Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Senate Republicans Confirming More Of President Trump’s Unqualified And Dangerous Nominees

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to warn of the dangers posed by Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ahead of their confirmation votes this week. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

This week, Senate Republicans will force two nominees through the Senate that they know perfectly well do not merit confirmation.

But Republicans, it seems, will confirm them anyway, because Donald Trump is strong-arming them into submission.

Last night, 52 Republicans voted to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

By now, there is no question about whether or not Ms. Gabbard is qualified to lead America’s intelligence agencies.

By every objective measure, she is not. Of all the people who might be available to do this job, how could President Trump choose her?

The Director of National Intelligence must be fluent in the truth above all. Intelligence, by its own definition, is a fact-gathering agency. It depends on facts.

But instead of speaking fact and truth, Ms. Gabbard repeatedly speaks the language of falsities and conspiracy theories.

The Director of National Intelligence must be strong against America’s adversaries.

But Ms. Gabbard has spent her entire career sympathizing with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad.

On the night that Russia invaded Ukraine and launched the first full-scale invasion of a sovereign nation in Europe since World War II, what was Ms. Gabbard doing?

She was spending her energy blaming NATO and the U.S. for what Putin did.

Can you believe that? Putin invades Ukraine, and Ms. Gabbard blames the U.S. for Putin invading Ukraine. How can we put this kind of person as DNI?

That alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking to become the top intelligence adviser to the president of the United States.

Ms. Gabbard had the opportunity to repair her image before the Senate Intelligence Committee and ease the deep worries of Senators on both sides of the aisle. We all know that a load of the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee felt she doesn’t belong in office. But what did Ms. Gabbard do? 

She only exacerbated those worries.

Senate Republicans know very well that she has no business advising the president on matters of classified intelligence.

They know her judgment is off the mark, way off the mark.

They know her troubling history of pushing conspiracies and spreading propaganda.

So deep down, this nominee is really about one very simple question: what do Senate Republicans care more about? Doing the right thing for national security, for American national security, or doing what is necessary to keep Donald Trump happy, even when they know how badly wrong he is?

The American people will know the answer later tonight after the Senate votes on the Gabbard nomination.

After that, we will move to another equally unqualified nominee – it's a parade of unqualified nominees – Robert Kennedy Jr. to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

To state the obvious – the very, very obvious – putting a very wealthy vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist in charge of America’s public health would put every single American in danger.

Mr. Kennedy is neither a doctor, nor a scientist, nor a public health expert, nor a policy expert of any kind.

In fact, he is the face of the modern anti-vaccine movement.

And he has spread other outrageous claims like saying antidepressants cause mass shootings, or that AIDS might not be caused by HIV, or that COVID spared certain ethnic groups.

RFK Jr. has not made a living by promoting public health, but rather by actively fighting it.

Is RFK Jr. really who Republicans want running HHS? Again, the same question as Ms. Gabbard. Of all the people in America, how did they end up choosing him? How did Donald Trump end up choosing him?

HHS is an agency that depends on science, evidence, and impartiality to ensure the health of over 330 million Americans.

The vote on RFK is about one simple question: will Republicans do the right thing for American public health, or will they do whatever is necessary to keep Donald Trump happy, no matter how misguided he is?

The American people will know the answer to this very soon also.

###