Floor Statements

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted no on the confirmations of Executive Calendar No. 1057, Enix Smith III, of Louisiana, to be United States Marshall for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Mr. President.

I object.

Mr. President.

I object.

Mr. President.

Sure.

I thank the chairman. It is always a privilege to be on the floor with the Senator from Rhode Island and to serve him on the committee, so thank you for that.

I would just say this: It has been nearly a year now since the events, the catastrophe, in Kabul that claimed the lives of 13 servicemembers, including from my home State of Missouri.

This was a catastrophe of this administration's making, and it has been now nearly 2 weeks, maybe 3, since I began to enter into the Record, page by painstaking page, this report undertaken by U.S. Central Command about that disaster at Abbey Gate in Kabul, about those deaths, not to mention the hundreds of American civilians who were left behind.

I am entering this report into the Record so the American people can see it because I cannot convince my friend from Rhode Island to hold a public hearing on this report, and I cannot convince the White House to stop their coverup of the events at Abbey Gate and the role they played in it.

This is not for lack of trying. For months on end, I have come to this floor and asked for a public hearing on this report. I have asked my colleagues. I have written to the chairman. I have spoken to members of the committee, who, by the way, say they have no objection.

And just last week, the White House reached out to me and said: What is it that you want?

I said, I want accountability for what happened in Afghanistan and Abbey Gate, and, specifically, I want a public hearing on this report, to which the White House said it is up to the chairman.

So I hope that we can make some progress on actually getting accountability for what happened, for the servicemembers whose lives were lost, and we can end this continual Vietnamesque, yearlong effort to push this crisis out into the shadows, to ignore it as if it never happened, and to deny the American people the accountability that servicemembers deserve.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted no on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 1058, Adair Ford Boroughs, of South Carolina, to be United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina for the term of four years.

Mr. President, following my submission in a previous session of the U.S. Senate, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted no on the confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 987, Stephen Henley Locher, of Iowa, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa.

Mr. President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Madam President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Madam President, following my submission yesterday, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the next part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President.

I object.

Mr. President.

I would like to say a word, if I could, about the nature of my objection.

It has been now almost a year since the attack at Abbey Gate in Kabul in Afghanistan, almost a year since we lost 13 American servicemembers in that tragic attack, almost a year since hundreds of American civilians were left behind enemy lines, abandoned by this administration to fend for themselves against our enemies. And that attack claimed the lives, among the 13, of CPL Jared Schmitz, from Wentzville, MO.

I was thinking of Corporal Schmitz again just the other day when I was driving past the bridge in Wentzville that will soon be named for him. I am glad that Corporal Schmitz is getting some of the honor that he deserves, but let's be honest. As his father said to me just hours after we learned of his death: What would be far better--far better, indeed--would be for Corporal Schmitz, who is a very young man, to be with us. He was just at the beginning of his service, just at the beginning of his life. And while he was proud, I am sure, to give his life for his country--it is what he volunteered to do--we owe it to him, I owe it to him, to try and find out why--why--this attack at Abbey Gate happened. How was it that a civilian evacuation was not ordered in time? Why was it that this administration ignored repeated warnings from military commanders on the ground about the dangers that were mounting in Kabul in Afghanistan? Why was the withdrawal a debacle?

Now, I want to give central command some credit. They have commissioned an investigation on this point and issued a report, and I have some of it here with me. This is just the unclassified portion. It is 6,000 pages long. I will tell you, having been through all of it with my team, it is very exhaustive. It took them months to do. They interviewed commanders on the ground. They interviewed military members who were there at the time. They interviewed State Department officials and DOD officials.

Their conclusions that are set out here in this report are truly, truly stunning. What they found is that military commanders repeatedly warned the White House--repeatedly--that the situation in Afghanistan was deteriorating rapidly, that the danger to American troops were high, that the danger to American civilians was high and, indeed, potentially lethal. And what did the administration do? It ignored these warnings.

The CENTCOM investigation shows that Tony Blinken's State Department and Jake Sullivan's National Security Council dragged their feet for weeks and, indeed, months on end. It shows the State Department wouldn't even talk about an evacuation--wouldn't even speak of it-- until it was too late. And the worst of it is, after this botched withdrawal, after this tragic loss of life, the administration took efforts to cover up what had happened. And we are still in the midst of this coverup.

Just last November, Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas testified-- testified--that--and I am quoting him now:

Biometric and biographic information was collected from

every individual evacuated from Afghanistan.

Every individual, that is his statement.

He testified that the administration--I am quoting him now:

(T)ook a whole-of-government approach, ensuring that

Afghans arriving in the United States have been thoroughly

screened and vetted.

That simply is not true, and we know it isn't true because the DOD inspector general just released a report debunking it, finding that U.S. Agencies did not use available data when vetting Afghan evacuees, finding that some evacuees with derogatory information could not be located, including individuals whose latent fingerprints have been found on improvised explosive devices and are known or suspected terrorists.

Here is my point: Almost a year after this tragedy, almost a year after this debacle, there has still been no accountability.

No accountability. There has been no one fired. There has been no one relieved of command. This administration has stonewalled. They have dragged their feet. They have refused to cooperate. Oh, we have had hearings, and they have had briefings almost entirely behind closed doors.

Here is my request. It is what I promised Corporal Schmitz's father I would do on the morning that I spoke to him, that I would seek accountability for what happened in Afghanistan, and that is exactly what I intend to do. It is what I have been doing, many a time have I been on the floor for the last 11 months seeking accountability. And I have been stonewalled at every single turn.

What I have asked for months on end is that the Armed Services Committee hold a public hearing on this investigation--a public hearing--not behind closed doors, not without the press, not cut off from the American people--a public hearing, and I have been denied every time.

So what I am going to do today is I am going to enter this report into the Record so that the American people can see what U.S. Central Command found. And until we have that accountability in public, I will continue to ask that the Senate observe regular order and actually vote on these nominees.

I yield the floor.

A parliamentary question, Mr. President: Do I have the floor when I respond?

But I am not asking the question. He is asking me the question.

No, I have yielded the floor. My remarks were concluded. So the Senator has the floor. I am happy to respond.

Say it one more time, Senator. I can answer.

That is incorrect, Senator. I reported as a no.

Yes, sir.

I do object to them, Senator. Are you asking me if I object to having a vote on them? Or are you asking me if I object to them?

Yes.

Yes. A vote, I would like, Senator, but there are other Republican Members who have objections to all three nominees, and I am not authorized to consent for them.

I would like to have a recorded vote. Are you asking me if I would vitiate cloture, Senator?

I would like to have a cloture vote and a recorded vote. I would like to observe regular order on each of these, unless we can make some progress on having a public hearing on this report. That is my position at this time. Again, I am not authorized to negotiate for anybody else.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the first part of an investigation directed by the U.S. Central Command concerning the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted no on the confirmations of Executive Calendar No. 1036, Philip A. Talbert, of California, to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California for the term of four years.

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted nay on the confirmations of Executive Calendar No. 990, Joshua D. Hurwit, of Idaho, to be United States Attorney for the District of Idaho for the term of four years; Executive Calendar No. 991, Gerard M. Karam, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania for the term of four years; and Executive Calendar No. 992, Jacqueline C. Romero, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for the term of four years.

Mr. President, had there been a recorded vote, I would have voted no on S. Res. 134, a resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should work with the Government of the United Kingdom to conclude negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement between the United States and United Kingdom.