Jim DeMint

U.N. peacekeeping missions must have more accountability--much more.

I believe American taxpayers deserve more accountability for their dollars.

I appreciate Senators Menendez and Kerry's efforts to allow me to be briefed on the background summary.

I will vote no on Ms. Aponte's confirmation and strongly recommend my colleagues do the same.

We respectfully request that Ms. Aponte be removed from post as soon as possible, so that El Salvador may enjoy the benefits of having a better person as a government representative of your noble country.

The White House continually denied reasonable requests from Senators on this side of the aisle for access to information.

Last year, every Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted against moving this nomination forward.

Clarity of purpose is very important for us.

So I think the United States is at its best when we live our values and live our interests, try to influence others to meet our national security priorities, but not do so in a way that tries to impose upon other people what we believe.

I think the advance of our vital national security interests, which include the values that we hold dear, is very important, but I absolutely believe that we cannot impose those values on other countries.

The United States needs to deal very firmly, with strength and a lot of verification with other countries in the world.

The people who fomented change in Egypt, in Libya and Yemen, throughout many parts of the world back during the fall of the Soviet Union, did not do so to live under another dictatorship.

Europe and the United States share a common set of values and we have a long history that is founded on the ideas of freedom and economic opportunity.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

What do we do? We need to speak with one voice.

We should be adopting policies toward Belarus based on what happens inside Belarus not through a Russia prism.

How big a factor are they in creating dangers in other parts of the world?

What do we need to be doing to assist the people to make sure they know the world is supporting their freedom?

His response was essentially, if you will pardon the expression, a middle finger to the United States and to the European Union.

The government's behavior is unacceptable in this day and age, and the regime must be held accountable for its actions.

Lukashenko is a threat not only within his borders but beyond his borders as well.

Those sanctions... secured the release of the political prisoners in 2008.

While Senator DeMint sympathizes with the victims of this tragedy, he's concerned that Congress should not retroactively change the law to specifically affect pending legislation.

We shouldn't be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas. It's sacrilegious and disrespectful. What's going on here is just wrong.

Reserving the right to object, Madam President, this is a nation of laws, not of men. It destroys that whole foundation to our legal system when we make retroactive law.