Pete Hoekstra

“The primary role of government is to provide for the safety and security of their populations.”

“The Obama administration notoriously refuses to acknowledge that Islamists commit Islamist terror, so it logically follows that a Christian victim of Islamist violence should not address the issue lest it challenge accepted political orthodoxy.”

“Libya became a rat's nest of extremism after NATO helped depose dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and it now exports weapons, jihadists, and ideology to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.”

“Choosing to arm and train the Islamist opposition against dictator Moammar Gadhafi unleashed its most ruthless terrorist elements.”

“World leaders need to approach the problems in the Middle East and northern Africa with imaginative ideas such as those that created the E.U.”

“Nobody will ever agree with everything everyone says, especially once an issue or speaker becomes politically charged. But as tolerant and civilized Americans, we should at least have the decency to hear them out.”

“The overall feckless strategy against ISIS in Syria and Iraq enabled the Islamist organization to expand its domain and drive out more religious minorities.”

“Succeeding against an army of strawmen might feel good as a speech, but in reality, the world is filled with extraordinarily difficult challenges and very real consequences as a result of how we face them.”

“While the primary focus continues to be on religious minorities - the Christian religious minorities and the Jewish community - ISIS will also go after people who interpret and believe the Muslim faith differently than they do.”

“Gadhafi was a monster who ruled his country for 42 years with an iron fist and became an international pariah as a result. However, he found religion once he recognized his perilous position when the U.S. adopted an uncompromising response to international terrorism following 9/11.”

“Europe and the United States are better off extending a helping hand to those who know best rather than dictating to them an unfamiliar future.”

“America, at its core, is a country of strong and resilient people who are prepared to confront the challenges posed by those who seek to do us harm.”

“America needs a bipartisan foreign policy that is predictable, pragmatic, and understandable.”

“The forces that rescued Americans on Sept. 11, 2012, were not the U.S. military. They were not the militias that overthrew Gadhafi. They were Gadhafi devotees who were loyal to him and to the U.S. government with whom their leader reached a 'deal.'”

“Choices abound in the free market. Choice creates real and immediate accountability.”

“The U.S. cannot survive another four years of the Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton regime.”

“I served 10 years on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, and I had the distinct privilege of meeting with real U.S. spies throughout the globe.”

“The policies and laws executed by the grand mufti in Libya, the long-term agenda in the short-lived Morsi government in Egypt, and by ISIS in its ideal Islamist Ummah are incompatible with the Constitution, period.”

“I'm not OK with clergy, students, and those of different opinions chanting and swearing, but it is their constitutional right.”

“Accepting Syrian refugees into the United States is an emotional issue.”