Week 1: Dems find Trump’s picks more reasonable than Trump
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CIA Director-designate Rep. Michael Pompeo, R-Kan. testifies Thursday in Washington at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
WASHINGTON >> The lack of fireworks surrounding Senate consideration of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks may reflect a belief by minority Democrats that the people chosen are more reasonable than Trump.
It could also be the residue of a surprising number of statements by Trump’s Cabinet choices contradicting the billionaire businessman’s oft-stated positions on issues running the gamut from Russia and NATO to nuclear weapons and Muslims.
This week’s confirmation hearings produced an odd political chemistry where, for instance, one of the harshest examinations of a Trump Cabinet choice came from one of Trump’s fellow Republicans, presidential campaign rival Sen. Marco Rubio.
Despite Democrats’ dismay over some of Trump’s selections, the first week of nomination hearings was relatively tranquil, with Democrats generally restrained in questioning even the more contentious picks. The reason, according to a few Democrats: The nominees are proving more palatable than Trump himself.
“As I meet members of the Cabinet I’m puzzled because many of them sound reasonable,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “Far more reasonable than their president.”
That could change in weeks to come, because some of the most potentially explosive hearings are still pending, including the scrutiny of former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary.
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Several of Trump’s Cabinet selections this week made statements this week that seemingly or directly contradicted positions and policy announcements by their soon-to-be-boss.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, picked for attorney general, said he’s against any outright ban on immigration by Muslims, in contrast to Trump’s onetime call to suspend admittance of Muslims until U.S. officials could learn more about nature of the threat of extremism.
His secretary of state candidate, Rex Tillerson, took a relatively hard line on Washington’s dealings with Russia, even though Trump has been talking about improving relations between Washington and Moscow and held out for days before saying he accepted the intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow meddled in the U.S. election process.
Tillerson demurred, however, when one senator tried to lure him into calling President Vladimir Putin, whom he knows, a “war criminal,” although he emphasized support for NATO commitments that Trump had questioned.
Some of the toughest questioning of Tillerson came not from Democrats but from Rubio, who grilled the Exxon Mobil executive on human rights issues.
As Mnuchin’s confirmation hearing approaches, Democrats have set up a website to solicit stories from the thousands of people whose homes were foreclosed on by OneWest Bank while he headed a group of investors who owned the bank. They hope to use Mnuchin’s nomination hearing to attack Trump’s populist appeal with working-class voters and cast themselves as defenders of the middle class.
Thus far, though, Republicans are congratulating themselves for generally smooth sailing. And overall, the lack of drama may also be due to the decision by Democrats while in the Senate majority to lower the vote threshold for Cabinet nominees and others from 60 votes to 50, allowing Republicans to ensure approval as long as they can hold their 52-seat majority together.
“The purpose of confirmation hearings is to examine the record and views of potential nominees and I think that’s what these hearings are doing,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “I think it’s likely that all of the Cabinet nominees are going to be confirmed, I think the hearings have gone quite well this week.”
A hearing Thursday for neurosurgeon Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development featured some pointed questioning from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but also warm exchanges between Carson and other committee Democrats. Afterward Carson thanked the panel and said that it “was actually kind of fun.”
Sessions was denied confirmation once before by the Senate, but that was three decades ago for a federal judgeship. This time around the Alabaman is a sitting senator and was treated gently, for the most part, by his colleagues, even when Democrats brought up the racial issues that brought him down him last time around. There was potential for drama as Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., broke with Senate tradition to testify against his colleague, but it came on the second day of the hearing after Sessions had finished testifying, so he was not even in the room.
Tillerson had the rockiest outing thus far, with Rubio pressing him on Russia and Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon confronting him about climate change and other issues. With Rubio and others undecided on supporting Tillerson, his ultimate confirmation is in question. But even with Tillerson, Democrats seemed to pull their punches at times.
“I don’t want to argue with you,” Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico remarked at one point, seeming to speak for several colleagues.
And it was practically bipartisan lovefests at the hearings for the choices for Central Intelligence Agency, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo; retired Gen. James Mattis for Defense; and retired Gen. John Kelly for Homeland Security.
“Pompeo’s very popular, Mattis, Kelly — these are popular selections,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
The hearings seemed to underscore some emerging dynamics of Trump’s relations with Capitol Hill. Despite his highly unconventional approach, and his lack of Capitol Hill experience, many of his appointees and aides could have been selected by any other Republican, and the Senate is responding accordingly.
And even where Trump’s surprising approach raises the potential for problems, congressional Republicans are working overtime to paper them over, not highlight them.
“We are in complete sync,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., insisted Thursday in a discussion about a different topic, health care.
That could change in weeks to come, as the Senate holds hearings on Mnuchin and other more divisive selections. These include conservative Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services; Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a vocal denier of climate change science, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency; and fast-food executive Andrew Puzder to head the Labor Department.
Still, given that it’s the Senate, not daytime TV, there may be a limit to the potential for conflict, said Ben Marter, Durbin’s communications director. “You have to adjust your excite-o-meter down a little bit, because it’s a Senate hearing. It’s not Maury Povich.”
32 responses to “Week 1: Dems find Trump’s picks more reasonable than Trump”
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Pruitt, Perry and Carson are questionable choices and probably unqualified to the head the departments they were nominated for.
Ben Carson and the rest of Trump’s suicide squad are going to learn very soon that it’s not all fun and games like they think it will be directing a government agency that they have no experience dealing with.
Just like Obama and he never did get it.
O left an unimaginable MESS! “Community Disorganizer” (credit to lespark ^5) cannot run anything….now after 8 years it has been proven…facts are facts. O is a #FAKE potus.
Keonigohan – Another lie, as always. Or maybe I should capitalize ALWAYS? Thoughts? (That’s a funny question for you!)
Nothing was fake about Mr. Obama. He won the electoral vote and the popular vote. Twice.
@ KKKlastri
Eat CROW….8 days til the Man takes office and kicks the boy out.
Hope you remember the old saying….”Never let a boy do a Man’s job”.
January 20th #MAGA
agree. Trump is done as President. Even his own advisors are opposed to his “agenda.” Thing of it is, Trump will back off on most of his extreme positions as he just won’t have support even from many Republicans. His entire campaign was a lie. He had no intention of doing anything other than enriching the rich and undermining the middle class.
This rush to remove the health insurance from so many millions is directly contradictory to what Mr. Trump promised. Another of his many Big Lies. The Republicans have no plan for replacement. They whined for years and did absolutely nothing to develop an alternative.
Trump is a world class liar, and has been one for his entire lifetime. He’s a psychotic. Obviously.
All-Lies, go hook up with Keonigohan, also known as JohnnyRayBobRicey, and argue about Trump all you two want. But both of you should just go away.
seems that the candidates for the next administration’s cabinet are more that capable of delivering the best advice for trump as well as getting their departments to deliver the government services to support americans who were looking for hope and change during the awful legacy of the past eight years.
the candidates, so far, have impressed both republicans and democrats sitting on the senate confirmation hearing committees.
IMHO fixing the MESS left behind will be a daunting task. I congratulate & wish the nominees all the BEST!
#MAGA
And what mess is that exactly? Stock market around 20000 instead of being under 7000? Unemployment being under 5% instead of around 10? The fact that we have an agreement with Iran instead of going to war with them? Please be specific. Now it may be possible that the Donald will replace Obama care, aka Nixon care with a single pay system. http://ijr.com/2016/02/537107-5-times-donald-trump-praised-socialized-healthcare/
Citing statistics is sometimes a shallow argument which betrays the details boots. Regarding the unemployment figure, that statistic does not reflect the number of people who were looking for employment but simply quit looking because they could not find any employment. Jobless workers are only counted as unemployed if they are actively seeking work, these “missing workers” are not reflected in the unemployment rate. That is how the government manipulates the unemployment rate.
Also the stat is misleading because of those who have found jobs, those jobs are not full-time jobs. Obama boasts of job creation but his boasts as usual, ring hollow. 94% of jobs created during Obama’s reign were alternative jobs. Alternative, or “gig” work is defined as “temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract company workers, independent contractors or freelancers”, and is generally unsteady, without a fixed paycheck and with virtually no benefits. Thanks for the mess Obama.
My comment is awaiting moderation.
@ boots
lol eat CROW baby!
January 20 #MAGA
But JohnnyRayBobRicey this is an AP story in the Star Advertiser. Doesn’t that make it fake news by your definition? And why comment on a fake news site, isn’t that beneath you?
@ el_buritto_senorita
Ok.
Yes.
Yes but when you have a Mexican lib like you who attack me I attack back. Is that ok with you?
Eat Crow Burittos.
1 week til #MAGA
Ainokea if you attack me JohnnyRayBobRicey. I just work in the fields each day and make an honest living. You on the other hand aren’t fit to steer my plow. And if Trump has to depends on slow supporters like you, he’s in huge trouble. For the sake of our country, he needs to find smarter supporters than you.
“Dems find Trump’s picks more reasonable than Trump”
Well, what a surprise! Hopefully Trump will get a personality transformation and actually listen to his smarter advisers.
Maybe a surprise to people with an IQ of apes but the electoral college knew what they were doing all along.
@ MM
WHO picked his smarter advisers?
And like lespark mentioned…for you to be surprised is not surprising to us. We know what kind of leader PE Trump is.
January 20 #MAGA
Sure you do. He’s a leader who drove every business he started (other than the one left to him by his father) directly into the ground.
Failed Trump Businesses: (Block out some time. It’s a long list.)
Trump Airlines
Trump Magazine
Trump Vodka
Trump Mortgage
GoTrump.com
Trump – The Game
Trump Ice
The New Jersey Generals
Trump on the Ocean
The Trump Network
Trumped!
Trump New Media
Tour deTrump
Trump Steaks
Trump University
That is some great leadership! Yes sir! That’s exactly the type of leadership I would expect you would admire – one spectacular failure after another.
@ KKKlastri
And yet in 8 days PE Trump will be YOUR PRESIDENT….imagine that! lol
You LOST in a YUUUUUUGE LANDSLIDE…WE WON in a YUUUUUGE LANDSLIDE! Eat CROW!
January 20th #MAGA
Keonigohan – You still cannot write truthfully (no big surprise there) about his electoral college win. It’s # 46 on the list for margins.
He probably won’t be my president for very long, thankfully.
Oh, and I forgot Trump Casinos on that list. That was a big one. He actually lost $1 billion when every other casino operator in the country was making money by the barrel full.
He is great at failing. I definitely have to give that one to you.
And the “eat CROW” thing? Kind of cements up the fact that you’re 13 years old.
“Far more reasonable than their president.” Instead of being part of the solution, the Dems are still hell bent on dividing this country.
“St_pid is as St_pid does”
Dems in total DISARRAY…for the next decade, maybe more.
Mahalo O.
8 days til #MAGA
This type of trashy journalism is not needed. We all know about the bias mainstream media, but it simply adds fuel to the fire in the division of this country.
So much of Trump was like fake reality TV. Democrats and the Republicans who opposed Trump are finding he is making some good choices for his cabinet (some of whom are Democrats!). They will steer Trump and he will listen. Trump’s biggest fights will be with Republicans– over things like Federal program to cut price of prescription drugs and subsidies for poor in healthcare insurance as part of his Trump Care.
Mr Trump is brash, loud and sometimes vulgar, but he wears his heart on his sleeve and knows how to get the job done. Inside, is the heart of a ferocious competitor, leader and patriot. The mainstream media is puzzled because they again are late to the party and still cannot figure out what voters figured out way back in November– Mr Trump is a leader and we would rather have someone who is abrasive, brash and yes, sometimes profane…..than a perfectly mannered, polite, smiling person who stabs you in the back the second you turn around.
My comment is awaiting moderation.
@ ALLU
KaBoom!
January 20 #MAGA 1 week!
These congressional members who that these individuals would voice independence and not support Trump 100%. If they did, it would appear that they’re just “rubber stamps” for him, and lose all credibility and possibly not get confirmed. This is all orchestrated.
It’s not hard to find people more reasonable than Mr. Trump. His ongoing juvenile, demented Twitter rants are showing America exactly what they bought with this total nut case.
His approval ratings are already collapsing, and he hasn’t even taken office.
Everyone how voted for Mr. Trump should be deeply ashamed of what they’ve done.
My comment is awaiting moderation.
@ KKKlastri
And yet in 8 days PE Trump will be YOUR PRESIDENT….imagine that! lol
You LOST in a YUUUUUUGE LANDSLIDE…WE WON in a YUUUUUGE LANDSLIDE! Eat CROW!
January 20th #MAGA