our goal today is to try to foster a discussion based on principles, not politics, much like the example of bipartisan bridge building said by democratic senator ted kennedy and republican senator orrin hatch, passing some of the most important legislation of their times, such as the americans with disabilities act and the children s health insurance program, and forming an unlikely friendship that transcended their partizan differences. in that spirit, in just a moment, we ll hear from democratic senator jeanne shaheen of new hampshire and republican senator joni ernst of iowa. they re used to facing off from their posts on the armed services committee in the senate, and clearly they have different views on the biggest issues facing the nation. but for the next hour, we ll try to find common ground through constructive disagreement and search for the bipartisan compromise that has been the hallmark of the u.s. senate for more than two centuries. and now, without further ado,
the people who are on those extremes aren t the people who are setting policy. there is a tremendous amount of bipartisan support for this war for all the reasons that senator ernst said. she talked about the courageous ukrainians. last fall, i had a group of ukrainian women in the military in my office and one of the things that one of the members, one of those women said to me and i said to her, you know, i m going to use this every opportunity that i have because i think it says so clearly why this war is important. she said, we need you to give us the weapons so that we can fight the russians so that you don t have to. i can tell you when i say that to people in new hampshire, they understand what i m talking about. so i think it s very important for us. this is the ukrainians on the front lines for democracies everywhere, and it s in our national security, as senator ernst said, to ensure that we help them defeat putin, not the russian people.