Robert Kennedy was confirmed this morning as Secretary of Health and Human Services on a 52-48 vote, with only Mitch McConnell joining the Democrats. McConnell’s sad decline continues, but the story here is that every one of Trump’s nominees has been, or will be, confirmed. (I am disregarding Matt Gaetz.)
Kennedy was the last nominee, I think, about whom there was any doubt, and by the time the vote drew near that doubt was gone. The Democrats took their best shot against Pete Hegseth, and now they are just going through the motions. Among others, Kash Patel, who was cleared out of committee this morning on a party-line vote, is now a shoo-in to head the FBI.
Of course, none of this should be surprising. Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate. In 2021, not a single Democratic senator voted against a single Biden nominee. That kind of loyalty is the rule, not the exception. The idea that a Republican Senate might not confirm some Trump nominees came from the assumption that Trump is different: he is not normal, and doesn’t deserve the same deference that other presidents get. After some Senate Republicans seemed to flirt with that notion, they–happily–fell into line. No doubt, too, Senate Republicans have been hearing from their constituents that they are delighted with what the Trump administration is doing so far.
So the administration is well launched.
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