Political Quotes

“Madam President, I am here to add some thoughts regarding the vote we are going to have on Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Of course, as a Rhode Island junior Senator, I am very cognizant of the important role that my senior Senator Jack Reed has had on the committee of jurisdiction, the Senate Armed Services Committee. I want to give him credit for the way he has conducted himself. What I can bring to this conversation is a little bit about background investigations. I sit on the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee does more background investigation work than any other because we have so many people coming through--the judges, the U.S. attorneys, every marshal--all of it. So we are very busy on BIs. I took a deep dive into the Brett Kavanaugh background investigation and put out a report on the flaws and gaps and misdirections that transpired around that background investigation--specifically, that supplemental background investigation, a point I will clarify in a moment. Let's start with what we do know about the FBI background investigation into Mr. Hegseth. We know that only one Democrat has even seen it, and that is the ranking member on the committee, Senator Reed. And we do know that he has publicly said that that background investigation was--to use his word--``inadequate.'' So Republicans are going forward on the basis of an FBI investigation that a very respected Member of this body has publicly said was inadequate. What else do we know about it?…”