On the recordSeptember 21, 2016
I think it would be wonderful to debate many of the things, at any time, that any Senator wishes to debate, but to use this as a proxy for something totally unrelated, to me, is a most unusual way of approaching the other issues that have been discussed. This has nothing to do with a declaration of war. This has nothing to do with any of those things. This is about whether we want to consummate a sale, a purchase--an arm's length purchase--between two countries that we have said, as a national policy, would help strengthen our own U.S. national interests. If we will remember, the President actually convened--by the way, in a bipartisan way, we supported this--convened these countries to share with them that we were going to be willing to expedite the sale of arms to counter Iranian influence in the region and to continue to have the balance of power that is on the ground. Again, I think, today, based on just the conversations I have had, Republicans and Democrats are going to come together overwhelmingly to table this motion that is definitely, from my standpoint, not in U.S. national interests. I do think what they are speaking to is going to occur. My sense is, there is going to be an overwhelming vote to table this because people realize that while the optics of it--you know, Saudi Arabia, people are wondering about them, which is true--at the end of the day, a vote for this resolution, again, cuts our nose off to spite our face.…





