Sen. Boxer Tears Into GOP Senator For Focus On Attacking Obama, Not ISIS

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., questions General Motors CEO Mary Barra, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2014, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee. The committee is lo... Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., questions General Motors CEO Mary Barra, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2014, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee. The committee is looking for answers from Barra about safety defects and mishandled recall of 2.6 million small cars with a faulty ignition switch that's been linked to 13 deaths and dozen of crashes. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) MORE LESS
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Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on Wednesday eviscerated Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for attacking the Obama administration instead of focusing on attacking ISIS.

She criticized him for the way he questioned Secretary of State John Kerry during a hearing on the U.S. plan for combating ISIS.

“Do you realize how unserious the things that you have laid out and the things that were laid out yesterday sound?” Corker asked, referencing Kerry’s description of the administration’s plan for defeating ISIS.

Corker criticized Kerry for being too vague about training programs and said that the administration’s plan for ground efforts were “unrealistic” and “made no sense.”

And Boxer would have none of it.

“I think it is shocking and a sad state of affairs that we heard just such angry comments aimed at you, Mr. Secretary, and through you at our president instead of at ISIS,” she said after Kerry responded to Corker, adding that the U.S. is up against “a savage group who decapitated two Americans and have warned that the thirst for more American blood is out there.”

“I think it’s shocking. I’m actually shaking and trembling,” she continued. “This is not the time to show anger at the people who are working night and day, whether you agree with them or not, to protect our people.”

Boxer then noted that she did not vote for the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq in 2002 (though she did in 2001), and said that she believes the administration has the “authority to go after ISIL.”

“But I want to say right now, the way things get filibustered around this place and the way politics gets played around this place, I am proud that you say you’re going to do your work to protect the American people,” she said. “This is just a sad opening of a hearing. I’ve never seen it, and i’ve gone through some tough ones.”

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