a few moments ago, president trump s education secretary nominee squeaked by. there had been talks other republicans might follow suit. that did not happen. it ended up being up to vice president mike pence to break the tie. now the battle moves to three more nominees, justice, treasury and hhs. all eyes on senator jeff sessions next as the attorney general. kasie hunt covering all of these confirmation hearings for us on the hill. let s start with betsy devos and what we saw play out. again, roughly 30, 40 minutes ago, kasie. reporter: betsy devos, she, of course, is a billionaire. she and her husband have been long-time activists in michigan around education in particular. and she became extremely controversial after she had a very rough ride in her hearing to become education secretary. a lot of concerns that she didn t seem to know from from democrats that she didn t seem to know, for example, how public
amped up as the night goes on. thank you very much. the war over betsy devos. tv ads air in support of the education secretary nominee. the vote right now looks to be a perfect split at 50/50. what happens this week in the saturday night live sketch everyone is talking about. melissa mccarthy channels white house press secretary sean spicer. it s not a ban. excuse me ? the travel ban is not a ban so it s not a ban. i m using your words. you said ban. now i m saying it. the president don t let sinus symptoms bring you down now!
that is still one shy of the number of nominees that new president barack obama had confirmed on his first day in office. byron york, is betsy devos, the education secretary nominee, and travel? yeah, she is in trouble. you had to republicans come out today and say they are not going to support her. you had 50 to republicans, which means she s got 50 right now, and the vice president can break the tie. she can get in if nothing changes. but it s going to be as close as it absolutely physically possibly can be, so much so there is talk about trying to get her through the senate quickly by the end of this week while jeff sessions is still a republican senator and can vote for her. they are going to need every single vote they ve got to. s the one that s been an objective of the white house legislative office, to stagger these votes so that jeff sessions can still be in a position to vote because his
there hasn t been talk about withdrawing andy puzder s nomination for labor secretary but they ve pushed his hearing date back four strait times now. the last time they pushed it back they didn t bother to set out a new date. and nbc can report tonight andy puzder has not turned in any of his paperwork. any documentation. he hasn t turned in any of the paper that is the bare minimum stuff you need to start your confirmation process. they apparently don t even have an fbi background check on him yet. you sure you re going to keep that guy? you sure you want to go through this process? democrats have focused withering attention on the education secretary nominee, betsy devos. you saw the signs at the protests we ve been covering, the signs focusing on what a bad pick she would be for education. the focus, the pushback, the questioning of her at her confirmation hearing revealed a nominee who was not ready for prime time. were you unaware what i just asked you about the i.d.ea. that it
pushing hard on some of these nominees they may very well have stopped one nominee who hasn t gotten a lot of attention but that there s a reason for that. it s the labor secretary carl s jr. guy. there hasn t been talk about withdrawing andy puzder s nomination for labor secretary but they ve pushed his hearing date back four strait times now. the last time they pushed it back they didn t bother to set out a new date. and nbc can report tonight andy puzder has not turned in any of his paperwork. any documentation. he hasn t turned in any of the paper that is the bare minimum stuff you need to start your confirmation process. they apparently don t even have an fbi background check on him yet. you sure you re going to keep that guy? you sure you want to go through this process? democrats have focused withering attention on the education secretary nominee, betsy devos. you saw the signs at the protests we ve been covering, the signs focusing on what a bad pick she would be for education.