Political Quotes

“I rise to echo the concerns expressed by my colleague from Florida, Bill Nelson, about the White House's refusal to provide written testimony relevant to Mr. Ross's nomination prior to the vote this evening. Mr. Ross was a key economic adviser to the Trump campaign, and he has had business ties with the Bank of Cyprus, a bank with significant Russian investors. I understand that the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, of which my friend from Florida is the ranking member, sent a letter to Mr. Ross to get more information about those ties. That is a perfectly reasonable request, especially given the circumstances. This information is particularly relevant to the Senate since, in recent days, questions about connections between the Trump administration and Russia have proliferated. While Mr. Ross told my friend from Florida that there is nothing to worry about, the White House is sitting on Mr. Ross's written response to Senator Nelson's letter. So the Senate will not get written answers to these important questions before voting on this nomination. This is just another example of this administration's abandoning transparency and trying to jam nominees through without making all of the relevant information public and available. They have not enjoyed a good few weeks with these nominees. They have gotten them through but with a lot of pain and a lot of public disconcert, and here we have another example.…”