mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, if i came to the senate floor each day and told the story of another victim of gun violence in the city of chicago, it would be a full time job. the lines are improving ever so slightly but the deaths on gun violence in that great city continue to break our hearts. hardly a day, a week, or a month goes by that we don't hear another story of some child, innocent bystander, infant, elderly person victimized by gun violence. but last week there was an extraordinary event which captured the hearts of the people of chicago and illinois. this monday afternoon, hundreds of police officers from chicago and northern illinois and some from as far away as boston and new york stood at solemn attention lining the roadways around the shrine of our lady of guadalupe in the chicago suburb. the night before a powerful blizzard had dumped 7 inches of snow on the chicago area and it was very cold. but it was not cold air that caused many of the officers gathered outside the chapel to feel num

mr. durbin: mr. president, let me tell you a story -- the presiding officer: senate is in a quorum call. mr. durbin: i ask that the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i want to talk about a man named alton mills, a young african american in the city of chicago, an above-average high school student. it looked like he might even go on to higher education. but he had some bad luck when it came to employment and jobs, and he made a stupid decision. he made a stupid decision by becoming part of a gang in the neighborhood that was selling drugs. as a result of that, he was arrested, convicted of possession and sale of a small amount of narcotics, and the sentence was suspended because he had no previous criminal record. it happened a second time. and again didn't serve a day in jail, was suspended, with the promise that he would never do it again, and he stumbled and did it a third time. as a result of that, in 1994, at the age of 24, alton mills was give an man

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, ron cher now is well-known as an historian and prolific writer who has written biographies of some of the most amazing people who lived in our country. one, of course, the founding father george washington. another, which received acclaim, even on broadway in new york, a well-known biography of alexander hamilton, which inspired mr. miranda to write a musical, which was probably the most successful musical of our time. but mr. chernow has also written another book which i am making my way through carefully, the biography of ulysses grant. it is about 900 pages long. which is a heavy book to carry from one living space to another as a u.s. senator. but well worth the effort. it tells the story of this man who came to lead the union army to victory in the civil war and ultimately to become president of the united states. and as i've read this biography of ulysses s. grant, i couldn't be help but be struck by the fact that one issue emerged after the civil war, which was proba

mr. durbin: there was a classified meeting that the united states senators were invited to on a bipartisan basis. democrats and republicans. it's rare. we don't do it very often. we do it when there is something of important national security. what we came to discuss today was saudi arabia, and that discussion really focused on our guests, the secretary of state, mr. pompeo, and the secretary of defense, mr. mattis. and they talked to us about our relationship with saudi arabia for obvious reasons. hardly anyone in the world could have missed what happened over the last several weeks when a man named khashoggi went into the consulate in istanbul and never came out. we have the video that shows him entering that building. for the longest time there was a debate as to what actually happened to him, all sorts of stories were manufactured and fabricated. it turned out that the turks had access to audio recordings of what actually happened inside that consulate. they eventually made them public, released them to the governments of saudi arabia as well as to the united states. and we came to lea