Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings **live commentary thread**

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Coming from someone in the educational field, DeVos is one of the worst. I really REALLY hope this opponent of public education gets voted down, but I doubt she will.

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What a bunch of spineless chums. I guess DeVos is a lock as well. Well, I guess if you're going to f*** America over, might as well go all the way and f*** it over beyond repair.

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Senator Cantwell has announced that she will vote NO on DeVos:

https://twitter.com/SenatorCantwell/status/824779768218411008

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

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Any word on Murkowski?

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If DeVos ends up being 50-50, with Pence as the tie-breaking vote, surely Republicans know the backlash they're going to face for that...

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If DeVos ends up being 50-50, with Pence as the tie-breaking vote, surely Republicans know the backlash they're going to face for that...

lol you think they care.

Of course they think they can afford to ignore it. We'll see how well that works out for them.

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If DeVos ends up being 50-50, with Pence as the tie-breaking vote, surely Republicans know the backlash they're going to face for that...

lol you think they care.

Of course they think they can afford to ignore it. We'll see how well that works out for them.

Just like merrick garland was going to hurt republicans last year?

Maybe, or maybe only Democrats will care, just like only Republicans cared about Hillary's emails.

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Are people really that surprised about Warner? He's always struck me as one of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate, and definitely to the right of Kaine.

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Until I have good reason to believe otherwise, I'm going to guess that any Republicans (other than Collins and Murkowski) who claim to be "on the fence" about DePlagiarist are, in the end, going to be good little minions and vote for her. They're probably just saying that they're undecided to make it look like they care about such trivial things as knowledge, experience, and qualifications.

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Assuming that DeVos is (ugh) confirmed, Democrats have to draw attention to what she actually does as SoE, so that their opposition to her doesn't just become a moot point/waste of time the day after she's confirmed.

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Nope, just heard "Mr. Paul, aye." So much for that.

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Well, looks like we'll be chucking a grenade at public education and falling even further behind. Thanks, Congressional Republican schmucks! Thanks, Trump voters!

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well, come on folks, did you really expect Senate Republicans circa 2017 to have a spine?

No, I expected this, but the horror of the past couple of months just got personal for me.

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Bold Prediction - zero Republicans cross over to vote against Puzder, Puzder makes it through 52-48.

Better question, will any Republican vote against any of the remaining nominees?

Better question yet, will any of the 50 cowards ever oppose Trump in any meaningful way? (i.e. not just talk it abstractly, a la "maaaaaaaaybe I'll have to vote against Tillerson ")

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Good, glad she was confirmed. Democrats engaged in so much damn character assassination on this confirmation hearing. not only on DeVos but on all education advocates who supported charter schools or private vouchers.

DeVos deserves the attacks. She is wholly unqualified for this position, as she clearly demonstrated in her hearings, and isn't merely for "school choice" or "vouchers", but doesn't even think education should be public, thinks teachers should make less (since we're clearly the richest people in society), and is 100% bought and paid for. Wanna know why so many of these Republicans voted for her? Look up how much she donated to their campaigns. She is an embarrassment.

I'd be perfectly fine with having a serious discussion with people about charter schools, and whether or not they should get public funding. I have very strong opinions on this, but if people have more to say than just "choice is good", I'm happy to debate them and talk about this. Unfortunately, a lot of people just threw their support behind her because of the idea of her being for "school choice", and didn't really have much to say about her other positions or qualifications. Is that really a good justification? What if I supported Mark Zuckerberg for Secretary of State, because he seemed "dovish", and yet he could hardly give a coherent answer in his confirmation hearing, and showed a complete lack of understanding of foreign affairs and governments? Surely people would call me out on this, and rightly so.

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I don't understand a thing, maybe it's just because I'am a fool...Collins and Murkoswski are both in the Committee competent about Education...this Committee is 12-11 Republican...so, not even both, but just the vote of one of them would have blocked DeVos in the preliminary fase, without the need of a full floor Senate vote...if they weren't willing to vote for her, why did they vote for advancing her nomination in Committee?

It looks pretty clear now that McConnell let these two vote no to placate their constituents who were going hard at them on DeVos. But he wasn't going to let them actually block the process. So just like the 50 other R senators had no choice but to vote "Yay", Collins and Murkoswki had no choice but to vote "Yay" on the Committee. We, critics of DeVos, should really not hold them up as Moderate Heroes...

Those who pay close attention know how much of a "moderate" Collins really is. Ordinary voters, though, just hear about how she doesn't always vote with the Republicans, so she gets to keep up her image as a moderate.

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I don't understand a thing, maybe it's just because I'am a fool...Collins and Murkoswski are both in the Committee competent about Education...this Committee is 12-11 Republican...so, not even both, but just the vote of one of them would have blocked DeVos in the preliminary fase, without the need of a full floor Senate vote...if they weren't willing to vote for her, why did they vote for advancing her nomination in Committee?

It looks pretty clear now that McConnell let these two vote no to placate their constituents who were going hard at them on DeVos. But he wasn't going to let them actually block the process. So just like the 50 other R senators had no choice but to vote "Yay", Collins and Murkoswki had no choice but to vote "Yay" on the Committee. We, critics of DeVos, should really not hold them up as Moderate Heroes...

Those who pay close attention know how much of a "moderate" Collins really is. Ordinary voters, though, just hear about how she doesn't always vote with the Republicans, so she gets to keep up her image as a moderate.

The people of Maine should decide whether she's moderate enough for them, not Atlas Forum. In 2008, a huge Dem wave, she beat back a serious challenge by 20 points. It's pretty clear that the people of Maine feel she is moderate enough for them, and it is their judgment that counts. Regarding DeVos, Collins was clear about her views: She opposed the nomination, but did not feel the matter was serious enough to prevent the full Senate from having their say on it.

Oh, I'm not allowed to have an opinion on a Senator from a different state, or define "moderate" differently from others? That's interesting, considering how much time you've spent talking about how you feel about a Senator from a different state, and defining "socialist" in a rather... odd way.

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Glad to see some Democrats growing a spine, but the way the Senate is right now, no nominations are going to get blocked.

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I guess Scotty doesn't want to jump on a sinking ship.