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Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I agree with my friend from Rhode Island, the distinguished ranking member on the committee, that this is something Senators need to think very carefully about. And I would remind my friend and my fellow Senators and my fellow Americans that the voters of the United States spoke very strongly and very firmly and overwhelmingly on the first Tuesday of November for change, and over 75 million Americans voted for change not only domestically, which we are seeing being fulfilled even in the first week of this term, but also on the international scene.

The United States needs to return to a position of strength, and through that strength and through that military might, we can assure peace for a generation. So I think one of the things that over 75 million Americans spoke for on election day was peace through strength.

The President has made his choice, and he is putting his team together to strengthen our military and to get us ready, and the person he has chosen to lead the Defense Department is Pete Hegseth.

The more I have seen of this young man over the time that we have had a chance to visit and over the time that he has been questioned and actually put through a number of trials, the more impressed I am with his character and with his ability to withstand the slings and arrows that we see in politics and in government today.

Pete Hegseth is ready to put forward the program of President Donald Trump, and he has satisfied me that he will be a change agent in the Department of Defense and that he is the person we need. He is the President's choice, and we owe it to this Commander in Chief to put him in this position unless he is not qualified for the office.

Mr. Hegseth is a retired major from the Army National Guard. He has had multiple combat tours of duty. And then he has come back and he has had some struggles. He has had some PTSD. And there are thousands and thousands of his comrades who have experienced the same thing, experienced problems after they came back. But he has overcome those.

And those thousands of young officers and people who have been in combat for the United States are watching the U.S. Senate tonight, even so, and they are watching to see whether we have listened to the dreams and to the plans and to the hopes of this young man as the next Secretary of Defense.

I agree with my friend: We should look carefully. But once we look carefully, I think we will decide that this President, who has had this mandate, is entitled to this remarkable young man as his Secretary of Defense. I am going to vote for him early and enthusiastically, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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