Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
September 28, 2021
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, took to the floor Thursday night to blast the unprecedented efforts by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Republican Senators to block all State Department confirmations.
“Never before has a first-term president had this few national security nominees in place by the fall of his first year, and this is a growing national security crisis imposed on the country by Republicans who have decided to put their hatred of Democrats and this president ahead of the security of this country, above the security of this nation. And it just takes a lot of chutzpah for my colleagues to stand here on the floor and criticize the president’s conduct of foreign policy at the same time that they are refusing to allow the President to have staff to conduct foreign policy,” said Murphy.
On the hypocrisy of Republicans’ criticizing President Biden’s foreign policy decisions while blocking the nominations of foreign policy staff, Murphy said: “We have all sorts of Republicans coming down here and savaging the President’s policy on Afghanistan or on China or on Russia, but then at the exact same time taking extraordinary steps to prevent the president from having anybody to actually implement policies towards Afghanistan or Russia or China. It’s akin to standing up in a restaurant and complaining about how slow the service is right after you went and barricaded the doors in and out of the kitchen. My colleagues can’t have it both ways.”
Murphy called attention to the unprecedented nature of Republicans’ efforts to hold up nominees, which will undermine America’s national security and ability to engage abroad: “Never before, never before, has a minority gone to this lengths to try to undermine a president’s national security team. Every single Democrat had massive objections, moral and practical, to President Trump’s foreign policy. But not a single one of us contemplated doing what our Republican colleagues are doing right now, holding up every single one of Donald Trump’s ambassadors and nominees, because we knew that that would undermine the security of the country. Because there are differences that we have. But there are far more points of agreement where mid-level, civil servants and ambassadors are carrying out policies on behalf of America that Republicans and Democrats agree on.
Click here to watch his floor speech in full.
Murphy discussed these efforts to hold up nominees this week on Pod Save the World. In August, Murphy took to the floor to request unanimous consent on key State Department nominees.
A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:
“Mr. President, I am glad that we are coming to some conclusion this evening with respect to a handful of the long list of pending nominations for the State Department and the Department of Defense, but it is a small portion of a list that is growing bigger and bigger.
“Never before has a first-term president had this few national security nominees in place by the fall of his first year, and this is a growing national security crisis imposed on the country by Republicans who have decided to put their hatred of Democrats and this president ahead of the security of this country, above the security of this nation. And it just takes a lot of chutzpah for my colleagues to stand here on the floor and criticize the president’s conduct of foreign policy at the same time that they are refusing to allow the President to have staff to conduct foreign policy.
“Let me say that again. We have all sorts of Republicans coming down here and savaging the President’s policy on Afghanistan or on China or on Russia, but then at the exact same time taking extraordinary steps to prevent the president from having anybody to actually implement policies towards Afghanistan or Russia or China. It’s akin to standing up in a restaurant and complaining about how slow the service is right after you went and barricaded the doors in and out of the kitchen. My colleagues can’t have it both ways.
“You want to complain about the president’s policies towards China? Then stop standing in the way of allowing him to have personnel that can execute on sound policy. Stop standing in the way of the Assistant Secretary that will oversee policy in the region. Complaints about Afghanistan? Then why are we continuing to block those that would be in charge of refugee policy, in charge of resettlement policy to get more Afghans out of the country? Got complaints about Russia? Well, for a month Republicans have been blocking the key personnel who oversee policy towards Russia – whether it be the Assistant Secretary of Europe or our ambassador to NATO.
“Here’s what voters are left to wonder. Are these sincere objections, based upon policy? Or is this really about an intentional effort to try to undermine the security of this country in order to damage Joe Biden. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can’t figure out any plausible reason how this benefits the country.
“Never before, never before, has a minority gone to this lengths to try to undermine a president’s national security team. Every single Democrat had massive objections, moral and practical, to President Trump’s foreign policy. But not a single one of us contemplated doing what our Republican colleagues are doing right now, holding up every single one of Donald Trump’s ambassadors and nominees, because we knew that that would undermine the security of the country. Because there are differences that we have. But there are far more points of agreement where mid-level, civil servants and ambassadors are carrying out policies on behalf of America that Republicans and Democrats agree on.
“Here’s the list of nominees that are stuck. What does the Chief of Protocol has to do with Nordstream 2? What does the ambassador to Vietnam have to do with the senator from Texas’ objections over an oil pipeline? Why are we blocking the Assistant Administrator to the United States Agency for International Development? Nothing that’s happening here has anything to do with the security of this country. And so I’m glad we are unlocking a handful of nominees, but we’re going to be here on Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays. I’m going to advocate that we stay as long as it takes in order to protect this country. In order to stop this unprecedented blockade of the people who do the work of standing up for the security of this nation, every single day.”
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