Josh Hawley: “reserving the right to object, I want to say at the outset that it is always a privilege to work with Senator Reed on…”

“reserving the right to object, I want to say at the outset that it is always a privilege to work with Senator Reed on the Armed Services Committee in every capacity we get to work together, and I look forward to that going forward. What we are being asked to do--the Senate is being asked to do today, however, is to fast-track nominees for leadership positions in the Department of Defense to carry out a foreign policy that is manifestly failing. This administration is careening from one crisis to another, endangering the security of the American people, endangering the security of the world. When the Senator mentioned just a moment ago the situation in Ukraine, you don't have to look any further than there to see the crisis--the latest crisis that the Biden administration has led this Nation into. To begin with, the administration failed to deter Vladimir Putin and his Russian invasion before it happened. They failed to actually check Putin when it would have really mattered. How did they do this? Well, for starters, when President Biden came to office, he opened up Russia's pipelines, and then he shut down America's pipelines. He handed our energy independence that the Senator was just mentioning--he handed our energy independence away. He gave it away. And who stepped in to fill the void? The Russians. What is Russia? It is not so much a country as it is a gas station, and Putin is pumping and pumping and pumping. What is financing his war in Ukraine?…”