Josh Hawley: “reserving the right to object, I thank the Senator from Virginia for accommodating me here and allowing me to come to…”

“reserving the right to object, I thank the Senator from Virginia for accommodating me here and allowing me to come to the floor, and I thank him for his remarks. I only got to hear the second half of his remarks, but I thank him for his remarks and am sure that he is in earnest about this nomination. Let me tell you why I am here, and I will be brief. I know we have a vote that is about to kick off. But let me tell you what I am in earnest about. The crisis in Afghanistan--the attack at Abbey Gate this past August that cost 13 American servicemembers, including 1 from my home State, from the State of Missouri, their lives--is a catastrophe unparalleled in our foreign policy in my lifetime. It is my firm conviction and it is also a promise that I made to the family of the fallen marine from my State that we should do--this Senate should perform its oversight functions related to the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and in particular the events leading up to that attack at Abbey Gate that resulted in the deaths of those servicemembers and the deaths of hundreds, I am afraid--hundreds--of civilians and many hundreds of other Americans left behind.…”