Al Franken: “Thank you. I had no intention of actually filing a rule XIX objection. My point is--and the reason is because I didn't…”

“Thank you. I had no intention of actually filing a rule XIX objection. My point is--and the reason is because I didn't want to delay things. But we have a nominee here who has sued the EPA 18 times. The reason we are doing this is because we don't think this nominee is qualified. It has nothing to do with us not recognizing the results of the election, and I actually take offense to that. I don't know why the Presiding Officer ruled the way he did because I think it is obvious that it is imputing motives unbecoming to Senators, by saying that we don't recognize the legitimacy of the election and we are pretending that Hillary Clinton won the election. I am just raising this as a point, which is that Senators do this routinely, and if every time we raised a rule XIX on something like that, we would delay--if you want to accuse people of delaying the Senate-- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Begin to wrap up, please.”