the house and senate armed services committee has appointed 8 commissioners to review biden's foreign policy. not surprisingly, they came straight from the defense contractors, me, i, in the in the, the pentagon can't even keep track of all the billions of dollars poured into it consistently failing multiple audits. the white house wants to keep the war and ukraine on a role, and military corporations have no objections. ukrainian embassy has even hosted military corporate patients as guests of honor, known forever that ukraine is the most corrupt country in europe. the entire mainstream media in the west knew that up until february 24th of last year. and then they conveniently forgot that that particular thing when they began praising the plucky democracy in ukraine and how they're fighting for our values. well, it's certainly widely known to us military contractors, lockheed martin, racy on the other hand, made record profits out of the ukraine. war for the entire system is corrupt. you have a revolving door between government officials and so called private sector defense contracti

maria: joining us he tennessee senator a member of the senate armed services committee and senate commerce committee marsha blackburn is here great to see this you morning thanks very much for being here i knowure back from border i want your take on that as well, first she says, the president did all the right things,by handing over this and she says has no idea how they got there, what do you make of all of this? >> well, there are two tiers of justice we have seen that very clearly, and doj is making that very clear right now. and also, we see that if a republican does something they are going to throw the book at you. if democrat does something they are going to give you every possible opportunity to say oh, this was a mistake oh, irdidn't know. they allowed the justification maria this is one of the things people are so fed up with. because, they know, doj is not even handed in this look what they did to president trump carrying that away then turn around see this biden, documents there penn biden center knowing anybody could have access to these. seeing them in an office in d.c. not

senator dan sullivan from the senate armed services committee. mr. alk to get weapons to ukraine? >> hey, stuart, great to be back on the show. and you're asking the key question. and what's been the fundamental problem with the biden administration since the beginning of this war is on every single issue -- and this is the latest one with the f-16s -- can they have slow walked matters, and in congress -- usually the senate, by the way, usually a bipartisan senate has pushed them to make right decision. the list is so long, it would take me hours to talk about it. but let me just give you a few examples. initially, the russian inport ban on oil -- import ban on oil, we were going to import the russian oil into the united states, they weren't going to do that. we pressed hem to do that. himars, artillery, different weapons systems. this is the latest one. i talked to general milley about the f-16s this past summer, they thought they were getting there. so this is a huge turn-around that the president just mentioned, and it's the more of the same. congr

so the chair of the senate armed services committee jack reed was actually here in kyiv just the otherbradley fighting vehicles, which look a lot like tanks but they're not as heavily armored as tanks will actually make a difference in allowing ukrainians to push through the front lines and break through and exploit new gains, but ukrainians have been asking for actual tanks as well. what they have gotten is similar fighting vehicles from the germans and the french. but the reason why the u.s. is hesitant to send tanks is because, frankly, they gusle a lot of gas, which makes it difficult to get fuel to the front lines. they also are very difficult to maintain, and so perhaps they're more of a headache than they're actually worth at this stage. but they're hoping the bradleys will do for now and the other countries will step up with their own tanks. >> hopefully they'll make use out of them. >>> still to come this morning, we're learning a whole lot about the royals from prince harry himself, including intimate details about his time in afghanistan and how he felt around his mother's d

and, jake, the chair of the senate armed services committee, jack reed, was in kyiv just as the whiteed a new round of military aid which includes the bradley fighting vehicle. i asked reed whether sending those might lead to the u.s. sending actual tanks, which kyiv has also been requesting, but he said there is simply no connection there. >> thank you so much. >>> coming up next, what to expect as house members head for a 14th ballot in attempts to find a house speaker. stay with us. 90% clearer skin a, after just 2 doses.. serious alallergic reactions and an increased riskk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. ♪ ♪ it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. hey, thanks for helping me out. of course. you can easily get helpful customer service over the phone or on the progressive app pretty much anywhere. like at the coff shop, at the park, or on the moon. justidding. it's another coff

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she was a member of the senate armed services committee. john finer, i will start with you, what was behind the decision and what can be done in the meantime, given these tanks won't be processed and prepared and shipped for a long time? >> it's a good question. there are two main factors behind the decision to provide the abrams tanks alongside our german partners, and they really are the two overriding motivations that the united states and president biden have had throughout the conflict. one is to get the ukrainians what we think they need to be able to defend their territory. we have done that at every phase of the war, starting with the initial phase when we got them antiaircraft weapons. got them artillery for the next phase of the war, the standoff in the eastern part of the country. now the focus is on the armored vehicles. the second part of the decision is maintaining allied unity, and we have been able to announce the deployment of these tanks in conjunction with our key partners, the germans who will be providing leopard tanks

because i review classified material as a senator on the armed services and foreign relations committees do it, it's always in a classified facility where i don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. so, that's why there needs to be this independent investigation, independent prosecutor. how many documents are we do?a haor hundreds? how serious are they? why were they taken? did anyone have access to them? and then is the president being cooperative? i think by all accounts it suggests, yes, of course he's being cooperative, as anyone should be. but these are the reasons why this independent prosecutor and an investigation is necessary. >> yeou're one of the few senat democrats who have said you have concern about this issue. i wonder, how concerned you are and politically, doesn't this damage the white house and the president in terms of trust and credibility? >> well, again, those questions do depend on the answer to the -- we'll get in this investigation. margaret, you know this, government has a tendency to overclassify. if they are looking at a documen

the senate foreign relations committee has been a surprise. i wanted to be on the armed services committee, where i was my first couple of years. had to go off to be on the finance committee. i asked for a waiver to be able to serve on both armed services and finance. that was declined, but they said we would like you to serve on foreign relations. and they wanted me to be on our leadership. i kind of reluctantly did it. it has been great, it has been really interesting. i have a lot of contacts from my days as u.s. trade rep. america's place in the world is what that committee is about, ensuring america continue to play a role in keeping the peace, keeping the lanes of commerce open, encouraging democracy and freedom around the world. and so, that's been a lot of fun. it has been an interesting committee. greta: most significant legislative achievement? sen. portman: oh, you know what it is? it is really the process we have gone through, which is to reach out to democrats, find that elusive common ground, and help get something done to help people in our state of the country. th

. >>> let's continue the discussion now with democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut a key member of the armed services committee. i know you're just back senator from this bipartisan delegation you were on. you went to kyiv and met there with president zelenskyy. how significant is this apparent breakthrough for the u.s. and allies to start providing abrams and hleopard battle tanks to ukraine? >> profoundly significant, wolf. we heard again and again, not only from president zelenskyy but from his top military leaders that these tanks, remember the firepower, the armor they have, the mobility are essential to defending against the on slot, the russian offense that is anticipated not months from now but literally weeks away. one of the key military leaders said to me why don't you trust us? in effect saying we have used what you've given us to such great effect, they pushed them away from kyiv, the russians. they made major progress in the east now the conflict is deadlocked and the crewukrainia want to mount their own counter offense. here is the key point, wolf. time. time is of the essence. time is not on th

senate doesn't exist. i've heard suggestions they were going to cap defense spending. hello, the armed services committee, appropriations committee, the senate, they're all going to have a say on this matter. how can those types of concessions be made to a group -- this chaos caucus? it's almost as if it's almost better to be an opponent to the speaker than to be an ally because look at what these guys have extracted out of him. this is going to get much harder to govern. then there's the debt ceiling. >> right. >> we even talked wait until that comes around. how are they going to be able to pass a debt ceiling. there are going to have to be spending ties to it. the senate will be involved. the president will be involved. they're going to have to renege on that concession. >> one of the next things that's going to happen in the near future, alice, is committee assignments. this is not entirely up to speaker mccarthy. there's a steering committee that assigns members of congress to the various committees. how do you expect or where do you expect some of these conservative rebels, as we've been calling the

. >> i review classified material as senator on the armed services and foreign relations committees. when i do it it's always in a classified facility where i don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. >> there is a lot of that on the left side of the aisle as democrats are revisiting president biden's claim he has no regrets. >> i think he should have a lot of regrets. >> back to his house in wilmington, after a special counsel was named and before the f.b.i.'s 13-hour long search of his home which adds to a long list of questions from republicans doing oversight of this. >> this has all the pattern of an influence peddling scheme and it also has the makings of a potential cover-up. >> on the contrary according to the white house special counsel. >> that's why the president and his lawyers offered up unprecedented access to every single room of the president's personal home to insure that any documents that need to be properly in possession of the government are taken and in proper possession of the government. >> as lawyers here worked on a carefully-

. >> fox news senate top democrat on the house armed services committee took the following shot across the aisle. >> haven't put a plan on the table. you don't like the idea that there were going to raise the debt ceiling? we hear big statements i would need to cut spending. what needs to happen right now since republicans don't want to raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending, obviously don't to raise revenue. put a plan on the table. what are you going to cut? >> new republican chairman house foreign relations committee said u.s. military budget should not be on the chopping block. >> i will not sit back and watch our defense been cut at such a dangerous time in our history. you have one dictator largest invasion of europe since world war ii presented dictator threatening the pacific the greatest generation liberated. >> the white house says there'll be a large range of topics discussing the president meets the new house speaker for the first time face-to-face. eric: will be all of that meeting to see what happens thank you. arthel: it is been -- it has been four weeks to the

. >> i review classified material as a senator on the armed services and foreign relations committees. when i do it, it's in a classified facility where i don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. so, that's why there needs to be independent investigation and prosecutor. >> president biden is back at the white house after a weekend at his beach lous in delaware, while he was getting off marine one, he mouthed to the press he would talk to them later but none of his events this afternoon are open to the press. sandra. >> sandra: peter doocy live at the white house, thank you. >> john: bring in california democratic congressman ro khanna, on the house oversight committee. it's going to come across your desk soon if it has not already. 13-hour search of the president's wilmington home over the weekend, thought they were running out of places to search but apparently they haven't, and the fact some of the time as a senator, more than 14 years ago. that is a long time to hang on to documents that you are not supposed to have in the first place. >> well, look

. >> i review classified materials as a senator on the arm service and foreign relations committee's, when i do it it's always in a classified facility where you don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. so that's why there needs to be this independent investigation, an independent prosecutor. >> trace: senators and vice presidents don't get to walk out the door with classified documents, and yet a lot of members of the media are still making excuses for joe biden going forward. >> that's right, and it is really revealing to see how the media are handling this, and all of the pond ends the talking heads who are generally allies of the president if you will, some of them are defending him, some of them have suggested really wild things like this was planned, the quantified documents were planned by the republicans come about what they have access to joe biden's home in that box next to the corvette? on the garage? probably not, so that's ridiculous. we also heard that joe biden also declassified the documents. that's interesting, as a senator and the vic

. >> because i review classified material as a senator on the armed services and foreign relations committees. when i do it, it's always in a classified facility where i don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. so that's why there needs to be this independent investigation and independent prosecutor. >> white house officials are stressing they invited or biden officials invited the fbi in to the president's home. they say that federal investigators, the investigators that showed up in wilmington had access to every room in the house. they call that access unprecedented. there's still some republicans on capitol hill doing oversight into this who think that there might still be more to this than meets the eye. >> the house oversight committee chairman says this document situation has all the makings of a potential cover-up. is president biden involved in a cover-up? >> we have been very clear here from this administration, the president has been very clear that he takes this very seriously when it comes to classified information, when it comes to classified doc

. >> i review classified material as senator on the arm services and foreign relations committees but i do do it, it's always in a classified facility where i don't have access to the materials other than to sit there and read them. reporter: there's a lot of that going around as democrats are also now revisiting president biden's claim he has no regrets. >> i think he should have a lot of regrets. reporter: president biden did go back to his house in wilmington after a special counsel was named and there the fbi's 13 hour long search of his home which adds to a long list of questions from republicans doing oversight of this. >> this has all the pattern of an influence pedaling scheme, and it also has the makings of a potential cover-up. reporter: on the contrary according to the white house's special counsel. >> that's why the president and his lawyers offered up access, unprecedented access i should add to every single room of the president's personal home to ensure that any documents that need to be properly in possession of the government are taken and are in proper possession of

also member of the intelligence and armed services committee senator king joins us on the heels of a count them, 15 rounds of voting kevin mccarthy can call himself speaker of the house. ryan nobles has the latest on the gop infighting on full display and what comes next. >> reporter: for kevin mccarthy now the real work begins. >> that was easy. huh? >> reporter: three days removed from the climb to the speakership facing a major challenge. the house is set to vote on a rules package filled with concessions to make to win over the rebel republicans. among them the opportunity for any member of the house to call for a vote to remove the speaker, creation of a broad investigation committee to reviewing on criminal investigation, and a requirement 72 hours to review legislation. moderates raising concerns that he gave away too much. >> i'm concerned that common sense legislation will not get through to a vote. >> reporter: after the drama the gop claiming they are ready to work together. >> it is a tough job to get to 218 but i believe he is the right guy. >> reporter: endured 15 round

. >> harris: in "focus" now senator rick scott, member of homeland security and armed services committee. great to have you in "focus." look, i laid it out for what's at stake. the time numbers are really alarming. ten years or less it will go by very quickly for people who totally depend on those programs, medicare and social sec security. >> i would never cut medicare or social security. i will do everything i can to make sure there are no cuts in medicare and social security. the democrats all voted to cut 280 billion out of medicare last september and biden signed it. 280 billion they cut and want to say other people will do it. here is what we have to do. we have to grow our economy. here is what's going on right now. the left, the big government crowd, wall street are saying you have to spend more money, borrow more money and they are the ones telling us this and they say if you don't all the world will fall apart and we'll have plagues the moses would flinch at. we have the money now to pay social security, medicare and military but we need to get rid of all the waste. so much was

armed service committee. i remember one time senator gramm came back, i think he had shared the idea with you and you said, that can be done, that's impossible because i tried one time. dick said that just makes me want to try that much more. with brian gunderson and others on the team, after three or four good years of getting it done, it got through and it continued for many, many rounds and saved billions and billions of dollars. but there are lots of other issues. he took on school choice back when even the first bush admits it was opposed to. i think a first goal was to get a majority off republicans to an out party orthodoxy but it was a long time. public housing reform jack kemp, walter fauntleroy and all the others in those days. act subsidies which people thought about you couldn't touch. protecting the homeschoolers which i think to this day probably shut down congress more than any other project i've ever seen.. but he just had remarkable success across right of issues, and i think of other house members were senators who left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work, i think of maybe ted ke

armed services committee. i member at one time senator graham came back i think each share of the idea with you you said that can'te done, that's impossible because i tried it one time. in dick said that makes me want to try that much more. with brian and others on the team after three or four good years of getting it done it got through and it continued for many, many rounds and save billions and billions of dollars. but there are lots of others he took on school choice in the first bush of ministration was opposed to it. first goal was to get a majority of republicans to vote for. now it's a party orthodox it wasn't for a long time. public housing reform with jack kent, and all the others in those days. egg subsidies which you heard about people thought you could never touch. protecting homeschoolers which i think to this day probably shut down congress more than any other project i have ever seen. but we had remarkable success across a variety of i issues. i was trying to think of other house members or senators who left a legacy, who left behind such a big body of work. i think it may be ted kennedy on the oth

armed services committee. and i remember one time senator graham. he came back. i think he had. it shared the idea with you and you said that can't be done that's impossible. so i tried it one time and it goes i just that just makes you want to try it that much more and so with brian gunderson and others on the team after you know, three or four good years of getting it done it it got through and it continued for many many rounds and say billions and billions of dollars. but there are lots of other issues he took on school choice back when even the first bush administration was opposed to it when it was i think our first goal was to get a majority republicans to vote for it and now it's party orthodoxy, but it wasn't for a long time public housing reform with jack kemp walter faunt roy and all the others in those days ag subsidies, which you heard about which people thought you could never touch protecting the homeschoolers, which i think to this day probably shut down congress more than any other project i've ever seen but yeah, we just had remarkable success across a variety o

commerce committee as well who shaped national broadband policy including the broadband data act much through the hard work of senator wicker and his staff to put these efforts in place. the armed services committee is going to be very fortunate to have mr. wicker as a part of that as well for the work they do tirelessly every day and then turn this over to senator thune. >> thank you for having today's hearing and let me begin by saying that it's been a pleasure to bring you to the subcommittee with you the past couple of years and i look forward to continuing to work with you on a number of important issues before the subcommittee next congress. one of those is and shoring there's access to reliable broadband services. the expansion of the services to more rural areas have been a priority of mine here in the united states senate. since march of 2020, congress allocated billions of dollars for broadband related services through covid-19 packages and most recently the passage of the infrastructure bill to provide a broadband funding with a price tag of over $64 billion. the nearly 80 billion on broadband's specific projects on top of the billions of dollars they disperse annually under

let's bring in senator tom tillis from north carolina who serves on the judiciary, banks and armed services committeesr take on the breaking news of the fbi that we now confirmed that they did go in to the penn biden center and look for these documents november 2 and the white house never disclosed this. it makes you think what else are we not being told in this thing? >> well, if you think about it, the white house spokesperson has been saying we've been clear and we've been transparent. this is a clear example where that is not the case. the investigation on all the classified documents that were found out of a classified setting are fair game. the independent counsel is tasked with that and should have access to it. i want to raise another point. it's absolutely appropriate for marco rubio and mark warner, a democrat, who have been requesting access to these documents for some time. there's two types of classified documents. one, it's classified, doesn't necessarily disclose methods, the identities of agents that we may have a broad and there's ones that done. whether it's one document or a thousan

senator widen off camera when he said that, ron widen of oregon said that the executive branch said you cannot see these documents. he said he won't accept stone walling. john garamendi sits on the armed house services committee and others joining me now. congressman, good to see you back. i'm wondering what you make of what senator widen and other democrats and republicans have been saying about how the administration or maybe through the justice department itself is deciding who gets to see what and when? >> well, let's just take this thing piece by piece along the way. first of all, the senate is looking and wanting to get ahold of the actual classified documents that were at mar-a-largo. that dates back to almost a year ago. and the documents at the trump residency were actually requested by the actual archives because of the presidential records act in which the records, documents, not necessarily classified, but other documents that were developed during the presidency, those are public documents. that dates back to the nixon period. so the archives here is not about classified documents. it's about presidential documents. in their effort to get the presidential documents, they came across the classifie

gas production on federal lands to the house committees on armed services, agriculture, and energy and commerce and natural resources as well as the senate committees on energy and natural resources, environment and public works, armed services, and agriculture, nutrition, and forestry. this simple, good-governance amendment allows congress to take back its article 1 authority and our system of checks and balances. without my amendment, the plan to bolster our democracy energy supply will be filed away and never seen again. this will provide transparency for the administration to carry out its congressional congressionally authorized duty. more than 50% of my congressional district is federal land and accounts for nearly 44% of colorado's natural gas production. the underlying bill requires the administration to be responsible for their actions. if joe biden and secretary granholm continue to dip into the strategic petroleum reserve, they must have a plan in place to increase oil and gas production on land that has been locked up and overregulated by the federal government. that plan should be submitted to the congressional committees of

senate actually voted to end the war. they criticized, but they would always vote for continuing money for it. i was temporarily on the armed services committee and have a vote to reauthorize the war. we had five votes. each one lost by one vote. i was the newest member and i could feel the pressure each time i voted no. i was told by the editor in one of our newspapers that he'd make sure that i was a one-term senator because of that and i was getting calls from the president ford, henry kissinger, jim schlesinger and all those and i said, no, this is the way i want to vote. and we finally -- i remember john stennis, the state chair of the committee after the fifth vote realized it couldn't pass, staff members said i think we better get the president on the phone. he'll want to know that. the war would have ended disasterously as it was. you remember the pictures of the helicopters taking off from our embassy in saigon. i visited that embassy since. and i knew i would catch hell from some of these newspapers back home, but we had people come up to us quietly at the grocery store or coming out of church, and said, well, thank you, thank you.

blumenthal were just introducing some legislation, i believe on that show, senator bob menendez, these are chairs of armed services committeemassive. we were giving up until now, the full intellectual property, as well as full production of these weapons systems that we don't give all of our allies combined. that's been put on a pause and the saudis are feeling the pressure. >> intellectual property is paused, that's incredible. i had no idea it was that close of a relationship. >> it was frightening, the production, ownership, financial control. these are the most sensitive weapons we have. everything short of the nuclear code. that has been put on pause thankfully, but not permanently, and at least the saudis do feel that pressure, and yes, russia, this was their source. 2/3 of their economy we're talking about is the energy economy, and they said they're going to pivot to sell it to t. people fell for that. economists. the imf fell for it. it takes pipelines to get the natural gas there and they don't have the pipelines. we sell them liquefied natural gas converted back to natural gas. >> jonathan? >> yeah. certainly who

senate actually voted to end the war. it criticized it, but they were always vote for it for continuing money for it. i was temporarily on the armed services committee. we're going to have a vote to reauthorize the war. we had five votes each, one lost by one vote. i was the newest member and i. i could feel the pressure each time i voted no. i was told by the editor of one of our newspapers he would make sure i was a one term senator because of that, and i was getting calls from the president for henry kissinger, jim saucier, and all those. i said, oh, this is the way i'm going to vote. and we finally. i remember john sanders, the chair of the committee, after the fifth vote, he realized he couldn't pass, turned to his staff members. it i think we very get the president on the phone. you want to know that now we would have war would have ended disastrously as it was. you remember the pictures of the helicopter as taking off from our embassy and saigon? i visited that embassy, said and i knew i could tell from some of these newspapers back home. but what marcel and i found, we had people come up to us quietly. the grocery store. i come out of church

armed services committee. thank you very much for joining us. let's talk about russia an their adherence to the most recent nuclear treaty with the united states. senatorwicker and fishers and rogers and lan m have said they're not complying. what's the assessment of your committee? >> i agree. i think it's clear russia is not complying with a wide range of treaties. i think the really important thing there is we have to get back to the point where we're in a dialogue with russia over major arms. certainly over nuclear weapons. we need that with china as well. it's a very dangerous situation right now. you have different weapons being developed and we're not talking with russia or china for that matter so i think getting an arms control dialogue going should be a huge priority. >> let's talk about the fighter jets. president biden said no full stop. france is saying maybe given the parameters raf just laid out. is it a problem for the united states if france sends f-16s? >> first, most important thing here is how the f-16 is not really the most important weapons system right now. it's going to be a difficult time surviving in the battle space over ukra

armed services committee... - i think we would rather have our enemies die than our troops. - where he was such a good friend to defense contractors, he developed a lovely reputation. - third name, senator senate help committee, which is in charge of higher education. - jim jeffords, best known for switching parties in 2001 and swinging control of the senate to the democrats, as well as for being part of the hottest act to ever grace a stage. all: ♪ every heart beats true ♪ for the red, white, and blue ♪ ♪ where there's never a boast or brag ♪ - he is actually on record talking about this provision at the very end of the process. and he acknowledges that some people are disappointed that it's in the bill, but that it was needed to help pay for the overall cost of the bill. - wait, jeffords says that? - jeffords says this. - so he's basically defending the bill publicly? - he is defending the bill, and he's acknowledging that there's some agita about this. but he's--he's at least okay with it. - all right. thank you. now we have a place to at least start this. - yep. - all right, and so... [brass music playing] do you hear that music out there? ♪ theo's nose was cause for alarm, so dad b

schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the armed services committee be discharged from further consideration and that at 3:00 p.m. on monday, january 23, the senateeed to executive session to the consider pn-1, brendan owens to be an assistant secretary of defense, that at the time until 5:30 p.m. be equally divided in the usual form on the nomination, the senate then vote on confirmation of the nomination, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate committees its business today, it convene for pro forma session only with no business conducted often the following dates and times and that the following -- following each pro forma session, the senate stand in recess until the next pro forma session. friday, january 6, 1:05 p.m., tuesday, january 10, at 10:00 a.m., friday, january 13, at 1:30 p.m., tuesday, january 17, at 1:00 p.m., and friday, january 20, at 1:00 p.m. following the january 20 pro forma, the senate