Everyday people.

Question: What inspires you?

Robert Menendez: I’m inspired by a couple of things. I’m inspired by people I see – whether it’s in my home state of New Jersey and people I’ve met across the country – who do remarkable things against overwhelming odds . . . ordinary people who are called upon to do extraordinary things. And if they can do that considering maybe their station in life and the challenges they face, and yet they do extraordinary things for people who are . . . who might be considered ordinary people, then from my privileged position of being a United States Senator, I have every obligation in the world to do that and much more. So I’m inspired by the stories of people I meet at home and across the country. And I’m inspired by people I meet across the world as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the great challenges they face in the own countries in promoting democracy and promoting human rights. And I’m also inspired by the fact that . . . My view is that one is obligated to . . . It’s a personal philosophy. One is obligated to make this world better than how they inherited it. And so that’s what drives me every day – the inspiration that I take from people, and the view that I have as a personal philosophy as to why I seek to be a United States Senator in the first place.