I enjoy repartee and frequently engage in devil's advocacy. In short, when I talk to friends, I do not guard every word that I say because I think that I know they know that my commitment to equality and justice is real, and they would not twist my words or misinterpret what I am saying to them.
Marriage has been defined by every legislature that has ever sat in the United States from every State, now 50 States, the same way, but now we have unelected judges altering and changing that fundamental institution.
The largest untapped constituency in American politics are the 300 million American citizens who have been completely left out of the immigration debate.
Every senator needs to stand up and represent their constituents - not big business, not the ACLU, not activist groups, not political interests, but the American interests, the workers' interests.
I couldn't vote to confirm any candidate who supports executive amnesty. The attorney general is a top law enforcement officer in this country - the senior person - and anyone who occupies that office must have fidelity to the laws of the United States duly passed, and to the Constitution of the United States.
The caricature of me in 1986 was not correct. I do not harbor the kind of animosity and race-based discrimination ideas that I was accused of. I did not.
I think it is likely that within every department there are some officers who subtly, if not otherwise, are biased in the way they go about enforcing the law. I think that is just life. We know that to be true.
You know the discrimination: African-Americans couldn't go to certain schools, they couldn't use certain restrooms, there were other kinds of routine biases against them.
The job of elected officials is to answer to the people who sent them to Washington - not to scorn them, not to demean them, not to mock them, and not to sell their jobs and dreams to the highest bidder.
I cannot and will not violate my duty to protect confidential communications with the president.
You do not walk into any hearing or committee meeting and reveal confidential communications with the president of the United States, who's entitled to receive confidential communications in your best judgment about a host of issues.
The Senate cannot confirm an individual... who would support a scheme that violates our Constitution, eviscerates congressional authority.
My belief is that the nation-state remains the one entity that can function, the one entity that can demand sacrifice from its constituents in the national interest.
You don't have a constitutional right or a moral right to demand entry into any country.
The proven method for saving the lives of innocent Americans is not disarming them. The proven method for saving the lives of innocent Americans is to arrest, prosecute, convict and jail criminal offenders, especially armed career criminals illegally using guns. This is the way to reduce gun violence.
Failure to deport aliens who are convicted for criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk - especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators.
Donald Trump is right. We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that's putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostility that should not exist.
Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the United States must serve the national interest, not merely the interests of those crafting the proposal in secret.
I think we have a high responsibility to base any criticisms that we have on a fair and honest statement of the facts, and that nominees should not be subjected to distortions of their record, taking things they've done out of context.
The elite denizens of Washington and Wall Street scorn and mock the good and decent people of this country for wanting their laws enforced and their communities protected.
