Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am a former Governor, and as such, I have an inclination to support the Executive's nominees for their Cabinet-- for their Secretaries or Commissioners in my case, in Maine. I think that is an important principle, and it is how I start when I approach the analysis of any nominee to any position put forward by the Executive, whether the Executive is Donald Trump or Barack Obama or anybody else. That is a kind of starting point, and that is how I started this January. And, indeed, thus far, as we have voted here on the floor, I have supported five of the seven nominees who have come before us, plus I supported two additional nominees in committee which have not yet come to the floor, but whom I will support on the floor. So I am not in total opposition: Don't vote for any nominees. I don't think that is the way our system works, and it is certainly not the way I intend to approach these issues. I have approached them one at a time, looking at the position of the nominees, their policies, their views, their hearings. I have tried to follow the hearings as closely as possible, including their answers to questions. Again, I start with a bias toward approval, perhaps because of my experience as a chief executive myself. But I can't support nominees who are fundamentally opposed to the mission of the agency they have been asked to lead. To me, that just doesn't make sense.…”