Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Senator from Maryland said that he intends to raise a point of order objecting to this war powers resolution because we do not have servicemembers in harm's way; we do not have active hostilities, which is what is required by the War Powers Act. That is a creative procedural argument. It just has the inconvenient fact of not being true. Not only is it not true, but what the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee is arguing to this body is directly contrary to the explicit position of the Biden Department of Defense. I want to read to you from a press briefing from the Biden Department of Defense on May 16. A reporter asked the official spokesperson for the Department of Defense: The USAID spokesperson said yesterday that he wasn't satisfied yet with the deconfliction arrangement yet, and then he added that the maritime corridors exposed to--we do not think the JLOTS of the maritime corridor is exposed to any additional risk above and beyond that which is already present in Gaza. That's pretty frightening now, isn't it, given how many people have been killed . . . Answer--and this is from the Biden Department of Defense: I don't think we've come up here with rose-colored glasses and said this is not a risk. This is an active war zone. The Biden Department of Defense has explicitly stated: ``This is an active war zone''--that they are putting U.S. personnel at risk. And that is precisely why the War Powers Act gives this body the ability to act.…”