America is not a white man's republic.

We are a new nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. That's what makes us Americans. When we sign onto that belief, we sign onto the core American identity, and that's very deep in us.

Ronald Reagan reached out to Gorbachev. At the same time, we were pushing back against the Soviets all over the world. He was able to do two things at once, and it worked out very well for us.

America is not an ethnostate. We are not rooted in blood and soil.

What [Russians] want to do is undermine the Western liberal order.

We should not assume that Russia is doomed to live according to its worst traditions. In fact, in Russian history, failed efforts at external aggression, when they fail, usually bring on areas of internal reform.

Putinsim is not necessarily the end state for Russia. Russia has moved in many directions since the early 1980s.