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.

I've been very independent from the day I arrived in Washington.

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.

Somehow in the public sector, if you start in the mailroom and spend your life getting promoted, it's unseemly.

The notion that the campus has its hands tied if a woman is not willing to go to the police, if the woman is only willing to go so far as, "I just don't want to see him in my dorm anymore," is ridiculous. If that's as far as she's willing to go, then we need to accommodate that. And a university needs to be able to accommodate it.

Well, Im wrestling alligators.

Universities simply unable to play judge, jury and executioner when they're already having trouble playing educator. Resources are limited and colleges must put their focus on their primary objective: education.