politicians-from-illinois

"By fighting for the core Democratic values that unite us while holding President Trump accountable next year, we will achieve a strong, diverse and lasting Democratic majority"

"If there's any success that I've had, it is a direct reflection of the people I work with. We have a very smart team and an extremely hardworking team, both here in Washington and back in Illinois."

"My vision for this role will be to engage the entire Caucus to support one another, but particularly our new and most vulnerable members"

"I always saw the best reporters as ones you hardly ever saw other than when they were back in the newsroom, writing their stories."

"I believe in being a team player, and you may have disagreements at practice,” she said. “But when you’re out there playing the game, you better all come together."

"I just think, our core values as Democrats, we’re pretty much on the same page. We want to make sure that people have opportunities to do better."

"As Democrats, our strength has always come from our diversity and, if we win in November, I intend to run for Assistant Democratic Leader with a focus on protecting a new Democratic majority beyond the 2020 cycle so we can deliver bold change for the American people"

"Fear operates best in an environment of uncertainty. As I said, when I was younger, I doubted that I could be a pilot. I developed a belief in myself and in my capabilities. I learned that I could take control and respond. I want them to believe in themselves. I want them to be able to dispel fear. I want them to be real."

"Several Republicans including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) criticized Texas’ near-total ban on abortion Sunday because of its provision empowering private citizens to sue those who aid and abet abortions—potentially signaling the legal tactic could face resistance from within the GOP as more states plan to copy Texas’ law. The Maryland governor specifically pointed to the law’s “problem of bounties,” as the Texas law—known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8)—says government officials cannot enforce the law, but rather directs private citizens to file lawsuits against anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion and stipulates they can earn at least $10,000 in damages if they win. Kinzinger said on CNN that while he’s “pro-life,” what he “doesn’t like to see” is letting “everyone being able to tattle” and the fact that under SB 8, private citizens are “deputized to enforce this abortion law” against even potentially Uber drivers that transport a Texan to their abortion. The GOP lawmaker also opposes the fact the law does not include exceptions in the case of rape and incest, though SB 8 does allow abortions in the case of medical emergencies. Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who identifies as “pro-life,” said on Meet the Press she views the Texas law as “bad policy and it’s bad law,” agreeing with a Wall Street Journal op-ed that described the law as a “blunder” that “sets an awful precedent that conservatives should hate.”"

"The worst president the USA ever had. He was a liar and a charlatan. And he was a man with a most fragile ego I ever met."

"Republicans in Congress have failed the country more than anyone else. They had several opportunities to rid us and themselves of Trump, but nearly all of them instead crowded together to squeeze into the group photo of Trump’s Blind Mice. John McCain, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and a few others have stood up to him, but most have publicly backed him 100 percent. I doubt they do this happily. Most of the GOP candidates who would kiss Trump on both cheeks on the county court house steps on a Saturday afternoon next spring to get his endorsement in the primaries probably wish he would drop dead. He is the biggest RINO of all, having no allegiance to conservative traditions and values unless they served his personal interest. Since 2015 he has spewed as much venom and assassinated as many characters in the Republican ranks as in the Democrats’. Eventually everyone gets attacked, including Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Trump’s own vice-president. That’s why Republican politicians should disown him, and it’s also why they don’t. Some GOP officials want Trump to become the all-powerful king that the framers of the Constitution went to such lengths to prevent, but whether they do or not, almost all of them are scared (insert a vivid gastro-intestinal metaphor here) of the big bully."

"We want every vote counted, yes every legal vote (of course). But, if you have legit concerns about fraud present EVIDENCE and take it to court. STOP Spreading debunked misinformation... This is getting insane."

"I know what it is like to come out if active duty service. All of a sudden, you're spit out into civilian life. It's hard. I went through it. Even though I ran for Congress immediately and had a goal in mind, I still struggled. For the first four years in Congress I thought about resigning and going back into the Air Force full time. It was great to be elected, but the proudest days of my life were when I earned my wings and when I became a lieutenant colonel. Nothing really compares with the sense of accomplishment you get from serving your country. That doesn't mean you can't find another mission to take on. If that means going back to working on a farm like my granddad did, then do that fiercely. If it means doing some other kind of work then do that."

"Most of us went into the military because we wanted to be a part of a mission that is greater than ourselves. That's why I think you see so many honorable people coming out of the military. For the most part, for the vast majority of veterans, you get treated fairly in the military. When you take into account all the benefits you receive, you're being paid fairly. That should continue after you're done serving. This country needs to quit writing all these checks to veterans and start encouraging them to make the best of their life ahead. That's another mission I have in Congress: to give veterans purpose."

"My mission as a congressman is to restore a sense of what it means to be an American. Our pride. Our unity. And that doesn't mean a unity of beliefs. We each have different beliefs. And that's how it should be. I have a strong legislative agenda, but from a large perspective, I want to restore unity in this country. We can be a source of inspiration and light. I also want to be sure that we can continue our mission around the world. Now is not the time to withdraw. Now is the time for us to step forward and lead."

"It's all about the end of your life. What can you say you did? What was your life worth? What did you contribute? We don't all have to go into the military, but we can all make America a better place. That's the aspect of life today, especially in politics, that really troubles me. We're experiencing a real breakdown in appreciation with each other and all the ways we contribute to our collective betterment. That's what drives me. I've been around the world and seen situations far worse than our own. I've also seen some of our modern warriors come back from war, and I admire their efforts to show people again what life is about. Just like in the Bible, they were willing to enact violence to protect the people they love. Then they come back, pass on lessons, and inspire a new generation to bigger things."

"I'm fortunate that I'm a veteran and no one ever really questions my credibility on veterans' issues. But I see this country trying to make veterans victims. You come back from serving, you get a pat on the head, you're given a paycheck for a disability if you were wounded, and then you're told to go fishing for the rest of your life. And only veterans can address some of the problems we have within the system."

"Like all Americans, I am frustrated that six months after a deadly riot breached the United States Capitol for several hours on live television ... we still don’t know exactly what happened. Why? Because many in my party have treated this as just another partisan fight. It’s toxic, and it’s a disservice to the officers and their families, to the staff and employees on the Capitol Complex, and to the American people who deserve the truth. And it’s why I agreed to serve on this Committee. I want to know what happened that day, but more importantly, I want all Americans to be able to trust the work this Committee does and get the facts out there, free of conspiracy. This CANNOT continue to be a partisan fight. I am a Republican, I am a conservative, but in order to heal from the damage caused that day, we need to call out the facts. It’s time to stop the outrage and conspiracies that fuel violence and division in our country, and most importantly, we need to reject those that promote it. As a country, it’s time to learn from our past mistakes, rebuild stronger so this never happens again, and move onward."

"At the beginning of 2020, I was thinking that this was the best time to be alive. Yet everybody seems more miserable than they've ever been. I was also thinking that maybe we needed another 9/11-type event to wake us all up. Well, maybe this pandemic is a 9/11 moment, and we aren't waking up. People are becoming even more partisan. The virus itself is partisan. The reaction to what we should do with China is partisan. I don't believe we should use China as a political weapon. The contempt I often see among the American people, quite honestly, fueled me to stay in this job longer. After ten years, you always evaluate. I do it every time I run. Am I the right guy at the right time? This thing has fueled me. My desire isn't to go out there and whack the Democrats on it. They'll whack us and we'll whack them, but nothing will change. I want to inspire people again. I want them to look at the contempt in their heart. It comes from fear. Don't be afraid. Fear leads to conflict. Conflict leads to destroyed societies."

"They always taught us in the military that if you are in a situation where somebody walks into a room with a gun, half the people in that room will run, 40 percent will freeze because they want to act but don't know how and they can't think. Ten percent of people will take over and tell other people what to do. You need to be able to take action. To do something."

"Yesterday, it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the people and the people’s house, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection that we saw here. When pressed to move and denounce the violence, he barely did so while of course victimizing himself and seeming to give a wink and a nod to those doing it. All indications are that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty or even his oath but reality, itself. It is for this reason that I call on the vice president and members of the Cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the American people and that we have a sane captain of the ship."

"In addition to Democrats and companies like Uber, Lyft and Bumble that have already mobilized against the law, it has sparked pushback from even some anti-abortion Republicans. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday they believe the law’s lawsuit enforcement mechanism goes too far, and Kinzinger also took issue with the law not having rape and incest exceptions."

"Here’s what we know: Congress was not prepared on January 6th. We weren’t prepared because we never imagined this could happen: an attack, by our own people, fostered and encouraged by those granted power through the very system they sought to overturn. That is a lesson, not a conspiracy theory or counter-narrative. Some have concocted a counternarrative to discredit this process on the grounds we didn’t launch a similar investigation into the urban riots and looting last summer. Mr. Chairman, I was called on to serve during the summer riots as an Air National Guardsman. I condemned those riots and the destruction of property that resulted. But not once did I ever feel that the future of self-government was threatened like I did on January 6th. There is a difference between breaking the law and rejecting the rule of law, between a crime—even grave crimes—and a coup."

"What goes through my head daily is my experience in the military. The vast majority of Air Force pilots I worked with were Republicans. I flew with a few Democrats and in our off hours we'd talk politics and argue. But at that moment in time, we were all on that mission together. It wasn't, Is Obama going to get elected or is it John McCain? It was the mission of the country that mattered. In Congress, I know that you should keep your partisan lines to some extent. That's what the people who elected you want. But you also have to be willing to work on things together. The tone you take is what really makes a difference. And in a crisis, I can fall back on my pilot training. We were taught that no matter the emergency, just stop, take a breath, analyze the situation. More specifically, we're told, "Maintain aircraft control, analyze the situation, take appropriate action, and land as soon as conditions permit." The same is true with anything in life. Maintain control. Keep your emotions in check."

"Our biggest problem is the corruption and lack of accountability of government in our state. Every problem we have today is based on decisions made by both parties in the past. But many Illinois residents have been complacent and apathetic for too long, and we continue to vote for the same people who have created our problems."

"“The United States has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Instead, wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln.”"

"“The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances.”"

"Very few people will clamor to have their taxes raised. … But if you ask the same people if they like their public university system, if they like health services, if they like clean water and go down the list of what government does, they'll say they want that...There is a disconnect. They think that in some magic way, government should be able to deliver all these things without providing the revenue."

"I really love getting into the nuts and bolts of policy, ... The citizens need to become policy wonks. They need to start doing their homework."

"It's sort of root and branch, some of our agencies are taking. Every single regulation they have ever done, they are looking at it over and over again, and hopefully, sometimes it's gonna be cleaning things out. There are regulations that are no longer used, right? Does that have an effect? Maybe not, but at least it's some sort of process where we get rid of setting standards for things that don't even exist anymore. All of this allows us to redirect resources from this useless amount of compliance, the time we spend and they spend on dealing with this and redirect it to providing resources and care to where it should be directed. When you look at it, we say we're giving billions of dollars to a hospital; they may be able to hire more nurses or doctors or buy more drugs, be able to provide more charity care. They are gonna be able to liberate those resources and put them where they're supposed to go. It's a benefit on jobs as well."

"Well, at HHS, like the rest of the executive branch, you have to faithfully execute the laws that are given to us by Congress. That's the ultimate role. So, the laws that we have to execute in our relationship to the [Affordable Care Act] or any other law is that we're supposed to faithfully execute it. Now, given how Congress drafts laws, there are parameters in there. So, we take direction from the president on down to try to figure out exactly how those laws are supposed to work at the level to make sure that we do the best that we can for the American people with regard to making sure that they get good healthcare and options on how they arrange their own healthcare themselves."

"We can't have the president of the United States acting like the drug dealer in chief, giving clean packs of money to a ... state sponsor of terror. Those 500-euro notes will pop up across the Middle East. .... We're going to see problems in multiple (countries) because of that money given to them."

"I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers — not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American. As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party. It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world."

"Hillary Clinton was for the Iran agreement. And I can't support someone who is for the Iran agreement. ... In my case, I'll be writing in General Colin Powell. That, I think, would be the best person."

"I always defended it and always will, whether it be against the Democrats who pervert it, or the dis-unionists who trample on it."

"But the advocates of slavery have affirmed a strange doctrine in regard to the Constitution. They think that because I swore to support the Constitution, I swore to support the practice of slaveholding. Sir, slaveholding in Virginia is no more under the control or guarantee of the Constitution than slavery in Cuba, or Brazil, or any other part of the world is under the control or guarantee of the Constitution. Not one principle."

"I always defended the Constitution, because it was for liberty. It was ordained by the people of the United States. Not by a superannuated old mummy of a judge, and a Jesuit at that, but by the people of the United States. To establish justice, secure the blessing of liberty for themselves and their posterity, and to secure the natural rights of every human being within its exclusive jurisdiction. Therefore, I love it. These men can perceive nothing in the Constitution but slavery."

"The third point that is relied on to justify slaveholding is, that it is Constitutional. That is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. I have heard it declared over and over again that the Constitution guarantees slavery. I deny it. In no article, in no section, in no line, in no word, in no syllable, can there be any recognition of the word 'slave' or 'slavery'. Why, sir. When I came up to take the oath to support the Constitution, a whispered buzz, half in earnest and half jocular, passed around. How can Lovejoy swear to support the Constitution? How can he take the oath? I could take the oath to support the Constitution, because I believe in the Constitution, because I hold to it, because my heart is loyal to it. Every part and parcel and portion of it, I believe in. But, I do not believe in the construction put upon it by those who claim its recognition and sanction of the practice of slaveholding."

"The testimony of all religious societies in the slave states is that the slaves are heathen and it is an utter impossibility to Christianize them and civilize them by this process."

"In truth, I swore to support the Constitution because I believe in it. I do not believe in their construction of it. It is as well known as any historical fact can be known, that the framers of the Constitution so worded it as that it never should recognize the idea of slave property. From the beginning to the ending of it."

"I warn you, be careful and consider the consequences of your vote."

"The principle of enslaving human beings because they are inferior, is this. If a man is a cripple, trip him up. If he is old and weak, and bowed with the weight of years, strike him, for he cannot strike back. If idiotic, take advantage of him, and if a child, deceive him. This, sir, this is the doctrine of Democrats and the doctrine of devils as well, and there is no place in the universe outside the five points of hell and |the Democratic Party where the practice and prevalence of such doctrines would not be a disgrace."

"In regard to the first point, the inferiority of the enslaved race. We may concede it is a matter of fact that it is inferior, but does it follow, therefore, that it is right to enslave a man simply because he is inferior? This, to me, is a most abhorrent doctrine. It would place the weak everywhere at the mercy of the strong. It would place the poor at the mercy of the rich. It would place those who are deficient in intellect at the mercy of those that are gifted in mental endowment."

"Nobody can intimidate me."

"I am speaking in dead earnest, before God. God's own truth. It has the violence of robbery, the blood and cruelty of piracy. It has the offensive and brutal lusts of polygamy, all combined and concentrated in itself, with aggravations that neither one of these crimes ever knew or dreamed of."

"I poured on a rainstorm of fire and brimstone as hot as I could, and you know something of what that is. I believe that I never said anything more savage in the pulpit or on the stump."

"I know that this is a pro-slavery rebellion, for it is nothing else. Slavery and rebellion are identical and freedom and loyalty are identical, and those slave-holders who are truly loyal will soon become abolitionists, for that is the logic of their position and they will see as I see, that slavery must perish and pro-slavery men will be secessionists."

"The Republican Party, of which I am a member, stands pledged since 1856 to the extermination, so far as the federal government has the power, the twin relics of barbarism, slavery, and polygamy. They have this power in the territories of the United States."

"Sir, than robbery, than piracy, than polygamy, slaveholding is worse. More criminal, more injurious to man, and consequently more offensive to God. Slaveholding has been justly designated as the sum of all villainy. Put every crime perpetuated among men into a moral crucible, and dissolve and combine them all, and the resultant amalgam is slaveholding. It has the violence of robbery."

"The justification of slavery is placed, so far as I know, mainly upon these grounds. The inferiority of the enslaved race, the fact that enslaving men imparts Christianity and civilization to them, and thirdly, the guarantees of the Constitution. These are the three main arguments presented to justify slavery, and consequently to justify its expansion, and by the way, I hold that the extreme men, as they are called, on this question, are the only men who have the logic of it. I am right or the fire-eaters or right. If slavery is right in Virginia, it is right in Kansas. If it is wrong in Kansas, it is wrong everywhere."