- We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos. There will be genocide; and they will follow us home.
- War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
- I am fully prepared to be commander-in-chief. I don't need on-the-job training.
- The core political values of our free society are so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness that only a few malcontents, lunatics generally, ever dare to threaten them.
- I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike in the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.
- [on Vladimir Putin] I looked in his eyes and saw three letters: a K, a G and a B.
- I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land. I want the presidency in the best way, not the worst way.
- I spent five-and-a-half years in prison. The worst part was coming home and finding out 'Green Acres' had been canceled. What the hell was I fighting for?
- The tea partiers are a great addition. They have invigorated a base that has been dormant for a long period of time. We're going to have a broad array of different views in our Republican conference, and I think it might be more interesting than any I've been in in a long time.
- Our armed forces will fight for peace in Iraq, a peace built on more secure foundations that are found today in the Middle East. Even more important, they will fight for two human conditions of even greater value than peace: liberty and justice.
- The use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights.
- [on Donald Trump, 2016] It's not pleasant for me to to renounce the nominee of my party. He won the nomination fair and square.
- [on dealing with his brain cancer diagnosis, July 2017] I greatly appreciate the outpouring of support. Unfortunately, for my sparring partners in Congress, I'll be back soon. So stand-by!
- [on James Comey] Integrity is a word that doesn't get used a lot in Washington anymore. But that is the quality that has defined James Comey's service to our nation...Shifting political winds have blown criticism his way from different partisan directions. But his independence has never faltered. His integrity has never wavered. And I know that in the pursuit of justice it never will.
- No one is above the law and the individuals entrusted with the privilege of being sworn law officers should always seek to be beyond reproach in their commitment to fairly enforcing the laws they swore to uphold. Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge's orders. The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions
- Our political differences, now matter how sharply they are debated, are really quite narrow in comparison to the remarkably durable national consensus on our founding convictions.
- I would consider supporting legislation similar to that offered by my friends Senators Graham and Cassidy were it the product of extensive hearings, debate and amendment. But that has not been the case. Instead, the specter of September 30 budget reconciliation deadline has hung over this entire process.
- [on a new health care bill] I hope that in the months ahead, we can join with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to arrive at a compromise solution that is acceptable to most of us, and serves the interests of Americans as best we can.
- We should not be content to pass health care legislation on a party-line basis, as Democrats did when they rammed Obamacare through Congress in 2009. If we do so, our success could be as short-lived as theirs when the political winds shift, as they regularly do. The issue is too important, and too many lives are at risk, for us to leave the American people guessing from one election to the next whether and how they will acquire health insurance. A bill of this impact requires a bipartisan approach.
- [referring to the perceived effects of Donald Trump's presidency in a speech at the 2017 Liberty Medal Award Ceremony] To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain the last best hope of earth for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems, is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past, that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.
- [on the Vietnam war] One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income-level of America, and the highest income-level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. That is wrong. If we're going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.
- [observation, March 20, 2018] An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country's future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin's regime.
- [on June 10, 2018, after the G-7 meeting in Quebec ended] To our allies: bi-partisan majorities of Americans remain pro-free trade, pro-globalization, and supportive of alliances based on 70 years of shared values. Americans stand with you, even if our president doesn't.
- [observation, July 16, 2018] Today's press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump's naïveté, egotism, false equivalence and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate.
- [on Donald Trump's 2018 summit with Vladimir Putin] No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.
- Only truth and transparency can guarantee freedom.
- I came out of the Vietnam War convinced that frankly we could have won, and we had it won. Just as I believed we had the Iraq conflict won after the surge - and for which I sacrificed everything, including my presidential ambitions, that it would succeed.
- Securing ever-increasing parts of Iraq and preventing the emergence of new terrorist safe havens will require more troops and money. It will take time, probably years, and mean more American casualties. Those are terrible prices to pay. But with the stakes so high, I believe we must choose the strategy with the best chance of success.
- The principal reason for invading Iraq, that Saddam had WMD, was wrong. The war, with its cost in lives and treasure and security, can't be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it.
- I will defend the decision to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime as I criticized the failed tactics that were employed for too long to establish the conditions that will allow us to leave that country with our country's interests secure and our honor intact. We are in Iraq and our most vital security interests are clearly involved there.
- [conceding defeat to Barack Obama, 2008] Thank you, my friends, thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening. My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him [booing] - please - to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love. In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who'd once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving. This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans, and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight. I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that too. But we both recognize that though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound. A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now [applause] - let there be no reason now for any American now to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth. [applause] Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day, though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her Creator, and so very proud of the good man she helped raise. Senator Obama and I have had, and argued, our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans [applause] - I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited. Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans, and please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.
- Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country. It's kleptocracy. It's corruption. It's a nation that's really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy, and so economic sanctions are important.
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