of his senator, his senate colleague, lamar alexander.hey sat down for a conversation here on c-span about his book, and he talked about his first election in the senate in 1984. you were you were. well. well, i think all of us in the united states senate are political accident. not all of us will admit it, but we all are. and you surely were. yeah, it was 30 points behind in july and july. election year. so the bloodhound ad, what was that? well, it was a desperate situation. roger ailes, who's now pretty well known of it, could you find roger ailes that? well, he in those days, he was doing a political consulting, doing commercials. so he was willing to take on somebody in a democratic state who was 30 points behind. well, he had a couple of clients he thought were going to win that year. and me and me and i appreciated the fact he was willing to take me on. but i mean, this is a tough competitor. you can see how he started cnbc for nbc and started fox for rupert murdoch. here's the situation. and it was it was july of the election. i w

pursuant to senate resolution 1, the chair appoints the senator from south dakota and the senator from new york as a committee -- as a committee to join the committee on the part of the house of representatives to wait upon the president of the united states and inform him that a quorum is assembled and that congress is ready to receive any communication he may be pleased to make. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 2, which was submitted earlier today. the vice president: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: s. res. 2, informing the house of representatives that a quorum of the senate is assembled. the vice president: is there objection with the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the vice president: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed t

senate. he he used the issue and he encouraged these candidates to use the issue. and he was quite effective on the people he campaigned for. got elected to the senate and the republican took control of the senate in the 1952 election. and so in 1953, they had a majority in the senate and could could appoint people to committees and chair committees and control the agenda in congress and he became chair of the permanent subcommittee on the day. senator mccarthy, who had been a member of the government affairs committee, became chair of the committee and a the key investigative subcommittee within that government affairs committee. and that is the permanent subcommittee on investigations. so mccarthy chaired both of these panels and in particular, that permanent subcommittee on investigate issues, which is known as piece i became his vehicle for conducting the investigations that he did in the many, many hearings that he held. he built a staff. he hired some some some pretty prominent attorney

senator.w provides when there's a vacancy in the united states senate it is the governor who makes that interim appointment. and so i have the obligation to make an appointment which i'm told is last of the 2026 election. and december 15th is time when the new person who is elected or person continues to be run, be in office. so this is unusual situation. and it is a frankly a very heavy responsibility and its responsibility that i take very seriously. it was my honor and privilege to serve in the united states senate to represent the people of ohio for two terms, 12 -- 12 years i think i have a pretty good idea of what it takes to succeed in the united states senate what it takes to represent your state. as i was looking for the right person, i wanted someone who knew ohio. ohio is a complex state drive across it you think it is all farmland. and yet we have six or seven major metropolitan areas more than virtually any state in the union it is diverse in so many, many different ways. and it t

and by a vote of 67 to 22, the senate censured senator mccarthy. so that was a dramatic blow to his -- to his standing. he, you know, was -- never again shared a committee in the senate, and following that, 1954 until his death in 1957, he really became an insignificant member of the senate, no longer was he sort of the darling of the media, somebody who was, you know, often being courted and being seen as a powerful member of the senate. he lost all of that power, and ultimately he died while in office in 1937. >> he died young. do we know what he died of? >> well, he died of hepatitis -- the cause of death was listed as hepatitis.e and there is certainly people who have examined this have found that he was abusing alcohol a great deal as those years, as his standing fell and as he, you know, kind of wallowed in his fate, his drinking apparently increased a great deal, and that may have led to damage to his liver that ultimately took his life. >> well, we've seen and talked about joseph welch, the army lawyer. here's senator sheldon whitehouse, de

senator cornyn, senator lee, senator tillis, senator booker and i have introduced a bipartisan bill called the safe or supervision act. it focuses on the fact that federal probation officers have a massive caseload often morbid 100 folks. they are supposed to be closely supervised, and this bill would work on focusing supervised release resources on those who really needed and creating positive incentives for those who are willing and able to be rehabilitated and leave prison and are much less likely to reoffend. what is your experience about the need to support people when they get out of prison and to provide them with positive incentives rather than just leaving them to their own free will? ms. bondi: halfway houses, what you need, senator welch, are still important because people -- many people deserve to go to prison, but many people are going to get out of prison, and we did not want the revolving door. we want to do everything we can to make reductive members of society. and when someone goes to prison, i saw this every day as a revolving door. people get out, and first of all , bac

states senate. it also means restoring the senate as a place of discussion and deliberation. that includes empowering committees, restoring regular order caging extended debate on the senate floor were all members should have a chance to make their voices and the voices of their constituents heard. we have a lot to do this congress. more security comics in the tax reliefed delivered to the first trump administration burdensome trump administration burdensome extensive regulations help american businesses and families flourished. providing for a nation's defense increasingly unstable world. bring appropriation bills to the floor for serious deliberation so that we make the best possiblehe use of taxpayer dollars. overdo farmville to update farm programs are farmers and ranchers to reflect current agricultural needs. mr. president, the list goes on. mr. president, past years i listen to speeches welcome members and discussing the agenda for the coming months. i now find myself in the position of deliv

senator. yeah. having been a career prosecutor, i think i have a unique perspective because i was a state prosecutor, of course, prior to becoming attorney general. so i worked on a daily basis with local law enforcement and state and federal, not daily with federal. but i worked consistently with state, local and federal. then when i was attorney general, i worked with all three as well. i feel like we have to have better coordination among all our agencies, especially given all the terrorism issues that we've discussed earlier in this hearing. we have to wrap in and communicate better with our local and state law enforcement officers throughout this country. there are so many great men and women in law enforcement, and we have to i don't know exactly how yet, but we have to figure out a better way to work together with the federal authorities. >> thank you. and i'm going to do a second round as well. but i think i also check the bingo card for election denier. there were some people, you know, see

pursuant to senate resolution one that chair appointed senator from south d dakota and the senator from new york as a committee. as a committee to join the committee on the part of the house of representatives to wait upon the president of the united states and informed him for his assembled and that congress is y to receive any communication you may be pleased to make. >> matter present asking as consent of thena senate receivea consideration estrus to which was submitted earlier today. >> the clerk will report the resolution of excess risk to informing house of representatives a quorum is assembled. >> is an objection to proceeding with the measure? without objection the senate will proceed to the measure. >> matter present asking as consent the resolution be agreed to, the motion to read be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening actiont or debate. >> without objection. >> matter present asking asconsent the senate perceived consideration estrus three which was submitted earlier today. >> the clerk will report the resolution. >> quick senate resolution three, clic

if you are a former senator,-- when i came to the senate, dan coats was coming back to the senate. he outranked all of us. he was a former senator. jerry moran and i from kansas had gone to the house together, so we had the same amount of service and jerry had to draw an envelope, and he drew the wrong numbers for me so i was a senior to jerry, and all the time we were in the senate together, he is still there, so he is senior to me now. >> and we were there, and the most important desk is right over there right? >> the candy desk. you had a candy desk on your side as well? i was never allowed to get close to that desk. >> you could have come over anytime. >> we will talk about the election in a moment. senator blunt, i wanted to begin with you. as you know, the role of the senator is advice and consent. we are now in the middle of pretty serious confirmation debates, you have a new senate republican leader, someone you worked with, john thune how does he navigate a trial presidency 2.0, some nominees that will be contentious in ensuring the senate does its duty to advise and conse

>> senator, absolutely. thank you for that legislation and senator blackburn. i believe in this world right now we have to find the things we have in common and that is certainly one of them, protecting our children from online predators. you've done so much on that front and i thank you. i attempted to do that as well when i was attorney general. i'm committed to working with you on anything we can do to protect our children throughout this country. when i was attorney general we started something called from instant message to instant nightmare and educating parents about online predators. that also, senator, is one of the core functions of the f.b.i., the cyber unit. these agents sit there all day long and investigate child predators. we tell parents constantly you think they are talking to another child and they're not. >> i welcome your positive response. i have one more question that i will try to fit into this round. >> sure. >> tiktok will be banned unless it is sold because it has become a tool for the chinese to collect information and do surveillance

host: what senators stick out for confirmation time, who are the senators that tend to make a splash during these confirmation hearings? guest: obviously is dependent on who sits on what committees. on the floor is a lot different because you have the perpetual swing votes. susan collins, lisa murkowski, mitch mcconnell now that he is not in leadership anymore. mitch mcconnell has a singular focus for the remaining two years on his senator which is to continue to advance his national security doctrine, his foreign policy doctrine, how he sees the world, and that involves of course pushing back against what he sees as a more isolationist streak popping up at his party. in one of the ways he is thinking about doing that is on these nominations. so you have to really consider is mitch mcconnell going to vote for someone like tulsi gabbard or someone like pete hegseth? a lot of it depends on what they say during the confirmation hearings and how they lay out their case in terms of who to watch on the senate floor, i think those three. young that, some senators to have their pet issue the

i welcome to the committee senator brick, senator snits, senator crapo and senator schiff. welcome. [applause] >> before we get started, i want to set out a couple of ground rules i want to handle this hearing a similar structure how senator durbin handled the hearing of attorney general garland. i want everybody to want to watch the hearing without obstruction. if people stand up and block the view of those behind them or speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others. so officers will immediately remove those individuals. now before i turn to my opening statement, let me explain how we're going to proceed today. i'll give my opening remarks and then i'll invite ranking member durbin to give his opening remarks, then i'll call on senator scott and schmidt who introduce this nominee and following those introductions and ms. bondi's statement we'll begin the first round of questioning. each senator will have an initial seven minutes round for questions. after the first round we'll do a second four-minute round of questioning. members should do their very best to adhere to

senate. the person who u.s. senator, a person close to me the last six years, almost daily and all that tells me he is the right person for this. every major decision the last excuse as governor of the state of ohio has played a part in this decision. we might disagree on something even cases where different, it was held by input. he's been involved in so many things the economic development is something john has in his dna and in economic element so he certainly has that great experience and ran for the legislature the senate. then as lieutenant governor. and economic development. whether it is intel or an announcement yesterday john has been a major player getting his companies to come in the state of ohio. he's focus on energy, broadband and making government more efficient. i could go on and on. i believe and know john is prepared to be united states governor from the state of ohio. the senate rewards hard workers. it rewards those who lost to the fox and focus on getting things done. joh

i welcome to the committee senator brick, senator snits, senator crapo and senator schiff. welcome. [applause] >> before we get started, i want to set out a couple of ground rules i want to handle this hearing a similar structure how senator durbin handled the hearing of attorney general garland. i want everybody to want to watch the hearing without obstruction. if people stand up and block the view of those behind them or speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others. so officers will immediately remove those individuals. now before i turn to my opening statement, let me explain how we're going to proceed today. i'll give my opening remarks and then i'll invite ranking member durbin to give his opening remarks, then i'll call on senator scott and schmidt who introduce this nominee and following those introductions and ms. bondi's statement we'll begin the first round of questioning. each senator will have an initial seven minutes round for questions. after the first round we'll do a second four-minute round of questioning. members should do their very best to adhere to

senator. >> few nominees come into this room with all the necessary experience to do this job, to be secretary of defense. we get that. it's a reflection on just how big of a job this is. what i want to understand is whether or not you bring any of the necessary experience that this job requires. and here's where i'm concerned. senator coleman, in introducing you. and this is a quote he said he has struggled and overcome great personal challenges, unquote. you walk in here saying that you've had personal and character issues in your past, including heavy drinking, which you wrote about, and you said, and this is a quote from you that you said, i sit before you as an open book, yet you haven't actually said what personal challenges it is that you've overcome when you've been asked about them. so i'm going to give you an opportunity here to be as forthright as you say you want to be. so while leading concerned veterans of america, there were very specific cases cited by individuals about your co

bondi: yes, senator. chair grassley: senator padilla. sen. padilla: i'll just follow-up senator cruz's final comment with suggesting we include targeting those children who are victims of inscrupulous employers as well. happy to follow up with articles and reports as you prepare for this position. ms. bondi: i'm sorry, employers? i didn't understand that. sen. padilla: many employers who are employing and exploiting dangerous conditions these children we are talking about. ms. bondi, we have less time this round and the first. ms. bondi: darn. sen. padilla: don't have yes or no questions. but a couple important issues to cover for the record. when you were florida attorney general, you defended restrictive abortion laws, including mandatory waiting periods and parental consent requirements. if confirmed as attorney general, would you advocate for similar restriction it's federal level? ms. bondi: will i follow the laf the united states of -- i will follow the law of the united states of america. sen. padilla: there is a difference between fed

the staff, not the senators. that's not a big secret, but i've just revealed it to some if they thought it was a secret. >> who are some friends of yours from across the aisle? >> well, i had a number of folks i worked on legislation with. one in particular that i served 12 of my 18 years with was senator toomey, now we didn't agree on tax policy. we were diametrically opposed, didn't agree much on health care policy, so we had broad-based philosophical disagreements between the two of us, but we worked together to confirm a lot of judges. most of the more than 50 judges that were confirmed in my time in the senate from pennsylvania were judges i worked with senator toomey on, and it's a challenge for both sides to do that. i worked with him on some nursing home investigation that we did. worked with him on a number of issues that related directly to the state. so i enjoyed working with him, even when we didn't agree. d then in terms of major bills that started with me and started with a republican partner, richa

>> senator? i was falsely accused in october of 2017. it was fully investigated and i was completely cleared. >> i don't think completely cleared is accurate, but my the fact is that your own lawyer said that you entered into an nda and paid a person who accused you of raping her a sum of money to make sure that she did not file a complaint. moving on, as secretary, you will be in charge of maintaining good order and discipline by enforcing the uniform code of military justice, ucmj. in addition to the sexual assault allegations. and by the way, the answer to my second question should have been, yes. i have read multiple reports of your regularly being drunk at work, including by people who worked with you at fox news. do you know that being drunk at work is prohibited for service members under the ucmj? >> senator? >> yes or no? >> multiple. false anonymous reports pedaled by nbc news. do you know that directly contradictory to the dozens of men and women at fox news channel who i work with, i'm

you can see senator mcconnell just right here on the screen. he's on the senate floor. chitchatting with some of your colleagues. he was the senate majority leader not that long ago. he he was leading republicans in the senate trying to whip their votes at times. what does it say to you that he just came out and voted? i mean, he's not running again, so he's got that. but what does it say to you that he came out and said no to to trump's pick to run the pentagon? >> what it says to me is that he's voting his conscience and conviction. there is some question about whether he will run again, so he may feel liberated, but the fact is that the threats to my republican colleagues of primaries, of funding and contribution cutoffs have affected the outcome here. and as much as i admire his standing up, the rest of his colleagues have decided not to do so. and the vote essentially will have little or no meaning to the outcome, because jd vance will break the tie in favor of hegseth. >> but what does it say? that jd vance will have to come in and break the tie with, with the vic

i welcome to the committee, senator brit, senator schmidt. senator crapo and senator schiff. welcome. uh, before we get started, i'd like to set out a couple ground rules. i want to handle this hearing using a similar structure to how senator durbin handled the nomination hearing of attorney general garland. i want everyone here to be able to watch the hearing without obstruction. if people stand up and block the view of those behind them, or speak out of turn, it's not fair or considerate to others. so offers officers will immediately remove those individuals. now, before i turn to my opening statement, let me explain how we're going to proceed today. i'll give my opening remarks, and then i'll invite ranking member durbin to give his opening remarks. then i'll call on senator scott schmidt to introduce this nominee. and following those instructions, introductions and miss bondi's statement will begin the first round of questioning. each senator will have an initial seven minutes round for question after the first round, we'll do a second four minute round of questioning. me

>> senator? i don't have my security clearance, but from everything i've read and heard, isis is one of the greatest threats. >> okay, well, when you get your security clearance, you're going to find out these people are coming after us and they want to kill us. so i would like to have a strategy to deal with the isis threat that's beyond just the law enforcement model. does that make sense to you that we should use every tool in the toolbox, senator, that includes wrapping in our state and local officials to and better cooperation throughout our country and our world? i totally agree. do you support reauthorizing fisa in 2025? >> senator, i believe 702 is up in 2026. i believe it's 2026. and we will closely be looking at that. fisa is a very important tool that the. >> 702 provides important intel gathering capability to protect our nation. >> extremely important okay. >> so pam, you're about to step into a job that's one of the most important jobs in any democracy. let's go back to pardons. if

senator durbin. >> thank you, ms. bondi, if you are successful in this nomination the democrat would like to give you three words of advice, answer grassley's letters. you will never hear the end of it if you don't. at issue i believe in this nam notification hearing is not your competence nor your experience. at issue is your ability to say no. more than any other cabinet official, the attorney general has to be prepared to put the constitution first and even tell the president of the united states you are wrong. the political danger and personal costs of such a decision are well documented. you have only to ask former attorney general jeff session and bill barr who donald trump sacked for lack of loyalty. so i have three basic questions i would like to ask you. most americans believe that central to the peaceful transition of power in a democracy is the acceptance of the results of an election. to my knowledge, donald trump has never acknowledged the legal results of the 2020 election. are you prepared to say today

united states senate. it also means restoring the senate as a place of discussion and deliberation. that includes empowering committees, restoring regular order and engaging in extended debate on the senate floor where all members should have a chance to make their voices and voices of constituents heard. we have a lot to do in this congress. border secure, extending tax relief republicans delivered during the first trump administration, providing for our nation's defense in an increasingly unstable world, bringing appropriations bills to the floor for serious deliberations so we make the best possible use of taxpayer dollars, an overdue farm bill to update farm programs for farmer and ranchers to reflect current agriculture needs. mr. president, the list goes on. mr. president, in past years i've listened to speeches delivered by leaders welcoming the new congress and discussing the agenda for coming months. i now find myself in the position of delivering that speech. republican lg colleagues trusted me t

thank you, senator. senator klobuchar: thank you, senator. as you noted we have not one but two minnesota senators. we are blessed to have senator smith with us. >> thank you, ranking member. i want to say i share my congratulations to you and to chair boozman for leading this committee. i love serving on this committee. i love the bipartisan spirit that we have and i even love senator hoeven, who always forgets that i care about sugar in minnesota. ms. rollins: she even loves you, senator hoeven. senator smith: welcome to you and your family. i can see how proud your family is of you. i appreciated very much our conversation in nigh office -- my office and i appreciate your minnesota roots and connection in clear lake, minnesota. thanks for that. we have lots to talk about and i am going to get right to it. i wanted to start out by raising the issue of ethanol and sugar. i am so glad that senator klobuchar and senator hoeven have touched on those two issues. both of which are vitally important to minnesota agriculture. ethanol is homegrown e

states senate. it was a discussion of the senate, "the senate as a second branch of the legislative assembly distinct from and dividing power with a first must be in all cases a salutary check on the government. it doubles the security of the people. by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies and usurpation. i quote again that as the improbability of senators -- as sinister combinations will be in proportion to the dissimilarity in the genius of the two bodies, it must be politics to distinguish them from each other. by every circumstance will -- which will consist with the do harmony and all proper measures and with a genuine principle of republican government. the founders did indeed distinguish the house from the senate. they made the senate smaller, and senators terms of office longer with the intention of creating a more thoughtful, deliberative legislative body to check ill considered or tampered legislation and protect the rights of the american people. in the past 237 years, it is a

in the form suggested by the senate and thesess requirementsy the senate. if there is no objection, the reading will be waived and rented in full and the record. swan, they will present themselves in groups of four as their names are called in alphabetical order, the chair will administer your oath of office. the clerk will read the names. >> baldwin, mr. banks. >> the gang is all here. you solemnly swear you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic? will bear true faith and allegiance to the same you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose and you will discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter so help you god. congratulations. [applause] the clerk will call the next name. please raise your right hand you will bear true faith and allegiance really about mental reservation. congratulations. [applause] [applause] the clerk will call the name. mr. cruz, mr. curtis. please raise your right hand you solemnly swear you will support and defend th

, i loved the senate. i consider myself a scented man more than a president. so there were a lot of senators i did not have a relationship with, why -- why -- what could i do to answer their concerns? i decided to go to the senate dining room and i walked in the door, there was nothing there. no place in the senate where senators can say let's go have lunch together, gigantic loss, a gigantic loss. we used to take our sponsors with us, it matters, it matters. whatever it is when you think about personal relationships, the people you know and worked with have different perspectives, you can almost always figure a way through it, is the single greatest loss that we have is we don't know each other anymore, i'm serious, not a joke so if you are a good politician and get people to trust you you break your word in the senate or the house, goodbye, charlie. but if you say i've got to do this i know -- i get it, the end result of all this in my career i have been asked to do the eulogy of different people. strom

>> senator? in both of the organizations i ran, we were always completely fiscally responsible. >> yes or no? did you lead an audit and the way yes or no? did you lead an audit? yes or no? completely mischaracterized. you can't answer this question. yes or no? did you lead an audit? do you not know this answer, senator? >> yes or no? of my leadership? yes or no? yes or no? >> misrepresented. i will take that as a no. what were the findings, though? there were no findings because you've never led an audit. what guidance did you give the auditors? none. because you've never led an audit. nobody expects you to be an accountant. mr. hegseth, what we expect is for you to understand the complexity of this pentagon budget process that is absolutely necessary to outfit our war fighters. look, the secretary of defense is required to make quick decisions every single day that will with high level information that's being provided for them as secretary of defense has to have breadth and depth of knowledge.

and i heard it from senator grassley and senator thune and fisher and senator hawley.nderstand how much of a priority this is for you. as far as establishing certainty, hopefully this is something congress is able to resolve to the extent you're relying on the e.p.a. to establish that certainty, and i look forward to doing my part and i want to continue to work with you to achieve the outcomes we had discussed. >> great, thanks. we'll get into it in the second round of questioning as well. but i think it's really, really important that we get away from what the biden administration was doing with regard to trying to tip the scales towards their solution. that's how i interpret their delay on renewable fuels. we all want to reduce our impact on the environment and renewable fuels are one of the ways to do that and they wanted to push their solution to electric vehicles. electric vehicles can be part of the solution how we do that as well but we should focus on how american innovation -- and i appreciate the fact you mentioned this in your opening. american innovation is

senator. >> thank you. you know, we talked a little bit about the fact that the pentagon can't, uh, can't do an audit. right. um, can you talk about the to me, that's i've run big businesses. it's all about accountability. if you want to get an audit done, you can get an audit done. you might get a letter saying, hey, there's things you have to fix, but it all goes to accountability. and we haven't had it. so can you talk about what how what you bring how what you how you bring accountability to the table, what you've done in the past and what you're going to do with regard to bringing accountability to the pentagon. >> i meant it when i said it in the opening statement. senator, i know what i don't know. i know i've never run an organization of 3 million people with a budget of 850 billion. but what i do know is that i've led led men and women. i've led people, and it's leadership of people and motivation of people, and a clear vision of people where you build a team, cast that vision, empowe

. >>> senator ben cardin, you are retiring after three terms in the senate. why is now a good time to leave? >> i'm not retiring. i'm just not running for reelection. it will be 18 years in the senate. it will be a total of 58 years consecutively in elected office so i wanted to make the decision under my terms, running for reelection to the senate is a decision that's really made eight years before the end of the next term that you would be serving, and i thought it was the right thing to do. i have accomplished a great deal of what i set out to do. there's always more mountains you would like to climb. i thought it was the right time for someone else to take the seat. >> explain why you have to decide that eight years before the next term. >> a senate election you generally start planning actively for it as soon as the election is over, preceding a reelection year. really for a 2024 election, you have to make that decision in early 2023. and the term does not expire until six years after you're elected so i was, at the time, 79 years old, i would be 87 at t

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: i apologize, senator. the senator from idaho.to executive session to consider executive calendar 2, marco rubio of florida to be secretary of state. further that the senate vote on confirmation of the rubio nomination with no intervening action or debate. finally, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made, laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. crepe -- mr. crapo: i would also ask unanimous consent that immediately prior to the vote, i be given three minutes to debate and my distinguished colleague from new hampshire also be given three minutes to debate prior to calling the roll. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. all postcloture time is expired. the question occurs on amendment number 8 as amended. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. ms. baldwin. mr. banks. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. the clerk: mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. ms. blunt rochester. mr. b

senate, especially. and you know, john thune was clear in my interview with him this week that he is going to work weekends and nights and he is going to stay until all these people are confirmed. at some point i think democrats might get a little bit too tired and there may not be enough coffee, cappacino, expresso available for them. >> that's his plan if it continues to drag on like that. and then the long shot is this recess appointment thing. it would take a lot of different maneuvers for the house and senate to adjourn. he is open to it but leaving it in senator thune's hands. some democrats say they will vote for some of the nominees. but to make a stand and say -- >> >> hey, bret, if i can -- well, i just got word that tom tillis voted yes. that all be pretty much assures that jd vance at a minimum will be the tie breaking vote and he will be the secretary of defence. that is a big win for donald trump and obviously a big win for pete hegseth in what was a big battle on capital hill. so it looks

warren, followed by senator scott at senator whitehouse and then senator wyden would like to ask one more question. he gets the only extra question of the day. he and i will probably make a few brief remarks as we wrap up and we will be finished at that point. senator warren? sen. warren: thank you, chairman and welcome mr. bessent and your family. last month, president trump said he supports repealing the debt limit. so do i. there we are, donald trump and elizabeth warren are singing from the same hymnal. mr. bessent, let's make it a trio. do you agree with president trump that the debt limit should be repealed? mr. bessent: senator warren, first of all i enjoyed our visit in your office and appreciate the fact when i walked in you said let's talk about what we have in common, our love of cape cod, the red sox and addressing the affordability crisis and the housing shortage. the debt limit is a very nuanced convention. what i would like to do is get back to you and president trump, i would like to do a survey of market participants with this amount of debt. it is a very fragile equ

one of my priorities as a leader will be to ensure that the senate stays the senate. that means preserving the legislative filibuster senate rule that today is perhaps the greatest impact on preserving the founders vision of the united states senate. it also means restoring the senate as a place of discussion and deliberation including empowering committees restoring regular order and engaging in extended debate on the senate floor where all members should have a chance to make there were aces and the voices their constituents heard. we have a lot to do in this. border security extending the tax relief republicans during that first trump administration lifting burdensome and expensive government relations help american businesses and families flourish. providing for our nations defense and increasingly unstable world. bring appropriation bills to the floor of serious deliberation so we make the best possible use of taxpayer dollars. and overdue farmville to update farm programs for farmers and ranchers to reflect current agriculture needs. and the list goes on. in the

don't miss the senate. [laughing] >> a former senator from idaho came up to me and he said i want to tell you a story. when i first left the senate people would come up and say to you miss the senate? and i would say yeah, you know, i miss everybody. now they say are you glad you're not in thegl senate? and that, pat toomey was absolutely a foretelling of the direction that we're going if we don't ask americans demand more of the people that we elect who go into congress. >> we are glad you're here tonight at the edward m. kennedy institute for there study of the u.s. senate to adam hite and a great staff there, emily. everybody who's been putting this together thank you very much for joining us and please come back again. thank you for being with us. >> thank you all. >> adam? [applause] >> thank you. thank you all three of you for incredible conversation, bipartisan conversation on what works and whatwh doesn't work in the senate and politics procedure anddu policy. i want all of you who are here in perso

senator cornyn and senator young. senator joni ernst, who is up in 2026, sits on the senate armed services committee, had reservations about pete hegseth, is a combat veteran, is a sexual assault survivor. but she made it very clear moments after the confirmation hearing last week that she would be supporting pete hegseth. and we saw her vote on the floor today affirming that vote. so at this point, we're waiting for mcconnell. but it really does seem like this vote might be cooked, and it seems like pete hegseth will, in fact, be confirmed as donald trump's defense secretary. now, i've seen stranger things happen before. this felt almost like it could have been that moment where john mccain at the last minute, saved obamacare repeal several years ago. but since that moment, things have been pretty predictable in terms of how they're going to go both under the first trump administration, both under president biden. and this vote tonight had people really sitting on the edge of their seats. thom tillis wasn't even in t

this is what senator graham was talking about earlier. there's some people who are working hard on reducing emissions countries, um. and there are that are not. senator graham mentioned china and india is exactly right. you never heard this from john kerry, but the leader in the world in the last 20 years on reducing global emissions was the united states of america, the bad guys in terms of incre look at china through the roof. this is a fact. now, i've asked some of the biden administration epa officials, hey, why do you think this happened? i think we're the leader. it would be great if you said it as we are. and they would always come back. let's see. epa reds, wrong answer. the reason this happened is because of the revolution in the production of natural gas. where we have switched to natural gas as a more cleaner burning source of energy, and when we export natural gas around the world. ms. selden, what do you think that does to global emissions? brings it down, senator. it does. and these are facts. so my colleagues, i wish my goo

>> senator? yes, i do, because ultimately, our deterrence, our survival, is reliant upon the capability, the perception and the reality of the capability of our nuclear triad. we have to invest in its modernization for the defense of our nation. >> while former secretaries of defense have stated that nuclear deterrence is the highest priority, we haven't really seen that translated into budget requests or using the tools like the defense production act. you've spoken about increasing lethality. you've spoken about getting programs done faster. how would you actually implement a culture change so that we can see these delivery schedules move forward, be rewarded? i can tell you in most every briefing we have, the schedules we're on are too late. so what would you do? >> well, ultimately, ultimately focused first on the things that are most important. as we have discussed, senator, the nuclear triad, understanding whether it's the b-21 or the minuteman two, the sentinel, all, all aspects of the col