Biden Cabinet Confirmation Live Thread ***hearings, votes, etc.***

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Anyway, I'll actually leave it at that, because you & I both know that you're probably not gonna end up agreeing with a single word of what I just said, even though I believe (& it seems as if other posters also agree with me in believing) that to not agree means to declare that you disagree with what the literal basic reality of the situation is, but I digress.

LOL, yeah right. Biden having ZERO Asian Cabinet Secretaries is a literal fact.


Anyways, Duckworth and Hirono have backed down:
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1374552459771805698
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1374564729004384257

Let's see what those "assurances" are.

[brucejoel99]

Anyway, I'll actually leave it at that, because you & I both know that you're probably not gonna end up agreeing with a single word of what I just said, even though I believe (& it seems as if other posters also agree with me in believing) that to not agree means to declare that you disagree with what the literal basic reality of the situation is, but I digress.

LOL, yeah right. Biden having ZERO Asian Cabinet Secretaries is a literal fact.

Are you serious right now? Jesus christ. Welp, thank you for at least proving that you didn't actually bother to read what I just said, since this statement of yours would indicate that you didn't read the paragraph that was literally posted right before what you just quoted, which you so conveniently chose to omit from your quote, & which constitutes the basic reality that you've evidently chosen to continue ignoring:

For the umpteenth freaking time: just because the words "Secretary" or "Attorney General" may not appear in their titles, that doesn't mean that they're not considered members of the Cabinet. Biden appointed a requisite number of AAPI individuals to his Cabinet - which consists of 25 members, per his prerogative, & not just the 15 statutory federal dept. heads - that made it "look like America," which is what he pledged to do. If the response to him literally upholding his pledge is to say "that's not good enough, because it's actually only the words "Secretary" or "Attorney General" that matter now," then that's just goal-post moving that's disingenuous at best & the outright planting of a false narrative at worst.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Are you serious right now? Jesus christ. Welp, thank you for at least proving that you didn't actually bother to read what I just said, since this statement of yours would indicate that you didn't read the paragraph that was literally posted right before what you just quoted, which you so conveniently chose to omit from your quote, & which constitutes the basic reality that you've evidently chosen to continue ignoring:

I'm not going over this. Give it a rest. Also, Duckworth & Hirono have backed down based on "assurances", so let's see what happens.

[Not Me, Us]

The Vice President, Trade Rep, and Surgeon General are all Asian-American. All three are high-level positions in the US government. Just because they don't have Secretary in their title doesn't mean they aren't important. This argument is just dumb, and I'm glad Duckworth and Hirono are backing down.

[brucejoel99]

The Vice President, Trade Rep, and Surgeon General are all Asian-American. All three are high-level positions in the US government. Just because they don't have Secretary in their title doesn't mean they aren't important. This argument is just dumb, and I'm glad Duckworth and Hirono are backing down.

Yeah, if nothing else, it really seems like this was all an extremely avoidable case of the Democrats eating their own.

[Beet]

The Vice President, Trade Rep, and Surgeon General are all Asian-American. All three are high-level positions in the US government. Just because they don't have Secretary in their title doesn't mean they aren't important. This argument is just dumb, and I'm glad Duckworth and Hirono are backing down.

Well this is a little misleading since East/Southeast Asians and South Asians are not interchangeable. And USTR, the title aside, is a position with a very small budget compared to most Cabinet level agencies, so it's not just a matter of having Secretary in the title. Also it's a position that will be dominated by China and Tai is going to face extra pressure to be 'tough' because you-know-what her Chinese background, and so on. And any criticism she gets on that front will be tainted by potential racism. So it's not really the best position to be in.

I'm glad that Hirono and Duckworth at least are speaking up a bit. At the end of the day no one is going to remember this by next year.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

i wouldnt care if bidens cabinet was all black, or all asian, or all white. I really don't care about that, and neither should you. It is stupid.

[Pheurton Skeurto]

I mean, I was never convinced that Duckworth or Hirono would actually vote nay on any appointments--it seemed purely like a stunt to keep the conversation going, which seems to have been successful.

[lfromnj]

6.8% of the total U.S. population is AAPI. There are 25 members of the Biden Cabinet: 2 of said members - the VP & the USTR (who's a member of the Cabinet as it's currently constituted because, yes, Cabinet-level counts) - are AAPI, meaning 8% of the Biden Cabinet is AAPI. Biden pledged to appoint a Cabinet that "looked like America." What's the issue here?

Also People need to be looking at CVAP and not total pop

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Even though, Duckworth/Hirono backed down (with "assurances"), I still agree with their overall message. Asian-Americans are under represented in both the government and the Democratic Party and that needs to change.

Anyways, I apologize for getting a bit too testy yesterday. My bad.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

6.8% of the total U.S. population is AAPI. There are 25 members of the Biden Cabinet: 2 of said members - the VP & the USTR (who's a member of the Cabinet as it's currently constituted because, yes, Cabinet-level counts) - are AAPI, meaning 8% of the Biden Cabinet is AAPI. Biden pledged to appoint a Cabinet that "looked like America." What's the issue here?

Also People need to be looking at CVAP and not total pop

With all due respect, that is a pretty terrible idea.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

[Calthrina950]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

Because I do not consider him to be a Democrat these days.

[Calthrina950]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

Because I do not consider him to be a Democrat these days.

This doesn't make any sense. Manchin voted for the American Rescue Plan, while every single Republican-including Collins and Murkowski-voted against it. And he is still a member of the Democratic caucus; without him, the Democrats would not have the majority.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

Because I do not consider him to be a Democrat these days.

This doesn't make any sense. Manchin voted for the American Rescue Plan, while every single Republican-including Collins and Murkowski-voted against it. And he is still a member of the Democratic caucus; without him, the Democrats would not have the majority.

No real democrat would oppose Neera Tanden or lead an 11 hour filibuster of the covid relief bill. Enough Said. He  is simply a Republican who caucuses with the Democrats.

[brucejoel99]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

Because I do not consider him to be a Democrat these days.

This doesn't make any sense. Manchin voted for the American Rescue Plan, while every single Republican-including Collins and Murkowski-voted against it. And he is still a member of the Democratic caucus; without him, the Democrats would not have the majority.

No real democrat would oppose Neera Tanden or lead an 11 hour filibuster of the covid relief bill. Enough Said. He  is simply a Republican who caucuses with the Democrats.

No real Republican would enable Chuck Schumer being Majority Leader & Joe Biden being a successful President. eNoUgH sAiD. Just because he’s not as left-wing a Democrat as you’d like him to be doesn’t mean he’s not a Democrat; indeed, he’s about as much of a Democrat at the federal level as representing his state can possibly afford him to be.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://twitter.com/SenatePress/status/1374816870575001605

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Levine confirmed by the same 52-48 vote.
Turk confirmed by the same 98-2 vote.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

https://twitter.com/SenatePress/status/1374816870575001605

Paying attention to the future Cabinet nominees in the Harris administration.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Monaco reported out of committee by voice vote.

Gupta's vote tied 11-11. Schumer will have to file a motion to discharge her as we saw with Becerra.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

https://mobile.twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1375173692238528513

Next List:

Cal. #55 Trottenberg to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation
Cal. #35 Sherman to be Deputy Secretary of State
Cal. #33 Gensler to the Securities and Exchange Commission
Cal. #53 Mallory to the Council on Environmental Quality

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Manchin will vote to confirm Kahl

I maintain that Biden probably pulled Elizabeth Klein’s Deputy Interior Secretary nomination as part of some sort of deal with Manchin to support Kahl (until that happened, Manchin seemed to be leaning no on Kahl and had a call about it with the WH the night before Klein’s nomination was withdrawn).  Klein opposes drilling to an even more than Haaland does (IIRC Haaland has never explicitly called for banning oil/natural gas drilling and coal mining in the U.S.), but it was more important to get Kahl confirmed imo.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1375448469293391879?s=21

lol

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1375448469293391879?s=21

lol

At least she seems extremely qualified for the position, so I'm all for it even if this is just a political move to get Manchin's support for an upcoming crucial piece of legislation &/or filibuster elimination. I mean, hell, if the worst sh*t that Trump had ever done was to give Ann Romney a job on the Utah Regional Commission or something like that, then I'd personally feel a hell of a lot better about the direction of the planet than I do today.