Department of State

Western civilization is worth defending.

FULL REMARKS: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Delivers Keynote Address, Answers Questions at Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention

SECRETARY RUBIO: We are the descendants of people that refused the limits and said that we're going to continue to strive and build for ourselves a better life. That blood literally runs through our veins; that's who we are as a people and as a nation.

SECRETARY RUBIO: I am on the American side of every issue — that I even have to say that is stunning. I am the Secretary of State of the United States.

SECRETARY RUBIO: America is exceptional, but it's not self-perpetuating. It has always required those in charge to do what it takes to keep it moving forward. That's what we're called to do, and I have confidence that we can do it.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Attorney is what you do, your faith is who you are.

SECRETARY RUBIO: There will be more triumphs and there will be more disappointments. This is the nature of all undertakings of this weight and this magnitude. There are no great men or great causes in the pages of history that did not suffer the same. But we are persuaded of the justice of our cause and, we too, will triumph in the end.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Too often, we tell the story of American independence as some inevitable and certain triumph. As if Washington and the Continental Army were always fated to prevail. Students of our history know that nothing could be further from the truth.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Victory requires something beyond good arguments. Victory is secured through institutions, networks, and systems fixated on a shared goal, capable of shaping and exercising influence.

SECRETARY RUBIO: The ultimate question of our time is whether Americans have a moral right to exist as a distinct nation and a distinct people, and thus to demand a government that defends and pursues our interests above all else.

SECRETARY RUBIO: When our predecessors first arrived in North America, there were no factories, no railroads, no skyscrapers. These things exist because we built them.

SECRETARY RUBIO: America has always, and I believe will always, be a nation of irrepressible ambition. Ambition which, since the very beginning, extended far beyond our borders. Low ceilings and small horizons were never our destiny.

SECRETARY RUBIO: The weaponization of international law is not altogether different from what we've seen here at home. The activist courts who seek to govern by injunction, twisting the law to fit whatever their preferences happen to be at any given place or time.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Earlier this year, President Trump made the unprecedented decision to sanction the fake International Criminal Court. A fake court, which is an unelected world tribunal which claims to supersede the laws and constitutions of sovereign states, even those who never signed up for it.

SECRETARY RUBIO: For this global elite, international law is not a neutral body of rules. International law is an instrument, an instrument to advance their interest under the pretense of universal principles.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Elections decide who holds office for a season. Elections do not decide, by themselves, what our institutions teach, or what our lawyers believe; which ideas are treated as respectable or normal, and which are deemed beyond the pale.

SECRETARY RUBIO: Politics requires more than simply winning elections, because the government is not the only source of political power. Power also lives in the universities, power lives in the press, power lives in the whole expanse of civil society.

SECRETARY RUBIO: On election night, there was a Congressman that said we all needed to "lawyer up." So, here we are.

HAPPENING NOW: Secretary Rubio Delivers Remarks at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention nitter.cf/i/broadcasts/2MErqKRNW…

FOX NEWS: We're anticipating a big speech from the secretary tonight at the Federalist Society, airing at 5 PM ET.

FOX NEWS: Rubio is expected to address the Federalist Society at the National Lawyers Convention on Friday, where he will go after the International Criminal Court and other global bodies he says are using the law as a political weapon, not to deliver justice. foxnews.com/politics/rubio-t…