Political Quotes

“I want to just, first, comment on how much I appreciated the comments of my colleague from Maine, Senator King-- both in your elucidation of the deep challenges of the Robert Kennedy, Jr., nomination but also your close look at what the difference is between the legislative branch and the executive branch, and the role that we have in this body to provide advice and consent. And I appreciated what you were saying about kind of what your North Star is when you look at these nominations. I would say I agree with you that I do believe that incoming Presidents should be able to surround themselves with people whom they trust, and that, of course, we may strongly disagree with the President; however, he has the right to have people around him who agree with him. But I think that there is something that you said, Senator King, that was extremely important. I also look at these nominations in terms of whether I believe they have the base-level qualifications to do the job. And then the second thing I ask myself is, Can I trust these individuals? Can I trust Robert Kennedy to follow the law? I mean, that is fundamentally what their responsibility is--to, certainly, be loyal to the person who put them in that role, but also, at a base level, that they are going to follow the law. So, Mr. President, I rise today to highlight what I consider to be the threat of Robert F. Kennedy, the threat that he poses to Americans' health and safety and well-being.…”