{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/subcommittee-ranking-member-johnsons-opening-statement-hearing-trumps-0", "Subcommittee Ranking Member Johnson\u2019s Opening Statement At Hearing On Trump\u2019s Attacks On American Global Leadership", "2026-09-15", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "GA", "Henry C. \"Hank\" Johnson, Jr.", "J000288", "hankjohnson.house.gov", "hankjohnson", "https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 15, 2026)\u2014Today, Rep. Hank Johnson, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, delivered opening remarks at a hearing on the International Criminal Court (ICC), highlighting how President Trump\u2019s attacks on international institutions and America\u2019s closest allies are weakening U.S. sovereignty and global leadership.\n\nBelow are Ranking Member Johnson\u2019s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today\u2019s hearing.\n\nWATCH Ranking Member Johnson\u2019s opening statement.\n\nRanking Member Hank Johnson\n\nSubcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet\n\nHearing on \u201cThe International Criminal Court\u2019s Threat to the Sovereignty of the United States and its Allies\u201d\n\nSeptember 15, 2026\n\nI thank the Chairman for yielding. Normally, I would thank him for holding this very important, very timely hearing, but this is far afield from what the American people want us to be talking about right now.\n\nYou know, they\u2019re concerned with paying the bills, groceries, gas, diesel, rent. They\u2019re concerned about living in America and being able to make ends meet. They can\u2019t do it, but yet they look up and they see a few millionaires and billionaires corruptly, you know, soaking their profits\u2014soaking money directly out of the pockets and pocketbooks of regular working people.\n\nAnd they don\u2019t like what they see, and they don\u2019t like what they\u2019re hearing when they see us addressing issues like the International Criminal Court, which has nothing to do with their cost of living.\n\nAmerica\u2019s commitment to the rule of law should not end at our borders. If we believe accountability is the foundation of justice at home, then we should not undermine or ignore it when the crimes are committed abroad.\n\nBut for some reason, that is exactly what we are doing here today. On its face, this hearing serves to benefit Donald Trump and his friends like Vladamir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Bukele. And this all while he leaves the American people to suffer under the consequences of his failed policies.\n\nBecause while we are allegedly here today to discuss how the International Criminal Court \u201cthreatens\u201d our sovereignty and that of our allies, much like the Trump administration\u2019s other manufactured crises, it is a farce. A smokescreen. A pathetic excuse to mask the true nature behind this hearing: To distract from the corruption and greed of Donald Trump and his cronies here in Congress.\n\nWhile Trump and MAGA Republicans are here talking about \u201csovereignty,\u201d American families are worried about how they are going to pay for gas and groceries and everything else that inevitably gets more expensive when war sends energy prices soaring. Over the weekend, the cost of diesel fuel hit an all-time record high, while Trump is encouraging Big Tech to continue building enormous data centers in our backyards, putting unprecedented demands on our already-strained energy grid.\n\nThat is the reality for millions of Americans. Not an abstract debate about international law. This hearing will not put gas in the tank or food on the table. It will help my colleagues across the aisle talk about anything other than the consequences of his self-serving policies.\n\nThis administration is asking Americans to look abroad and fear an international court that we don\u2019t even belong to, when the American people don\u2019t need another distraction. They need a government focused on making their lives more affordable \u2013 not one manufacturing new enemies abroad to distract from the fact that President Trump is increasing the economic pressures facing American families every single day.\n\nMy colleagues on the other side of the aisle can talk about sovereignty all they want. But I believe the American people deserve a government that understands their actual problems, not one that is only concerned with the president\u2019s ego and helping him get richer on the backs of American workers.\n\nThis manufactured attack on international cooperation comes at a time when our world faces threats that no one country can solve alone \u2013 from climate change to the increasingly unchecked development of artificial intelligence.\n\nIn July, an Open AI test became uncontrollable when agents hacked into the servers of AI company, Hugging Face. Just last week, Anthropic disclosed another instance of one of their models hacking an external system during testing. Nobody instructed the AI to take these actions.\n\nNow, each of these incidents is concerning on its own, and they raise real questions about the soundness of the evaluation setups. But the larger question is what happens when these same capabilities are in the hands of someone who intends harm?\n\nWe should be having conversations about robust safety standards here at home. The reason we have not is because Donald Trump has told his cronies in Congress that they cannot regulate AI. That is why this very subcommittee had a hearing last year to try to preempt all state laws that try to regulate AI.\n\nWe have a narrow window to get this right. And while we should be collaborating with our allies to address AI augmented cybersecurity and autonomous weaponry concerns, my colleagues across the aisle are instead busy trying to take the ICC apart \u201cbrick by brick.\u201d All on Donald Trump\u2019s orders.\n\nWorking together with our allies to solve these problems is not a surrender of American sovereignty; it is what responsible leadership looks like. The United States cannot solve these problems alone. We need our allies. We need international institutions that allow nations to work together to confront problems that no single country can solve alone.\n\nYet it has become clear that Trump and MAGA Republicans are incapable of understanding that distinction.\n\nInstead, they confuse sovereignty with isolation and strength with intimidation. They confuse putting America first with putting America alone.\n\nHistory has shown that America is strongest when we lead; when we stand with our allies and understand that the choice before us is not between sovereignty and international cooperation.\n\nWe can either choose to confront these challenges together, or we can confront their consequences alone. It is my sincere hope that we choose the former.\n\nThank you to our witnesses for being here today and I yield back the balance of my time.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-16T09:43:13Z", "2026-09-16T09:44:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/subcommittee-ranking-member-johnsons-opening-statement-hearing-trumps-0"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7809889502823353, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}