Welcome back to our weekly rundown of who is helping us in the fight against Trump and who, well, isn’t.
This is not about being “purists,” it’s about the fact that we need to let these people know that when they do good, we’ll give them credit, and when they do bad, we’ll say that, too. It’s about accountability, which we, as voters, deserve. It’s also about letting our elected officials know that when they do step up, we will give them credit and be there to back them up.
I think it’s clear that we have been doing a pretty good job of bugging the shit out of our representatives, because this week we saw a hell of a lot more of them getting out and taking public stands than we saw last week.
Indeed, earlier today we saw Reps. Maxine Waters, Maxwell Frost (British cozy mystery series forthcoming, one assumes), Jan Schakowsky, and multiple other members of Congress unfortunately being blocked from getting into the Department of Education building.
AOC has been holding the line, Brian Schatz of Hawaii has been on his filibuster shit, a whole bunch of them stayed up all night to oppose Russ Vought’s nomination, Chris Murphy has been everywhere, Jasmine Crockett has been an absolute star speaking out, among other things, about all the blatant racism and white male insecurity behind the anti-DEI nonsense, and Elizabeth Warren has been out here calling out the unelected billionaires.
And, of course, on Wednesday, many of our faves went to the Department of the Treasury and held a rally there opposing the Musk coup.
The votes were also much better this week. Well, from Tuesday on, anyway, after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a rare bout of actually doing his job, finally came around to the idea of telling Democrats to vote against Trump’s nominees as a bloc after initially refusing to do so.
Voting on Monday to confirm climate denier Christopher Wright as Secretary of Energy were Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Ben Lujan (D-NM) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
Also on Monday, an unfortunately ridiculous number voted to confirm Douglas Collins of Georgia, who notably was one of the Republican congressmen who signed an amicus brief challenging the results of the 2020 election, to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. They were Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Hassan (D-NH), Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lujan (D-NM), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Shaheen (D-NH), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
I do not know what the hell that was about. The Sanders vote was especially confounding because he’s only voted for one person so far and because, frankly, I expect more from him. Not good, Bernie!
Things started to turn around by Tuesday. Only Fetterman voted to confirm Pam Bondi as Attorney General, thank goodness; only Fetterman and Peter Welch of Vermont voted to confirm Eric Turner, of Texas, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; no one voted to proceed to consider the nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, or Kelly Loeffler.
Fetterman is to be expected (my apologies for ever having defended that ass), but I am honestly bewildered by how many of Trump’s nominees Vermont’s Peter Welch, who is usually fantastic at voting for things I like, has voted to confirm.
Medium credit goes to Sheldon Whitehouse for finally agreeing to not vote for RFK Jr. As Kennedy was his college roomie and longtime friend. It’s not the highest bar in the world, but he cleared it.
Not doing so great? Amy Klobuchar, who gave a deeply cringe interview to The New York Times this week in which she missed the moment entirely and went on and on about how “it is very clear that, if there is a middle of all of this hot mess of division, Americans want us to work together when we can and find common ground” — which, let’s be real, no one who actually votes does.
I will also point out, as I am wont to do, that some of the absolute worst legislation of my lifetime has been bipartisan (authorization for the Iraq War, PATRIOT Act, etc.).
She also weirdly claimed that farmers don’t want aid, which is strange considering that they got $30 billion in federal aid last year, and, despite the fact that absolutely no one asked, started going on about how we need to give even more money to police departments (AMY, no one thinks you are on Team Defund The Police, okay? Chill.)
Klobs also had a lot to say about how fabulously cordial Trump was when it was just them and the Bidens talking about football, and how she wishes he could be like that all of the time:
Via The New York Times:
You spent more time with Trump during the inauguration than most Dems in your role running the day.
That would be putting it mildly. Yes.
Did he say anything memorable to you?
I would say that, during the time with President Biden in the car and at the White House with the president and the vice president, I wish that that cordial discussion on all sides, I wish that that was reflected in Trump’s speech. Because we discussed — I’m not going to disclose everything we discussed — we discussed a number of issues. We talked a little bit about football. But we talked about the L.A. fires and the need to, with the Olympics coming, how important it is to help them rise from the ashes. And then I spoke with him for a lengthy period of time at lunch and through the day.
So up close you see a more likable side?
I see someone that was willing to listen to my ideas. And I just wish that was reflected in what he said and does as president.
Well, this was just entirely unnecessary, no?
Way to go almost everybody else!
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