Multimedia/Video
Candlelight Call to Action
07/17/2007
Speaker Pelosi and 57 House Democrats joined Senate Democrats and Iraq war veterans at a “Candlelight Call to Action” to honor our brave men and women in uniform and call on Senate Republicans to stop blocking votes to responsibly end the war in Iraq. Speaking in this video are Speaker Pelosi, Rep. John Lewis, and Rep. Patrick Murphy.
Speaker Pelosi’s remarks:
Thank you very much Leader Reid. It’s an honor to be with you here tonight and to be with our veterans, our Iraq vets, who bring us their firsthand testimony about the need to end the war in Iraq.
The presence of our Iraq veterans here tonight affords us the opportunity to thank them and all of our men and women in uniform for their service, the sacrifices they and their families are willing to make, and their patriotism. We are proud of them and express our appreciation for them.
I also want to thank you, Senator Reid, for giving us the opportunity to thank Americans United and others who are helping to spread the word across the country as to why and what the barriers are to bringing legislation to the Senate floor to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home.
We are gathered here tonight in a ‘Candlelight Call to Action.’ As we stand here with our call to action, on the Senate floor the Republicans are impeding the opportunity for the voices of the American people to be heard by denying a vote against the President’s policy in Iraq. That is why we are here – to send a message to the American people that the reason it is impossible to put the legislation on the President’s desk over and over again is because over and over again the Republicans in the United States Senate say ‘No’ to the American people. They will not allow a vote on bringing the troops home.
Last week in the House of Representatives, we successfully passed the equivalent of the Levin-Reed legislation with a timetable. I salute Senator Levin and Senator Reed for their leadership in putting on the table legislation with a timeline to redeploy the troops and a time certain to bring them home. Thank you Chairman Levin, thank you Senator Reed.
So I have one question for all of you: Are we united in speaking out against the Republican obstructionism on the floor of the United States Senate? If we are united let us respectfully proceed and listen to our Senators and bear witness to the obstructionism of the Republicans, and bear witness to their just saying ‘No’ to having a vote on Levin-Reed.
If we are unified then we will be successful and we will soon have the vote on Levin-Reed to end the war and bring the troops home.