Cory A. Booker
Senator for New Jersey · Democratic · United States
“They have developed over recent years more power and more leverage, and that is a scary thing for the NCAA. I want to be honest about one point--about who creates a disproportionate amount of that value. That is actually Black athletes.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“The protections expire in 4 to 9 years, depending on the size of the program. The NCAA's antitrust exemption is permanent. The protections for women's and Olympic sports are only temporary. And athletes are noticing. Listen to Caitlin VanderKlok, a cross-country athlete at the University of Tennessee.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“In most States, it is the highest paid State employee. In 2025 alone, 15 fired coaches secured buyouts worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. That is $250 million paid to coaches not to coach. You hear people running around here lobbying, saying: Oh, we have a financial crisis in college sports.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“That should tell you everything you need to know about who this bill protects. Listen to former senior Justice Department officials, including a former principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, a former Acting Associate Attorney General, and a former Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“Madam President, I am so grateful to be recognized. It is amazing how for more than 14 years in this place, I was trying to get Congress to step in to do something to help athletes, but the answer was no, no, no.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
“People in this body that say it protects women's and Olympic sports are lying to you by not telling you the whole truth; that those protections expire. Listen to Meghann Burke, executive director of the National Women's Soccer League Players Association.”
Senate28 September 2026Source ↗
The complete record
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“We must create laws that offer a realistic pathway for people who have lived, worked, contributed, paid taxes, invested their lives in this country for decades, especially those with American families and American children.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“The late Lindsey Graham is a great example about how our immigration laws are so broken, it makes it hard for anyone who wants to follow the rules to be able to, in any timely way, become a citizen of our country. The Cato Institute calls it more likely to win the lottery than it is to come into our country. This is one of the reasons why our population is declining. We need laws that reflect our values, laws that are orderly, laws that keep us safe and secure, laws that protect the border, laws that affirm our values. We can have all of that. Do not listen to the false choice of a President, who wants to send people back to a human version of hell, rip people from our communities all in the name of safety and security. That is a lie.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“America has always been strongest when our laws reflected both security and humanity. These are not conflicting ideals. In fact, they are interwoven. When we violate our humanity, we violate our security. We can secure our borders, and we should. We can enforce our laws, and we must. But we can also distinguish between those who threaten America and those who have spent years here in our country strengthening it. This is not weakness. The Haitians in our community--keeping them here amidst the crisis in Haiti--it is not weakness; it is wisdom. It is justice. It is morally right. It is long past time that we, in Congress, modernize an immigration system that virtually everyone agrees is broken. I can't tell you the conversations I have had with Republican colleagues of mine.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“We are a moral nation, but forcing people here on temporary protected status back into countries where there is such violence and destitution violates our morals, our values. It cheapens us all. It is wrong. Yet this administration has canceled temporary protected status for more than 330,000 Haitians. Many have lived here for years and years. Many of them already have had American children in our country. Many of them have married Americans themselves. They have worked here. They have paid billions in taxes here. They built businesses here, served communities in some of the most humble jobs in our hospitals as assistants, helping the ill and the elderly. There are thousands that I have come to know are in New Jersey, many whom I know personally.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“How could a nation of decency take people with temporary protected status and send them to the very country our Nation warns us not to go to because of the violence and destitution? Have we no decency in our policies? If a country is far too dangerous for an American to step into, how can it be safe enough for families that are now being forced to go back there? Temporary protected status exists for precisely this kind of moment. Congress created it. A Republican President signed it into law. It recognizes a simple yet profound moral truth: When extraordinary danger exists, Americans should not force human beings into it. The values of our country, the values of our collective faiths, the values of the best of humanity are being violated here.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Nowhere is this contradiction more painful than what we are seeing right now with Haitian immigrants in our country. Earlier this year, the United Nations described Haiti as ``one of the most complex crises in . . . recent history.'' Armed gangs control large sections of the country. Kidnappings are widespread. Sexual violence is used as a weapon. Thousands upon thousands have been killed. Natural disasters continue to deepen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis. Trump's own State Department gives Haiti its highest travel warning, level 4; in other words, do not travel to Haiti. Think about that. We tell American citizens ``It is far too dangerous for you to go to Haiti,'' and then we tell Haitian families ``We are sending you there.'' How can both possibly be true?”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Together, immigrants have generated a fiscal surplus measured in the trillions of dollars. Undocumented immigrants alone paid nearly $100 billion in Federal, State, and local taxes in a single year. They work. They build. They start businesses. They strengthen our economy. They contribute to Social Security and Medicare. They help build prosperity for all of America. Yet this administration wants to punish many of the very people that are helping to strengthen it, violating the commitment to go after the dangerous people, to focus our taxpayer resources on getting criminals off of our street. But no, they are using our taxpayer money to go after people that have been in our country for years and decades, who are contributing to it and are working hard to abide by our immigration laws.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“It is taking people who are seeking to abide by our laws and throwing them in prisons for the profits of private companies, which also are big supporters and contributors to this President. When numbers become more important than justice, innocent people become collateral damage. And this doesn't just harm immigrants in our country or violate our values of decency; it harms all Americans. Too often, this debate is framed as though immigrants are taking from our country, that they are takers. Well, the facts tell a different story. According to the conservative Cato Institute, for more than two decades, immigrants have contributed more in taxes--way more in taxes-- than they have received in any kind of government benefit, many of which they are ineligible for.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Yet, instead of helping them complete that process, our government took them, locked them away from their families, from the Americans that love them, the communities that cherish them, the businesses and jobs that sustained those families. Right now, today in America, roughly 70 percent of the people in immigration detention--often for-profit private companies--have never been convicted of a criminal offense--70 percent. This is not what Donald Trump promised--that he would go after the ``worst of the worst.'' This is a dragnet. These, unfortunately, are indiscriminate arrests, not the result of focused law enforcement. They are the consequence of arbitrary arrest quotas and no guiding principles of decency and support of a legal immigration system.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“President, somewhere in America today, a father kissed his children goodbye before leaving to work, a mother boarded an airplane to attend her father's funeral, a husband drove to his construction job, a woman walked into an airport believing that they were following the law of our land. None of them expected to disappear into our immigration detention system. Yet this is happening all over our country. Over the last several months, immigration enforcement has accelerated dramatically. In June alone, ICE arrested more than 43,000 people--the highest monthly total in years. People are being arrested outside of their homes, at airports, at workplaces, near schools, near our churches, across communities throughout our Nation. And many of them-- most of them--are nonviolent, with no criminal record.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“I stand for a Department of Justice whose only client is the American people; a Department that follows the evidence, not politics; a Department that defends the Constitution, not a President. No one--not even the President of the United States--is above the law. That principle has guided this great Republic for nearly 250 years. It is our responsibility to preserve it today. It is the oath that we took, the commitment that we made that we will serve the people and the ideals. To vote for Blanche is to surrender those ideals upon the altar of someone who wants to be a false god, where his interests are superior over everyone else's. That is wrong. History is watching. We should reject this nominee. Immigration Mr.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“He has been in this position for months and has had the chance to show us not promises but actions, and at every important decision he has made, the same story comes out. Who was he serving? The Constitution or Donald Trump? The answer is unmistakable. This vote we have in the Senate on this nominee--every Senator is going to have to eventually cast a vote, but history is going to record something much larger. It will record whether in this moment, the U.S. Senate defended the independence of American justice, the independence of the Justice Department, or did we surrender it. Long after today's headlines are forgotten, long after today's politics have faded, one question will remain: When the independence of the Department of Justice was tested, where did we stand? I know where I stand.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Different witnesses, different backgrounds, still one conclusion from every one of them: that Todd Blanche is unfit to lead the Department of Justice. And if there were any doubt, the events of recent days erased those doubts. Mr. Blanche, in his tenure, helped negotiate a corrupt, extraordinary settlement between Donald Trump's Department of Justice and Donald Trump. We have heard from the Federal bench already that there was no controversy. Donald Trump can't be on both sides of a negotiation. That corrupt structure was exploiting the judiciary to create an environment in which there would be a settlement, and out of that settlement, we saw an unjust and untoward creation that outraged Americans all across the political spectrum. They created a slush fund.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“But we know that he rushed to the Situation Room for high-level members of the Trump administration to strategize on how to protect the President. It is another clear example that the person he is there to protect is Donald Trump. (Mr. BUDD assumed the Chair.) Last week, my Democratic colleagues held a Spotlight Forum to examine Mr. Blanche's record. We heard from a courageous Epstein survivor. We heard from ethics experts. We heard from one of Mr. Blanche's own former colleagues from the Southern District of New York. We heard from a former Justice official appointed under a Republican President--who served a Republican Senator, Senator Hatch, here in this body--who was then fired simply because he had done his job on investigations involving Robert Mueller and Jack Smith.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“His own Department's policies and Federal law make that clear. When he finally did meet with them--the survivors--because a Republican Senator demanded that he do it, the survivors described the meeting as disappointing. They said they felt gaslit. They said they were skipped over. They said Mr. Blanche was condescending to the survivors of sexual assault. Even then, when the survivors pleaded for continued investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein coconspirators, Mr. Blanche once again hid behind claims that the law prevented him from answering. So we simply have to ask the question: Who is Todd Blanche serving here? Is he serving the survivors? No. Is he serving the interests of the Department of Justice? No. Is he serving the American people? No.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“When they are sworn in, they do not swear an oath to the President, to Donald Trump; they swear an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Unfortunately, Todd Blanche has spent months in office demonstrating his allegiance not to our Constitution but to the President. Time and time again, he has shown that he is only capable of serving the interests of one client--Donald Trump. That is why this nomination should not simply be delayed; it should be rejected. The evidence is overwhelming. Congress came together in a bipartisan way to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act because survivors deserved answers, they deserved justice, and the American people deserved transparency. Todd Blanche was responsible for carrying out that law. Instead, he delayed and delayed. He was stalling.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Madam President, I really believe there is a reason why some of my Republican colleagues themselves have delayed the Blanche nomination, because this is actually no ordinary nomination. We haven't had a moment like this under Donald Trump where Republicans themselves have stopped the vote. Because this is not simply a vote about one man; it is a vote about whether the Department of Justice will remain independent of the President of the United States. The Attorney General of the United States of America has one client-- not a political party, not a President, not a wealthy donor, not a political movement. The Attorney General's client is the Constitution of the United States and the American people. That is the sacred obligation of that office.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“Madam President, before I begin my formal remarks, I just want to stand here and give a formal apology to John Merlino. I have for years maligned him. I have disrespected, disregarded him. You know how I operate sometimes. And I just want to say he is a man of honor. I have taken him off my list, and now he is on the good list. So just for anyone who wants to know, the U.S. senior Senator from New Jersey has praised John Merlino--perhaps for his first time because he is not a man that really generates a lot of praise usually. So I just want you to know, before I go into my formal remarks for the day, that John Merlino--you the man. Now, I would like for the record to separate a little bit so I can start some of my formal remarks after I have tried to redeem the soul of a friend and colleague.”
Senate30 July 2026Source ↗
“The test of our values is not how much we preach them but how much we live them. The core of the faith of our Nation is to love thy neighbor, and who is your neighbor? The people of Sudan are our neighbors. They are part of our human family. There are children and families now calling to God, but it is not up to some deity to answer that call, it is up to His children to do so. Another city is in peril. The horrors that might emerge in these coming days will rage again and thousands upon thousands could die or we could act. Let's not wait until another massacre to discover our conscience. Let our Nation rise to its truth. Let our Nation rise to this crisis. In this dark time, let our Nation be a light to the world. Let us act now. May we act now. I yield the floor. ____________________”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“They deserve a nation of people in solidarity to say: This should never exist amongst humanity. It should never exist in our world. This is not just a call for the full weight of the international community, it is a call for who has led the international community since World War II. We have been the Nation that has answered the call on so many occasions. We have been the Nation united in our conviction that such horrors and atrocities should not exist. It has been American compassion that has led other nations to move. It has been American urgency that has led other nations to move. It has been American leadership that has helped to end crises across the world. It has risen to meet the AIDS crisis. It has risen to help people in natural disasters. We are the United States of America.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“No one will be able to say that we did not know about this crisis, that we did not know children are starving by the thousands upon thousands, that we did not know civilians are being massacred at rates and levels seen nowhere else on the planet Earth. The genocide wasn't declared by the United Nations simply or some outside Agency, our own government has declared it a genocide. And now another city of a million people stands at the edge of a catastrophe. The call of humanity now is who will act. Indifference has never saved a single life but has condemned millions. Silence has never stopped a genocide, but it has allowed them to continue. Sympathy without action is impotency and failure. The people of Sudan deserve more. They deserve our action. They deserve our focus. They deserve our urgency.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“It is required by the law of this body for him to do so, and the people of Sudan deserve an American diplomat whose full attention is dedicated to ending this war, not one whose focus is divided upon multiple crises. The biggest humanitarian crisis on the planet Earth demands that we have a Special Envoy. If not this, then what? If not now, then when? If the staggering human suffering is not enough to compel action, then the growing threat to regional stability should be. But I hope we don't act because instability threatens our interest alone, even though it does; I hope we act because humanity demands it. History has a way of asking really difficult questions: Where were you, what did you know, and what did you do?”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“That is why the United States and our partners must increase pressure on the outside actors who continue to fuel this conflict. That is why I introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the United Nations Security Council to fully enforce the existing Darfur arms embargo and expand it to cover all of Sudan and hold accountable anyone who breaks that embargo. I urge my colleagues in this body to join me in supporting this effort; to not turn away from this crisis; to stand, as America has stood in past generations, and call out the crisis and answer the call of humanity; to lead to end it. It is too long overdue. This administration--I demand that Donald Trump appoint a Special Envoy to Sudan.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“Even when the United States increased humanitarian assistance under the last administration during the first 2 years of the war, the need still exceeded the resources available. Yet, as the crisis deepened, the new Trump administration chose to terminate or allow bilateral humanitarian programs in Sudan to expire. While the administration's contributions of $200 million to the U.N.- managed humanitarian fund is important--it is not nothing--but it is nowhere near enough to meet the scale of this catastrophe. The reality on the ground demands far more from our Nation than expressions of concern; it demands action. That is why I call on the Trump administration to restore and increase lifesaving humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“The question is whether we will listen-- because we know what happened in El Fasher. Families were hunted down house by house. Civilians were massacred at an unimaginable rate. Women were subjected to horrific sexual abuse. Children were caught between the shelling and the starvation. Thousands and thousands were killed. People who stayed were killed. People who tried to flee were killed. And the tragedy is this: None of it came without a warning. The warning signs were there. The intelligence was there. The risk was known, but the urgency was not. We cannot allow history to repeat itself in El Obeid, nor can we allow the violence consuming Sudan to continue simply because it has fallen from the world's headlines--fallen or never been in the U.S. headlines. I traveled to the Chad-Sudan border.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“Water systems, powerplants, telecommunications infrastructure, health facilities--the very infrastructure civilians depend on to survive is under assault. We know this story, and we know how it ends. It is a call to the conscience of all of humanity and the conscience of this country. The only question now is, Will we act before history repeats itself in this city of 1 million people? The head of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan warned: The patterns we documented in El Fasher--including encirclement, attacks on civilian infrastructure, restrictions on humanitarian access, and widespread abuses against civilians--serve as a stark warning. The international community must heed these lessons and act to prevent further catastrophes. The warning has been issued.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“We have seen the crisis already when it comes to El Fasher and the horrors that existed there. But now we see the pattern starting again in another major community. We know this pattern. First, roads are cut. Then humanitarian aid is blocked. Then electricity disappears. Then water disappears. Communications are shut down and disappear. Civilians are trapped. And then the killing begins. Strategically located between Darfur and Khartoum, El Obeid has become the RSF's next major target. It is home to nearly 1 million people. They are at risk again. Most roads into and out of El Obeid have already been cut off. Only one major route remains, and it has already come under repeated drone attacks. Those attacks are growing more frequent and more destructive.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, 3 years. For 3 years, the people of Sudan have lived through an unimaginable nightmare and hell: 3 years of the worst raging war on our planet, 3 years of displacement, 3 years of starvation, 3 years of children growing up surrounded by violence instead of possibility. Perhaps what is most shocking is not only the horror that is unfolding in Sudan, it is how little of the world seems to be paying attention. Twenty years ago, the horrors of Darfur captured the conscience of the international community. The world declared: Never again.”
Senate22 July 2026Source ↗
“How many more men and women will die before we do our job, rein in this Executive, hold him accountable, and bring an end to a war that our Nation does not want to be in? Today, my thoughts and prayers are with their families. But I stand here as 1 out of 100 Senators offering more than thoughts and prayers. I yet again demand this body to fulfill its constitutional obligations and do its job. ____________________”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“We owe it to them. We owe them truth. We owe them accountability. We owe them checks and balances. We owe them transparency. We owe them a government that lives up to its obligations. They gave the best measure of their devotion to the Nation they loved, and their love was not mere words or symbols or salutes. Their words alone did not show their sacrifice. They understood to love your Nation is to stand up and work for her, sacrifice for her, risk for her. It is time for this body, the U.S. Senate, to honor those men and women by giving our best measure of devotion to our Constitution. This body must end this unconstitutional and unjust war. And if they are unwilling to do so, they should hold the vote whether we authorize this war. It has not been done yet.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“To me, that is a living shame, that men and women are risking their lives for the Constitution we serve, and we can't even live up to the roles that we are to play within that constitutional Republic. What does it say that men and women are dying for this country and we are not even living up to its laws? That men and women are paying the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation and we can't even stand up and do the specific duty spelled out by our country? All hundred of us grieve these losses. No one should say any different. I know my colleagues. There is not a person here that doesn't anguish over the loss, but that is not enough in this moment. That is inadequate when it comes to honoring these men and women. What this moment calls for is more than thoughts and prayers, more than the hurt and the grief. It calls for us to do our job.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“Those imperfect geniuses understood that in moments like this when our Nation is at war, where men and women are coming home not alive but in body bags, that we should honor them by making sure that the will of our Nation was behind that war. And here we are, since the end of February, month after month. Soldiers injured by the hundreds. Lives lost. And the question is: What are we doing in this body? Have we granted the authority to the Executive to go to war? No, we haven't. Have we exercised our constitutional authority? No, we haven't. Have we debated this war and had to make a decision by voting yes or no to allow the President to conduct this war? We have not. We have men and women who are fighting to defend our Nation's laws and Constitution, and here we are not living up to it.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“The best of America is not our wealth; it is the young men and women who hold the hope of America. And so the Constitution is clear: Do not let one person drag our Nation into war. They took that power and placed it not with an Executive. They placed that power with this body, with Congress so that there would be debate and discussion; so that there would be arguments into the night; and so that people would understand with the gravity of such a commitment that we would make sure that the will of the people would be the first decisionmakers for a war. And that any President that was conducting the war would not conduct it above accountability but would have checks and balance. That is the Constitution of the United States.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“You see, our Founders understood the nature of war, and they understood--in light of Kings and Queens and Monarchs who so easily pushed their country into war with no consequence, how easily they put lives on the line, sent men and women into battles--it was such a significant understanding that they had that they said: No individual should be able to unilaterally send our men and women, our children, into war; that we should put appropriate checks and balances on those decisions. Our Founders knew the consequence of war, the burden of war. They knew the hell of war, the tragic consequence to families, the pain and agony of death, and they knew that those decisions should not be made by an individual who might be overcome with some kind of ill-conceived notions and draw our country into war where we give the best of who we are.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“I find it unconscionable that the stakes are so high in this country where we are spending tens of billions of dollars--that factually could be going to our schools, tens of billions of dollars could be going to our healthcare, tens of billions of dollars that could be paying down our national debt, tens of billions of dollars that don't just come out of nowhere, but they come from hard-working taxpayers who pay their taxes into a system that they put faith and trust in. And what is happening with this money that we are expending for bombs and missiles and planes and personnel? What is happening is we expend this money. Well, what is apparent to me is what is not happening.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“When deaths like this happen, we shouldn't just go on like this is normal. When people die in service of our country, in combat, we shouldn't treat it like another day here in America. It is not. So how do we express our commitment to country? How can it lie in congruency with theirs? How can we honor them in this body beyond condolences, thoughts, and prayers? I believe what the call of this body is in this moment, in the shadow of their immense brilliance, that we have an obligation to honor them, not with words, but in how we give the best measure of our devotion to the laws of our land.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“We have seen votes in majorities in both Chambers to end this war, but instead of listening to that will, instead of listening to the American people as to a war that is immensely unpopular, we seem to be repeating over and over again what I believe is an unjust continuation of a war that is not upheld or supported by the law of our land or by the Constitution we swore an oath to. This brings to me the urgency of this moment, and the death of more American soldiers highlights what we are doing here. History is looking at us in this moment. Right now, as we speak, there are people in harm's way. History is looking at us in this moment. How will our moral courage stand alongside those courageous people who are representing our country? My heart is heavy; my spirit grieves. And I know I am not alone.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“We stand right there in the well of the Senate. We raise our hands, and we swear an oath. There is no measure of courage to do this job. Rarely, have I seen Senators face real imminent danger. The truth of the matter is that the courage evidenced by men and women in uniform should serve as an inspiration to us in that maybe we are not putting ourselves to the physical tests that they are but that we, too, have to make a decision to honor their courage with our moral courage. This week, we learned--to my surprise and, frankly, inciting my anger--that the Pentagon severely undercounted the number of servicemembers who have been injured. We were told that over 400 servicemembers have been injured since February 28.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“We know, in this body, that every single day we are privy to information; that every single day we go into classified settings and hear about the fact that every single day there are Americans standing up for our country in dangerous places who are doing dangerous things. It is one of the more sobering parts of this job to know that I bear a responsibility, along with my 99 colleagues, for those men and women who step forward, swear their oath, put on their uniforms, and go all over the globe for us under the Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. Now, the idea behind our democracy is that they don't go at the orders of their commanders, but they go to represent a country that has a form of government, a Republic, that is a nation of laws. They swear an oath to the Constitution, and we, too, swear that same oath.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“SGT Michael Emmanuel Swinton of North Carolina, killed at Erbil Airbase in northern Iraq--30 years old--19, 25, and 30. My prayers are with their families. I can't even begin to imagine the grief. As it stands today, 17 American servicemembers have paid the ultimate price for this war. There are 17 Americans and 17 families who won't sit for a meal with their loved ones--17 lives that a nation cannot get back. No matter how many times we say it, the pain still lasts. These are 17 reasons I believe the American people and the men and women who wear this country's uniform are owed more from us.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“Several weeks before that, the President and his administration stood before the American people and told them we had won the war. I want to tell you right now that the soldiers who died this past week died in the war, and we are mourning the loss. This is not a left or a right thing. This is a time when we come together beyond anything partisan and understand that soldiers have fallen--three soldiers and possibly a fourth. They were killed in action in a war that we have been told is over and a war that I believe firmly should end. Their names deserve to be spoken on this floor and in the Congress of the United States. I want to speak their names: 1LT Tyler James Feehan of Hawaii; he was 25 years old. Private Isabella Gonzales of Texas; she was 19 years old.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I know I share this with 99 colleagues; that there is grief yet again hanging over the U.S. Senate and hanging over America because soldiers who have sworn an oath to our Constitution--who have sworn to serve and defend this Nation--have fallen. Several weeks ago, I had a conversation with someone who had been my colleague who is now the Secretary of State. I asked about this war, and Secretary Rubio looked me in the eyes, under oath, and told me that the war was over.”
Senate21 July 2026Source ↗
“And all we need is the majority of this body to say enough, that we are going to hold hearings, that we are going to do investigations, that we are going to bring the leadership of the executive branch here to sit before the American public and explain these months--this 6 months of this war--what it has truly cost us, what we have lost, and how we are going to exit. It just makes sense, but I am seeing none of that. I am going to yield the floor, but I am going to, again, ask this body to do its job, to create a democracy people can rely on, to end the suffering of the American people, to stop this heinous cost of a war with no strategy, no clear objectives, no reason, that is unconstitutional. Thank you. ____________________”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“How could we be complicit in this unjust war that has no clear objectives and that nobody could articulate a strategy to achieve any objective or get us out, conducted by a President who has lost all authority as our Commander in Chief because of his blunder and mistake and lack of strategy and lack of forethought? And the very body that was put in place to provide checks and balances, to provide oversight, to hold on jealously, as our Founders said, to the powers assigned to this body, we are doing nothing but surrendering. And I am not going to surrender on this. I am not going to let this be normalized. This is wrong, what we are doing. This is wrong in every way you look at it. It is a folly. It is a disaster. It is a failure.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Nothing to check a President that is clearly out of control, who is clearly out of his depth, who is clearly not the great dealmaker because he failed in making deals with Iran before this deal and--even though he claimed to have one--it clearly fell apart. We have war powers. The Constitution is clear. Yet, you are letting him for month after month after month--since February--conduct a war that is depleting our military reserves, coming at a great cost and sacrifice to military members and their families, and every American is paying the price for it in their everyday costs. This is outrageous. This is unacceptable. And this body is trying to normalize this: Oh, just another day in America. Well, no, we are at war right now, and we have an obligation to either stand up and vote in favor of that war or stop it.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“This is yet another quagmire in the Middle East with no plan, with no strategy, with no clear objectives, with Americans putting their lives on the line. And what are we doing here in this body? Nothing. We are going on this week as if this is business as usual. A bunch of us are trying to force more oversight votes or--excuse me--war powers votes. But this body is doing nothing as a President is spending billions of taxpayer dollars, upending our national economy, putting lives at risk in a war that has achieved nothing but made things worse with the Strait of Hormuz closed. And what are we doing, Congress?”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“They have not unconditionally surrendered. They are firing at our soldiers right now. Every goal he laid out for a war that he did not come to Congress, as the Constitution says--everything he laid out has not been achieved. And even the memorandum of understanding that he said was so great had so many holes of Swiss cheese that it fell apart, and here we are back at war. And what is the President's plan? Can one Senator here say, tell us, what the President of the United States is trying to achieve as we spend billions and billions of dollars a day, a week, in this conflict? What is he trying to achieve right now? Nobody knows the plan. This is ``deja vu all over again,'' as the great New Jerseyan, Yogi Berra said.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“We have seen the greatest energy crisis in my lifetime upending global oil markets, but more important to me, seeing people's gas prices go up but not only their gas prices, what have we seen? We have seen that everything that touches that fuel source, the transportation of goods and services, has made prices go up for families all across our country. I have seen the suffering, not just of the American people with higher costs but American military who are being held over and over and over, put in harm's way, hundreds injured, 14 dead, and what have we achieved? The Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The President said that he wanted to deal with the highly enriched material. It is still in country. The President said he wanted regime change. We have a more extreme regime. The President said he was going to get unconditional surrender.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“On April 8, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary, said we had ``achieved every single objective on plan, on schedule, exactly as laid out from day one.'' In June, Secretary Rubio came to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, upon which I sit, and testified under oath declaring that ``the war is over.'' Yet that same day, we had kinetic exchanges with Iran. June 18, Donald Trump said the United States had ``defeated'' Iran ``totally militarily'' and that the memorandum of understanding ``probably is unconditional surrender.'' Let's fast-forward to July 14: Missiles and drones are still flying. The war is still raging. The President has achieved none of the goals. I know what has happened though is that we lifted sanctions on Iran. They got billions of dollars of oil sales done.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗
“Mr. President, I don't have written remarks for this, but I have been stunned that we here in this Nation are at war. We are unequivocally at war. And I did write down what I have heard from leaders. Let me quote, on March 9, the President of the United States said: [T]he war is very complete, pretty much. On April 7, the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, our former colleague here in the Senate, said: [V]ery shortly, this war is going to conclude.”
Senate14 July 2026Source ↗