MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Former Sen. Scott Brown, who’s running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to be New Hampshire’s next U.S. Senator, will deliver a foreign policy speech here midday Wednesday during which he’ll hammer Shaheen and President Barack Obama for weakening America’s standing in the world.
Excerpts of the speech obtained by Breitbart News ahead of its delivery show that Brown, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts who moved to New Hamsphire after losing re-election to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), plans to argue that Shaheen and Obama have together weakened America on the world stage.
“Whatever else happens in Washington, when it comes to national security the stakes are so high, and there is so little room for error,” Brown will say. “This has always been true, and these days it’s hard to overstate how much is on the line. We’re at a dangerous moment for our country and our friends. It’s starting to feel like the world is on fire, with so many crises getting worse, so many adversaries gaining ground.”
Brown will argue that Obama and his congressional allies like Shaheen–who he’ll note votes with President Obama 99 percent of the time–have ignored or slipped behind threats to the United States, like the current threat with ISIS. President Obama launched airstrikes in Syria late Monday evening against ISIS bases after earlier this year saying they were not a threat to the U.S. because they were “jayvee.”
“We expect our president to stay ahead of threats, and the Congress to help him do so. And if President Obama and his team had met even that minimal standard, then I believe that the global security picture would look a lot better than it does right now,” Brown will said, according to excerpts his campaign provided to Breitbart News. “They seem only more confused as things unravel. It’s as if the Obama administration is maxed out, worn down, devoid of ideas, and now all the bills are coming due. This is what foreign policy looks like without clarity and conviction. This is what the world looks like without American leadership.”
Brown will note that Shaheen is “a member of the Foreign Relations Committee” and “has been in that privileged position for nearly six years” but her record shows she’s voted with the president nearly 100 percent of the time.
“And she has a record that is readily summed up in a single number: 99 percent,” Brown will say. “That is how often Senator Shaheen votes in support of any policy of the Obama administration, whatever it is.”
Brown will hammer Shaheen many times more throughout the speech as well, but will also lay out how he plans to be different as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire–citing his record as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.
“Three years ago, in October of 2011, I joined with colleagues on the Armed Services Committee in a letter challenging the administration to reconsider the complete abandonment of the Iraqi people,” Brown will say. “We needed to leave a transition force there to help guide and assist the new elected government. It was obvious to us, and to the commanders we had spoken to over there, that a residual force was essential to preserve America’s hard-won gains. Leave all at once, and right away, and that pullout would be seen as a victory by our enemies all across the Middle East. And all kinds of bad actors would move in – exactly as ISIS has now done. That bipartisan letter was signed by Senators Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and others of us on that committee. One member who didn’t join us was Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Then as now, she wasn’t in the habit of questioning the administration.”
Some other excerpts from the speech include:
- “I’m not sure she realizes – even now – the disastrous consequences of the complete military withdrawal that she supported. For most of 2014, the jihadists of ISIS have been storming across two countries, going from one conquest and atrocity to the next. So far as I can tell, she never even mentioned ISIS in public until last month. This is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee we’re talking about, and it’s been nothing but silence on the most urgent national-security threats that we are facing. In fact, when the Committee was hearing testimony on the emerging threat of ISIS a year and a half ago, guess what? She missed the meeting.”
- “Even when Senator Shaheen does have something to say on security matters, you’ve got to wonder sometimes about those statements. She has insisted that the group, Boko Haram, operating in and around Nigeria, is not really an Islamic terrorist group. But let’s not be confused on this: These are the jihadist killers who kidnapped over 200 girls last spring. They’ve been at it awhile, and back in 2012 I introduced a bill instructing then Secretary of State Clinton to designate Boko Haram as the terrorist organization that it is.”
- “The bill went to Senator Shaheen’s committee, the Foreign Relations Committee – where, once again, they did exactly nothing. Finally, last fall, the state department acknowledged the obvious by declaring that Boko Haram is a terrorist organization. Around that same time, as you might guess, Senator Shaheen also changed her position on the matter.”
- “I view the job of a senator very differently, and party politics has got nothing to do with it. When any president is clear and resolute in defense of America’s interests, it won’t matter to me if we’re of the same party or not – I’ll be there, with my support and my vote. But where there is confusion, indecision, and incoherence in foreign policy, I will challenge, question, and never just fall in line with anyone. One hundred percent of the time, I’m going to do my own thinking, and speak for the independent spirit of our state.”
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