blumenthal: i'm glad you agree. as you know and as the department of justice has noted, it's not classified, we can talk about it openly. the bite dance -- by the dance -- bytedance is behold wrepb to the chinese government and it in turn controls particular doc to*bg -- tiktok. do you agree bytedance as control, ownership of tiktok is a threat to american national security? ms. bondi: senator this is pending litigation within the department of justice. i can't talk about that. sen. blumenthal: it's not litigation within the department of justice. it's in the courts. and the department of justice is currently defending the constitutionality of american law. will you continue to defend the law passed by the congress, defending america's national security? ms. bondi: senator, i cannot -- i would be irresponsible for me to talk about any -- it is pending litigation. sen. blumenthal: i was attorney general. ms. bondi: i'm not trying to hedge on anything. i'm having -- sen. blumenthal: i'm having a problem with the idea

blumenthal: thank you. >> the comments by blumenthal on power of the purse, as we debate this is so much of this is because congress hasn't done a good job with the parameters. with ukraine money, every week or two you'll see release of it and there's a great deal of discretion given to the president when it is released and how much is released. for example, in last fall when we passed the ukraine money, they decided to call some of it loans, so they did. and then a month later, they forgave the loans. and i was like wow, when were they supposed to start paying on the loans. i discovered the first payment wasn't to be made for 40 years. it's a loan, we're going to forgive it, when is are they supposed to start paying? in 40 years. there's a great deal of latitude. and if we want to limit what the president does, moving money around, which i'm sympathetic to, we have power of the purse. every piece of legislation we put out has a presidential waiver for national security. they always said if you don't do that, it's crazy. what about in times of war? they just use it for everything. you'll

blumenthal: i am astonished and aghast. that someone in this responsible of a position would in effect say the president is above the law, and that the united states supreme court is entitled to their opinion but mine should supersede it. it's just -- baffling. that we are in this i think unprecedented moment in the history of this country and i think our colleagues should be equally aghast. this issue goes beyond republican or democrat, it's bigger than one administration or another. it's whether the law of the land should prevail or maybe it is up for grabs depending on what the president thinks. i think it's fundamental and i hope you will reconsider this view. i'm going to put it in a question for the record to give you an opportunity to recast your answer, which i think should be disqualifying for both sides of the aisle frankly. because what goes around, comes around. the next administration could be democrat, could be independent. the supreme court in train versus new york said it is constitutional, that's been the c

blumenthal: what will you do to combat it? what will you do to stop isis and other extreme organizations from radicalizing? gov. noem: i will work the partners and the department of defense, the intelligence agencies and within secretary of state and the other branches and cabinet officials to make sure we're bringing all resources to bear to identify and to stop these terrorist activities. what i would say is the cybersecurity and intelligence elements that we have within the department of homeland security have been siloed. ina has some interactions but not enough and we also need to have cisa with the f.b.i., c.i.a. to stop these types of threats and identify when they're growing among our citizens. sen. blumenthal: my time has expired. this area of questioning is supremely important. i know there's a lot of focus on the border. we all want more border security. we want to stop migrant crime. but let's not take our eye off the ball. the governor of louisiana for the super bowl ought to be really riveted on the potential for

senator blumenthal for his opening words part sen. blumenthal: thank you mr. chairman. this cause must be bipartisan and it must be immediate. there is no question about the need to speak, streamline and safeguard access to community care and referrals to the kind of providers that are necessary to prevent the tragedies or near tragedies as in the case of your husband charlie suffered. i believe strongly that these two systems, private and va must be complementary, not competitive. overriding all of this debate is the need for more providers, more doctors and nurses, more psychiatrists. and social workers who can provide the kind of care that our veterans need and obviously the v.a. should not be in competition with communities for the numbers of scarce providers, skilled professionals who are necessary to provide this care. but we are here on a morning when all these programs are in severe and urgent jeopardy. the trump administration has announced illegally it will freeze federal aid for programs that are immensely important to veterans. this freeze will hurt veterans

with that i yield to the ranking member, senator blumenthal. >> think he is mr. chairman for thank you for being here today congressman collins as well to your family. lisa, jordan, cameron to all the visitors or who are here today many are veterans. i'm thrilled to be ranking member i have is chairman and friend senator moran. he and i have a strong working relationship. it exemplifies the bipartisanship that characterize the work of this committee. in fact even a paragon of bipartisanship in the face of the buffeting when polarization on other topics. i look forward to fighting and advocating for veterans in the face of some pretty heavy threats. i was chagrined in the inaugural address by president trump about veterans. i was disappointed to see in executive orders the hiring freeze will be imposed apparently on the va. i am hopeful that you congressman collins, going to be very blunt to be the kind of advocate our va admit veterans will need in this administration. there will be potentially heavy pressures on you to cut and/and reduce access and eligibility b

senator blumenthal. sen. blumenthal: thank you and ranking member lee for the last two years of remarkable leadership on this panel. we had to medically valuable hearings and a lot of insight and i'm hoping we will all continue working together in a bipartisan way as we have done on many of these issues. , thank you for your great work. --ms. cooley, thank you for your great work. you were overlapping during part of that time. some of the most productive and valuable work done by attorney general offices is in the antitrust area. you have been a leader. your office has worked cooperatively with connecticut. thank you for all you have done. how would you assess the general work now of attorney general offices? are they continuing to be a vital force in antitrust enforcement? ms. cooley: absolutely. we are seeing a resolution of attention -- revolution of attention in state legislatures. we are seeing state ag shops expand in antitrust. we are seeing funding for these groups in bipartisan fashion. we see it in

and you heard what senator blumenthal just said. he said he's going to to the inauguration because he thinks it's important for him to do so, that that's important for the role. nancy pelosi is not attending. alexandria ocasio-cortez, reportedly saying that she won't go either. and as i just mentioned, michelle obama, we understand, will not be attending either. we don't know the reasons, although certainly all of those people understand the important implications of their decision. what do you make of their decision? and senator blumenthal choosing otherwise? >> hey, listen, everyone's entitled to their own spot. and i think that, uh, i'd like to know where those five tickets are going, because i'd like to have them pretty good, pretty good seats up there on the dais. >> um, all right. and i understand you can smile at it, but, margaret, i guess the serious question here is, is it a mistake? um, to for pelosi, ocasio-cortez to sit out the inauguration, given the signal that it may send the blumenthal point of view, which is i think

blumenthal. >> miss blunt the clerk: ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr.tez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley.

blumenthal, thank you. i call on congressman kevin kremer. he's a former colleague in the house of our witness, the nominee and i now recognize senator kremer. >> thank you, chairman moran and the titles look god on both of you. it is a great honor and a blessing to be here to introduce my former colleague, friend, navy veteran, military chaplain, accomplished attorney doug collins. if we were to write up -- there's a lot of talk these days about people being "unqualified" for these positions when the reality is the only qualify occasion is that the elected people -- but if we were to write up the qualifications for v.a. administrator and secretary, doug collins' picture would probably be right next to a description. working with doug on big bipartisan things. i remember in the house, one of the most unusual things for me to get involved in was copyright law and looking out for the rights of songwriters and somehow doug's big personality and big brain sucked me right in and i'm glad i did. it was important work and precedents setting work in

blumenthal, no. the clerk: mr. murphy, no. mr. hawley, aye. the clerk: mrs. britt, aye. the clerk: mr. justice, aye. mr. risch, aye. mr. grassley, aye. the clerk: whitehouse, no. mr. husted, aye. mr. welch, no. mr. tuberville, aye. mr. bennet, no. the clerk: mr. kennedy, aye. the clerk: ms. hirono, no. the clerk: mr. scott of south carolina, aye. mr. booker, no. the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye. the clerk: ms. slotkin, aye. the clerk: mr. coons, no. ms. cantwell, no. the clerk: mr. cramer, aye. the clerk: mr. hoeven, aye. the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. the clerk: mr. cassidy, aye. mr. young, aye. the presiding officer: the yeas are 59, the nays are 34. the nomination is confirmed. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that with respect to the nome nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the bessent nomination be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cl

we just had senator richard blumenthal arrived. we are excited about that. i mentioned him and he was not here. >> cases in connecticut. >> that was mentioned as well. i'm going to finish up my time and go to senator lee and then senator richard blumenthal. professor newman, one of the bipartisan reforms we mentioned and addressed was the bill i have with the merger filing fees modernization act. from your time at the ftc, can you tell us a bit about resource constraints and how they affect resource decisions. additional resources can make a difference and bring money in. >> yes, first, if i could, i'd like to thank you for your work on that. it was a shot in the arm for a couple of agencies that had been underfunded, relative the overall growth of the u.s. economy for a fair amount of time. let me say at the outset that the agency is doing an amazing job with what they're given. but they can only do so much. when you see something like a spike in merger activity, the agencies go into triage mohs. -- mode. you would be neglecting your duties if you didn't re

in a moment we will get reaction from senators tom cotton and richard blumenthal.irst return to fox news chief war correspondent trey yingst there on the ground. >> good morning. after 477 days of waiting for israeli hostages, were release from hamas captivity on saturday morning for the women were paraded through gaza city across the stage before they were taken into the custody of the red cross. emotional moments as israeli soldiers reunited with their family members on the border before being flown to a hospital in central israel. the exchange was the second of phase one and the cease-fire agreement. include the release of nearly 200 palestinian prisoners but some of those prisoners were released into waiting crowds in the west bank city. dozens more of the violent offenders were exiled into egypt paid the current cease-fire deal is in jeopardy as the israelis wait for a list of remaining hostages set to be freed in the first round of the deal and then released for other siblings being held inside gaza including one female from the community believed to be alive

one of the people that thought he had something is blumenthal and he didn't.started freaking out that he didn't and they are going crazy because they definitely want to committees desperately get something on him. and last night, it seems like the pete hegseth camp was fielding all types of crazy calls wild inquiries from the media. they are desperate. this is their moment, democrats feel as though and you saw schumer say this was our chance to get the narrative back by beating up on pete. problem is he has already passed the fbi background checks. he passed this fbi background check. we already seen what you have. good luck with that we're not in the kavanaugh era anymore. >> lawrence: they want him to lose his cool. the problem is he has been doing this for 10 years. he has been going against the other side for years. he has testified on capitol hill when he was the president of concerned veterans, america. he has been fighting on issues for a while. is he well read on the issues. he writes books about the issues. so good luck i don't think they are going to

blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mrs. britt. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. mccormick. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. moreno. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. mr. sheehy. ms. slotkin. ms. smith. mr. sullivan. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. m

senator richard blumenthal, thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. and up next, more on pete hegseth and the republicans, unashamedly softball questions unashamedly softball questions and utter deference to dry... tired... itchy, burning... my dry eye symptoms got worse over time. my eye doctor explained the root was inflammation. xiidra was made for that, so relief is lasting. xiidra treats the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. don't use if allergic to xiidra and seek medical help if needed. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort, blurred vision, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. before using xiidra, remove contact lenses and wait fifteen minutes before re-inserting. dry eye over and over? it's time for xiidra. 10% loyalty program discount. >> that's $225 for the night. >> not bad. >> $155 for the night. >> hold up. how? >> it's easy when you know where to look. zhivago compares hotel prices from hundreds of sites so you can save up to 40%. you can save up to 40%. >> trivago is my

i don't know what to expect from senator warren or blumenthal.gh hopes. >> steve: i have a feeling they won't make it easy for him. >> ainsley: they aren't. he will be the one they'll target the most. this will be the first hearing. more people will be watching this one than all the others. i think they'll put on a show. >> maybe he is confirmed. >> brian: congratulations, will. >> i will lean on you guys. we'll go through the process but have fun. >> lawrence: you made texas proud. >> steve: we'll be watching. >> ainsley: where there is a will there is a way. >> bill: good morning. three big stories we're watching. senate arm

and, of course, senator blumenthal, i should note, is about to get a new colleague in the senate. we're going to hear in a few moments just from the man who has been chosen to fill vice president elect jd vance's open senate seat, now that he will be in the white house, his first national tv interview here next. >> after a big comeback, donald trump begins his second term. history unfolds live on cnn. join jake tapper and anderson cooper as the 45th president. >> i, donald john trump becomes the 47th donald trump monday at eight on cnn. >> my accountant, who uses unsecured email, has all my tax info, fraudulent tax returns due to identity theft increased by 20% last year. >> that's why lifelock monitors millions of data points for identity theft. lifelock for the threats you can't control. >> well, you're in the big leagues now. >> how was your vacation, sir? >> well, i needed one with your 10% loyalty program discount. >> that's $225 for the night. >> not bad. >> $155 for the night. hold up. how? >> it's easy when you know where to look. >> trivago compares hotel prices from hund

and, of course, senator blumenthal, i should note, is about to get a new colleague in the senate. we're going to hear in a few moments, just from the man who has been chosen to fill vice president elect jd vance's open senate seat, now that he will be in the white house, his first national tv interview here next. >> kobe believed in himself at the youngest possible age. >> it's one of the most remarkable stories in sports history. >> i want to be remembered as just a basketball player. >> kobe premieres january 25th on cnn. >> at morgan stanley. >> old school. hard work meets bold new thinking, partnering to unlock new ideas, to create new legacies, to transform a company. industry economy generation. because grit and vision working in lockstep puts you on the path to your full potential. old school grit, new world ideas, morgan stanley well, you're in the big leagues now. >> how was your vacation, sir? >> well, i needed one with your 10% loyalty program discount. >> that's $225 for the night. >> not bad. >> $155 for the night. >> hold up. how? >> it's easy when you know where to

who served so well, dianne feinstein, sheldon whitehouse, amy klobuchar, chris loomis, richard blumenthal, cory booker, alexi padilla, jon ossoff, senator butler and senator welch. they deserve a round of applause. [applause] i would be remiss if i did not note the amazing staff that brought us here as well on my side. extraordinary group of people starting with and swanson, philip rest. [applause] sarah bauer. [applause] stephanie angel, just clay, leak simmons. [applause] the high point of the last four years was when you kept your word and we were able to confirm justice ketanji brown jackson. [applause] if you are to be the first, you have to be the best, and she is, certainly the best by every measure. you kept your word and nominated her and we have done a great favor to the nation by following through. in closing, we are proud of the fact these nominees have bipartisan support, more than 80% of them received bipartisan support. i want to thank my friend and colleague of many years, chuck schumer. i nagged him and beat up on him and twisted his arm and did everything i could to get

charlie: deck blumenthal thought he was grilling kristi noem and he got burned and burned real bad.was the highlight of the hearing and real thing is fascinating and she did a fantastic job and was very respectful and she came with the facts and blew up pretty good in his face right there. rachel: yeah, seems like he's been living under a rock like the separation of the children during the trump administration was about separating them from the adults that claim to be their parents so we could actually make sure they were their parents before we sent them off with them into the country. by the way, it was democrats in congress who voted against dna testing to make sure these were their parents. meanwhile, he didn't want to talk about 340,000 children who our system lost track of and fallen into child labor, child tex trafficking, we have no idea where they are. the government hasn't been able to find them, donald trump ask famously in the interview that will, pete and i had with him last summer said i promise to find them. joey: tom homan said hey, we'll deport them as families, wor

we also got democrat senator dick blumenthal with us. we have much to discuss and we're going to find out if they get these people across the line on the confirmation. they are stuck with us in washington this weekend. that makes. >> jesse: "jesse watters primetime" right here snuggle up. >> bret: all right. thank you evil shannon bream. [laughter] good evening. i'm bret baier a senate vote is scheduled for later tonight on president trump's choice to run the pentagon. our "common ground" segment looks at the bipartisan effort to move some government offices out of washington in our whatever happened to report on the investigation into trump's assassination attempts. president trump just arrived in california. we expect some live shots out of there, soon. to get an update on the wildfires that have ravaged the los angeles area earlier today he surveyed the damage in north carolina from hurricane helene. during that visit, the president said he thinks he will recommend the abolishment of the federal emergency management agency fema. he al

blumenthal did a delay of game they finally eventually did meet. one who is going to sound off on him is tammy duckworth. she is going to challenge him, go ahead, about women in the combat role. she a wounded vet. pete has described that as that was my view as a war fighter. i worked for the president of the united states and president trump doesn't feel that way. he also cited how heroic women have been that he has served with. but his army national guard tours in iraq and afghanistan. his days over at gitmo. continue to work domestically and internationally his degrees from harvard and princeton. is he going to be a very unique secretary of defense. if you think you are going to rattle him and get under his skin. that's called every day when you are on fox. democrat attack him is not going to be unusual. he will have the answers. >> lawrence: i predict you will see the pete smile that he gives to a lot. >> steve: the pete smile. >> lawrence: the little smirk that he gives when they try to go after him. he has been doing this for a long time. i wo

. >> reporter: as strike teams head toward the flames in los angeles, all paul blumenthal can think of is 2017. >> we as well as other agencies were not ready for something so destructive. >> he sees parallels between what is happening now and what happened in 2017. that is when the tubs fire destroyed nearly 6000 structures. at the time it was deemed one of california's most destructive fires. >> that is a title you don't want but at the same time you don't want to lose it because it means somebody else has gone through something worse. >> but the biggest lesson learned is preparing for the worse. the sonoma county crews depleted their resources quickly but los angeles is ahead with something called pre-positioning when weather conditions are favorable. >> if we had a significant wind event we would do exactly what they did in southern california by having outstanding resources ready to go. >> another big lesson is the recovery process. they learned that the debris pick up, monitoring water systems and getting information to the public in a timely fashion makes all the difference. >>

blumenthal: it is pending litigation or you enforce that law. ms. bondi: i will talk to all the career officials. absolutely senator. chair grassley: senator tillis. senator tillis: thank you for the time we met. i was born in florida and have a lot of friends and family the follow for to politics pretty closely and you had a very impressive career there. i do also commit so for the florida alum university of tennessee. in some of these hearings i created a bingo card to see what some of my colleagues on the others out of the isle will have. i want to go to a back to a few of them really quickly. one was about you being a lobbyist on the paid foal -- on the payroll of qatar bread would you go back in case people didn't hear the involvement of your law firm and precisely what we're doing for the government of qatar. ms. bondi: i was proud of that work, it was antihuman trafficking in advance of the world cup and human trafficking has been something that's been very important to me my entire career especially when i was attorney general. >> you sen. t

blumenthal says he won't vote for it this time. a number of democrats voting for it.60 votes. when i look at the list, maggie hasen, jaeke rosen, gary peters have all voted for this. there should be enough democratic support coupled with republicans. there are only 52 republicans in the senate right now. they need to get to 60. they need at least eight democrats if everybody votes yes. the reason there is only 52 republicans in the senate is the seat occupied ponce by jd vance, it is vacant and we're told today there will be an announcement at 1:00 eastern time bio owe governor mike dewine to announce who he will send to washington in vance's place. >> bill: a lot to tie in there. chad, could the income president sign this into law next week? >> potentially but there will be some changes to this bill. there are amendment votes in the senate last night that altered what the house had passed originally a week and a half ago. they would have to ping-pong this back to the house of representatives because it is a changed bill now. this very well could be the first bill tha

background checks. >> thank you, senator blumenthal. at this point i want to submit a letter from captain wade zirkle the founder of vets for freedom and the person who hired pete hegseth to run the organization. although the 2008 financial -- he says and i quote pete responded to this crisis with decisive action by reducing staff and renudgeiateing all debts with creditors until they were fairly resolved. a testament to pete eva's character. pete departed vff in 2010 to take on a new role with concerned veterans for america. pete departed on good terms. without objection that will be added to the record. senator ernst, you are recognized for seven minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter submitted by mr. mark lucas, who is a fellow iowan and iowa army national guard member. mr. lucas and i served together in the iowa army national guard. he succeeded pete hegseth as executive director of concerned veterans for america and in his letter mr. lucas says that mr. hegseth quote laid a stron

connecticut senator richard blumenthal did not specifically ask hollins how he could intervene. >> but both said they are still seeing how other new executive orders like a federal hiring freeze could impact va services in washington. i'm jessi tenure. powerful winds once again. a concern for fire officials extreme fire conditions are sweeping across southern california. >> including the vulnerable palisades and eaton wildfire areas. >> thousands are without power as utility companies preemptively power down out of an abundance of caution. you see the winds there. chief meteorologist lawrence karnow. >> is with us with a look at what to expect yeah, so scary. get those wins when it's dry. but we've got active fires. extremely dangerous. firefighters really have done a fantastic job. >> maintaining control of those fires in very windy condition. now the winds have backed off a bit. now is still see a in around the coastline, though, malibu. still some of those gusts near 40 miles per hour there. otherwise those winds backing down to about 10 to 15, but red flag warnings have been posted

blumenthal -- ms. slotkin. senators voting in the negative -- mr. husted, aye. senators voting in the negative -- baldwin, blumenthal, collins, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, hassan, kaine, kelly, kim, lujan, merkley, murray, padilla, reed, schatz, schiff, slotkin, and wyden. mr. crapo, aye. mr. cotton, aye. mrs. mr. coburn and mr. cornyn, aye. ms. murkowski, no. mr. warner, no. miss also. the clerk: ms. alsobrooks, no. the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. the clerk: mr. ossoff, no. hegseth. the fox news weekend morning. co-host to be secretary of defense. we're watching this live along with you joining us now from the capitol's julie sirkin, nbc news congressional correspondent, who's been covering this confirmation process closely. julie, we're trying to listen, as i know you are as well. can you tell us what anything about how this vote is unfolding on the senate floor right now, how it seems like this is going? we obviously saw a yes vote there from joni ernst, a no vote from lisa murkowski. two closely watched female republican senators. >> and so far it i

thank you very much. >> thank you, senator blumenthal.as hoping she would have idaho at the top of hurleys. >> i'll let her say that. >> thank you, senator murphy. the floor is yours. mr. murphy: it gives me great pleasure to help introduce our fellow nutmegger as the president's to serve as administrator of the small business administration. this visual is a little amusing and surprising to folks in connecticut who watch the three of us who duked it out, but politics can't work if political grudges never die. and political adversaries have to find a way to work together after the fight is over and i am here to support linda not because we have become of one mind of how we approach this country faces, but i have confidence that she is going to give sound counsel to president trump and i believe she has the passion for this job that is vital. the s.b.a.'s mission is simple to help americans help, start and grow businesses. and every owner wants to one day to be the owner of a big business and before you sits a very talented and experienced

. >> and thank you very much, senator blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for having this hearing. thank you for being here, mr. hegseth. and i want to join in expressing appreciation and respect for your service to our country. and thanks to all the veterans who are here today, and thank you for your service as the ranking member of the veterans affairs committee, i hope we can focus on doing better for our veterans and doing better in management of the department of defense. there's always room for improvement. i think what we need in that position is not just better, but the best in financial management, because those decisions are life and death decisions affecting the 3.4 million americans who serve our national security and our national defense and put their lives on the line. i want to talk about financial mismanagement at the two organizations that you headed, which are the only test of your financial management that we have before this committee, the veterans for freedom and concerned veterans for america. you took over the veterans for f

and you know, i, i'm sure all of us have seen the max blumenthal confronting him. and his last day and also another investigative journalist. and then the western media being the last dogs that they were, went ahead and covered it as they were if is if they were protesters. and these are award winning journalist, they were trying to confront him as journalists should for his part. and these, unless wars afghanistan, you know, iran, iraq, and then of course, ukraine and the, you know, the proxy organs, russia. so, and then of course the genocide. so yeah, he definitely should be looked at whether he will be or not. we'll see right throughout the news out 24 hours into the seats for i was in is how most and the 1st phase of those held in captivity have taken place. 3 is very hostages were released back to that level as well. 9 to pass the in prison, those will freeze from joe a us official sided, clear explanations that have come to light in each case indicating a likelihood that the damage was accidental. and a lack of evidence suggesting russian culpability. offici

. >> senator blumenthal. >> thank you, madam chairman. dr.d want to pursue an senator klobuchar raised. i understand it's not your policy to support any particular brands and you feel now and you said to her in response to whatever questions that perhaps there was a mistake. wondering would you consider creating a sort of master list of brands that would be helpful to consumers? because after all you have immense power with your voice and credibility that would be helpful to consumers if you could such a master list of brands that you feel do work and are helpful. >> i would love to do that. and i been speaking to people i trust in the industry about how to go about it. my best estimate and love for other members offer this is probably 80% of the products which were made by 20% of the companies i high-quality rentable products by people who really do their homework. and our audited many different ways. 20% of the products were made by a lot of the companies who really are not that good. they are fly-by-night. the quality issues are major conc