Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I think we have concluded this matter for the evening, and I am sorry that it has ended this way because Mr. Bonilla and Ms. Lerner are essentially collateral damage in a fight that does not involve the Court of Federal Claims at all. This involves a dispute between the Senator from Alaska and the White House, whom I do not direct and whom I do not speak for. Instead of keeping it within the confines of the Ninth Circuit, it has now spilled over to the Court of Federal Claims, and these two completely unrelated individuals are continuing to have their lives interfered with by being kept in the traffic jam for a principle that, in my view, was never followed in the previous administration. I mean, for Pete's sake, if they were not going to even let us have our official time with a circuit court judge, the idea that we were going to get private meetings is, I think, imaginative in the extreme. I just regret that it has come to this pass. I regret that we are at 159 obstructed nominees backed up. I regret that we have been forced to file cloture twice as much as that first group of Trump's nominees, in his first year--and there were some real beauties there, I have got to tell you. With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.”