Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

[ApatheticAustrian]

@manchin:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/joe-manchin-tom-price-betsy-devos/index.html

[Mr. Morden]

Final vote on Elaine Chao 93-6.

Who were the 6 voting no?

Gillibrand, Merkley, Sanders, Schumer, Warren and Booker. McConnell voted Present.

If even Sanders and Al Franken are voting Aye... But yeah, Boooker is veeeeeeeeery moderate and a veeeeeeery strong candidate.  

Sanders didn't vote aye.  He was one of the 6 no votes, as shown above.

I do wonder if Booker and Gillibrand (and maybe even Warren) still would have voted no on Chao if they weren't running for president.

[Xing]

This is not looking good. Anyone know of any good walls I can punch if Brainless DePlagiarist gets confirmed?

[Klartext89]

@manchin:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/joe-manchin-tom-price-betsy-devos/index.html

Well... Now we're even more unsure about Manchin than before lol.

[Klartext89]

Final vote on Elaine Chao 93-6.

Who were the 6 voting no?

Gillibrand, Merkley, Sanders, Schumer, Warren and Booker. McConnell voted Present.

If even Sanders and Al Franken are voting Aye... But yeah, Boooker is veeeeeeeeery moderate and a veeeeeeery strong candidate.  

Sanders didn't vote aye.  He was one of the 6 no votes, as shown above.

I do wonder if Booker and Gillibrand (and maybe even Warren) still would have voted no on Chao if they weren't running for president.

You're right, excuse me. Changed it. I should stop being in 10 threads at the same time, chatting on twitter and eating meanwhile. Sorry.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/SarahMMimms/status/826450051434176515

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Putting my personal biases aside, they look really bad when they keep on delaying his nominees. This is going to stick with them during midterms and Trump voters won't forget it.

You're incapable of putting your personal biases aside.

[President Johnson]

Murkowski and Collins leaning on voting no for DeCon:

Manu Raju ✔ @mkraju
MURKOWSKI warns that she may NOT support DeVos on the floor. "I would not advise yet that she can count on my vote," via @tomlobianco

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/826476692214542336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Tom LoBianco ✔ @tomlobianco
.@senatorcollins says she will support DeVos in committee, but still deciding on final vote
11:18 AM - 31 Jan 2017

https://twitter.com/tomlobianco/status/826464612031877126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Pence would be needed to break the tie.

Manchin will approve, he said he will vote for all nominees. No big deal.

Im pretty sure all dems are united against DeVos, including Manchin.

I think Price too.

And Puzder.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

https://twitter.com/SarahMMimms/status/826450051434176515

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Putting my personal biases aside, they look really bad when they keep on delaying his nominees. This is going to stick with them during midterms and Trump voters won't forget it.

LOL

[Virginiá]

Putting my personal biases aside, they look really bad when they keep on delaying his nominees. This is going to stick with them during midterms and Trump voters won't forget it.

No one is going to care. Seriously. I think supporters of both sides really have a tendency to put too much weight on actions like this towards the next elections. In all likelihood these people are going to get confirmed eventually and 2 years from now no one is going to care about some procedural issues that ultimately had little effect. I'm not even convinced anyone would care if one of these nominees got blocked entirely and was replaced by someone else.

In fact, I would bet voters are going to be more concerned about any number of new things Trump does over that time period. You should probably be more worried about Trump alienating a portion of his core supporters rather than banking on mundane, yawn-worthy issues like this to rile them up and make them forget everything else.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

GOP is going to suffer forever for betraying murkowski.

Murkowski will be there for 30 years and it is all thanks to Joe Miller bungling a winnable race.


Republicans did not "betray Murkowski". Alaska Republican primary voters got sick of being run by crooked nepotists whose only reason for being in office was who her daddy was and how much money she gets/got from big oil and other business interests.

Only once both Sarah Palin and Joe Miller proved to be out control and extreme, did people like Murkowski manage to surge back and regain control. A direct result of that was the Republicans loss of the Governorship to Walker. Alaska wants independent reformers, not insider hacks who happen to be moderate.

Murkowski has managed to boost her personal popularity since losing her primary. So people forget how she got there. But never forget, the reason she lost was not "Republicans betraying her" (which is almost as bad as Don Young saying "Don't criticize my pork, it is my money" when it comes to a sense of entitlement for AK GOP establishment types), but voters objecting yet again to having a Senator appointed by her father who was ridden out of the Governorship on a rail for corruption subsequently with a 15% approval rating and even placed third in a GOP primary behind Sarah Palin and another candidate. She also to that point had done little to establish herself and didn't build much of a record, and her approvals were low. She almost lost the general election in 2004 despite Bush winning 64% at the same time.

Murkowski the moderate hero, boldly fighting extremists is a 2010's PR invention that has done well to remake her image, but the prior decade she was the poster child of a corrupt old order that was being dismantled by voters tired of a culture of corruption.

[Klartext89]

https://twitter.com/KT_thomps/status/826805797304823808

Mnuchin and Price approved in the Committee after rule Change without Dems present. Hardball. Was about time.

"Finance Committee members have wrapped up after dropping a “mini-nuke”. At the hearing for DeVos yesterday, Democratic members objected to Senator Hatch’s vote by proxy. Between the no-show yesterday and that, Hatch apparently had it."

LOL

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Vote on Sessions at 11:15


Vote approaching on Pruitt. Looks like the Democrats walked out there too.


I guess the long knives are out and they are just going ram these through committee now.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Who exactly is being confirmed today anyways?

No one by the full Senate.  Only Sessions in committee today.  Price and Mnuchin already make it out of committee.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Strike that........Tillerson's full Senate vote is scheduled for later today.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Sessions approved 11-9 in committee.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Once they have passed committee, what is to stop McConnell from ramming them through the full Senate immediately? There is no filibuster on cabinet appointees anymore.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Once they have passed committee, what is to stop McConnell from ramming them through the full Senate immediately? There is no filibuster on cabinet appointees anymore.

That is what I've been thinking. If McConnell was truly wanting to help Trump out he would ram them right through the Senate. Is there some rule that makes nominees wait?

The committees have certain procedures that delay the process including one week notice for votes, hence why I said once they pass committee.

Beyond that I am not aware of any because if an objection is raised, the cloture vote is a simple majority for such nominees.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

McConnell will only fight when there needs to be a fight.  They passed through the committees and he'll let them vote in the full Senate using the natural process they go through

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Once they have passed committee, what is to stop McConnell from ramming them through the full Senate immediately? There is no filibuster on cabinet appointees anymore.

Dems can make it impossible for a vote to be called through traditional talking filibusters, obviously. You don't even necessarily need to talk through the night. Senators greatest weakness is their desire to sleep and have a weekend, so you really only need 10 hours of material at the most.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Annnnnnd Sessions makes it out of committee.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The U.S. Attorney for Maryland to be nominated as Deputy Attorney General:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-to-nominate-rod-rosenstein-deputy-attorney-general/ar-AAmtzv2?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp

[Gass3268]

Politico: Collins is leaning no on DeVos

[RI]

I have very shrewd personal reasons for hoping Sessions goes through, but DeVos going down wouldn't break my heart any.

[Devout Centrist]

Politico: Collins is leaning no on DeVos

Let's see if she has a spine

[Gass3268]

Manchin is a no on DeVos