On the recordFebruary 1, 2017
finally, on Monday, the Senate moved forward with the nomination of Rex Tillerson to be the next Secretary of State. His confirmation before this Chamber to serve as our top diplomat should have been a no-brainer, but we know that our Democratic colleagues are still trying to relitigate the election of November 8, and because their preferred candidate lost, they are now trying to do everything they can to slow-walk and to hamper the ability of the winner, President Trump, to get his Cabinet up and running to govern the country. While they think they may be hurting the President and his administration, what they are really doing is hurting the American people whom the government serves. I hope they will reconsider. It is really sad it has taken this long due to the foot-dragging of our colleagues across the aisle who are sort of in a resistance mode. I really do believe it is like the stages of grief, like the Kubler-Ross stages, where the first one, of course, is denial, the second is anger, and then ultimately you get to acceptance. But they are a long way to acceptance, and they are still in the anger phase of their grieving the outcome of the November 8 election. When the shoe was on the other foot, we confirmed seven of President Obama's Cabinet nominees on the day he was inaugurated--January 20, 2009--but apparently this is the new normal.…
