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Trump Appointments Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 10, 2017 33 Comments
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has begun his confirmation hearing for attorney general. We have a live stream in this post. This is expected to be one of the most tense confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet. The Democrats will ask Sessions about his record on civil rights and female rights. However, the GOP holds the majority in the Senate so more than likely he will receive confirmation.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 09, 2017 6 Comments
Jared Kushner, husband of Trump's oldest daughter Ivanka, was appointed a Senior Adviser to president-elect Trump, news outlets reported Monday afternoon. Kushner married Ivanka in 2009. The couple have three children together. Kushner owns the New York Observer and played a key role in Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Before assuming the role of Senior Advisor Kushner must traverse two fairly significant hurdles -- federal anti-nepotism laws and his participation in Trump-family businesses that might be a conflict of interest to his tentative White House gig.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 06, 2017 33 Comments
The Senate Republicans have ticked off the Senate Democrats because they scheduled six Cabinet confirmation hearings next Wednesday. Oh, and President-elect Donald Trump will also hold his first press conference next Wednesday. Plus, the confirmation schedule includes the nominees the Democrats planned to target the most: attorney general, secretary of state, CIA director, education secretary, and transportation secretary. The Democrats wanted to drag out the process, make it as hard as possible to confirm Trump's Cabinet. On January 1, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Washington Post that his party would "resist" any attempts by the Republicans to rush through the process.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 04, 2017 48 Comments
We have covered many times how Democrats laid the foundation for Republicans to use the Nuclear Option for a Trump Supreme Court nominee. That Nuclear Option would construe Senate Rules to only require 51 votes for cloture, effectively eliminating the filibuster, the 60-vote requirement to close debate. The foundation was laid in 2013, when Democrats, who then controlled the Senate and presidency, used the Nuclear Option to eliminate the filibuster for almost all Obama nominees. Harry Reid was gloating about going nuclear. Republicans warned that Democrats would regret the day.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 03, 2017 18 Comments
Mike Barnicle learned a lesson the hard way this morning: don't challenge Kellyanne Conway without having all your ducks in a row. It won't end well. On Morning Joe, the subject was the Trump plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Barnicle snidely asked Conway "now, do you or do you not have a replacement plan ready to go, ramped up, ready to go, say tomorrow?" When Conway pointed out that there wasn't a confirmed HHS Secretary in place and that she hoped that the Senate Democrats would cooperate on timely and fair hearings, Barnicle sarcastically responded: "so you're asking the Democrats to be as fair as the Republicans were" at the beginning of the Obama administration? Conway pounced. Interjecting "they were very fair," Conway had at her fingertips the fact that President Obama had seven of his cabinet nominees confirmed on the day he was inaugurated in 2009, and five more within the week. She also cited chapter and verse on the numerous cabinet appointees that were promptly confirmed at the beginning of George W's administration. It was a bravura performance, and Barnicle was heard no more on the subject.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 26, 2016 37 Comments
We've written many times about the Democrats' destruction in 2013, under the leadership of Harry Reid, of the filibuster for judicial nominees below the Supreme Court level. Most of the columns written recently, including by us, discuss whether Republicans will extend that "Nuclear Option" to the current Supreme Court vacancy. And certainly, that's very important. But there is another way in which Harry Reid's gambit is going to hurt Democrats.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 22, 2016 4 Comments
Trump's Campaign Manager, Kellyanne Conway will join the Trump administration in a new role -- Counselor to the President. Conway turned down an offer to function as Press Secretary but will work closely with that individual who will be announced soon. As counselor to the president, Conway will still have a hand in communications and said that while her role will be similar to that of Valerie Jarret with President Obama and Karen Hughes with President Bush (43), she will not compare herself to any other individual.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 15, 2016 6 Comments
Thursday, a Trump Advisor confirmed CNBC business analyst Larry Kudlow has been chosen to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Kudlow served as an advisor to Trump's campaign. Reports suggest the announcement will be official sometime in the next two days. The Detroit News reports:
Conservative economist Stephen Moore, who advised Trump’s presidential campaign on economic policy, disclosed Kudlow’s appointment to the influential post during a lunchtime speech to the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce’s economic club.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 14, 2016 29 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke as his Secretary of the Interior. The former U.S. Navy SEAL commander has often found himself at odds with environmentalists, which means he could possibly "reverse environmental policies the Obama administration has pursued over the past eight years." The Washington Post reported:
Zinke recently criticized an Interior Department rule aimed at curbing inadvertent releases of methane from oil and gas operations on federal land as “duplicative and unnecessary.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 22 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen former Texas Governor Rick Perry as his Secretary of Energy. Perry served as agriculture commissioner in Texas before he became governor in 2000. His term ended in 2015. He ran for president in 2012 and 2016.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 13, 2016 31 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state. Trump said:
“His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “He will promote regional stability and focus on the core national security interests of the United States. Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 11, 2016 8 Comments
President-elect Trump sat down with Chris Wallace this morning and discussed a range of topics from the latest on Russia's purported hacking or influence in the election to his decisions on making government more efficient to his choices for his cabinet to trade. Fox News reports:
Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News he wants to make government more efficient, especially when it comes to the EPA.“EPA, you can't get things approved. I mean, people are waiting in line for 15 years before they get rejected, okay? That's why people don't want to invest in this country,” he said. “... So we're going to clean it up. We're going to speed it up and, by the way, if somebody is not doing the right thing we're not going to approve.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 09, 2016 9 Comments
Friday afternoon, former New York City Mayor and Trump supporter, Rudy Giuliana announced he no longer wished to be considered for Secretary of State. "This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration. Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fulfilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm. From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the President-elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate," Giuliana said in a statement. Giuliana will remain Vice-Chairman of Trump's transition team.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 08, 2016 14 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Andy Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, as his Secretary of Labor. His company owns Carl's Jr. and Hardee's. Puzder has long criticized the Affordable Care Act and workplace regulations, which he claims "have stifled growth in the restaurant industry." He also pushed back against raising the minimum wage past $9 an hour.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on December 08, 2016 22 Comments
My, my: such a violent metaphor. Aren't the Dems the peace 'n love party? On MSNBC today, regarding the nomination of Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator, Dem Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts threatened "a confirmation hearing that has razor-blade sharp edges." To which guest-host Peter Alexander stunningly responded: "as the Sierra Club told me last night, they said this is sort of like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires." Note: Alexander wasn't merely reporting the Sierra Club's statement. With his preface—"as the Sierra Club told me"—Alexander seemed to be adopting the slanderous simile as his own.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on December 08, 2016 33 Comments
Donald Trump's nominations have turned out to be a pleasant surprise for some of his biggest conservative critics. That was Joe Scarborough's take on today's Morning Joe. From James Mattis at Defense, to John Kelly at DHS, and now to EPA foe Scott Pruitt . . . at EPA, the President-elect has proposed people with strong records and in a number of cases, strong conservative philosophies. So much so that Scarborough remarked: "How fascinating that the Never Trumpers and the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Bill Kristols, and all the people who were rightly the most skeptical of Donald Trump during the primary, have to sit back going, wow, I would not have gotten this with Jeb or Marco."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 07, 2016 13 Comments
When Donald Trump makes his final cabinet nomination, it will be hard to pick out which of the bold selections is most golden. Retired Marine General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense was in the running for my top choice. However, it appears that Myron Ebell, the climate change "criminal" who is spear-heading Trump's EPA transition team, was busy identifying a nominee for EPA Chief who just bumped "Mad Dog" Mattis down a notch on my list.
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