Looks Like These Dem Senators Forgot They Weren't Supposed To Vote For Trump's Terrible Nominees!
Hassan, Hickenlooper, and Kaine all voted to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer to head the Labor Department.
For once, Democrats had an actual chance to reject one of Trump’s nominees … and they blew it.
Former Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s choice to head the Labor Department, cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel on Thursday, thanks to the eager assistance of Democrats Maggie Hassan, John Hickenlooper, and Tim Kaine.
While the makeup of the panel — 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats — practically ensures a victory for any of Trump’s nominees, member Rand Paul voted against Chavez-DeRemer on the grounds that he thought she was too moderate. Or because he probably doesn’t think there should be a Labor Secretary at all. This meant that if all Democrats (and ranking member Bernie Sanders) voted against her, she would have been toast.
But no! At a time when even Chuck freaking Schumer is showing a semblance of backbone and encouraging Democrats to vote against every one of Trump’s nominees while Trump is on a tear dismantling the entire federal government, Hassan, Hickenlooper, and Kaine went and voted for one. Good job, guys!
Via Huffington Post:
Hassan, for one, said Wednesday that she supported Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination because of positive messages she’s received from constituents and labor unions in her state.
“Though we may not agree on everything, after meeting with Representative Chavez-DeRemer and listening to her testimony during her confirmation hearing, I believe that she is qualified to serve as the next Secretary of Labor and I look forward to working with her to support New Hampshire’s workers and small businesses,” Hassan said in a statement.
Hickenlooper said after the vote that he supported Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination because he thinks “in her heart, she cares about working people.”
Admittedly, Chavez-DeRemer was slightly less bad than some other Republicans with regard to labor while she was in Congress, cosponsoring both the Protecting the Right To Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. But guess what she supports now? If you guessed “the very right-to-work-for-less laws that the PRO Act was meant to end,” you would be correct.
Frankly, it’s also worth noting that Chavez-DeRemer didn’t cosponsor the PRO Act until August, when there was no chance of it actually passing. This support also just happened to occur while she was in the midst of a highly competitive election, in the blue state of Oregon, against Democrat Janelle Bynum … which she lost. She later said that the only reason she voted for the PRO Act was because it was what her constituents wanted and to get herself a seat at the table in the congressional conversation about labor. She’s also committed to doing whatever Trump wants, which is not great for workers.
During her confirmation hearing, Chavez-DeRemer explicitly said, “The right-to-work is a fundamental tenet of labor laws, where states have a right to choose if they want to be a right-to-work state, and that should be protected.” To call anti-labor right-to-work-for-less laws, which undermine workers’ ability to organize and allow freeloaders who refuse to pay dues to receive the same union representation as those who do, “a fundamental tenet of labor laws” is especially galling.
She also said she does not support increasing the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, despite the facts that absolutely no one can live on that and that this is the longest we have ever gone without increasing it. How long? It’s been sixteen years.
Chavez-DeRemer was, notably, the pick of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who has been cozying up to Republicans ever since they invited him to speak at the RNC as part of their working class cosplay. O’Brien also now says he’s working with Josh Hawley on a version of the PRO Act that will let states keep their terrible right-to-work-for-less laws, defeating pretty much the entire point of the legislation.
Noting the extremely anti-worker provisions of Project 2025 — which Trump has been faithfully adhering to so far — the AFL-CIO said this past November, upon Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, that they will fight any attempt to roll back worker’s rights.
“The AFL-CIO will work with anyone who wants to do right by workers, but we will reject and defeat any attempt to roll back the rights and protections that working people have won with decades of blood, sweat, and tears. You can stand with working people, or you can stand with Project 2025, but you can’t stand with both,” the union said in a statement.
Chavez-DeRemer is probably Trump’s least horrible nominee altogether (which is not saying much) and probably the least horrible Republican anyone could pick to run the Labor Department (also not saying much), given that she is not actually a professional union-buster. However, right now, Democrats need to band together and gum up the works as much as they possibly can for anything Trump wants to do, because that is the only way they are going to gain any leverage as the opposition party.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
What part of "fight every one of trumps nominees" don't they understand. The other day Sen. Gallego was whining about the VA firing employees and hurting our veterans (of which he is one). Gee, I guess he shouldn't have voted to confirm the trumpy Director of VA then huh?
First Fetterman loses his cotton picking mind and now Hickenlooper just plain shits in Colorado's bed.
I had wondered which Colorado congressional dem should get the brunt of my ire and rancor. Which one merited a personal visit to their office by me? Which Colorado senator would get to see how my fucking face looks when I am having a series of moments when ire and rancor are uppermost in my emotional chart?
Thanks Hickenlooper! You win!