Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

[SteveRogers]

I hate to be "that guy," but has anyone questioned Sessions about pot yet?

He was asked and his answer was pretty much "I won't not enforce federal law".

Pretty much, stock up on plants/seeds if you haven't already

Oh, I'm sure he'll find federal laws he'll be happy to "not enforce".

Yeah... I'd like to know whether he won't not enforce the federal law against giving your son-in-law a senior White House position.

[SteveRogers]

Then congressman Richmond comes up and mentions the 3/5 thing clearly without understanding that the purpose of it was to stop slaveowners from getting more power.

It was a compromise that gave slave owners 3/5ths of exactly what they wanted.

[SteveRogers]

Yeah, Warren is pretty clinical at shredding unqualified hacks like DeVos, which is why I think she should remain in the Senate.

Yes, but as long as the political environment is such that senate republicans will auto-confirm said unqualified hacks regardless of how badly they get shredded in their hearings, the Senate may not be the place where Warren's skills are most effectively put to use.

[SteveRogers]

Mattis confirmed as Secretary of Defense in a unanimous vote:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/20/mad-dog-mattis-confirmed-as-defense-secretary-first-trump-cabinet-member-to-be-approved.html

At the time that article was written, the vote was unanimous, but voting was still in progress.  Looks like it ended up not quite being unanimous:

https://twitter.com/CQnow/status/822569447722455040

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Mattis is the best Trump nom by a mile. Still don't get why she made this her hill to die on

Sounds like Gillibrand believes he wasn't good enough to be worth throwing out the law on and scrapping civilian oversight of the military.

[SteveRogers]

Yeah, DeVoss should be one of the Democrats lesser worries.

In the grand scheme of things, sure, in the sense that a badly mismanaged Education Department will do less damage to the country than, say, a bad DOJ or State Department. But DeVos is at best, one of the most manifestly unqualified of Trump's nominees and at worst hostile to the purpose of the Education Department.

[SteveRogers]

Puzder in jeopardy. Four GOPers will likely vote against him.

Collins, Murkowski, Scott, and Isakson are the four. Collins says she will not make her decision until after the hearing. We've seen this show before, and let's just say I don't have a ton of confidence in them to follow through.

Yeah, they'll probably just draw straws to see which 2 get to vote No without affecting the confirmation.