The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. Todays opening prayer will be offered by monsignor anthony j. Marcaccio, pastor of st. Pius the tenth from greensboro, north carolina. The guest chaplain let us pray. Blessed are you, lord god, of all creation. You are the gifter of ever good gift, of life and liberty, of peace and prosperity, of wisdom, understanding, and right judgment. We ask that in your divine mercy you would bless our republic and in a special way the work of our senators, that they may discern all that is true, all that is honorable, all that is right, all that is excellent and worthy of praise for our nation. In this moment, make us mindful of all that has brought us together as a country and how it foster passes that which can divide us. So when all is deliberated and done here, we may be preserved as one nation under god. Amen and amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the
Program, the hong kong protest and the political situation in iraq. Good afternoon, everyone. I i have some statements i wanto make today, starting with a statement about the Islamic Republic of iran. The United States is monitoring the ongoing protests in iran closely. We condemn strongly in acts of violence committed by this regime against the iranian people and are deeply concerned by reports that several fatalities. Weve been at that since the beginning of this administration. The Islamic Republic must cease violence against its own people and should immediately restore the building of all arenas to access a free and open internet. The world is watching. The iranian people will enjoy aa Better Future win their government begins to respect basic human rights, abandons its revolutionary posture, and its destabilizing Foreign Policy in the region and behave simply like a normal nation. The choice is clear with the regime. Continue with iran. President rouhani announced they began uran
But in all seriousness we know that youve been very engaged in the process as well, so for i think the first time in 100 years betsy and other members have been just great participants and its been, its been another type of a cabinet meeting, mr. President and we appreciate you allowing us to do that, the blessings that you give us to participate in that cabinet bible study. So if you would lets bow our heads and, father, we thank you for this table, and we recognize that everyone of us are here because you have ordained it to be so, and the importance of what we are about, the issues of which we get the responsibility and the privilege to deal with our at your call. And today we are lifting up a special group of men and women who have really been at the core of how this country has been formed, and thats our veterans, people who have sacrificed, who held their hand up and said here am i, send me, when it may be have been easier for them, certainly less stressful for them, to have not
Appreciate it its been very warm. Its been a terrific field as you all know. Marvelously talented in many cases friends in every one of those great Public Servants and im hoping to have the chance to compete in every state and speak to every voter. We were delighted that in the first couple of hours of our white website going up we had people identify themselves from every one of the 50 states and we look forward to leveraging that kind of engagement through the primaries so im glad to be here and thank you for taking the early does i think im going to speak and you will all be ready to end your day i think. Questions . [inaudible] how do you navigate a field this large especially comingin late . A lot of people are voting. Im not going to get into the strategy buti can tell you two things. I would have come in a year ago and that was the plan, two weeks or so before we were ready to launch and i think some of you, my wife was diagnosed with uterine cancer and im really grateful to be
Political pawns. Enough is enough. We need to move forward with the defense funding bill this week. Week. Well, mr. President , the scripture tells us that the lord is close to the brokenhearted, thats psalm 34 15. Weve lost and many of us lost a friend, brokenhearted that senator kay hagan passed away at the age 66. I spoke to her husband chip a few hours ago and told him from the first time i met kay hagan i knew she was special. She remained that way every day since. She was an amazing force, never loud, but always strong, effective, hardworking, dedicated principled and just a kindhearted person. He told me that he and kay had just had a wonderful weekend, a dinner, a wedding surrounded by friends and family. She even got to spend some time with joe biden who was in town. Chip said she was just beaming. I take some comfort in knowing that. In fact, it reminded me of how kay lived her life. She was never one to let sometimes painful realities of life and politics get her down. I kne