Jeff Sessions Quotations

When figures start flowing up to $200 billion, I have concerns, ... $1 billion is a lot of money.

... When he elevates terrorists over other people who may well deserve pardons much more, or having their sentence cut much more, he has abused his power and abused his office,

When this much money gets put out this fast, there's a real danger,

Let me tell you why I wouldn't vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

lending support to efforts by foreign governments to use their antitrust laws against Microsoft.

She will need to articulate a vision of the Constitution and the role of a judge that is sound or she could be in trouble with the Republican senators,

My advice to you is this. Keep your famous good humor, take your time, and explain the procedural posture of the cases and exactly how you ruled as a judge, or the position you took as a lawyer. Americans know these matters are often complex and will appreciate your answers.

more than anybody that I know. he was committed to the ideals of law.

I have great confidence in her integrity and legal skills, but her judicial philosophy is not that well known. I think there will be some nervousness among grass-roots Americans who are unhappy with the activist tendency of the court, ... A lot will depend on how she testifies and how her philosophy of the law is revealed.

I'd be pleased if you could clone John Roberts,

I am disappointed that the Democratic leader Harry Reid has apparently urged his colleagues to vote no on this nomination. ... I think it may affect votes on the floor to make this a leadership issue.

I am bitterly disappointed that Anniston Army Depot did not gain personnel from Red River Army Depot as the Defense Department had recommended,

I have been of the view that if we in Congress can't balance the budget, we shouldn't approve a pay raise.

I feel strongly that the military deserves a lot of credit here.

If a decision is wrong, it ought to be reversed, in my way of thinking.

If a lawyer was too aggressive in requiring deletion of things they shouldn't have, Congress should look into that.

If a judge has strong political views, it is perfectly appropriate to inquire whether those views would affect their legal reasoning and cause them not to be objective and fair.

He may lose some effectiveness as an independent,

The people rightly demand judges who follow, not make, law,

he shouldn't be committing to case after case.

He's a superb nominee. I can't imagine senators will find any circumstances in his background that would justify denying him a vote.

Hurricane Katrina left many of our residents in need of immediate assistance, and I am glad to announce that Secretary (Elaine) Chao has moved quickly to help out our state,

has the very natural qualities to make a superior judge.

I would suggest we'd better spend our time investigating how a top-secret program such as this, a program fully shared with congressional leaders, was breached and provided to the media and revealed throughout the world.

I think it's clear to me that what - when I look at the tea party, it's about one-third Democrat, one-third Republican, one-third independents. But 100 percent of them are sure that the agenda that is taking place in Washington, D.C., is about extremism and is about bankrupting this country and every state within this country.

I think it's real good news that these huge sophisticated companies are considering Selma, ... It says Selma is open for business, being evaluated by world class companies. I think that's nothing but good news. It is just a top priority of mine to urge top-flight businesses, world-class businesses to consider Selma for economic expansion.

It is not necessary to have a mandated, statutorily appointed czar.

I think conservatives do not have confidence she has a well-formed judicial philosophy, and they are afraid she might drift and be a part of the activist group like Justice Souter has, ... She will need to articulate a vision of the Constitution and the role of a judge that is sound or she could be in trouble with the Republican senators.

I was uneasy about it, and I just explained my unease, ... I shared with Dan my observations, the good and the bad. I think the American people at this point in time would desire a person who is steeped in constitutional jurisprudence, particularly the people who supported President Bush.

I might have liked a different type nominee myself, but that's the president's choice.

who happen to speak with an accent, a southern accent.

We have a little bit of a problem now with confidence in that commission, ... For her to continue to play a key role in it when she herself really should be one of the people being reviewed is difficult for me to swallow.

We have all the hallmarks here of a rush to spend money. We have got to be careful that this does not become a feeding frenzy. ... This is our grandchildren's money.

Well, first of all, let's go right to it. We're going to balance the budget. We should live within our own means, and we should read the bills and work with the American people.

Thus, he brought a renewed emphasis on the rights of victims as well as a new respect for the law officer who works to make this a safe place to live, ... As a young prosecutor, I remember being thrilled to read Chief Justice Rehnquist's dissents in criminal law cases, often lone dissents, that in some cases have become majority opinions of the court under his leadership.

We are not going hog wild restraining American liberties. In fact, the trend has been to provide more and more protections.

We are not going hog-wild restraining American liberties.

To remain competitive in the global economy, American industry needs a well trained work force with skills to meet today's advanced industry and manufacturing challenges.

The good news is that the BRAC process has now confirmed Anniston as the department's Center for Industrial and Technical Excellence. This means that Anniston's mission and work force have been affirmed and the depot remains poised to continue to enhance its workload and employees,

Yes, you have some have some complainers in the Congress, but we voted to send our soldiers to this effort. Nobody else authorized you to go; we voted to support it, ... And I would also note that terrorists aren't happy with you either.

We've put our treasure and our moral authority and the lives of our soldiers to this effort. A lot of Americans wish we'd never been there and it hadn't cost so much ... but that's not the question.

We should do a good enforcement bill and leave the administration to execute it, then in the meantime, talk seriously about what we want to do about the future.

Committees would have longer to work on them. We need to do a biennial budget.

Are you going to get busy now to enforce existing law?

I've seen it time and time again, people do not testify against innocent people, they, reluctantly, only testify against guilty people.

I want a classical judge who does not allow their personal views or social views to impact their decision-making process,

Progress will require a united federal, state and local effort.

Are we going to demand that they come before the Senate Judiciary Committee and renounce their faith before they become a federal judge?

That's why I did all I could to support Lockheed Martin's selection process when it chose Selma as its designated site. That selection in itself certainly speaks well for Selma. While the Air Force, after completing its process, decided otherwise, I certainly believed that Lockheed and Selma's capabilities were unmatched.

That's just an excuse to delay. I'll be there. I live in Mobile. I will be ready to go forward,

You pay a price when you have an objective sentencing system. That is, nothing is perfect.

This is a terrible idea. It will add expense throughout the system and will not benefit patients who need it when they need it.

The Republicans are legitimately concerned about nominations because of the statements of Democrats this year. They talked about wholesale blocking of Bush's nominees.

There's a legitimate concern among those who have really cared about the judiciary that she does not have a sufficient and well-formed philosophy of adjudication,

This may be, I hope, a turning point in our legal system,

This is a very risky thing. We should complete this work today.

It offends me that we have this political game of more and more gun laws and less and less prosecution.

It's amazing we can't get these officials confirmed. They're tying it to an unrelated matter about judges to in fact hamper -- actually undermine -- the ability of the Department of Justice to function. It's really irresponsible,

Oh, they'll seize on the report, ... They'll find one line. If there is one line out of 10,000, they'll be something to say gotcha with.

It's time to go and put this problem on the table and deal with it. If he can't meet that challenge, maybe he's not the person for the job.

They did not handle it as they should have.

They want us to be careful, manage our money well and get our troops home as soon as we possibly can.

Iraq assumes responsibility for its own future... They have got to step up.

I don't know how to read him. I don't know what he's going to do. It just made me know that we don't know what he's going to do. I don't think the president knows what he's going to do.

Chief Justice Rehnquist understood that liberty requires order and further that our Constitution always recognizes that fact,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Donald] Trump is where the Republicans are, and if you're going to be a Republican leader you should be supportive of that.

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.

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.

I'm against TPP and I'm going to oppose it.

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.

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.

I think it's an honorable thing that Donald Trump is doing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[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.

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.

I grew up, really, in the country.When I was a kid there were three country stores, a railroad depot, and a post office.

I think the leaders in all parties tend to adjust to reality. They just have to or they won't remain in office.

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.

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.

[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.

[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.

Voters are saying "I like this guy [Donald Trump]. He just might shake this place up."

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.

[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.

All the kids that I grew up with, in an almost idyllic environment - I've got to tell you, it was so wonderful - they've gone on and they're doctors and Ph.D.'s and everybody has a four-year college degree. None of our parents, I think, had a four-year degree.