Political Quotes

“This is actually an amendment that was defeated on a bipartisan vote in the House Armed Services Committee. There are no plans for the Department of Defense to participate in any resettlement process at this point. It is possible that it could come up, and that could be something that would be necessary and helpful, so precluding it doesn't really make a lot of sense. We have in the past--in different sets of circumstances, certainly in Afghanistan--had some DOD assets participate in the resettlement of refugees, some aspect of it. There will never be a situation where the Department of Defense is in charge of this sort of operation, but it is conceivable that assets within DOD could be used for that purpose. To block that off entirely doesn't make sense. I think the Department of Defense and the broader executive branch should be allowed to determine whether or not refugee resettlement is in their best interests. It is certainly not inconceivable that in certain circumstances refugees from the war in Gaza could benefit, and it could benefit us to help them be resettled through a refugee process. As the gentleman noted, there is a robust vetting process within that. More than anything, the general tone of this amendment and the previous amendment that we had--not the previous amendment, the one before that about rebuilding in Gaza--seems to take the opinion that every single Palestinian living in Gaza is an enemy of the U.S. and an enemy of Israel.…”