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Speaker 1: And this is where we begin our conversation now with

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Speaker 1: Senator Tommy Tarberville, the Republican from Alabama, is with us

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Speaker 1: live from Capitol Hill, and Senator we welcome you back.

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Speaker 1: Would you support this continuing resolution coming out of the

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Speaker 1: Senate to keep the government from shutting down?

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Speaker 2: Well, I hope we don't shut it down, but it's

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Speaker 2: going to be the Schumer shutdown.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Think about it is. We've been wanting to do all

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Speaker 2: these individual bills and get them done over the summer.

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Speaker 2: We got them out of committee in the Senate, but

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Speaker 2: Schumer wants to keep adding thanks to this. And I'm

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Speaker 2: not going to vote for a four point five bon

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Speaker 2: to go to Ukraine. I haven't voted for a dime

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Speaker 2: to go over there because we need money here in

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Speaker 2: this country. We need to think about America first, and

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Speaker 2: American taxpayers deserve better than this. But they're going to

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Speaker 2: try to push it through. I don't think it'll pass,

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Speaker 2: really don't.

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Speaker 4: How is this the Schumer shut down when Senator Mitch

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Speaker 4: McConnell says it's a responsible step forward, and at the

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Speaker 4: same time you're having Speaker McCarthy really not been able

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Speaker 4: to control any faction of his party, whether it's the

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Speaker 4: hard right or the centrist. How is it not a

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Speaker 4: McCarthy shutdown or McConnell shut down. Our lawmaker's writ large shutdown.

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Speaker 2: Senator, Well, the big thing too is you got to

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Speaker 2: think about in the Senate, we've been wanting to cut

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Speaker 2: back on the spending.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's out of control.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think people really understand how far

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Speaker 2: in debt we are, and we're printing like sixty thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars a second, and we want to continue to spend.

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Speaker 2: We can't sustain this, and so sooner or later we've

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Speaker 2: got to make some tough decisions. But Senator Schumer doesn't

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Speaker 2: want to play ball. He ball's in his court in

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Speaker 2: the Senate, but it's not in his court in the House,

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Speaker 2: and he can't control the House. That's the reason he's

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Speaker 2: trying to play hardball in the Senate. I don't think

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Speaker 2: it'll fly. I hate that we have some kind of

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Speaker 2: shut down, but sooner or later we're going to have

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Speaker 2: to pay the price for this, and we will.

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Speaker 4: So you won't vote for this continuing resolution. You won't

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Speaker 4: vote for this continuing resolution even though you don't want

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Speaker 4: to see the government shut down exactly.

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Speaker 2: Again, I don't think it'll go through, not with four

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Speaker 2: and a half be and I think you're going to

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Speaker 2: have some people that are going to really object to this,

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Speaker 2: and that won't be just my vote, It'll be a

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Speaker 2: lot of other vote well.

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Speaker 1: Senator Hemrie was referring earlier to the paralysis that we've

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Speaker 1: seen in the House recently, particularly among the Republican conference,

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Speaker 1: And I wonder what your view is on this, as

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Speaker 1: we're seeing a single lawmaker in Congressman Matt Gates, along

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Speaker 1: with a couple of others depending on the day, hold

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Speaker 1: up debate on a defense spending bill along with other actions,

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Speaker 1: while threatening as well to fire the Speaker of the House.

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Speaker 1: It's not unlike the way that you're single handedly blocking

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Speaker 1: military promotions in protest of an issue in the Senate.

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Speaker 1: Do you support Congressman Gates in his.

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Speaker 2: Effort, Well, I support him in the way that they

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Speaker 2: want all twelve bills to be brought up single handedly

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Speaker 2: and talked about and not brought up as a group.

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Speaker 2: That's kind of like the Omnibus. But you know, I

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Speaker 2: agree with a lot with Congressman Getz says, I believe

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Speaker 2: that we need to be more self responsible with what

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Speaker 2: we're doing.

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Speaker 3: But everybody's got their own opinion.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's the reason we have so many representatives

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Speaker 2: and so many senators. Everybody's got to speak for the

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Speaker 2: people in their state, and that's what I'm doing. I'm

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Speaker 2: speaking for the people of Alabama. It's time to start

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Speaker 2: quit spending and get back to some reality.

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Speaker 4: So you agree with what Representative Matt Gates.

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Speaker 2: Is doing on the House side, well, playing hardball and

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Speaker 2: at the end of the day, they have to get

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Speaker 2: something done. But he wants all twelve bills to be

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Speaker 2: single handed. We talked about and brought up and discussed.

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Speaker 2: We did that in the Senate, they passed all of

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Speaker 2: them out of committee, and then all of a sudden,

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Speaker 2: we wanted to do this minibus of putting four or

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Speaker 2: five of the bills in at one time. A lot

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Speaker 2: of people over here on our side didn't want to

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Speaker 2: do that. You know, we drag our feet here so much.

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Speaker 2: We could have gotten this done a lot earlier. But

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Speaker 2: we've drug our feet all year long. The House has

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Speaker 2: drugged their feet, and it's gotten us in a bad

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Speaker 2: situation where our backs against the wall with this shutdown.

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Speaker 1: Well, the debate over defense funding has been bogged down

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Speaker 1: because of the politics in the House right now, and

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Speaker 1: of course your blockade against military promotions in protest of

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Speaker 1: the Pentagon abortion travel policy remains in place.

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Speaker 3: You've decried what you've.

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Speaker 1: Called a woke policy, a woke military senator, and you

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Speaker 1: voted against the confirmation of General c Q. Brown as

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Speaker 1: the now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

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Speaker 3: Is the new chairman woke. I think he's got some

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Speaker 3: woke policies. I like c Q.

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Speaker 2: I've had him in my office several times back when

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Speaker 2: he was Chief of the Air Force.

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Speaker 3: Uh. Per, He's a he's a good person. He believes

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Speaker 3: in what he's doing. We all have. You have to

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Speaker 3: believe what you're doing. Uh. Now, he he doesn't really.

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Speaker 2: Have any authority other than giving advice to the president.

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Speaker 2: He's he's a general, but he's not really over the Army,

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Speaker 2: Air Force, Navy.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: He has to to just give information and advice to

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Speaker 2: the president.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: I think you'll do a good job, but I heard

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Speaker 2: him say a few things that that really didn't fit

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Speaker 2: with me. In terms of making our military better and better.

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Speaker 2: You've got to remember, you know, we have.

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Speaker 1: A freak was it though specifically, Senator, Well.

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Speaker 3: We have a free country.

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Speaker 2: We have things that that we need to do to

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Speaker 2: make sure that that we can uphold, and we can't

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Speaker 2: do that without a great, hard, strong military. Now I

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Speaker 2: heard some things that he talked about about race and

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Speaker 2: things that he wanted to mix into the military.

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Speaker 3: Let me tell you something.

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Speaker 2: Our military is not an equal opportunity employer. We're looking

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Speaker 2: for the best, the best to do whatever. We're not

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Speaker 2: looking for different groups, social justice groups.

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Speaker 3: We don't want to.

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Speaker 2: Single handedly destroy our military from within. We all need

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Speaker 2: to be one. It's like a football team I coached.

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Speaker 2: You can't have different groups. Everybody's got to be together

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Speaker 2: to win. There's no second place in war. And so

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Speaker 2: I listened to all these generals and admirals and we

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Speaker 2: have some great ones. We have some great military people,

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Speaker 2: but there's some in there that have a different agenda

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Speaker 2: to make sure that they get their quotas in.

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Speaker 3: And we're not a quota. This is a military that

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Speaker 3: when you say.

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Speaker 1: Race, Senator, can you tell us what you mean by

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Speaker 1: are you talking about enhancing diversity at the Pentagon?

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Speaker 3: What is it about.

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Speaker 1: Race that bothers you about the new chairman of the joints.

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Speaker 2: Well, he came out and said, we need certain groups

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Speaker 2: more pilots, certain groups to have an opportunity to be pilots. Listen,

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Speaker 2: I want it to be on merit. I want our

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Speaker 2: military to be the best. I want the best people.

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Speaker 2: I don't care who they are, men, women, It doesn't

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Speaker 2: make him difference Catholics, Protestants. I want everybody to believe

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Speaker 2: in the one goal that we have in this country

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Speaker 2: for our military is to protect the taxpayers, to protect

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Speaker 2: United States of America.

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Speaker 3: Don't give me this.

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Speaker 2: Stuff about equal opportunity, because that's not what this military

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Speaker 2: is about. Talk about making the best, training the best,

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Speaker 2: and being the best of this world. Because if we're not,

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Speaker 2: as I said earlier, there's no second place in war.

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Speaker 2: And we live in a very dangerous place right now

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Speaker 2: in terms of our foreign policy, which is why.

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Speaker 4: A lot of people I spoke to speak to you

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Speaker 4: out the DoD and the Foreign Policy Apparatus say that

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Speaker 4: what you're doing in terms of your blockade is actually

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Speaker 4: hurting us readiness. You've said on this program that you

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Speaker 4: want Schumer to file cloture, meaning bring each individual nominee

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Speaker 4: to the floor in itself, you talked about the Senate

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Speaker 4: in the House dragging its feet when it comes to

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Speaker 4: spending bills. Well, the research shows that if you were

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Speaker 4: to have cloture on each and every individual nominee, that's

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Speaker 4: seven hundred hours. That means you would have to work

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Speaker 4: around the clock twenty four hours for an entire month

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Speaker 4: to get these military nominees through. If you know at

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Speaker 4: the end of the day, these individuals are going to

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Speaker 4: get that vote, whether or not it's within one day

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Speaker 4: or a month or so, why would you put these families.

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Speaker 4: You're a self described military brat, why would you put

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Speaker 4: these families through that?

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Speaker 2: Well, again, we have to pay the price to make

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Speaker 2: our country the best. And as you said, there's nobody

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Speaker 2: up here the more military than I am. I believe

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Speaker 2: in this country and I want a strong, strong military.

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Speaker 3: The problem that we're having.

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Speaker 2: Right now is with these nominations is Chuck Schumer could

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Speaker 2: have started bringing them on board seven months ago, and

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Speaker 2: what do we do?

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Speaker 3: We just drug our feet.

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Speaker 2: He just he thought I'd give up and say no,

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Speaker 2: I'll just let you do them all at one time.

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Speaker 2: I'm not doing that, And I told him that at

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Speaker 2: the very beginning. Now I was the one that did

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Speaker 2: the three last week. I forced his hand to make

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Speaker 2: him do the three nominations last week because I filed

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Speaker 2: a petition to do closure myself. He didn't want me

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Speaker 2: to do it, so he jumped in front of me

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Speaker 2: so I wouldn't make him look bad. He knows how

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Speaker 2: to get this done. I gave back hours, and you're

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Speaker 2: supposed to have thirty hours between closure. I gave back

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Speaker 2: twenty eight hours and only did two hours per per nomination.

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Speaker 2: I want to make sure that we have a strong military,

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Speaker 2: but let me tell you, if readiness was a problem

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Speaker 2: right now, I would not be doing this. I've talked

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Speaker 2: to admirals and generals in the field. As we speak.

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Speaker 2: There's no job that's not being done. Everything is going forward.

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Speaker 2: People are working very hard. We have a strong military,

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Speaker 2: but we're going to do it the right way. And

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Speaker 2: again I've had the Secretary, Air Force, Army, Navy come

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Speaker 2: after me pretty much, call me a terrorist communist. Let

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Speaker 2: me tell you something. Those people work for me. Senators

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Speaker 2: and the Congress over here, we don't work for them,

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Speaker 2: and we're trying to make it the best we can

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Speaker 2: and take politics out of our military. Our military is

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Speaker 2: becoming so political that we're going to go south when

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Speaker 2: it comes to readiness.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure you saw the op ed from those three

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Speaker 1: this month, Senator. I know we're out of time, but

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Speaker 1: I just want to make clear what you're referring to

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Speaker 1: in the op ed in the Washington Posts from the

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Speaker 1: secretaries of the Navy, Air Force, and Army. They write,

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Speaker 1: three of our five military branches have no Senate confirmed

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Speaker 1: service chief in place. Instead, these jobs and dozens of

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Speaker 1: others across the force are being performed by acting officials

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Speaker 1: without the full range of legal authorities necessary to make

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Speaker 1: the decisions that will sustain the US military edge.

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Speaker 3: How are they wrong? Well, what do we do?

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Speaker 2: Last week, after I read that article, I just wanted

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Speaker 2: to throw out a situation where listen, I'm gonna help

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Speaker 2: you do this, and I so showed Senator Schumer how

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Speaker 2: to do it, and we got three of them confirmed. Now,

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Speaker 2: Senator Schumer sitting around this week, obviously a word about shutdown.

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Speaker 2: We all are we also could be doing two things

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Speaker 2: at one time, but we don't seem to be able

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Speaker 2: to do that up here when it comes to the

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Speaker 2: Democrat Biden, the Biden Democratic politics, we can't do two

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Speaker 2: things at one time, we should be able to.

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Speaker 4: Senator Tommy Turberville, thank you for your time this evening.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you,