Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee - Negative Implications of the President's Signing Statement on the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act

Interview

Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee - Negative Implications of the President's Signing Statement on the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act

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REP. GREEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I thank my colleague Ms. Lee for returning to the Committee and continuing to stay the course. She has been a stellar supreme example, if you will, for many of us when we were near fights. She was there to lead the way and to, in fact, show us the way over to the jailhouse. Some of us were involved in protest with her and we were quite pleased to make a sacrifice for this cause.

I am disturbed as anyone with the behavior of the President. I think the comments of the Chair are most appropriate with reference to a resolution. I will gladly join the Chair in presenting a resolution in such that we can at least express our deep desire to have the President understand the import of his actions. This President has put us in a position now where we have announced to the world -- the United States of America has announced to the world that genocide is taking place, but we are also saying to the world that we will watch the very thing that we have denounced continue when we have the power to make a difference.

It's one thing to -- to -- to witness something when you are powerless, but an entirely different thing to -- to sit silently by when you have the power to make a difference. History will not be kind to those who have the power and who refuse to use it. History will not be kind to this President. We should not be kind. We should impose a resolution -- as strong as possible resolution denouncing his actions. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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REP. AL GREEN (D-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I, of course, thank you and the ranking member for having this hearing.

And I would like to make it as clear as possible, transpicuously so, I do not question the motives of the president. I think that people with the best of intentions can do bad things. I don't think that this was done with malice or forethought, but I do know this: if a person pulls out a gun and he kills me, whether it's by accident or design, I'm still dead. We are dealing with life and death in Sudan. Because you have the right to do it doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. It was morally wrong. Whether it was legally right is debatable.

It was morally wrong for the president to obfuscate this issue with this signing statement when lives are at risk. Constitutional scholars can debate these issues ad infinitum, but the moral question is what I contend the president will have to answer for. The morality at a time of death, when people -- I have been to Sudan -- when people are literally living on the ground in villages where they don't have water, where they don't have the necessary cover from the elements, and where people are being raped, it is morally wrong for the president to do this.

And I stand by what I said, he really is not going to be judged kindly by history. And I appreciate all those who have contrary views and their friendship is still valued. I still love the president, as a matter of fact. He is a friend. This will not change how I feel about him, it will change how I feel about what he has done here. I condemn the actions, not the man. His actions are going to create a circumstance that we need not have to deal with.

And I yield back the balance of my time.

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