Bob Menendez

I do not believe having your political affairs director smoking a cigar with a narcotics trafficker is reaching out to civil society.

The ability to engage not just with civil society, but with human rights activists and political dissidents languishing inside of their country to create the space that is necessary for the proper democratic process to take place is very…

Our No. 1 concern going forward would be the situation domestically for the upcoming elections and whether or not international and domestic observers will be allowed to observe those.

I am as committed to engage the Nicaraguan civil society as I have been with their Cuban counterparts during the last 3 years.

If confirmed, I will work with the government and civil society to help strengthen democracy and governance, promote constructive political dialogue, and encourage greater citizen participation in the political process.

In what is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Ortega has clearly put his own personal enrichment and empowerment over the welfare of the Nicaraguan people.

We and others in the international community have joined in trying to encourage strongly Nicaragua to allow international and domestic observation of the upcoming elections.

It is important that Guyana continue along this path in the elections scheduled to take place later this year.

We are closing our USAID mission--in Guyana.

If confirmed, this is an area we will give tremendous attention.

We continue to call on the Cuban Government to immediately and unconditionally release Alan Gross.

In many Latin American countries, there seems to be a tendency toward autocracy and longevity in office.

I think we are quite concerned with the trends in Nicaragua.

Ambassador Callahan had a very clear view. He said it was unconstitutional.

He has methodically and shrewdly consolidated his political power by subverting his country's democratic institutions.

I just want to underscore the importance to American manufacturing and to American production that we impress upon the Chinese their international responsibilities on enforcement of intellectual property issues.

I expected that formal answer. Let me go further, since you are going to be the United States Ambassador to China.

U.S. companies are losing tens of billions of dollars because of violations of intellectual property rights.

Any proliferation and additional work by Iran on nuclear arms is of paramount importance and of concern to the United States.

The abhorrent and deplorable actions of the Syrian Government against the Syrian people must end immediately.

I would hope that you would make that also a top priority on your portfolio.

I mean, it is very rare that we get 44 Members, in a bipartisan way, of the U.S. Senate to join together to send a message to the administration.

The problem is that Taiwan has been seeking this help since 2006, which precedes this administration.

This is an incredibly important position that you have been nominated to, and I have three lines of questioning that I will pursue: one is on Taiwan; one is on Iran; and the other is intellectual property issues.

Hamas rejects peaceful efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and continues to call for the destruction of the State of Israel.