David Cicilline

I wish members of the Department of Defense were here to hear you. That's the argument we've been making for the last 5 years.

So I guess my first question is am I correct in my conclusion that this becomes particularly vexing for the United States...

It's why I just want to start by saying how ironic and disturbing at the same times it is that this hearing is happening...

Your testimony had been very useful in, I think, understanding Chinese economic power and their willingness to advance their national interests by the use of these very powerful economic tools.

I think the one thing that's particularly important is that we need to have confidence that as we are navigating this challenge...

This would lead to a previously unthinkable circumstance--the Government of China with a perch in the North Atlantic between the United States and Europe.

However, in 2016, the Department of Defense decided to decommission Lajes, a decision I strongly opposed for a lot of reasons.

China has shown time and again that it is more than happy to fill a void whenever we recede.

Your administration has been in office for 15 months. They have done nothing to hold Iran accountable on any of this malign activity.

I have to say it was more like a letter to Santa Claus than a policy document.

That's a very disappointing answer, with all due respect.

If in fact the President doesn't divest himself of his business interests, how will you ensure that this body, the Congress of the United States, that you are not engaging on matters of foreign policy and national security, where the…

You said in response to written questions for the record during your Senate confirmation hearing that you would appoint a new special envoy for the human rights of LGBTI persons at the State Department.

Will it be part of the deal? Do you have a commitment from the Kim regime?

You strongly criticized the Obama administration for not including issues like human rights in the nuclear deal with Iran.

Have you raised your concerns with the Government of Saudi Arabia about the recent arrests of activists, particularly, women activists?

Will you, as Secretary of State, do what so many other Secretaries have not and recognize the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against its Armenian citizens during World War I? Yes or no.

It also strikes at the idea that politics should stop at the water's edge.

The administration's first priority was an ill-conceived reorganization effort.

It's, frankly, insulting that the administration would send us another request like this when we rejected it last year.

We cannot allow another outbreak to go unchecked because the White House considers arbitrary budget cuts to be good politics.

The reason we fight pandemic overseas is so we don't have to fight them here at home.

This is, potentially, a violation of laws governing State Department personnel.

The rhetoric coming out of the administration is not helpful at all.

I don't think that it is helpful that we are going to be cutting the State Department's budget.