00:00Afternoon everyone and thank you all for being here. I'm Senator Ted Budd from North Carolina
00:05and it's absolutely my honor and privilege to be here to welcome and offer congratulations to
00:11my friend and fellow North Carolinian on being sworn in today as Secretary of the Army. I want
00:17to give a special thank you to Dan Driscoll's family, his wife Dr. Cassie Driscoll and their
00:25two children, Daniel Jr. and Lila for sharing their dad, their husband with the rest of the
00:32country. Also I don't know if they're either back behind us or in this room here but the
00:38grandparents who I know have been quite busy for the last six months so we want to thank them as
00:43well. I have the, I know that Dan has the distinct honor of also being a classmate of our Vice
00:51President and they both have served our country in uniform and for that we are forever grateful.
00:58Dan, we're grateful for your service to our country and we know that you're going to make
01:03us proud in your new role as Secretary of the Army. So please welcome the Vice President
01:10and this new Secretary of the Army and his family.
01:30Great, everybody please be seated. So we're going to do a little swearing in here to make this
01:35official and I thought so sometimes when you do these swearings in you actually do them formally
01:42beforehand and then you actually do the one on camera just in case you screw something up in
01:46front of the cameras it still counts. We have not done that with Dan. So number one, that puts him
01:52under a lot of pressure. He actually has to say the words correctly and number two, that gives me
01:56an opportunity Dan, this is the last minute here. Anything, you know, anything you can promise me
02:01to ensure that we swear you in properly because the Senate's done its job and now it's time for me
02:06to do mine. But let me just say a couple of words here. First of all, of course, I want to thank the
02:10President for nominating a very, very great Army veteran, a family servant, a guy whose grandfather,
02:18father, and now himself has served in the United States Army to be our Secretary of the Army.
02:23If you look at our recruiting numbers just in the last month, you see a massive increase in the
02:27number of people who decided to volunteer, enlist, and sign up for the United States Army because I
02:33think that under the Trump administration under Secretary Hexeth and now under Secretary Driscoll,
02:38we have people proud to join the United States military again. Thank God for that because we
02:43need good people in our armed forces. We need great people in the United States Army. We have
02:48a lot of great people but of course the future really matters and I'm proud that under President
02:53Trump's leadership we have turned what was a recruiting shortfall into, I think, a recruiting
02:58boon because people are proud to serve the United States military as they should be.
03:03I want to say something about Dan and his wonderful family. So Dan has been a dear friend of
03:07mine for a long time. His beautiful wife Cassie, who's also an incredible physician, and two
03:13beautiful kids who are, I think, the most well-behaved kids I've ever seen of a Secretary
03:18nominee. You guys do a really good job. You actually listen to your parents, which is amazing, and I
03:23think it speaks well. If Dan can get... Daniel, you're eight, okay? Lila, how old are you?
03:30You're six. If you can get an eight and a six-year-old to listen to you, then I think you can sure as hell
03:34be the Secretary of the Army because these guys are a lot tougher than a lot of the
03:39soldiers that Dan will now lead. But we're proud of him. He's a man of integrity. He's a man of
03:44character. He's a man of great leadership, and I think that he will bring the Army to a place
03:49where we can be proud of it, where we can have meritorious service rewarded and commended in the
03:56United States Army, and where we make sure that we're promoting the best and brightest, we're
04:01enlisting the best and brightest, and when, God forbid, we have to send the best and brightest to
04:06America's wars, we do it with competence, with effectiveness, we do the job, and then we bring
04:10everybody home safely. That is what we need to do in the United States Army. I want to thank
04:15Senator Budd, Senator... We have a lot of senators here. Senator Britt, Senator McCormick, and of
04:21course Senator Ernst for their great leadership in helping shepherd Dan's confirmation through.
04:26We've had some tough confirmations, we've had some easier confirmations, and Dan has been on
04:31the easier side, and I think that is great testament both to his character and leadership,
04:35but also to the United States Senate and what they're able to do. So with that,
04:39I will turn our secretary-designate into a secretary by administering the oath of office. So
04:45Dan, if you would please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Daniel Driscoll, do solemnly
04:52swear... I, Daniel Driscoll, do solemnly swear... that I will support and defend the Constitution
04:56of the United States... that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States...
05:00against all enemies foreign and domestic... against all enemies foreign and domestic...
05:04that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same... that I will bear true faith and
05:08allegiance to the same... that I take this obligation freely... that I take this obligation
05:12freely... without any mental reservation... without any mental reservation... or purpose
05:17of evasion... or purpose of evasion... and that I will well and faithfully... and that I will
05:22well and faithfully... discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter...
05:27discharge the duties of the office of which on which I'm about to enter...
05:30So help you God? So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. Secretary.
06:06They gave us five minutes total for all of this, so this is going to be very fast.
06:11It is a privilege to stand before you today as the 26th Secretary of the United States Army.
06:16I first want to thank the President of the United States for his confidence and his trust.
06:21Next, I am forever grateful to the Vice President and Second Lady.
06:24This friendship has been the adventure of a lifetime. I cannot imagine where it goes from here.
06:29To Cassie, Daniel, Lila, both sets of our parents, my brother, thank you for everything.
06:34Couldn't have done it without you. To everyone I met on the campaign trail,
06:38it is incredible how quickly we went from strangers to friends.
06:42Arthur, thank you for pushing so hard to get this through.
06:45And then just the last thing, my commitment to this role, as the Vice President mentioned,
06:51is rooted in my family's long lineage of military history. We are a family that is
06:56grateful to have had the privilege of wearing the United States Army uniform,
06:59and we're going to fight hard for it. As Secretary, I will honor the Army's 250th-year legacy of
07:06service and sacrifice, and I will stay focused on my mission and shoulder my share of the task,
07:11as I know our soldiers will do. Thank you for being here today. I'm grateful for all of you.
07:15Great. Thank you, Daniel.
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