Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

[Mr. Morden]

Forgive me US Gen Discussion mods if this thread is considered unnecessary.  If you want to discuss the confirmation hearings in the “Trump transition” thread, feel free to merge.  But it seems like the confirmation hearings are a big enough deal on their own to merit their own thread.  I already started a thread on the 2020 board about the likely 2020 presidential candidates and how they’ll vote on confirmation, but this thread would be for up-to-the-minute discussion of the hearings themselves.  They start tomorrow morning:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/politics/when-are-the-cabinet-senate-confirmation-hearings/

[Mr. Morden]

Protesters working hard to make sure sessions gets confirmed

Every one of Trump's choices are going to get confirmed except possibility Tillerson.

I'll be curious to see what the Dems do with Mattis.  While they can't filibuster any of the nominations directly, they can filibuster the waiver Mattis would need to be cleared for taking a Defense job, and Gillibrand says she's going to try to filibuster it.

But my guess is that enough Dems will choose not to go along that this won't be a problem.  Mattis just hasn't attracted as much controversy as the others.

[Mr. Morden]

Updated hearing schedule:

https://qz.com/881104/nine-confirmation-hearings-one-trump-news-conference-and-obamas-farewell-a-guide-to-the-week-in-us-politics/

[Mr. Morden]

It sounds like the hearings on Kelly are already over.  However, they'll "officially" remain open until 5pm tomorrow, in case anyone wants to add anything to the public record before then.  So I'm assuming no committee vote until then.  So no committee votes being held today on any of the nominees.  Presumably we'll start getting those tomorrow?

[Mr. Morden]

Rubio's asking Tillerson questions like "Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?"

His whole line of questioning on Russia doesn't make it sound like he's that keen to vote in favor of confirmation.

[Mr. Morden]

Unless a Democrat defects, I don't see how Tillerson gets confirmed.

I think it will be a 50-50 tie with Pence having the decisive vote in the end.

He may even struggle to get out of committee.

Yeah, the GOP only has a 1 vote advantage on the committee, so if Rubio (or any other Republican) votes no, and all the Dems on the committee vote no, that's it.

[Mr. Morden]

While it would be highly unusual to do so, my understanding is that if McConnell wanted to, he could bypass the committee and bring it directly to the floor of the Senate.  That said, if Rubio is a no, then I'm assuming Graham and McCain are also no's, so I'm not sure it would help anything, unless he's counting on Democratic defectors like Manchin.

[Mr. Morden]

I'm actually really curious to see how Ben Carson's hearing goes tomorrow, given that (AFAIK) his main qualification for leading HUD is that he's black(!).

[Mr. Morden]

Booker actually seemed to be saying that he expects Tillerson will be confirmed.  It sounds like at least some of the Dems might not be that bothered with the Russia angle on Tillerson, and might vote him out of committee, meaning he'd reach the Senate floor even if Rubio defects and votes no.

[Mr. Morden]

WSJ says Graham, McCain, and Rubio all claim to be undecided on whether to vote for confirmation of Tillerson:

http://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/hearings

Meanwhile, Paul says he's "inclined to support" Tillerson:

https://twitter.com/ByronTau/status/819605660744777729

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/819608462053228546

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[Mr. Morden]

Confirmation hearings this week:

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/16/509878778/cabinet-nominees-will-face-scrutiny-on-climate-and-education-policy-this-week

Tuesday:
10am: Ryan Zinke (Interior)
5pm: Betsy DeVos (Education)

Wednesday:
10am: Nikki Haley (UN Ambassador)
10am: Tom Price (HHS)
10am: Scott Pruitt (EPA)
10am: Wilbur Ross (Commerce)

Thursday:
10am: Steven Mnuchin (Treasury)
10am: Rick Perry (Energy)

[Mr. Morden]

After this week, I think the only Cabinet picks left to have not had confirmation hearings are Labor (Puzder), Veterans Affairs (Shulkin), and Agriculture (weirdly, Trump still hasn’t appointed anyone to this job), though I’m unclear on which “Cabinet-level officials” require confirmation hearings.  Do Trade Rep and OMB director require Senate confirmation?

[Mr. Morden]

When did they have hearings for Carson? I didn't know about that.

IIRC, it was Thursday of last week.  It was on at the same time as the hearings for Mattis and Pompeo.

[Mr. Morden]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/jeff-sessions-cabinet-233727

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[Mr. Morden]

So I forget how it works: Do all of Obama's Cabinet officials resign tomorrow, and the unfilled Cabinet spots are temporarily presided over by their deputies?  E.g., this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Filip

was the Deputy Attorney General under Mukasey, then Mukasey quit on Jan. 20th, 2009 when Obama was sworn in, and Filip stayed on as acting Attorney General for two weeks before Holder was confirmed.  I assume that's how it's going to work for all of these departments?

[Mr. Morden]

So I forget how it works: Do all of Obama's Cabinet officials resign tomorrow, and the unfilled Cabinet spots are temporarily presided over by their deputies?  E.g., this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Filip

was the Deputy Attorney General under Mukasey, then Mukasey quit on Jan. 20th, 2009 when Obama was sworn in, and Filip stayed on as acting Attorney General for two weeks before Holder was confirmed.  I assume that's how it's going to work for all of these departments?

I found the answer to my own question here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/day-inauguration-state-department-lacks-interim-boss-44878550

[Mr. Morden]

Look at the Wikipedia page for "Current Cabinet of the United States":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_the_United_States#Cabinet

The vast majority of the Cabinet right now is composed of deputy officials who don't even have a Wikipedia page. 

[Mr. Morden]

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

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[Mr. Morden]

McCain says he'll vote to confirm Tillerson:

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

[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.

[Mr. Morden]

Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting right now in order to vote on Tillerson nomination.  Any predictions on whether Tillerson gets any Democratic votes?

[Mr. Morden]

If I heard the vote so far correctly, it was a party line vote, though some of those were votes by proxy for Senators not present, and they have a couple hours to come in in person and change it if they want.

Anyway, now the Senators are explaining their votes.

[Mr. Morden]

Tom Price confirmation hearings part 2 is going on right now.

[Mr. Morden]

Out of curiosity, Paul's vote against confirmation for Pompeo was the first time a Senator voted against confirmation for a Cabinet (or "Cabinet level") pick from his own party since....when?  Did any Dems vote against any Obama Cabinet choices?  Any Republicans vote against any Bush Cabinet choices?