Posted on 10/04/2017 9:21:56 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
WASHINGTON — Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said Tuesday he is refusing to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominees to the Pentagon until he is satisfied the administration is communicating its plans for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Outside a tense committee hearing on Afghanistan with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, McCain told Defense News that because the administration has not been open with Congress, “we’ve been holding nominations … from the Pentagon to fill in those Pentagon jobs.”
The disclosure came little more than a month after Trump announced a new strategy, criticized for its vagueness, that involves sending more U.S. troops as advisers to the Afghan military. The Department of Defense has acknowledged that it has 11,000 forces on the ground, more than the 8,500 previously reported, and that it plans to send an additional 3,000-plus.
The holds pertain to an unspecified number of civilian nominees, said to be in middle management; however, Secretary of the Army nominee Mark Esper and Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness nominee Robert Wilkie — both senior positions — are also on hold.
Trump has notoriously lagged behind other modern presidents in filling jobs across the federal government, and about 70 percent of DoD positions that need Senate confirmation are unfilled.
“There’s a number of them that have been awaiting hearings and confirmations, some have had hearings,” said McCain, R-Ariz. “The Constitution says that the Senate has the obligation to advise and consent. I am in keeping with the Constitution of the United States. When I got reelected, I said I would support and defend the Constitution, I didn’t say I would support and defend the president of the United States.”
(Excerpt) Read more at defensenews.com ...
I pray every day God calls him.
Senate will be useless until McCain dies........
Re #13 and #21:
Apparently at least twice a day. :)
McCain never intended to win, he was the willing Designated Loser for the Kenyanesian Usurper.
Don’t worry, McCain, plenty of young American service personnel will be getting killed and injured in those ratholes for decades to come.
Stripped by whom? McConnell? He's hardly been the president's energetic supporter himself.
Is McCain working for the enemy? YES!!!!
Why does McCain get a say-so?
This man should NOT have privileged access to intelligence, foreign, military, or otherwise.
If I’m reading between the lines, the administration believes he cannot be trusted not to leak or get political with state secrets or foreign policy, and the fact that he wants to get punitive with his power against the government and people he was elected to serve tells me that he needs to be removed from any powerful committee or position other than the seat that he was elected to.
It's time for your medication Mr. President.
looking back on the 2008 election cycle one of the things that tells me he is a democrat plant is that the democrats never got after him about the savings and loan scandal.
The Senate is utterly corrupt. McCain has apparently decided to become the fall guy for all his corrupt buddies since they all know he’s dead soon anyways. He’s buying them time to keep on being rotten and taking the heat for what most of his tainted Senator buddies want to continue doing.
Is the pope a Marxist?
I F’ng Hate that guy!
It’s probably too soon to start covering Juan with dirt?
Why, so he can leak the plans to ISIS?
McCain needs to retire and spend what time he has left with his family.
He has a scorched earth attitude on the way out.
February
This has been going on since 911
McCain and his stooges were really running the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ever wonder why Bush pushed for Amnesty even though his base was 90% opposed?
McCain
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.