Joe Biden shortly after 9/11 when he was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
https://newrepublic.com/article/61756/rhetorical-question
At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: "I'm groping here."
Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we're not bent on its destruction. "Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran," Biden declares.