Ben Cardin: “It is an absolute essential U.S. ally and critical to regional stability and frankly critical to Israel's defense.”

If we are going to carry this as a value on the international stage, that the United States stands up for human rights and certain values and the rule of law, is it not important that we be willing to apply these sanctions to accomplish…

We are going to do something about this.

We imposed sanctions on the individual.

I introduced the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act as a way of saying that we will hold abusers accountable even if their own country does not.