Political Quotes

“I yield myself an additional 1 minute. Once we have determined that they are not a threat, under our opinion, and are transferable, to say, look, sorry, we are just going to hold you because we want to, is really a violation of the U.S. Constitution and due process of law. To hold this process up even for a few months is not necessary. As I said, we are talking about 20 people that the Obama administration is trying to determine if they can find a safe place to send them. This is not about closing Guantanamo. I strongly support closing Guantanamo. I will skip that argument for the purpose of this debate. That is not going to happen. We have had votes on the House floor. There is not support in Congress for it. There is a prohibition in law that continues to be in law on transferring any of those detainees to the United States or spending any money to detain them in the United States. So it is not going to happen. The question really is about the 20 people who have been deemed not to be security threats to the U.S., who have been deemed to be transferable, and whether or not we can transfer them. This bill would say ``no'' and would hold those 20 people for the next 5 or 6 months, regardless of the evidence and regardless of the vetting process. Now, it is possible these 20 people won't be transferred, that we won't find a country for them, but there is no reason to strip the President of his lawful authority to do that.…”