[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S2118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF COLIN HACKETT KAHL

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, here we are again, teeing up another 
discharge motion for another unqualified Biden administration nominee.
  If there is one good thing I can say about Colin Kahl, the nominee 
for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, it is that you never have to 
wonder where he stands on the issues. He is very consistent.
  Unfortunately, he has been consistently wrong on some of the last 
decade's most important foreign policy questions.
  In 2019, when disaster struck all along on our southern border, he 
labeled the situation ``Trump's fake border crisis'' and ``a phony 
terrorism threat.'' That is a take that aged well, to be sure.
  His judgment calls on the actions and motivations of our most 
dangerous adversaries have also been particularly terrible.
  When President Trump warned the Iranian regime not to resume their 
nuclear activities, Kahl declared that ``war drums'' were already 
sounding. We know that wasn't true.
  When President Trump made the decision to eliminate terrorist leader 
Soleimani, Kahl was positive that the strike had started a war. It 
hadn't. When I questioned Kahl during his confirmation hearings, he 
equated Iranian proxies killing Americans with our subsequent, 
proportionate strike against Solemani, saying, ``There were 
provocations on both sides.'' Indeed.
  Kahl was absolutely sure that given the chance, John Bolton, of all 
people, would twist available intelligence and singlehandedly start 
wars with Iran and North Korea. Another miss.
  He also predicted that Trump would jump into Syria and start a war 
with Assad and the Russians, which also didn't happen.
  Those hot takes earned him a lot of ink in Foreign Policy magazine 
but not a lot of respect. I don't know if he wrote those things because 
he wanted to put President Trump in the hot seat or because he honestly 
believed them, but I don't think the answer to that question matters.
  If he believed them, then it is proof of his terrible judgment.
  If he wrote them to inflame the progressive base, it is proof he is 
willing to trivialize the prospect of armed conflict for clicks.
  How in the world can President Biden expect us to vote for that?
  In addition to his poor judgment, Mr. Kahl has also attached himself 
to truly terrible policy decisions.
  He opposed bipartisan legislation that would have imposed sanctions 
on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
  He staffed the effort to condemn Israel at the United Nations 
Security Council.
  He is ``open'' to moving away from the nuclear triad.
  Perhaps worst of all, when he served in the Obama administration as 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, he dropped 
the ball on a status of forces agreement that would have allowed U.S. 
forces to remain in Iraq.
  That failure led to the rise of ISIS.
  I have examined Mr. Kahl's record and found nothing but a history of 
bad policy judgment, a volatile disposition, and a terrible temper that 
manifests in inflammatory rhetoric.
  That might be a great resume for a pundit, but it is not the body of 
work I want to see from someone who will be responsible for developing 
national security and defense strategy.
  I oppose this discharge motion, I oppose this nomination, and I urge 
my colleagues to spend a few minutes with Mr. Kahl's resume before 
placing him in such a powerful position at DOD.

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