Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I ask the Senator his reaction as to the possible justification for the administration's repeated reluctance to answer what should be a very straightforward question. I find myself genuinely puzzled that both Mr. Brennan and Attorney General Holder, when asked whether the U.S. Government may kill a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil with a drone strike, absent an imminent threat of harm to life or grievous bodily injury--I find it quite puzzling that both of them did not simply respond: Of course not. Of course we can't. We never have in the history of this country, and we never will. The Constitution forbids it. In my understanding of the Constitution, that was not a difficult question the Senator asked, and I find it quite remarkable that they treated it as a difficult question. To be clear, there is no dispute--at least no serious dispute--that if an individual poses an imminent threat of harm--if an individual is robbing a bank, there is no dispute that law enforcement, a SWAT team, can use deadly force to prevent the imminent threat to life or limb. What this issue is about is an individual who is not posing an imminent threat--a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil--and the administration's continued reluctance to say: The Constitution forbids killing that U.S. citizen without due process of law. So what I want to ask the Senator about is efficacy. Let's take a hypothetical individual whom the U.S.…”