Joe Manchin

I think it is very important for servicemembers to feel that expressions of their sincerely held conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs are accommodated and protected by DOD.

Freedom of religion is provided for in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

If confirmed, I will continue to review and update our religious accommodation program to ensure we continue to protect the expression of religious beliefs, both in policy and practice, to the greatest extent possible, consistent with…

Certainly it seems like it would be a good idea.

I really appreciate that.

I feel strongly that we need an open debate about the authorization of use of military force, AUMF, as you know, related to our conflict with ISIL.

You will never hear a negative word about the Guard or Reserve from me.

If it was not for the Guard, I do not think the majority of the people in this country would even know the military.

The national debt at the time he came before us was $14 trillion. We are at $19 trillion.

I do think that we are not nearly enough in the game in the Arctic as we should be.

I hope you put them to good use. I hope we give you the ability to do that, sir.

I would give more flexibility to the program managers, those people who you are holding accountable.

It is amazingly difficult to figure out what that number is. It is very frustrating.

As far as procurement, that seems to be your strong point. What would you do?

We think there is so much more our Guard could be doing in the role that we are paying high-priced contractors to do.

The mistake, if there was one, was not understanding that you can't kill them all.

The biggest mistake we made is not understanding the reach of time and the resilience of those who are our adversaries.

There is going to be something after ISIS that will threaten our national interests in the Middle East or someplace else.

I'm concern about, basically, since 9/11, you know, and that's basically the start of what most people think, in America, started our engagement over in that area.

My bottom line is that we have an enormous national interest in prioritizing the de-escalation of this conflict, even over other important objectives.

An Iran that gains access to more than $50 billion of its frozen assets abroad and starts to increase oil sales will be an Iran that can devote more resources to nefarious activities in the region.

We are no longer faced with the terrible choice between using military force to set back the program for a couple of years.

The implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement last week buys valuable time and presents a real opportunity if we use that time wisely.

We must vigorously confront malign Iranian activity in the region.

This is a transactional relationship, not a transformational one.