Richard Blumenthal

Congress' authority to investigate here and investigate golf comes from Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution.

The PGA Tour has a major impact on our economy, our way of life, our image in this country, our self-image, and our image abroad.

I would like to have a commitment from both of you that the final agreement will not prevent players or PGA Tour executives from commenting on or criticizing actions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

But will you commit that it will not have it, that you will not agree to it if it does?

Instead of accepting this amount of money--call it an investment, call it financing--from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, did you explore other sources of potential investment?

What other sources of funding did you explore?

What conversations among yourselves did you have as to the alternative sources of funding?

Are you bound by the non-disparagement clause that is very specifically stated in the agreement?

But there is an understanding that PIF will contribute an investment to the PGA Tour and the entity that will control it.

You decided to take the financing and the investment from Saudi Arabia for this new entity that would also incorporate the PGA Tour. Correct?

What is the amount of the Saudi investment that is going to be made?

I would join you in a bipartisan effort to make those facts more available.

I have the deepest sympathy for the families of 9/11 and support their efforts of obtaining information currently being withheld by the United States and Saudi governments.

Today is about sportswashing.

To have them taken over by a repressive foreign regime certainly is a matter of our national security.

It is about hypocrisy, how vast sums of money can induce individuals and institutions to betray their own values.

I noticed that in your testimony, S. 1040, prohibiting smoking on the premises of any veterans facility, VHA facility, you recommend against our approving.

There is one piece of legislation dealing with veteran suicide. But perhaps you could give us your assessment as to what more we can and should be doing, 'we' meaning not only the VA but also Congress.

This episode is probably the most shameful and disgraceful incident of cover-up of sexual assault that I have seen in the United States military ever.

We will continue this inquiry because I think uncovering more of the facts and shining a spotlight on what is really happening here is in the national interest and part of our obligation.

We are going to continue this inquiry. We are going to ask that the other potential witnesses that we invited actually come and share their perspectives and information.

It should not be about the money, the disruption, the uneconomic offers.

The families who are here are seeking justice against that regime.

Sports are central to our society, to our culture, to our economy, to our way of life, to our self-image, and our image abroad.

That is how they can be disruptive because they have a lot of money, bucketsful of money. Correct?