That is a vote we are not accustomed to, mark. I have to say that. Congratulations. I am honored to be here for the swearingin of our new secretary of defense, mark t. Esper. I especially wanted think Justice Samuel alito. Highly respected and a great man for joining us to administer the oath of office. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are also delighted to welcome several of secretary espers family members and friends to the white house, including his mother, polly. Hi, polly . You proud of him . You Better Believe it. [laughter] his wife, and his three children luke, john and capturing. Catherine. Thank you and congratulations. That is an incredible thing. There is no one more qualified to lead the department of defense than mark esper. A west point graduate. Great student. Secretary esper served our military for 21 years, including in the gulf war. They also advanced u. S. National security and government and asvate sector, most recently secretary of the army, where he played a Cr
Years. The u. S. Has been without a defense secretary all year since the departure of former defense chief jim mattis in december. This is live coverage on cspan 3. Our meeting will come to order consistent with our policy to start on time. We will be doing that. Good morning. Today were considering the nomination of dr. Mark espy to be secretary of defense. We thank you all for being here today. We anticipate during your opening remarks, dr. Espy, that you will introduce any members of your family who are here and other support groups. It is standard we do have the eight required questions you will have to respond to audibly so we can get that in the record. Have you adhered to ethical regarding conflicts of interest. Yes, sir. Have you taken any actions which would prepare to presume the outcome of the confirmation process . No, sir. Exercising legislative and oversight responsibility makes it important that this committee, its subcommittees and other appropriate committees of congre
Our meeting will come to order consistent with policies to start on time. Well be doing that. Good morning today were considering the nomination of mark esper to be secretary of defense. We thank all for being here today. We anticipate doing your opening remarks, dr. Esper, introduce any members of your family here and other support groups. It is standard we have the eight required questions to respond to audibly to get that in record. Adhere to laws governing conflict of interest. Yes, sir. Assumed duties taken any actions that would appear to presume the outcome of the confirmation process . No, sir. Exercise legislative oversight responsibility makes it important that this committee, its subcommittees and other appropriate kmtsz if congress received testimony, reports, recordings and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis. Do you agree, if confirmed, to and and testify before this committee when requested. Yes, sir. Do you agree to provide records, document, E
With the question of the characteristics and circumstances that allow some people to leadership and what allow some of us to struggle to overcome the obstacles and the diverse interests that are part of any dynamic and true democracy. We are extremely fortunate to have our firstthat live this question every day. We are very proud to name the series in honor of the Extraordinary Service of bob and olivia stole. Elizabeth dole. Showing the confidence and creativity to signify differences as you note as we enter the discussion that when senator dole joined others to help found there were a few ideas and animated the ambition for a little bit of text. We are aggressively bipartisan, not nonpartisan or postpartisan, but actually recognize that this is not been classic cohesion. The a of bipartisanship is creating the resilience that allows us to have consistent policy going forward. The second idea we talked about a little bit in the room is that they wanted to make sure we are in the arena
President trump, and samuel to pres. Trump thank you very much everybody. We have a very important moment in our countrys history. We have a lot of our great republican senators in the white house and i invited them over. Many of them wanted to be here. As you probably heard, the vote just took place and it was 908. That is a vote we are not accustomed to, mark. I have to say that. Congratulations. I am honored to be here for the swearingin of our new secretary of defense, mark t. Esper. I especially want to thank Justice Samuel alito. Highly respected and a great man for joining us to administer the oath of office. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are also delighted to welcome several of secretary espers family members and friends to the white house, including his mother, polly. Hi, polly . You proud of him . You Better Believe it. [laughter] his wife, leah, thank you, and his three children luke, john and catherine. Thank you and congratulations. That is an incredible thing. There