When the Tea Party comes to town, compromise goes out the door.

I'm going to wait for the confirmation hearings. I'm familiar with General [John Francis ] Kelly because of my work on the Armed Services Committee. I think he is a fine general and I want to make sure that he has a handle on some of the complicated issues that are contained within Homeland Security.

I've tried for years to get Republicans to help us fix some of the mistakes that we made in the Affordable Care Act. There are things we can do to shore up the exchanges, to make those pools healthier, to bring down costs. I would like to see us work together on that.

Frankly, earmarking is not the problem. It is a symptom of the problem.

First of all, Donald Trump cabinet or - I call it the 3-G cabinet, Goldman, generals and gazillionaires. And I think it's one of the things that for someone who has worked around the world for profit, it is different than working around the world to make sure we have strong alliances and to make sure that we are in the strongest position to protect our country.

I think that I was just on the cusp of the generation that was beginning to really challenge some of the assumptions about the role of women and the role of men on campus.

We have had a lot of whistle-blowing going on out of the Department of Homeland Security, low morale. I want to make sure [John Francis Kelly] understands the agency he's stepping into. So I'll reserve judgment until after confirmation hearings.