Sen. Kennedy Denounces Senate Democrats’ Attempt to Issue Subpoenas Related to Justice Thomas

Mr. Chairman, Senator Whitehouse, I just find this extraordinary, and I find the timing of this to be extraordinary. I think most of us can agree that America is this big, wide, open, free, sometimes dysfunctional, often imperfect, but always good country. And we all love it. But we're going through a rough patch. Inflation is gutting our people like a fish. People in my state have to sell blood plasma in order to go to the grocery store. The border is wide open, and that's under the jurisdiction of this committee. Now I know some folks think that if you oppose illegal immigration, you are necessarily a racist. That's not the way the American people look at it. The American people support legal immigration, but they look at the southern border like their front door. Most Americans lock their front door at night. Not because they hate everybody on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside. And they want to know who's going into and coming out of their home. And I don't think that's unreasonable. We don't talk about it much anymore, but since the Affordable Care Act was passed, insurance premiums in America have tripled. We're not doing anything about it. We've always had people in America, unfortunately, who are too poor to be sick. But now, many of those people are in the middle class because of our healthcare delivery system. We're going through a rough patch. Internationally, the world's on fire. The world's on fire in Eastern Europe. It's on fire in the Middle East. The embers are smoldering in the Indo-Pacific. You don't have to be Mensa material to see that this is all being coordinated between and among China and Russia and the Ayatollah in Iran. Their goal is to have Russia dominate Central and Eastern Europe, to have the Ayatollah in Iran dominate the Middle East, to have China dominate the Indo-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa and be free to make whatever move they want to in South America. Look at the democracies that are being overthrown in South America. And that is not a world that is safe for America. But what are we concentrating on? We have decided, Mr. Chairman, to attack another branch of our government. Now, Senator Whitehouse, I don't agree with you respectfully that the fundamental issue here is bribery at the Supreme Court. I don't believe that. And I don't believe you do either, sir. I think the fundamental issue here is that there are some people that don't like the opinions being issued by the United States Supreme Court. And that is your right. I've disagreed with many of the Supreme Court's opinions, but I haven't tried to destroy them. I think you're making a big mistake here, Mr. Chairman. I say that with all the respect I can muster. And here's my question. No one in the Milky Way, with the possible exception of one of Hunter's hookers, believes that all you're interested in is a few documents. Is your end game to subpoena Clarence Thomas and make him appear before the Judiciary Committee? Does the senator yield the floor? I was hoping I could get our chairman to give me some of his thoughts. I'm sorry, I didn't realize that was directed to me, but I will respond. Our end game is to follow the facts. We cannot accumulate the facts without the cooperation of the witnesses. When the witnesses, after repeated attempts to appeal to them, have failed to produce these facts and documents, we turn to a subpoena. But I can tell you, it's after a long, arduous journey, we've done everything we can to try to get the voluntary cooperation. Mr. Chairman, do you believe we can subpoena Clarence Thomas? I haven't addressed that issue either privately. We have, and we say no. I'm going to go to the roll call votes and then continue this discussion if the members wish to stay for that purpose.