Videos

November 21 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins MSNBC's Deadline: White House with Nicolle Wallace after President-elect Trump's pick for U.S. Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, withdrew his name from consideration after disturbing allegations of sexual misconduct emerged.

November 21 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivers his 295th speech urging his colleagues to wake up to the threat of climate change.

Senator Whitehouse led the Senate delegation to Baku, Azerbaijan this year for the U.N.’s 29th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP)—the largest and most important venue for world governments to gather to find international agreement on ways to solve the global climate crisis. While at the Conference, Whitehouse participated in discussions on the future of U.S. climate policy, sea level rise and coastal resiliency, global methane enforcement, climate and trade policy, and corporate influence on climate policy. Whitehouse also met with the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Action, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, and the Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

Whitehouse recaps his trip to Baku for COP29 and discusses the economic consequences Americans will face because of President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s abdication of America’s global leadership on climate.

November 21 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° to discuss President-elect Donald Trump's troubled nominatiosn of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence and Matt Gaetz for U.S. Attorney General.

November 10 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss the results of the 2024 elections.

November 14 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins MSNBC's Jansing Reports to discuss his leadership of the U.S. Senate delegation to COP29, and President-elect Trump's nomination of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for U.S. Attorney General.

October 13 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joins MSNBC's Ali Velshi to discuss the Senator's report detailing disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Whitehouse’s report is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by executive branch obstruction, particularly during the Trump Administration.

The full report is available here: https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/KavanaughReport_final.pdf

The four key findings of Whitehouse’s years-long investigation into this episode are:

• The supplemental background investigation was completely controlled by the Trump White House. The FBI was never given “free rein” to conduct a thorough, complete investigation. Statements to the contrary from former President Trump and White House and Department of Justice officials were false.

• Trump White House and FBI assertions that the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation was conducted “by the book” according to standard FBI procedures were false and misleading, failing to disclose that there are no standard procedures for supplemental background investigations. Instead, FBI practice, which the Trump Administration never disclosed, requires step-by-step instructions from the White House. This practice may be appropriate for handling many routine, minor questions that can arise after an initial background investigation, but it was uniquely inappropriate for investigating the serious, high-profile allegations against Kavanaugh.

• The investigation was directed by the Trump White House to pursue only first-hand evidence and not corroborating evidence. Senate Republicans then cited the absence of corroborating evidence to justify confirming Kavanaugh.

• The FBI’s public “tip line” investigation was a fake. No tip was ever investigated; Kavanaugh-related tips were delivered straight to the Trump White House without FBI investigation. Indeed, the Trump White House could have used tip line information to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory evidence.

October 8 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, today released a report detailing disturbing shortcomings in the supplemental background investigation conducted after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during the 2018 confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Whitehouse’s report is the culmination of a six-year-long investigation hindered by executive branch obstruction, particularly during the Trump Administration.

The full report is available here: https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/KavanaughReport_final.pdf

The four key findings of Whitehouse’s years-long investigation into this episode are:

• The supplemental background investigation was completely controlled by the Trump White House. The FBI was never given “free rein” to conduct a thorough, complete investigation. Statements to the contrary from former President Trump and White House and Department of Justice officials were false.

• Trump White House and FBI assertions that the Kavanaugh supplemental background investigation was conducted “by the book” according to standard FBI procedures were false and misleading, failing to disclose that there are no standard procedures for supplemental background investigations. Instead, FBI practice, which the Trump Administration never disclosed, requires step-by-step instructions from the White House. This practice may be appropriate for handling many routine, minor questions that can arise after an initial background investigation, but it was uniquely inappropriate for investigating the serious, high-profile allegations against Kavanaugh.

• The investigation was directed by the Trump White House to pursue only first-hand evidence and not corroborating evidence. Senate Republicans then cited the absence of corroborating evidence to justify confirming Kavanaugh.

• The FBI’s public “tip line” investigation was a fake. No tip was ever investigated; Kavanaugh-related tips were delivered straight to the Trump White House without FBI investigation. Indeed, the Trump White House could have used tip line information to steer FBI investigators away from derogatory evidence.

September 25 | Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, delivers remarks on the Senate floor approving of the deal to avoid a government shutdown and bashing a budget proposal by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) which would slash funding for Medicare, veterans' programs, border security, national parks, law enforcement, transportation safety, affordable housing, education, and Medicaid.

Rhode Island House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi testifies at a Senate Budget Committee hearing entitled, “The Costs of Inaction: Economic Risks from Housing Unaffordability.”