On the recordOctober 29, 2019
I want to start by thanking our colleague, the Senator from Minnesota, Ms. Smith, for her steadfast support for this group of Federal contract employees who were left behind, and I plan to address my remarks to that subject in one moment. Before I do that, I just want to call on every Senator to stand up against the vicious character assassination that is taking place against patriotic Americans testifying under oath in the House. Today we are hearing, in the House, the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. Here is an individual who served as an officer in the U.S. Army, an infantry officer overseas, including in South Korea and Germany and a deployment to Iraq for combat operations, where he was wounded in an IED attack and awarded a Purple Heart. Just a little while ago, the House heard sworn testimony from Ambassador William Taylor, who is currently our Acting Ambassador to Ukraine. He also served in the U.S. Army. He served in Vietnam; he served in Germany. Later, in a different capacity, he served in Baghdad as the director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office. He served in Kabul, Afghanistan, coordinating international assistance. He was selected by Secretary Pompeo to be our Acting Ambassador in Ukraine. So we can disagree on a whole lot of things. We can also reach different conclusions based on the facts.…
