WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, yesterday questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a hearing on the State Department’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request.

• GRAHAM: “I want to take actions, not just [use] words. Will you support a bipartisan effort to sanction the ICC – not only for the outrage against Israel but to protect, in the future, our own interests?”
• BLINKEN: “I welcome working with you on that."
• GRAHAM: “Let it be said that we’re going to work together to send a signal to the ICC. What [the ICC] did was not only outrageous, [they] destroyed the rule of law as we know it… I’ve never been more disappointed. We worked together to help the ICC against Russia. Ungoverned spaces and rogue nations are the point of [the] ICC, not Israel.” https://youtu.be/etpPXeyPbtk?si=BmJI-Yv4H7lC0p3b&t=221

• GRAHAM: “I stand with Israel without apology. I hope one day to be able to end this conflict in a way where the Palestinian people have the hope they don’t have today, and Israel will have the security it deserves. And maybe we can integrate the region with a deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel.” https://youtu.be/kpZBqwMPj-A?si=YRkP2ydOykITC4O_&t=126

Click here to watch Graham’s opening remarks

Click here to watch Graham question Secretary Blinken