Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

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Is there a list anywhere of when each confirmation vote will be held?

[KingSweden]

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

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Kelly was confirmed by a vote of 88-11 for Homeland Security.  According to DDHQ, the no votes were Wyden, Merkley, Harris, Cortez-Masto, Udall, Heinrich, Van Hollen, Booker, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, and Warren.

[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.

[justfollowingtheelections]

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.

I despise Gillibrand and I wish someone would primary her, but I would have also voted against Mattis for this exact reason.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

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.

Yep, and she's absolutely right!

[Mr. Morden]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

[The Other Castro]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

I guess Russia isn't a threat anymore. What a joke move by McCain. Rubio might even have more of a spine than him on this one (though maybe not, we'll see).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

So Tillerson gets through 51-50 even if Graham and Rubio act on principle-like motivations. Lovely.

[Mr. Morden]

Graham also says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/mccain-tillerson-senate-confirm-233989

Rubio still hasn't announced his decision.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

Does this mean that for once in his life Rubio might've actually decided to grow a pair after all?  

More importantly, this is beyond pathetic.  It's like every time McCain seems like he can't possibly sink any lower, he always manages to find a way.  We now have someone who had been among the most vocal and uncompromising hawks in the Senate voting to confirm a blatantly unqualified Russian stooge as Secretary of State because the nomination came from a Republican "President" with almost literally no knowledge of foreign affairs whose best known interaction with McCain had been to attack him for being a POW (saying, among other things, "I like guys who don't get captured").  We already have the Moscovite Candidate in the Oval Office, a National Security Advisor who truly cannot be trusted to put America's interests ahead of those of the Russian government, and now we may have another Russian puppet/corrupt guy who sold his soul to Putin/useful idiot (take your pick) at State because John McCain is apparently worried that some people might still think he has some semblance of a soul.  I never thought I could have a lower opinion of him than I already did, but...wow.  I get that "country first" doesn't really mean much to McCain anymore, but this is pretty disgusting.

Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, keeping people like Flynn and Tillerson out of office should be a no-brainer.  The only reason to cheer on something like this is if you're a soulless hack or just such a petty, sheltered, selfish, and all-around pathetic manchild that you blindly cheer for anything that makes people in the other party scared or upset regardless of who will get hurt or the damage it could do to America (and we do admittedly have some of those on the forum).  This is different than just trash-talking fans of a rival sports team.  Politics is not a game (despite what some on the forum may think) and when you treat it like one the way many Americans have been since 2010, people get hurt.    

It should frighten everyone that national security posts are being given to people who may actively work to pursue the interests of a foreign government (and a hostile one at that) rather than those of their own country.  Even if you think I'm wrong about Tillerson and Flynn or I'm exaggerating/being melodramatic, how are Flynn's close ties to the Russian government or Tillerson's clear lack of any meaningful qualifications for SoS not highly alarming at best?

Graham also says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/mccain-tillerson-senate-confirm-233989

Rubio still hasn't announced his decision.

Give me a f***ing break!  I've seen wet sh!t with more of a backbone than Lindsey Graham.  What pathetic piece of garbage.  I really need to stop looking at this thread before I give myself a stroke

[Devout Centrist]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

Spineless coward. Graham genuinely surprises me. Oh well, I'll toss him on the list with McCain and that idiot Marco Rubio.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

As a Dem I'm glad to see that Tillerson will be confirmed. If the neocons defected Trump would in all likelihood just choose a candidate more acceptable to them, and I'd prefer not to get drafted into Secretary Bolton's march on Tehran.

Tillerson as SoS is bad for the country, period.  Bolton can't even make it out of committee and we're not gonna have a draft again.

[Gass3268]

As a Dem I'm glad to see that Tillerson will be confirmed. If the neocons defected Trump would in all likelihood just choose a candidate more acceptable to them, and I'd prefer not to get drafted into Secretary Bolton's march on Tehran.

Tillerson as SoS is bad for the country, period.  Bolton can't even make it out of committee and we're not gonna have a draft again.

Anyone who Trump chooses as SoS is gonna be bad for the country. At this point, it's about minimizing the harms. If Tillerson gets rejected, Trump will pick someone who seems more likely to pass Senate confirmation by appeasing the bloc that rebelled, and whether that's Bolton or some other shriveled neocon husk (Giuliani, Armitage, whatever) that alternative candidate is likely to get the US involved in a few more wars than Tillerson would.

I think a lot of people were hoping for Corker or Romney, but we all know that wasn't going to happen.

[mencken]

The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back

[Shadows]

Looks like all of Trump's picks are gonna go in. The GOP has no backbone & people like Graham don't have much of a base. The GOP voters will swing anywhere & everywhere from neocons to Russia loving based on what their liberal hating white rage leader tells them.

Neocon & Russia hate is dead for the time beginning till a new leader comes !

[Cashew]

Give it a few weeks and the shameless cowards in the senate will cave, they always do.

Called it.

Hooray for neocon cowardice.

[RI]

Rubio falls in line on Tillerson.

[IceAgeComing]

I believe Linda McMahon is up for confirmation at the beginning of this week (Tuesday?).  I totally don't expect her to be blocked since she's one of the less controversial Trump appointments but it'll be interesting to see whether they bring up anything about her past with the WWE.  Any Democrat worth a damn should bring up the whole independent contractor thing (basically; the vast, vast majority of US-based professional wrestlers aren't technically employers but independent contractors which means  - for those on the indies who work non-exclusive deals this isn't a huge problem and is probably appropriate within the law since they do have  but those who work for the WWE (and on exclusive contracts for other promotions as well; I'm pretty sure at this point that's possibly like a couple of guys in both TNA and Ring of Honor; even TNA's big names now work the indies between TV tapings) its an incredibly dubious categorisation that really should have been struck down years ago: two of the basic criteria that differentiate between an "employee" and an "independent contractor" is whether someone can refuse a booking or take bookings for other promotions which WWE talent aren't allowed to do according to their contracts.  There's a reason that they do this: it basically means that they don't need to do some of the stuff that they'd have to if their wrestlers were considered employees (the big one is providing heath insurance; although they do cover costs for in-ring injuries at the moment but that's something that they could legally drop at any time - I also think that they'd have to cover travel costs directly as well which I don't believe that they do for stops under a certain length) and that saves them money even though its really, really skeevy.  Lots of people who've retired or otherwise moved on from pro wrestling generally all agree that its a big problem but the only legal challenge so far failed on procedural grounds so there's been no progress and I can't see any being made under Trump.  I'm pretty sure that other sports do it as well though, but that doesn't make it any better!

Although part of me expects that we'll get the usual questions that always come up and that have been dealt with before (Steroids, mentioning some of the most distasteful angles from the late 90s, that sort of thing) rather than anything substantive that could reveal anything about Linda McMahon.

[Gass3268]

Lol Rubio

[America Needs R'hllor]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

Spineless coward. Graham genuinely surprises me. Oh well, I'll toss him on the list with McCain and that idiot Marco Rubio.

Same. I had some respect left for McCain and Graham.

[ApatheticAustrian]

i guess tillerson is an hell of a guy regarding convincing and bashed the shoot out of putin.

[/]

Did anyone doubt this would happen?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Anyone who still thinks McCain is bipartisan or has a spine is utterly retarded at this point.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/823179101796081665

Spineless coward. Graham genuinely surprises me. Oh well, I'll toss him on the list with McCain and that idiot Marco Rubio.

Same. I had some respect left for McCain and Graham.

That' was your first mistake, friend.  Rid yourself of that respect and you'll have a happier life.