00:00Mr. President, I'm joining my colleague in expressing some frustration that we can't
00:04vote on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This is the kind of stuff that drives
00:09people crazy back home. For an individual that is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
00:15most people back in my state of Oklahoma think this has already been done.
00:19But to not be able to move on this, to literally have my Democratic colleagues block and to say,
00:24we're not going to allow the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or our military to be able to be
00:28there is just another one of those moments of Washington, D.C. gridlock and frustration,
00:32especially when this person moved out of committee with a vote of 24 to 4.
00:39That is overwhelming bipartisan support. There's just not controversy about this nominee.
00:45But now suddenly to be able to have a game to be able to say we want to be able to stall this out
00:49and maybe block this person until after Easter and so that we don't have a Chairman of the Joint
00:55Chiefs of Staff is frustrating for people to say, come on, just have the vote.
01:02So I joined my colleagues on the Republican side to say, what is the problem? Everyone knows this
01:09person's going to be voted on is going to be approved because there's such wide bipartisan support.
01:15But for my Democratic colleagues to say, nope, we want to drag this out for weeks.
01:19I just don't think it's the right thing to do. Clearly, they disagree. But I don't think it's the
01:25right thing to do.
Comments