Lindsey Graham

This is one of the most important hearings we've had in, probably, a very long time.

He is the same Senator who decried the systematic destruction of an American friend by the country of Israel and who said there is a Jewish lobby in this country that gets its way through intimidation, and that results in this Government…

He is the individual who said he didn't believe in unilateral sanctions because they don't work and they isolate the United States.

Chuck Hagel, without question, has made a career out of going in front of the cameras, getting invitation after invitation because it was good TV, and making it clear that he was outside that national bipartisan mainstream on all of these…

We need a Secretary of Defense who can stand before the world and articulate that we reject a policy of containment of a nuclear Iran.

This committee has a bipartisan reputation of holding Presidents accountable.

The next Secretary of Defense is going to have to deal with a world on fire, and I just believe that the testimony of Senator Hagel was not reassuring.

I cannot in good conscience support this nomination because I think it is sending the worst possible signal to our friends and our enemies alike.

It is a series of votes and statements that paint an unusually disturbing picture.

I think he is in the mainstream of thinking. I think he will do a good job for the country.

I do not think they would get a fair trial.

The lack of signature by you runs chills up my spine because I can't imagine not signing a letter like that at a time when it really mattered.

I think I am speaking for a lot of people when they say we are heartbroken when a family member is taken through an act of gun violence, whether it be a child or anyone else, but particularly children.

The question is: Am I a reasonable American if I oppose this bill?

I do not look at it from some academic debate.

I do know and I do believe in the bottom of my heart I am not an unreasonable person for saying that in some circumstances the 15-round magazine makes perfect sense and in some circumstances the AR-15 makes perfect sense.

I can tell people throughout this land, because of the fiscal state of affairs we have, there will be less police officers, not more.

I have an AR-15 at home, and I have not hurt anybody, and I do not intend to do it.

Gun control by executive order could be a power grab that won't go down well with Congress or the American people.

Good decision, Mr. President. Mr. McCAIN. But if al-Awlaki had been in the United States of America, a citizen engaged in the same activities that justified him being killed, then Mr. al-Awlaki would have been entitled to his Miranda…

Sure. Mr. McCAIN. Under the scenario as envisioned by the argument made by the Senator from Kentucky that if an American citizen is overseas, as al-Awlaki was in Yemen, and we took a drone and killed him, which was a decision made by the…

I don't think they're serious.

I think we're going over the cliff.

And our military can fire the shots because of the use of force to defend the homeland and to defend themselves here at home. And the Supreme Court says that once you authorize the ability to use force, it just follows, as night follows…

So if our military is authorized to use force, they do not have to call the FBI or the Virginia State Police to shoot. They can shoot against an enemy themselves coming at them in America.