Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wanted to talk a little bit about the vote I just took here with regard to our Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary Vilsack, who is now the new Secretary or on his way to becoming the new Secretary. You know, what I have tried to do when looking at nominees is I typically kind of look at three different questions: Do they have experience for the job, the experience necessary for the job, do they have views that I believe will help the country and in particular help my State, and do they care about the people they will be impacting? So that is a bit of a three-part test. I have tried to work with a lot of the new nominees in the Biden administration. I voted for a number of them, most of them. As a matter of fact, I introduced Secretary Austin at his confirmation hearing. I got to know him many years ago when I was a marine and he was an Army officer, a two-star general. You know, I will say to my friends, colleagues, constituents back home who say: Hey, Senator, you know, when the Trump administration put forward their nominees, you usually had kind of a party-line vote. A lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, my Democratic friends, would vote no, no, no, no. Why don't you do that? Well, I don't think it is good for the country; that is why I don't do that. I am against some but I have been supportive of many, and I am not sure the way in which it worked with the previous administration was best for our Nation.…”