I rise today to honor Keith Stokes: a dear friend, a beloved Arkansan, and a trusted aide. On August 18, Keith tragically passed away from a heart attack at age 59. He’s in our prayers, along with the entire Stokes family, especially his wife Julie and his children Chip and Abbey. Keith wasn’t only a colleague though; he was a close family friend. The Cottons live just up the road from the Stokeses in Yell County. Julie and my mother worked together in the middle school for years. Keith was a... Read More

Thank you for the incredibly warm welcome! It’s a pleasure to be with the members and supporters of Christians United for Israel. You are the very definition of God-fearing patriots. You champion a strong America and you courageously stand up for one of America’s best friends, the nation of Israel.    And you have an inspiring leader of faith in Pastor Hagee. It’s always a pleasure to see him, as well as his his lovely wife, Diana. I’m proud to call them... Read More

Thank you, Oren, for that kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be speaking to the policy innovators of American Compass.  You know, sometimes it feels like a new think tank is opening every day in DC. They’re like Dunkin Donuts in Oren’s home state of Massachusetts—on every street corner. And some are more successful than others. When American Compass first emerged in 2020, there were no doubt some critics who said it would be like so many think tanks: it would burn... Read More

We hear from Democrats a lot these days about “ending the Iraq War.” Let’s pause for a moment to remember the first time they “ended the Iraq War.”President Obama pulled American troops out of Iraq just over a decade ago. The “dumb” war, as Obama called it, was finally over.Except it wasn’t. It turns out those American troops had kept a lid on a lot of chaos. When they left, the bad guys came back with a vengeance. President Obama dismissed... Read More

Washington, D.C. is in the middle of a carjacking crime wave. There have been more than one hundred carjackings in our nation’s capital so far this year—it’s only March eighth! That’s more than one a day. Two-thirds of D.C. carjackers used guns to force their terrified victims out of their vehicles.So, what did D.C. Democrats do in response to this carjacking crime wave? Did they support and fund the police? Did they install more cameras and put more cops on the streets? No, they passed a law... Read More

There is one foreign leader for whom the Democratic Party seems to reserve special scorn. Leading Democrats have called him a “reactionary,” a “racist,” an “ethno-nationalist.” They’ve accused him of committing “war crimes” and of leading an “apartheid state.” President Biden has called him “extreme” and said they don’t agree on “a damn thing.” Strong words.Who is this monster, you may ask? Were the Democrats talking about Vladimir Putin? Or Xi Jinping? Or perhaps Ayatollah Khamenei? No, they... Read More

Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be among so many good friends. I’d also like to thank my friend Roger Hertog for convening this event. I’ve been asked to say a few words on a “conservative-national-realist global strategy.” That’s a mouthful, but it’s also something real—and urgent.Our strategy should be “conservative” in the best tradition of statesmen like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, and another speaker this week, Benjamin Netanyahu. It should be “nationalist” in putting first our vital... Read More

Reserving the right to object—and I will—I want to make a few remarks about why I object to the passage of this bill, the so-called PRESS Act, which would open a floodgate of leaks damaging to law enforcement and our nation’s security.The press, unfortunately, has a long and sordid history of publishing sensitive information from inside the government that damages our national security. During the Vietnam War, the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers in an effort to demoralize... Read More

Tens of thousands of Iranian citizens are taking to the streets in dozens of cities across Iran as we speak. The chant that is echoing across that ancient land is “Death to the Dictator.” Yet, Joe Biden and the Democrats in Washington would rather make another deal with the ayatollahs and those who declare “Death to America” and who are at this very moment working to assassinate American citizens on our sovereign soil. Barack Obama’s betrayal of the Iranian people during the Green Revolution is... Read More

Today, the Senate exercises one of our unique and most important constitutional responsibilities, the debate and ratification of a treaty. And the NATO accession treaty for Sweden and Finland is the most consequential kind of treaty because it commits America to the mutual defense of another country. We commit, along with our NATO partners, to come to Sweden and Finland’s defense if they’re attacked, just as Finland and Sweden will come to our defense if we are attacked. It’s a weighty matter,... Read More

Thank you, Michael for the kind introduction and for the invitation to speak today. And I would also like to thank Chairman Willem De Vogel for organizing this event.It’s great to be back at the Jamestown Foundation. For nearly four decades, your organization has advocated a strong, assertive, and decisive American foreign policy. I can think of no better institution with which to discuss the pressing crisis in Ukraine and its implications for our strategy regarding Taiwan.First, I think it’s... Read More

The Senate will soon vote on the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. I will vote against her nomination. Judge Jackson may be a fine woman, but she is a dangerous judge. She built her career as a far-left activist—and it didn’t change when she put on a robe ten years ago. She personifies activism from the bench, she has crusaded to undermine criminal sentences, and she cannot be trusted to interpret the law or the Constitution as... Read More

Thank you, John, for the kind introduction and thank you all for the warm welcome. It’s a great honor to be speaking again at the beautiful Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.It’s sadly fitting that we gather tonight at this monument to the great man who defeated Soviet Russia, brought down the wall, and raised the Iron Curtain. For today, a new Iron Curtain threatens to fall upon Ukraine.I recall the words of President Reagan when the people of Poland resisted the same brutal aggressor. “There... Read More

Inflation is at its highest level in 40 years. Drug overdose deaths and illegal border crossings are at record levels. The murder rate is the highest since the 1990s. Russian troops are massing on Ukraine's border, and the President of the United States just greenlighted Vladimir Putin to invade. And China is continuing its aggression.So what have the Democratic floor leader and the  Senate Democrats spent the last two months doing? Trying to overturn 200 years of Senate rules and customs... Read More

“Right now, we are on the precipice of a constitutional crisis. We are about to step into the abyss. I want to talk for a few minutes why we are on that precipice and why we are looking into that abyss.“Let me first ask a fundamental question: What is the crisis that calls for the undoing of two centuries of tradition? … Are … Senators merely doing their jobs as legislators, responding to a generalized public calling for the abolition of the filibuster? Clearly not. It is not the American people... Read More

Twenty years ago this week, the People’s Republic of China became a member of the World Trade Organization. And there was great rejoicing across Washington by lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats, and for that matter among corporate CEOs and Wall Street bankers, and, perhaps most of all, the communists in Beijing.But for Americans in the heartland in places like Arkansas, China’s entrance into the WTO was nothing to celebrate. That was the moment their leaders left them exposed to the... Read More

Today, my fellow Senators and I are introducing the Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act.This bill is named after Taylor Force, who was killed in a Hamas stabbing spree while studying abroad in Tel Aviv in 2016. Taylor was a West Point graduate and Army veteran who was studying for his MBA. Terrorism took this fine young man and his future from our nation.Instead of condemning this wanton slaughter, the Palestinian Authority sent money to the murderer’s family. This is part of a grotesque... Read More

In a couple hours Senator Schumer is bringing to the floor one of the most dangerous pro-crime, anti-cop U.S. nominees in American history. The Senate floor leader wants to ram through President Biden’s extreme nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts; the current Suffolk County District Attorney, Rachael Rollins. In doing so, the Democrats are showing that they don’t care about crime as a crime wave crashes across the country, they do not support law enforcement, and they have a wanton... Read More

Good morning. In less than three months, the Winter Olympics will begin in Beijing. According to media reports, the Biden administration is prepared to announce a diplomatic boycott. This is the least, the absolute bare minimum, that any civilized nation would do for these genocide Olympics.I’m here today to call on the Biden administration to mount a complete and total boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics. No athletes. No administration officials. No corporate sponsors. I call for this... Read More

Thank you for the warm welcome. It’s great to be back with the Federalist Society and to be in such esteemed, august company. I think at least half the audience tonight are federal judges—and, God willing, the other half will be soon. For all you hopeful jurists, I’ll give you an inside tip on the easiest way to become a federal judge: be sure your law-school roommate is a future U.S. senator.Welcome back to Washington for the first time in two years. But before I go any further, a land... Read More