Political Quotes

“I rise to speak concerning the nomination by President Trump of Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State. I believe I am going to be speaking a little bit this afternoon and possibly later. This will just be part of my remarks this afternoon. First, I am going to say some positive things about Mr. Tillerson's career and the importance of the position, but then I want to talk about the reason for my opposition, which has to do largely with my concern about whether he is capable of exercising truly independent judgment on behalf of the United States, particularly given his 41-year career with ExxonMobil. To begin, Mr. Tillerson has an exemplary record with ExxonMobil. I was impressed by it. I have been impressed by his business acumen. I think this one would, frankly, be relatively straightforward if he had been nominated for Secretary of Commerce. I think it would be relatively straightforward had he been nominated for Secretary of Energy. That is an interesting aspect of some of these nominations. I think there are some people who are up who--if they were in other positions, they might be easier, but because of the ones they have been nominated for, it has made it a little more difficult. I put Mr. Tillerson in that category. Secretary of State is an enormously important position. We all know that it is important, but we, even for the public, separate the Secretary of State position from others.…”