Will Senate Democrats Save One Of Trump's Cabinet Nominees?

Anti-Worker Republicans Are Not Happy With Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Before Senate Democrats decided she's not that bad

News reports were pretty unanimous this week that hearings with RFK Jr and, especially Tulsi Gabbard, did nothing to help their causes with skeptical Republican senators. Senators even caught Gabbard blatantly lying to them, under oath. Jon Swaine and Ellen Nakashima: “In her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, senators repeatedly pressed Tulsi Gabbard on her highly scrutinized trip to Syria in 2017, where she met President Bashar al-Assad and others, including a Syrian cleric who had previously threatened to unleash suicide bombers in the United States if the American military intervened in his country. When asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) whether she was aware of the threat made by Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who was then Grand Mufti of Syria, Gabbard… answered: ‘I was not and had not heard that until today.’ But documents reviewed by the Washington Post indicate that Gabbard was aware of Hassoun’s threats soon after she returned from her controversial visit to the country in January 2017. The documents… show that Hassoun’s comments on suicide bombers were flagged as problematic by one of her aides in early 2017 and were identified in an external vetting process as the likeliest source of negative publicity about the trip. A Google account in Gabbard’s name left comments in an electronic draft of potential answers her office was preparing to counter anticipated media questions about the cleric.”

Conservative Democrat, Mark Kelly (AZ), who has been voting with Republicans for most of Trump’s nominees told Reid Out viewers on Thursday that he thinks “there’s a lot of questions still that my Republican colleagues have… some of them are still really, really uncomfortable with her running 18 intelligence agencies. So, I don’t think her confirmation to this job is certain.”

That same day, the Senate confirmed Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior. Kelly was among the majority of Democrats who voted for confirmation. That’s right; more Democrats voted for him (26) than against him (18). And this time it wasn’t just conservative Dems like Kelly, Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Elissa Slotkin (MI) but even progressives like Tina Smith (MN), Tammy Baldwin (WI) nd Brian Schatz (HI). So much for what Chris Murphy (D-CT)— who voted against confirmation— has been saying about not helping Trump build an anti-democracy regime.

Coming down the road, though, is a Trump curve ball who could lose as many as a dozen Republican senators— I’ll believe that when I see it— and only be confirmed because of Democratic votes. That would be former one-term Oregon congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer, just narrowly defeated by a not especially good Democrat, Janelle Bynum (New Dem), 47.7% to 45.0%. That’s primarily due to Chavez-DeRemer's pro-labor stance while she was in the House. She was one of only three Republicans to co-sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. This relatively pro-labor orientation has made her less appealing to anti-worker Republicans and more appealing to Democrats. 

Yesterday Max Cohen and Diego Munhoz reported that Rand Paul (R-KY), rather than a Democrat, seems to be leading the opposition to Chavez-DeRemer. He claims he has as many as 15 votes against her. He told them that “Most Republicans are for right-to-work, and she supported a bill that would get rid of and override state right-to-work laws. That’s really a deal-killer for a lot of Republicans.”

She’s not great but if she isn’t confirmed, Trump will nominate someone far worse, perhaps the goon he already picked as her deputy, Keith Sonderling. The AFL-CIO has told Democrats they should back Chavez-DeRemer and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has been actively lobbying for her.

“For what it’s worth,” wrote Cohen and Munhoz, “Chavez-DeRemer has been telling senators that she isn’t against any state right-to-work laws. ‘The only person that’s been public about [their opposition] is Rand Paul and Rand is claiming he has 15 no votes. I don’t buy that number,’ Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told us. ‘Maybe it’s correct, but she’ll pick up a lot of Democrats too, so she’ll be confirmed.’” They don’t think more than half a dozen Republicans will defy Trump and Musk on this. And if she’s confirmed anyway, Trump will forget in 20 minutes.

A Cabinet pick relying on votes from the minority would be highly unusual. But Chavez-DeRemer’s predicament is a sign of growing cracks in the GOP as Trump wants to shift the party to a more populist route.

Democrats on the Senate HELP Committee universally told us they had productive meetings with Chavez-DeRemer. We’re told Chavez-DeRemer’s HELP hearing is likely to be the week of Feb. 10, but nothing is finalized.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told us he’s “positively inclined” to support Chavez-DeRemer, praising her status as a former mayor and an “implementer.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) said she’s “favorably inclined.” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) added he was heartened by her support for the PRO Act.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said he had an “interesting meeting” with the nominee and acknowledged that she was among the best picks Democrats could hope for.

But Murphy noted Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination doesn’t signal a complete transformation in Trump’s policy views. Trump took the unprecedented move of firing a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board. He also appointed Keith Sonderling, a more traditional Republican voice on labor issues, to serve as Chavez-DeRemer’s deputy.

Republicans who back Chavez-DeRemer are sure she’ll follow Trump’s agenda.

Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), who is supportive of Chavez-DeRemer despite disagreeing with her on the PRO Act, said supporting the president is “what’s most important.”

…“She’s a perfect wedge between where our party has embraced the unions now,” Mullin said. “We have a lot more in common… and we’re going to show them a little bit of love.”