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

[Progressive Pessimist]

NO votes:
Blackburn
Braun
Cruz
Ernst
Hagerty
Hawley
Lee
Marshall
Paul
Risch

So I take it we can assume these are people who will acquit Trump?

I suppose, although Risch is kinda random.

Yeah, it is kind of weird. Maybe I was wrong but I was under the impression that Risch was mainstream and obscure enough to not face much consequence for voting to convict and would be more likely to, especially having just been re-elected.

[Progressive Pessimist]

538 hasn't done any writeups on Biden nominees like they did with Trump. Infact I haven't heard much in the news about Biden's nominees so far

Yeah, and the NYT isn't keeping track of the Senate voting like they did in 2017. It actually feels normal and nice.

Politics is becoming boring again! Yay!

It's still important though, Democrats better not fall back asleep!

[Progressive Pessimist]

The amount of misinformation on social media is just ridiculous. Earlier today on Twitter, some Trump supporters were sharing a fake/altered picture of a news article in which it shows Lloyd Austin saying that he would "defund the military" and "hand over control of the U.S. military to China".

The article was clearly false and edited but that didn't stop the Trump supporters from going nuts and of course saying that Biden and the Democrats are "puppets of the CCP" and "radical socialists". The misinformation is absolutely sickening.

How can anyone think that Democrats are that blunt and nonchalant? I don't even know why I'm asking though because these people are, and have been, way past the point of reason.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I really hope Hawley's presidential campaign goes just as well as Gillibrand's did.

I hope it goes worse! Gillibrand at least had that quip about disinfecting the White House which aged disturbingly well. I can't see Hawley being as clever or having anything memorable about his candidacy.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1364697997574082568

MEAN TWEETS  AREN'T  DISQUALIFYING  EXCEPT  WHEN  THEY'RE  TARGETING  ME

It's nothing more than the typical Republican way of mentally processing things.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 15-7 to send the nomination of Merrick Garland to be the next attorney general to the full Senate. Republican Senators Cotton, Kennedy, Lee, Blackburn, Hawley, Sasse and Cruz voted “No.”

About damn time. And of course the worst members of the Republican conference vote No on a highly qualified nominee whose integrity is out of question.

Sasse voting no is a bit of a surprise though.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I was always pretty ambivalent on Tanden's nomination but I do feel kind of frustrated that mean tweets suddenly matters to the Republican Party. It seems that they "hear about" tweets more than they let on when Trump was President.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Well at least some good things are coming through. This is nuts but the GOP will do anything to muddy the waters. I still don't see how the GQP think they will win in the midterms.

They're banking on the historical precedent and how they fared against all expectations in the 2020 House elections. They're probably right.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Say it with me, folks: Secretary Haaland.

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1367495606982348801

HAAL yeah!

[Progressive Pessimist]

Why the  did Mitch vote to confirm Garland for AG when he made it his whole thing that he was never ever gonna confirm him

Probably just to make people like us want to tear our hair out.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Why the  did Mitch vote to confirm Garland for AG when he made it his whole thing that he was never ever gonna confirm him

Mitch's problem with Garland was that Obama nominated him, and if confirmed the court would be 5-4 liberal. Mitch actually respects and likes the man, he just stonewalled his nomination when it got in the way of his goals

That is actually worse than having an unrelenting bias against him.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Murkowski, Sullivan, Collins, and Graham were the Republican yeas for Haaland. Who were the nine Senators who didn't vote?

Graham? How intriguing?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Hawley is going to be the Gillibrand of 2024 at this rate, voting against almost all of Biden's Cabinet picks.

Hopefully his 2024 campaign goes even worse than hers.

[Progressive Pessimist]

If this is what it takes for Manchin and Sinema to cooperate and support nuking the filibuster and backing Biden's ambitions, then so be it. They might have left him no other choice.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NPR/status/1387197639360499714

Hopefully he can help somewhat with resolving the crisis at the border-probably Biden's biggest blunder so far.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://mobile.twitter.com/NPR/status/1387197639360499714

Hopefully he can help somewhat with resolving the crisis at the border-probably Biden's biggest blunder so far.

It's a blunder in the sense that this is a problem that takes some to solve it

Of course, and the issue is more complicated than bad faith Republicans who suddenly care about the well-being kids make it out to be, but there are some aspects of immigration that Biden could do better with in the meantime.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Somewhat unrelated but, maybe we won't see a SCOTUS confirmation battle

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1394247477650468864

Breyer, no! In an ideal world he's probably right but our world is far from ideal. No more unilateral disarmament in the face of the modern GOP!

[Progressive Pessimist]

Should Biden fire Blinken and replace him with Jane Harman?
Should Biden fire Austin and replace him with Seth Moulton or Leon Panneta?

I don't think he needs to fire anyone, but it couldn't hurt for him to designate some fall guys like Trump used to, to take the blame for things in his administration and point the finger elsewhere. I would argue that it worked pretty well for him over those four agonizing years.

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1546585280265715716
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1546585471647715331
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1546585751579680768

I understand Schumer's up for reelection, but come on. He's facing no primary opponent, and I'm pretty sure Joe Pinion is not a serious candidate in the general election. He doesn't need to campaign, and can be present at the Senate pretty much every day.

Schumer has covid, show some respect.

He does? Where was that announced? I would have thought that would be front-page news in quite a few newspapers.

It is a pretty big deal since he's supposed be engaging in negotiations with Manchin to pass something BBB-related before the recess.