Today and something the president himself highlighted at the Press Conference. Take a listen. I think a lot of his views are going to be shaped by his advisers, the people around him, which is why its important to Pay Attention to these confirmation hearhearings. This is a job of such magnitude you cant do it by yourself. You are enormously reliant on a team. How you put a Team Together to make sure that they are getting you the best information and they are teeing up the options from which you will ultimately make decisions. Thats probably the most useful advice, the most constructive advice ive been able to give him. Personnel is policy, in other words. Especially for a Chief Executive who for the first time in the history of this republic has zero experience in Public Service of any kind, not the government nor the military. With policy positions all over the map, even changing from one day to the next, its nearly impossible to predict just what
trump will do as president. The only
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
there s a democratic president and democratic majority in the senate that does not rise to 60 votes, so the flip of what we have now the republicans would force the democrats to go that route because what they did last year was much more radical than that and that wasn t just one event, right? mitch mcconnell has shown again and again and again that he believes in this kind of opposition and that he brought the republican party along so give than i seems to democrats presumption should be to say to the remembers look you broke these rules, now live up to what you ve broken and change the rules on the filibuster. jonathan chat, one of the best political journalists out there today has a smart piece about this in new york magazine where he says the idea that the democrats could save the forcing of this think buster until next time is naive. there s no reason it will be more powerful if they don t use it now and they do use it later. that feels right to me but i m not saying they need to
the idea of a 60-vote threshold has helped presidents not put out judges out of the mainstream but put people that were. barack obama with merrick garland could have put a very liberal judge up but he didn t. he put somebody up that could appeal to moderate republicans that could have met that 60-vote threshold should he been allowed to get a hearing and an up or down vote on the senate floor. so there s something good about for a supreme court justice to have that 60-vote threshold to put people up that are not far right or left but that can modetehe passions perhaps of the country and get somebody that is within the mainstream. can you imagine president trump nominating somebody for the supreme court who you would vote for? well first of all let s understand what donald trump is doing. he s picking somebody way out of the mainstream and then he s bullying the republicans in the senate, literally calling them to do the nuclear option, do the nuclear option. that to me is one branc
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 was a federal law? i may have confused it. if confirmed will you insist upon that equal accountability in any, can 12 school or program that receives federal funding whether public, public charter or private? i support accountability. equal accountability for all schools that receive federal funding? i support accountability. is that a yes or a no. that s a i support accountability. do you not want to answer my question i support accountability. you can t say definitively today that guns shouldn t be in schools. well, i will refer back to senator enzi and the school that he was talking about in wyoming. i think probably there i would imagine that there s probably a gun in the school to protect from from potential