I understand the lifelong scars born by women who are victims of assault and abuse.
This [Gang of Eight bill (S.744)] is far, far too many low-skilled workers that are going to take jobs and pull down wages of people unemployed and underemployed right now.
I noticed one thing. According to the ABA statistics, only 3.5 percent of lawyers in America in 2000 were Hispanic, yet they - Hispanics make up 5 percent of the federal district court judges and 6 percent of circuit court judges.
Instead of engaging on the merits and saying, "Well, we want an open border, you know, we really do," and that's all good for America because they know the people will reject that, they [the elites] attack Donald Trump as an extremist, which I think is unfair.
We know that a ready amnesty tends to be an invitation to more illegal entries.
I would like to think that we are on a move that could be like [Ronald] Reagan. Reagan appealed to the average working American: their patriotism, their love of country, the belief in their schools and their communities and their loyalty to the military and police, and the things that create stability and a good life.
[Donald] Trump has made this a big issue. He's leading in Ohio. He's leading, right up there in Pennsylvania, 1-point difference, and people are responding because the people's instincts are correct. This is what I believe.
At least 99.92% of illegal immigrants and visa overstays without known crimes on their records did not face removal.
I am not the Jeff Sessions my detractors have tried to create. I am not a racist. I am not insensitive to blacks.
Those policies - more taxes, more regulation, more debt, more spending, more government - will make American worse. It just will, in my view.
I believe that President [George W.] Bush was correct. I thought that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and I supported him steadfastly, and once we committed we should see it through.
I am totally committed to maintaining the freedom and equality America has to provide to every citizen.
This is a critical time in American history. [Donald's Trump] strength is willingness to stand up to political conventions, take on Republican and Democrat leaders, and, in effect, do so in defense of the legitimate interest of people who make less than median income in America, is the key to victory.
It's perfectly reasonable and responsible policy for any nation to maintain its sovereignty, to protect its borders. And [Donald] Trump does not believe in ending immigration. He's never proposed that.
Voters are saying "I like this guy [Donald Trump]. He just might shake this place up."
I went to law school at Alabama and I grew up a loyal Auburn fan. I'm one of the few that wrestles with those issues sometimes, but we're really proud of them. Like the University of Alabama has almost doubled its enrollment.
In my family, we were not involved in politics at all.
[Donald] Trump is where the Republicans are, and if you're going to be a Republican leader you should be supportive of that.
People react not very wisely sometimes.
They [Republican voters] believe in a foreign policy that puts America first: Give me a break. And so a lot of our drift within our party has gotten away from that.
In seven years, we'll have the highest percentage of Americans non-native born since the founding of the republic. And some people think, "Well, we've always had these numbers." But it's not so. This is very unusual. It's a radical change. And in fact, when the numbers reached about this high in 1924, the president and Congress changed the policy, and it slowed down immigration significantly. And we then assimilated through the 1965 and created really the solid middle class of America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America.
[Donald Trump] was a magnificent witness. The reporter, when asking me about his testimony, said, "Sessions gushed about his testimony." But it was remarkable.
We need more American energy. It keeps wealth at home. It keeps our wealth from ending up in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. It creates jobs at home.
We can never go back.
I had met [Donald] Trump once before, when he testified before a committee that Tom Coburn - Senator Coburn - and I hosted, to deal with excessive expenditures to refurbish the UN building in New York.
When I came up as a United States Attorney, I had no real support group. I didn't prepare myself well in 1986, and there was an organized effort to caricature me as someone I wasn't. True. It was very painful. I didn't know how to respond and didn't respond very well.
I think if a candidate ran for office in most states in the country, if his opponent, or her opponent was an effective advocate against the TPP and could show, as I think we will be able to show, it's detrimental to working Americans, I think they would have a hard time getting elected.
I understand Donald Trump's goals. That's why I supported him for president. I share his beliefs that we've got to do more about crime, more about illegal immigration, more about gangs and violence and it's an honor and a pleasure to be able to lead that effort.
We represent our constituents. And so they don't get to dictate policy.
Donald Trump believed that the whole history of trade agreements, most of which I've supported over the years, have not been effective, and I've come to believe he's right.
We've seen what happened in Libya, what a disaster that's been driven by Hillary Clinton, and the disaster in Syria and almost disaster in Egypt. What a close call that's been. We're not out of the woods yet with Egypt.
I tried to give my best and truthful answer to any committee I have appeared before and it's really - people are suggesting through innuendo that I have been not honest about matters and I've tried to be honest.
Kissinger-type foreign policy is clearly, in my view, the proper tilt for us in the future, and he [Donald Trump] gets it. And some of our members, I guess, have been so deeply committed to the [George W.] Bush agenda, the neo-conservative agenda, that it's harder for them to acknowledge that. But I acknowledge it.
Thirty years people have been asking for a lawful system of immigration to end this lawlessness, and government on both parties have refused to give it to them.
All soldiers who serve their country and put their lives at risk need to know that if something happens to them, their families will be well taken care of. That's the bond we have with our military men and women and their families.
When a nation uses their improperly gained or intelligence-wise gained information to take policy positions that impact another nation's democracy or their approach to any issue, then that raises real serious matters.
People are not doing well financially. I mean, wages are down from 2000. They're down from 2007. 2000 - down. Not going - they're below what they were in 2000. People are hurting. Things aren't going well for them.
We've got people in the Republican Party that just believe that if you just cut taxes for corporations, and that you have more trade, and we just bring in more people from abroad, that this is going to help the average guy. Well, it's not. I mean, this is an honest dispute. We're going to have a dispute about it. The American people agree with [Donald] Trump and I agree with Trump on those things.
Good people don't smoke marijuana.
My father had a country store and then later, when I was 10 or 12, sold it and bought a farm equipment dealership in nearby Camden.
I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest.
Occasionally [Donald Trump] says things that are too strong and upsets people, and I think he'll work to do better on that.
Donald Trump foreign policy speech got good reviews, and it says we're going to defeat the people who are direct threats to us, but we're going to be a lot more cautious about getting involved in long-term, Wilsonian adventures.
[Donald] Trump is underestimated greatly in terms of his understanding and comprehension of the great issues facing America. He understands trade. He's got businesses all over the world. He understands currency and how manipulating currency can be damaging to America.
I think it's an honorable thing that Donald Trump is doing.
I am concerned about a president [Bill Clinton] under oath, being alleged to have committed perjury. I hope that he can rebut that and prove that did not happen.
I concluded that the trade agreements weren't working as promised, and was depreciating the wages and the manufacturing base, and the jobs of Americans, and that both needed to change, and Donald Trump was out there. So I went to his rally.
My father never ran for office or supported anybody for office, and was not engaged in that at all. But I think people throughout the area were just in a constant state of tension - I mean, adults.
I think Donald Trump's history has shown that this was a very problematic thing. There were so many ways Iraq could have gone awry once we started, and I don't think most of us spend enough time considering the dangers.
Politicians are supposed to be empathetic. And, yes, I am, actually.
Some of my best friends are FBI agents.
I have always loved the law. It is the very foundation of our great country. It's the exceptional foundation of America.
Ending the lawlessness at the border? I don't believe a fourth-generation Hispanic thinks that's evil. I don't think an African American thinks there's anything wrong with protecting their jobs for a change.
Donald Trump can improve and get better as he goes along, and I think he will.
[Ronald Reagan] appealed to that group of [working American] people and we can do it again, because they've had, now, eight years of [Barak] Obama. Things have not gone well.
[My father ] came home from World War II and he voted for [Dwight] Eisenhower. He was pretty thoughtful about those things, but never, as I said, ever campaigned for anybody. He let me put a [Barry] Goldwater sticker on his pickup truck, but he never put a bumper sticker on his car. We never had a yard sign or anything in our yards, never contributed to anybody's campaign.
Hillary Clinton says nobody should be deported that entered illegally unless they commit a violent felony, which is an argument for open borders and American people reject that.
My parents, both of them had teachers in their family and were pretty well read. So my father voted for [Dwight] Eisenhower.
I think that the real future of the American party is to bring in working Americans.
We're going to build a wall. Donald Trump never said it's going to go from one end of the country, from the Gulf to the Pacific, and he'll use good judgment about that. And there are ways, through tax and regulation policies, that we can - and immigrant fees - that this could be paid for. I have not studied the details of it but, absolutely, I think that is possible.
I just don't think there's that many people who think it's wrong to have control on our borders. That's not racism. It's not racism to question some of the political correctness today that's going on, to recognize that things are going as well as - for American workers, as they'd like, because people, their frustration is arising from a deep sense of unease that Washington is fiddling while their house is burning.
We were just country people. All my grandfathers had farms. They had chickens, cattle and tried to get by farming, for the most part.
Donald Trump is saying we're going to end the lawlessness at the border and we're going to push Mexico to do better. So there's been a reaction by the activist community to attack him.
When you suveil a person abroad, you don't have to have a warrant to do so. That has never been so they don't have the fourth amendment protection. On occasion, that person might call somebody in the United States, and if they're a terrorist, you really want to know who they are talking to. Maybe they're plotting an attack on the United States.
Encouraging self-sufficiency must be a bedrock for our immigration policy, with the goal of reducing poverty, strengthening the family, and promoting our economic values. But Administration officials and their policies are working actively against this goal.
When I present evidence, I expect the judge to hear and see all the evidence that gets presented.
I just want you to know that as a southerner, who actually saw discrimination and have no doubt it existed in a systematic and powerful and negative way to the people - great millions of people in the South, particularly, of America - I know that was wrong. I know we need to do better.
We'll have a national dispute - debate about it, and the goal should be to bring in - to help respectfully appeal to those voters that can make the difference, the ones who are not going to be entrepreneurs, are never going to be - run a - be a CEO in some big business, and they know it, but they would like to have their Social Security, they would like to have Medicare as they paid for all their years, and they'd like rising wages rather than falling wages.
I would acknowledge that [Paul] Ryan has some really good ideas about things, and I think they'll get together, like taxes. Larry Kudlow, Stephen Moore, they've been supportive of Ryan's tax view and now they're very supportive of [Donald] Trump's. So I think that's got potential.
Bin Laden, who was in his country, attacked and damaged our Pentagon, and killed our soldiers right out here at the Pentagon. But his pentagon no longer exists. It is rubble.
You've got the principled people who maybe are on salaried jobs, or CEOs, entrepreneurs, and all of those that are great people, but if you're not appealing - the permanent coalition is to join that with traditional Americans who feel like, that things aren't going well for them, and to develop policies that improve their lifestyle, not just upper-income lifestyles. And once that's believed by working people, that it's serious and a commitment and you care about people like me, for a change, Republicans could create a new majority.
People tell me, "Well, you understand where the voters are, Jeff, where the votes are, or what people are thinking," and they'll sort of - in a complimentary way. And it's a bit of an acknowledgement that we've been blind to some of these issues for too long.
I do believe that if you continually go through a cycle of amnesty, that you undermine the respect for the law and encourage more illegal immigration into America.
As the witness testified before my Subcommittee on Immigration, that barriers magnify the ability of every Border Patrol agent to be more effective. And so if you make up your mind, you can build substantial mileage barriers. It will increase the ability of our officers to perform, and the most important thing is, it sends a message to the world, the border is closed.
We don't pay judges to think; we pay judges to rule on the law.
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.
I've supported civil rights activity in my state. I have done my job with integrity, equality and fairness for all.
Republican voters believe we should have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest. They don't believe we should enter into - commit the United States to further globalist policies that diminish the sovereignty and freedom of American to act in its own interest.
We should create an America in which it's - we can - Americans have a better chance to progress wages and job prospects, and we can do that.
I think that may have been the biggest rally Donald Trump had, and he had the cap that said "Make American Great Again." So I thought that was - I liked that. We do need to make American great again, and I put his hat on for a little bit.
We need to give them [the Justice Department] as much power as we can without eroding fundamental liberties.
You're not supposed to be admitted to America if you're likely to be a charge on the public - if you're going to need government aid to take care of yourself ... It [2006 immigration bill] failed because it did not do what it said it would do... End the illegality first. Then we can wrestle with how to treat compassionately people who have been in America for a long time.
He [Donald Trump] is been bold. He's been bold on building a wall.
We were segregated throughout the community, and it was pretty brutal, actually. It didn't appear to be, on the surface.People got along and we had great relationships, but there was discrimination that impacted adversely the ability of the African-American community to progress. People did not - were in denial about that fact.
Amnesty will not help balance our budget ... In fact, a large-scale amnesty is likely to add trillions of dollars to the debt over time, accelerate Medicare's and Social Security's slide into insolvency and put enormous strain on our public-assistance programs.
[Mitt] Romney didn't get beyond the numbers. He couldn't get 50 percent. Romney didn't - Romney got killed by the under-$50,000-a-year income voter. He just got killed in that.
I guess maybe the only time I met George Wallace was when - at a boy scout meeting in Montgomery, and he met 10 or 15 of us from different areas. I'm not sure why I was there.
[My father] was interested. He read the newspapers and read Time and U.S. News and World Report and people in stores would come along, you know, and they would talk politics.
I didn't endorse Donald Trump but I thanked him for coming, thanked him for raising issues that were important, thanked him for talking about immigration and considering the views that we had worked on for a number of years, on what a good immigration policy should be.
I think the people who go to work every day don't feel like Washington cares a whit about them,and, actually, they're executing policies that are bad for them.
They [Democratic Party ] did not do what they promised to do. And we're not going to end trade - that's very important to state - but we're going to have to be more careful about it, and we have to recognize, as politicians, we don't represent some international company.
[Donald] Trump, I think, understands it. He has said this is going to be a new Republican Party, a workers' Republican Party, instead of just the elite Republican Party.
Donald Trump is saying the right thing. We're bringing in so much labor, it's pulling down working people.
People of my generation knew we needed to move beyond that, the racial division and segregation and unsustainable social relations, that were unfair to millions of people. But it didn't mean that we were going to become a big government liberal.
Winston County was a pocket of Republicans. Even in the depression days, when Democrats dominated Alabama, Winston County remained a Republican county and all the elected officials were Republican.
In retrospect there were failures enough to go around. There were failures before the storm and failures after the storm.
I am not stonewalling. I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice.
The President of the United States is a strong leader. Donald Trump is determined to move this country in the direction he believes it needs to go to make us great again and he has had a lot of criticisms and he's steadfastly determined to get his job done and he wants all of us to our jobs and that's what I'm going to do.
There was a resistance movement in the white community, and there was a determined civil rights movement by our neighbors and friends in the African-American community. They had right on their side. They conducted themselves in high standards, with courage and determination, and they were victorious. They overcame.
We need to be protecting American citizens who are here, out of work, and hurting today-minorities, Blacks and Whites and all colors and races that are hurting today with high unemployment, but we seem to be more focused on how we can ram through this Senate a bill that would legalize millions and create an even more robust guest worker program. There are not enough jobs now. Give me a break.
The greatest disaster of all was after all the difficulties and loss of life and expenditures, President [Barak] Obama walked away, in 2011, and it is a disaster. And now we've got half of Iraq under the ISIS control and terrorists, and Iran has moved in because we weren't there, and they've taken more influence. Just a few thousand troops, in my opinion, would have avoided that.
I've said many times - I told William Buckley, I said, "You warped my mind and I never recovered from it." That was a principled, lawful understanding of the role of government, the Constitution. It was not based on racism, on demagoguery, but on strong principles that - which, consistent with the American heritage and our strength for the future.
There's been this attempt to block Donald Trump, in primary candidates and Democrats, that - to try to make everything he says some sort of extreme overstatement.
[Donald] Trump is going to appeal better to African Americans, Hispanics, and others than previous Republican candidates because he's talking about what they want: a fair chance to have a better life economically.
Frank Johnson was recognized as one of the great federal judges of American history, I suppose. He was a law-and-order judge. He was a classical, I think, conservative. But he believed that civil rights provided in the Constitution applied to everybody.
Hybart is a little community I grew up in, so it was just a wonderful time in those years. I was the youngest of about nine boys in the neighborhood and we played ball all the time, and I looked up to them and they let me play around with them, and we just had a good time.
[Donald Trump] said we're going to have a big door. He means lawful immigration will continue, but we're not going to allow the nation to be at risk in this fashion.
I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States.
The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security.
I supported the Korean Trade Agreement in 2011. They promised - when it was signed, President [Barak] Obama said it would increase our exports to Korea by $10 billion a year.That creates jobs in America.Since - last year, 2015, there was no increase, like instead of billions of dollars there was like a $100 million increase in our exports to Korea, whereas as their imports to us went up $12 billion, and our trade deficit increased 240 percent.
Because a person chooses to leave their home country and come to the United States does not necessarily mean they have the right to demand that their father or their other extended family members be allowed to come if they don't otherwise meet the standard.
The Republican Party, in many ways, grew up as a reaction to that [ segregation], and a lot of people have misunderstood that.
I understand the demands for justice and fairness made by the L.G.B.T. community.
We're going to create factory jobs for recent immigrants, and Donald Trump is going to take care of them. That's why his numbers, even right now, in this negative period, are holding pretty strong, because people want a leader that's going to make this country great again and have a strong economy.
I've had very little negative pushback. I think people in the Senate know that I have believed, for a number of years, and have been outspoken that we need to listen to what the American people are telling us, and we need to focus more on the well-being of people who make lower wages, $50,000 and below.
The suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt my country, which I have served with honor for 35 years, or to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie.
More taxes, more regulation, more Washington domination, more debt. Those things are not the future for America. They will never work.
We know the Chinese have revealed millions of background information on millions of people in the United States, and these, I suppose, ultimately are part of international big-power politics.
I think the leaders in all parties tend to adjust to reality. They just have to or they won't remain in office.
I deeply understand the history of civil rights and the horrendous impact that relentless and systemic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters. I have witnessed it.
I think Donald Trump is moving to - and will continue to move to the economic argument, as to why what he's doing is - represents a commitment to stand up to big business, to international corporations who favor more immigration and lower wages - that's what they favor - and a defense of the interest of the American people who go to work every day.
You cannot be president of the United States if people below $50,000 don't think you care about them and you have no real communication that motivates them to vote for you.
Basically [I become a Republican], pretty early. I had an English teacher that got me to subscribe to the National Review.
My advice is to listen and accept the will of the American people, the Republican voters. The Republican Party is the Republican voters, and Republican voters oppose these trade agreements more than Democrat voters do.
I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the [Donald] Trump campaign.
