Sheldon Whitehouse: “Well, we are in interesting times, and we are beginning to see the corporate and billionaire takeover of the U.S.…”

“Well, we are in interesting times, and we are beginning to see the corporate and billionaire takeover of the U.S. Government. And in that corporate and billionaire takeover of the U.S. Government, the nominee Russ Vought to run OMB has a key role, and that key role--to do the work for the billionaires and the big corporations--is what makes him unfit and dangerous and what compels us to come to the floor tonight to warn the American people of what this guy will do and who he is. Let's start with a little history. This is the guy who violated the Impoundment Control Act by withholding 214 million appropriated dollars from the soldiers fighting and dying in the trenches of Ukraine against Putin's thug army. It was that stunt that led to the impeachment of President Trump. This is the guy who caused lives to be lost in those Ukrainian trenches by withholding funding they needed desperately, withholding the funding they desperately needed illegally, and withholding that desperately needed funding illegally in order to support a scheme by President Trump to put pressure on the Ukrainians to give him dirt on his political opponent. That is a little bit of history of where this guy will go. The OMB is the nerve center of the Federal Government, and to have someone there of that character is dangerous. Vought is also lawless.…”