mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of calendar number 452, s. res. 442. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 452, senate resolution 442, condemning the terrorist attacks in brussels and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate shall take up the measure. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 449, s. res. 394. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 449, senate resolution 394, recognizing the 195th anniversary of the independence of greece, and so f

mr. sasse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 25 minutes. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. sasse: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sasse: thank you. mr. president, i rise this evening to read into the record a portion of the "new york times" magazine's profile piece yesterday on ben rhodes, deputy national security advisor to president obama. before reading the article titled the story teller and the president i want to explain why i think this piece is so important to consider in this chamber. we live if in a time of precipitous change. we don't admit it enough in this body but the congress of the last decade-plus is extraordinarily weak by historical standards. at the same time the media is rapidly fragmenting. these two vacuums are being filled by the executive branch in ways that are badly damaging both to the separation of

mr. allen: ben sasse had a facebook post a few nights ago calling for a draft of an adult conservative challenger to trump. he predated it with hashtags "we can do better" and "give us more choices." mr. priebus: i think the amount of time, energy, money, and also it is a guarantee to elect hillary clinton. i think when people start to take a breath and let some of this stuff calm down people will understand the supreme court is too important to let differences of opinions and choices in the primary get in the way. mr. allen: republicans say there is no way to guarantee donald trump will nominate conservatives to the court. mr. priebus: i think the smart thing for donald trump to do would be to release five to 10 names of people he would say here are 10 folks i think would make great supreme court justices and work with people to come up with that list. i think things like that would be helpful in kind of recalibrating some people's minds as far as, what is this about, why do we need to support the republican nominee? i think we are going to get there. i don't think -- maybe some of you did. but

mr. allen: ben sasse had a facebook post a few nights ago calling for a draft of an adult conservative challenger to trump. he predated it with hashtags "we can do better" and "give us more choices." mr. priebus: i think the amount of time, energy, money, and also it is a guarantee to elect hillary clinton. i think when people start to take a breath and let some of this stuff calm down people will understand the supreme court is too important to let differences of opinions and choices in the primary get in the way. mr. allen: republicans say there is no way to guarantee donald trump will nominate conservatives to the court. mr. priebus: i think the smart thing for donald trump to do would be to release five to 10 names of people he would say here are 10 folks i think would make great supreme court justices and work with people to come up with that list. i think things like that would be helpful in kind of recalibrating some people's minds as far as, what is this about, why do we need to support the republican nominee? i think we are going to get there. i don't think -- maybe some of you did. but

mr. trump are lindsey graham, dean heller, and ben sasse. that's it. in the house, we reported last night that the two republican members of the house who are known to be explicitly opposed to mr. trump were carlos curbelo of florida, scott rigel of virginia. a grand total of five members of grus, three in the senate, two in the house. that would imply not exactly a great rift in the party. since then, though, four more members of congress have been in touch with us today to let us know that they would like to also be recognized as being crammed into that car. oh, really? yes, so behold, we happily correct the record. four additional confirmed members of congress from the republican party who say explicitly on the record today they are opposed to donald trump. so we've still got those three senators on the top row there. lindsey graham, ben sasse, dean heller. in the house, carlos curbele, scott mitchell. add eliana of florida, bob dole of illinois, richard han 1/2 new york, congressman reid ribble of wisconsin. we have spoken with all of their offices

mr. trump are lindsey graham, dean heller, and ben sasse. that's it. in the house we reported last night that the two republican members of the house known to be explicitly observed carlos car bell low and scott ridge. that brings us to five members of congress, three in the senate, two in the house. that would imply not evenings saktly a great rift in the party. since then though, four more members of congress have been in touch with us today to let us know that they would like to also be recognized as being crammed into that car. oh, really. yes. so behold we happily correct the record. four additional confirmed members of congress from the republican party who say on the record today that they are opposed to donald trump. we've got the three senators on the top row, and in the house we've got two and now we add iliana of florida, bob dold, richard hannah of new york and add congressman reed hribal of wisconsin. we have spoken with all of their offices today, they have all confirmed that they should also be crammed into that midsize sedan or station

mr. doug stark of omaha or senator sasse will introduce you. we'll save a little time as senator sasse usually takes the constitution of the united states the 40 asks a question. [laughter] >> mr. starr, is the presidency of credit from service of american frontier from credit. he has been with the farm credit system for 35 years. having served in several capacities begin as an assistant loan officer. during his career he also worked for the storm -- the farm credit system nation in washington for two years and its examiner and supervisor. mr. stark, thank you for joining us today, and hopefully we will turn to our distinguished ranking member for the next witness, but if not, i will try to do the best job possible. please go ahead with your statement. >> okay, thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member stabenow and members of the committee, appreciate the opportunity to test the path of the farm credit system. my name is doug stark and i am president and ceo of farm credits or visit of america come and frontier farm could headquartered in omaha a

ben sass overnight on facebook made a passionate plea for a third party candidate to emerge. i know you are quite supportive of this mren sass decides to do it himself. i think it'd kb great to have a young, conservative independent minded and willing to work across the aisle senator. on the stage with two elderly americans, donald trump and hillary clinton. who really are fighting the battles. >> i'm in my early 60s been they get social security, ben sass is in his 40s. think about the generation gap. i think someone like sass running would start off behind, there are a lot of hurdles to get over, it's doable though, if he could get into the bases, i think he could win. >> senator sass in the letter makes clear, he's not going to be the guy. >> i wouldn't say he makes it that clear. there are others, many others who are older and senior yeah. if it didn't work for john kasich, why would it work for somebody else now? >> john kasich was a flawed candidate. the republican candidates is different from a general election. and look, some candidate accept a choice between hillary clinton and donald trump. we think the coun

>> i'm optimistic that ben sass, tom coburn, even mr wimitt romn will look long and hard and say forcountry and keeping the senate -- because that conservative candidate could get out the conservatives and help save kelly ayotte and all those endangered senate races that without some conservative getting the conservatives out, donald trump doesn't save the senate. he flips it to the democrats. >> jeffrey, how does donald trump prevent not just the exodus but potentially a mass exodus from the republican party? you see so many people who are in these different stages of acceptance and some people refuse to accept. >> well, he does it the same way ronald reagan did it when -- excuse me voice here, victor -- when john anderson who was one of ronald reagan's opponents in the republican primary of 1980 abandoned the republican party, declared himself to be a third party candidate, insisted ronald reagan was too much of an extremist and so they left. that's what evan is talking about. it is the same thing. we've heard this before. you can go all the way back to the goldwater campaign when

mr. doug stark of omaha. senator sasse was to introduce you. we'll save a little time and senator sasse usually repeats the constitution of the united states before he asks a question. mr. stark, is the president and ceo of farm credit services of america, frontier farm credit, mr. stark has been with the farm credit system for 35 years. having served in several capacities beginning as an assi assi assi assistant loan officer. he also worked in spokane, washington, for two years as an examiner and supervisor. mr. stark, thank withdryou your joining us today and hopefully we will turn to our distinguished ranking member for the next witness. but if not, i will try to do the best job possible. please go ahead, sir, with your statement. >> okay. thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member stabenow, members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to testify on behalf of the farm credit system. my name is doug stark and i am president and ceo of farm credit services of america and frontier farm credit headquartered in omaha, nebraska, and manhatt

mr. ericson, to look for a third-party candidate now. who is it going to be? >> well, that's part of the problem is finding one. a lot of names are being circulated, ben sass list for a lot of people. the deadline for a write-in candidate or an independent candidate in texas came today though that arguably could be challenged but it's tough. there are multiple fronts moving at the same time, and it's not just the establishment republicans who are opposed to trump, a lot of activist conservatives who really oppose trump on social and fiscal issues. >> right. okay. ben sass, according to my reporting has said that he does not want to be considered. so -- >> right. >> if we took him out, mitt romney, would he want to be considered? >> i don't think mitt romney wants to be considered. i think mitt romney probably would play a role, but he doesn't want to be considered. he's already run twice, so finding -- finding a third party to run actually is the difficult challenge right now and a lot -- >> why do it because governor rick perry, he got into dustups with trump but he is now going to support him. bobby jindal, another presidential candidate says he's going

mr. trump's equanimity with other flaws in his history we can believe it's a bombshell of unusual size. >> he and others like sassetical of him. and donald trump sat down with greta van susteren about the lack of release. >> will you release the eighth year back, will you do that? >> number one, it would be meaningless. i have to see how far back it goes. when you go back eight years -- >> but people are suspicious you're not release because in january of 2012 you said that mitt romney was making a big release by not releasing his. >> but he wasn't under audit. i'm under audit. no lawyer would say release -- >> i agree. i'm a lawyer. >> i'm under audit. >> i would say not to release. >> there you have greta saying if i were your attorney i would not have you release it given the audit is not done. so do the people on the streets of america care about what mitt romney has to say or what's inside donald trump's taxes? just about 40 minutes ago i was out on that street asking folks and this is what they had to say. >> what does mitt romney know anyway? he's so irrelevant, he's so 2000 whatever. wasn't mitt romney lat

nebraska ben sass and one of trump's biggest critics and reportedly ohio governor john kasich who dropped out just a couple of weeks ago and both flat-out said, no. let's discuss this with mran williams. ryan, welcome back. let me just ask the obvious. perhaps he's hung up presidential aspirations he had but why not mitt romney? >> i haven't talked to the governor about this and i think he's made it clear he won't run as a third party candidate and made the views clear on the field and the state of the race. >> then why keep floating all these names? i mean, ben sass, all over the country trying to get folks not to vote for trump but they're saying no. >> i don't know how accurate the media reports are on the activity but reince priebus said -- >> we have the sound. roll it. >> it's a suicide mission not only changing and throwing out eight years of the white house but generations on the supreme court. look. we could have up to three justices change over in the next eight years and this is a suicide mission. it is not right. >> so you agree with him, reince? >> i do agree with him. i think at this point the choice is donald trump and hillary clinton. it's up for everybody

mr. trump? >> i could barely understand it. if donald trump says it's not him i believe it's not him. >> reporter: latest controversy amid efforts for a third-party candidate to derail him. ben sass those third party bids, time is running out. there's no clear candidate, no clear money commitments and the pathway itself not super existent at the moment. for donald trump, he has been pushing back hard on that "new york times" story, saying one of the main people spoken to in that story has come out this morning and, quote, blown it all up. it will be interesting to see how he acts going forward. many times he ended up using that to pivot and increase poll numbers. you can bet, guys no, doubt about it, donald trump will have to face this head on. >> interesting to see what happens in the next few days. phil, thanks for all of that. our cnn political commentators, jeffrey lord, trump supporter, and former director. and ana navarro. >> elevating women to the highest positions in his company at a time when other real estate moguls were not doing so. it also shows donald trump objectifying women, giving them unwanted kisses on the lips, talking about their weight and their looks. how s