Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about the pending NDAA. In particular, I rise to speak about an amendment that has been previously discussed on the floor that is being offered by the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Paul, that deals with the current authorizations for use of military force that are justifying American military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and numerous other countries. The authorizations that currently support military actions were passed in 2001 and 2002. About a quarter of us were here and voted on those. Three-quarters of us have joined either the Senate or the House since those authorizations have been voted on. What that means is that we have American troops who are deployed in harm's way, that thousands have been killed, that thousands have their lives at risk right now, and that three-quarters of Congress has never voted to support the military operations that are currently underway. Many of us support them or support them with recommendations or reservations or qualifications, but three-quarters of us have never cast a vote. These authorizations are, respectively, 15 and 16 years old. The authorizations have, essentially, been interpreted in a very broad way--first, by the Bush administration; second, by the Obama administration; and now by the current Trump administration.…”