About 70 percent of the district was new. It was a short amount of time to get to know hundreds and thousands of people. But with the help and support of old friends, we built a grassroots operation organically from the ground up.

Its not about earning a paycheck, its about doing something good that you believe in.

About 70 percent of the district was new. It was a short amount of time to get to know hundreds and thousands of people. But with the help and support of old friends, we built a grassroots operation organically from the ground up.

Russia is a competitor. They're a strong nation, something we need to recognize, but their economy is just a little bit bigger than Illinois, so they're not our equal. I think its important to engage them. And I think it's important that we continue to fight for human rights, which is essential to denying the next generation of terrorists their recruits and this is a long-term fight we're in when it comes to the war on terror. And I think the Russians are exacerbating this by making people displaced and killing families and that's how you lead to radicalization.

I meet with ambassadors from all countries in my role as a member of Congress, and you always have better relationships with those you actually personally get along with. That matters. So if there is chemistry between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, maybe that can bode for something.

Americans in general have a lot of compassion, we just don't always have the same view of how that compassion is implemented.

Putin knows how to run the KGB playbook. I mean, he knows how to work people.