Joco Today

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas appeared on Fox News Live to address the pace of Trump administration appointee confirmations and concerns about former President Joe Biden’s mental health during his time in office.

Senator Marshall criticized Senate Democrats for delaying confirmation votes on nominees put forward by President Trump. He noted, “I want to emphasize, despite Chuck Schumer trying to slow things down, we’ve had an incredible first seven months under President Trump. We’ve had 11 pieces of major legislation that the President signed. We’ve repealed 16 Biden rules as well, 125 nominees. But the Democrats are not following suit at all. They’re doing everything they can to obstruct us. I think the big emphasis here is that 70 to 90% of the people nominated in years past by different presidents have been done so by unanimous consent, right by some type of a voice vote. So, they are slow walking things. I’m here today between votes, and hopefully we’ll come to some type of a truce this afternoon, and can get on with some of these votes through a unanimous consent.”

Marshall also discussed how he believes the Senate’s focus should shift away from nominee confirmations toward other legislative priorities such as balancing the federal budget and working on appropriations bills. “I just don’t think it’s the best use of our time up here to dominate it by doing just these nominations that were already vetted through committees with near unanimous support. If we’re going to be up here, we should be working on balancing the budget, going through appropriations buckets, and sure, I want to go back home and communicate all the great things, the largest tax cut in American history, make sure that all the Kansans know that they’re going to be able to keep $1,000 a month more of their hard-earned money,” Marshall said.

Turning attention to questions about former President Biden’s health and decision-making process while in office, Marshall argued for greater transparency: “Listen, I think that this is the threat to democracy, once again, that this was a national security threat, and we need to hold people accountable. Look, I’m a physician, but it doesn’t take a physician to look at Joe Biden’s neurodegenerative decline. We could talk about his frozen faces. We could talk about the way he shuffled in when he walked. His voice was very low was very soft; it was monotone, meandering thoughts as well. And then this group of five people formed a wall around him and sheltered him and kept him from the American people. So, who was really making these decisions? We saw him as a failure when it came to national security decisions. In my humble opinion, you know, who actually issued all these pardons? So, I think that America deserves to know so it doesn’t happen again.”

On presidential pardons signed using an autopen device rather than by hand—particularly under Biden—Marshall said: “Well, I think it’s overuse of it. I mean, as a physician, again there are certain documents I should sign. There are certain others maybe my nurses could use our auto pen as well. But I think when it comes to pardons in particular I think when the President signs his own name there it means that he looked at this. I think it was over 1,400 pardons and you’re going to tell me he looked at all those again? I think we need to hold people accountable. I’ll be really curious what the courts do with this issue eventually.”