On President Trump’s call with President Zelenesky

I've always said that that phone call is not how I would have handled it. I think it was poorly executed and something that I ultimately wouldn't have done. I also think that the whistleblower identified some questions and some issues that required further insights and understanding. And that's why I think Congress should be using its oversight role to understand that and get to the bottom of that. The question for me is did when did the Ukrainians know that aid was being withheld?

What's happening right now is that people that are against the president see every little thing as example of impeachment. And then people that love the president are saying everything is an example of exoneration. How about this? Let's get to the truth and figure out what that is. And let's get to all the facts before we make those decisions.

Warning to Republicans about black voter outreach

If the Republican Party doesn't start looking like America and being appealing to all Americans, then there won't be a Republican Party in America. And that requires folks in the party to take our conservative message to communities that have never seen us or benefited from us.

The three largest growing group of voters are minorities, people under the age of 29 and women with a college degree in the suburbs. Our brand is pretty bad in those three areas.

There's this narrative out there that we don't care. If people don't think you care about them, they're not going to listen to your idea regardless of what that idea is. And the only way you solve that is by showing up, the only way you solve that is by not saying mean things and saying misogynist things, not saying racist things, not being homophobic or any kind of phobic.

The Trump administration’s decision to cede responsibility in the Middle East

The decisions that have been made are actually causing our allies to not trust us and our enemies, not to fear us.

I learned something very simple when I was in the CIA: Be nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. Not the other way around. And unfortunately, what this most recent pulling on to Syria is going to do. It has told our allies that we do not have [their] backs.

So when you're in a place where your allies don't trust you and your enemies don't fear you. That's a terrible place to be. Who has benefited from this move? Russia. Because Russia is the one that negotiated the detente with the Syrian Kurds, who are allies of Bashar al-Assad, and the government of Turkey.

So now you have Russia playing the role of international mediator and the role that the U.N. should be playing. They have been able to establish more troops and, you know, technology in northern Syria so they can project power and more.

It's going to potentially destabilize one of our most important partners.

Everybody should remember what it was like on September 12th, 2001, after the attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.. Everybody should remember those horrific videos of ISIS cutting off people's heads and setting people on fire.

Concerns about the rise of China

U.S. economic and military dominance is no longer guaranteed. China is trying to surpass the United States as the global superpower; they want to do it by 2049, which is going to be when they celebrate 100 years of communism in China.

And if that doesn't happen, what does that mean for us? Our way of life is going to be impacted. Our ability for our kids to have a growing economic power is going to be diminished.

The immediate concern is disinformation by hostile governments ultimately trying to influence our 2020 election. They want to erode trust in our institutions. That's what the Russians tried to do in 2016. That's what the Russians, Chinese or Iranians are going to try to do in 2020.

The long term existential threat to us is China. us and China, we're frenemies. Our two economies are interlinked to the way that our’s and the former USSR and Russia never work. So we should be able to coexist at the same time and work together. But it also means being strong with them. So that's good to have the biggest impact on our future and our way of life.

