Political Quotes

Brian Schatz

The Public Record

Brian Emanuel Schatz is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Hawaii since December 26, 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, Schatz has focused on issues such as climate change, healthcare, and education during his time in office. He succeeded Daniel Akaka and has been an advocate for renewable energy and environmental protection, reflecting Hawaii's unique ecological challenges and opportunities.

Quotes by year · 201120262,438 total · peak 2023 (423)
2011: 1 quote2013: 102 quotes2014: 149 quotes2015: 215 quotes2016: 149 quotes2017: 302 quotes2018: 181 quotes2019: 30 quotes2020: 22 quotes2021: 218 quotes2022: 176 quotes2023: 423 quotes2024: 202 quotes2025: 113 quotes2026: 155 quotes
Feb 5, 2025

That is one of the things I have noticed about this President is just the unapologetic ``I have leverage, and I am going to use it'' aspect of it and nobody bats an eyelash. If you behaved like that, you would get lit on fire…

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Feb 5, 2025

As happened in 2017. They couldn't even do the things that they promised they were going to do, except for the tax cuts. So I think they understand the fundamental weakness of their position, which is we have a President who is likely to…

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Feb 5, 2025

Yes, I think you are exactly right that we are--look, every day I try to sort out, of the 20 outrages, how many can I even focus on? And to your point, the Gaza thing was deeply offensive, right? Deeply offensive. But also probably not…

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Feb 5, 2025

He is a smart dude. He is a smart dude, and he is a serious guy and actually knows the government. I mean part of the problem with the DOGE folks is they don't really know what they are even looking for. So they literally just, like…

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Feb 5, 2025

Well, I think I have been, on one level, trying not to overreact, but I also think there is a little danger of underreacting. And I have been talking about this a little bit with my brother, who is a professor with an expertise in former…

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Feb 5, 2025

It is not changing laws regarding disaster preparedness or infrastructure; it is changing laws on voter ID.

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Feb 5, 2025

I just want to drill down on why the profit motive is so dangerous to public service. If you are in the business of trying to figure out where to drop a Starbucks or whatever, you have got to figure out where the people are, right? You…

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Feb 5, 2025

I used to run a social services agency. We had a couple hundred employees, and we delivered mental health services, and we were a Medicaid provider. It was back in the day when we weren't yet receiving electronic payments, and I would go…

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Feb 5, 2025

That seems like normal attrition in a 9-month period, so I think what we just did, is of the people who were planning on retiring anyway, we just gave them like a 6-month payout. So we get nothing because they get paid through…

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Feb 5, 2025

I think about my constituents in the IFPTE who work at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. I think about 20 years ago, I guess, the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard was low-performing. It was not great. There was the BRAC Commission to determine…

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Feb 5, 2025

Can I say one thing about--I did not know that this whole Senate is powered on Celsius. I never had Celsius before. I was walking around offering people coffee, and everyone had a Celsius.

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Feb 5, 2025

Well, and just to be clear, they don't even have their e- mail accounts working, so think about that. First of all, it is a little weird to send people home and say, We are still operational, and then they can't even get their dot-aid…

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Feb 5, 2025

Don't Google it. Google doesn't work anymore. But anyway, this is the end of this as a useful way to understand something. It is now just an epithet that you hurl when you are not sure what else to say, right? And so, look, back to Russell…

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Feb 5, 2025

They would get--I was about to swear. It is the Senate floor. I will not. But they would get canned. They would get immediately sacked.

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Feb 5, 2025

Even in the private sector, just so we are clear--because there are also differences between the public and the private sector in terms of civil service protections and unions and all that. I am happy with that because, by the way, the…

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Feb 5, 2025

And we have the Fair Housing Law, we have equal employment law, like you are not allowed to discriminate in housing. And so just to understand, they are not trying to just like cancel these programs related to DEI; they are trying to…

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Feb 5, 2025

Or pardon everyone in the January 6 event. You know this, and you have talked about this on the floor.

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Feb 5, 2025

Before you came on, Senator Kim talked about taking on the New Jersey political machine. Political machines everywhere work pretty much the same. If you behave well, you get your stuff. And pork is distributed based on political alliances…

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Feb 5, 2025

Yeah, yeah. This is the crazy thing. By the way, different, I am an Ashkenazi Jew, right, I do actually have--there is a thing called--I think it is called Tay-Sachs or something that I have a proclivity to having it, so we have to have a…

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Feb 5, 2025

thank you to the ranking member of the Budget Committee for his leadership. We are doing something a little unusual. First of all, every Democrat is united on the vote that will occur 26 or 27 hours from now. Second of all, almost every…

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Feb 5, 2025

Last week, without any advanced notice, OMB issued a memo freezing all Federal funding in order to end wokeness, ``Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.'' Like, I just want to--we can pause right…

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Feb 5, 2025

Well, I want to just sort of pause on that because, Chris, you are right. This is a purge. I was sort of yelling in the Press Gallery--maybe not the best idea, but it was at a press conference--and I just basically pointed at all these…

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Feb 5, 2025

I just want to say how much I have come to admire, in a short period of time, the junior Senator from New Jersey. That was a--that was a real speech, you know. We are, obviously, spending 30 hours on the floor to oppose Russ Vought's…

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Feb 5, 2025

I vote no for the 400,000 people in Hawaii who depend on Medicaid. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XII, no debate is permitted during a vote. The Senator will suspend. The clerk will continue to call the roll. The legislative clerk…

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Feb 5, 2025

They recommend that he pardon, essentially, the people who improperly entered the building. Now, I would have opposed that. But then he just said: You know what? Pardon them all.

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Politicians like Brian Schatz