in this conversation