"Let me be clear in my beliefs: no part of our government, including the State Department, should look any certain way."
"We cannot have it be that first we look for a diverse basket of candidates... the diversity cannot be the No. 1."
"It shouldn't matter that I am half Mexican. It shouldn't matter whether I am able-bodied or ambulatory or not ambulatory."
"There are no quotas over qualification. We did not need an African American or an Asian or a white sniper or bomb tech or K-9 handler."
"Have you made State Department more diverse?"
"How is DEI job performance criteria, how do you evaluate--and let me ask this maybe a little bit more specifically."
"You used the term previously microaggression."
"But if we do not, then State will decide what I am."
"I would never vote in favor to allocate a single dollar toward these types of things that I find to be divisive."
"I thank you, ma'am, for your valuable testimony."
"But I'm also the only Member of Congress who actually conducted rescues myself of Americans out of Afghanistan, who spent 3 years of my life in Afghanistan, 7 years of my life in Iraq."