Everything you want to know about the Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings

[ehrnst]

WHO: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

NOMINATED FOR: Attorney general

WHEN AND WHERE: 9:30 A.M. on Jan. 10, 11; Senate Judiciary Committee (Russell Senate Office Building, Room 325)

ARGUMENT FOR: Trump has praised Sessions, a longtime adviser and supporter, as a “world-class legal mind.” First elected in 1996, Sessions previously served as a U.S. attorney and attorney general for Alabama. He has earned praise from Democrats who work with him.

ARGUMENT AGAINST: Accusations of racism have dogged Sessions’s career. He was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after former colleagues testified he used the n-word and said the Ku Klux Klan were “okay” until he realized they smoked marijuana.

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WHO: Rex Tillerson

NOMINATED FOR: secretary of State

WHEN AND WHERE: 9 A.M. on Jan. 11, also Jan. 12; Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 423)

ARGUMENT FOR: Trump sees Tillerson, who joined ExxonMobil in 1975 and now serves as CEO, as the “embodiment of the American dream.” Trump has praised his “tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics.” As a global business leader, Tillerson has experience dealing with heads of state around the world, including in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

ARGUMENT AGAINST: Tillerson has no experience in the public sector, received the Order of Friendship from Russian President Vladimir Putin and brings along potential conflicts of interest from his business career. It’s also unclear whether he supports sanctions against Russia implemented after its U.S. sanctions implemented against Russia in 2014 over its annexation of the Crimea and Moscow’s support for separatists in the Ukraine.
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WHO: Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.)

NOMINATED FOR: CIA director

WHEN AND WHERE: Jan. 11; Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Hart Senate Office Building, Room 211)

ARGUMENT FOR: Pompeo, who was elected to the House in 2010, serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he served as a U.S. Army cavalry officer before founding an aerospace company — a varied record that Trump favors. He was praised as “bright and hard-working” by Democratic colleague Adam Schiff (Calif.).

ARGUMENT AGAINST: Pompeo has no meaningful experience in espionage. He is seen as a fierce partisan on issues like the 2012 Benghazi attacks and the leaks by Edward Snowden, a tendency some CIA veterans fear could bias his judgment.

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WHO: Betsy DeVos

NOMINATED FOR: Education secretary

WHEN AND WHERE: 10 A.M. on Jan. 11; Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 430)

ARGUMENT FOR: To supporters of school voucher programs, DeVos is a champion: a billionaire conservative activist, she has spent millions of programs to expand them around the country. Trump called her a “brilliant and passionate education advocate.”

ARGUMENT AGAINST: DeVos has no professional experience in schools and no traditional experience in education policy. Detractors say her views pose an unprecedented threat to the public school system as a civic institution.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/01/06/everything-you-want-to-know-about-the-trump-cabinet-confirmation-hearings/

[yeoman6987]

3. They are troubling big time

Although Americans are discussing the trump vs Streep feud. I wish they'd pay attention to these horrid picks. I can see them getting voted on and the population says, what? When did this happen?

[rgbecker]

2. DeVos never went to public school, neither did her kids.

Washington Post could have mentioned that.



http://www.salon.com/2016/11/25/i-cant-imagine-a-worse-pick-critics-slam-choice-of-betsy-devos-to-be-secretary-of-education/