FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 11, 2002

STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN KERRY
“I simply do not believe the country can today afford to have someone who has made these statements again and again be the leader of the United States Senate.” “Trent Lott has been my colleague with whom I’ve worked productively and often on legislation, and that is a tribute both to the colleagiality of the United States Senate and to Trent’s style as a legislator. But in the final analysis, the question we face today has nothing to do with either. The question is whether someone who has made the statements Trent has made should be or can now effectively be the Majority Leader of the United States Senate….”