Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank Senator Cardin and Senator Corker for their leadership and their bipartisan work to get these nominees through the Senate, as well as Senator McConnell and Senator Reid, who have been supportive of getting this done. In fact, both of the nominees I am going to talk about for the important allies of Norway and Sweden may be a little bit of a surprise to everyone in the Chamber. The 11th and 12th biggest investors in the United States of America come from companies in Norway and Sweden, which are two of our biggest allies. What is going on here? Well, this is actually the third time I have come to the floor this year urging Senator Cruz to remove his hold on these two nominees so that the Senate can move forward and fill these two vital diplomatic vacancies. Various reasons have been raised by him, both to colleagues and then publically. I was hopeful. I know negotiations are going on, so I always give room for that. But this is not related to these two countries or these two people. I think that is important to remember. Often, our fights are about a particular post because of the post or a particular nominee. That is not what this is, so I am hopeful that this gives us more room to negotiate. So what is going on here? Well, Norway has been without a confirmed ambassador for 859 days. There was an original nominee who did not work out, was withdrawn by the administration.…”