Senate confirms Betsy DeVos as VP Mike Pence breaks the tie, Seth MacFarlane offers sexist tweet
In one of the most divisive Senate confirmations in U.S. History, Betsy DeVos will now move forward as President Trump’s Secretary of Education. Vice President Mike Pence broke the 50-50 tie, giving DeVos the vote needed to put her in the Trump cabinet.
DeVos divided conservatives and liberals from a leftist attack on charter schools, public education funding and outright cronyism. Only two Republicans defected from party lines: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
“I hope against hope that another Republican senator will have the courage of the senators from Alaska and Maine and join us,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday morning ahead of the vote. But if that doesn’t happen, Schumer said, “we Democrats are very proud of what we have done, because the nominee is so unqualified — and now Americans now know that.”
Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said DeVos displayed a “profound lack of understanding about education policy” at her confirmation hearing.“I can’t say it enough: A vote for Ms. DeVos is a vote to destroy our public school system,” he said Tuesday.
Saturday Night Live is already mocking DeVos like an airheaded nitwit, Elizabeth Warren refused to shake her hand and the anger and vitriol from the left was immediate:
“The DeVos pledge: If your senator voted YES, you pledge to vote AGAINST them in the next election and to donate to their opponent, Please RT.” – @George Takai
“Betsy DeVos confirmed. What is also confirmed is that there is not one single man of courage in the Republican Congress” – @SethMacFarlane
DeVos was not widely known when Trump picked her in November. That changed after her performance at a confirmation hearing in January, when she stumbled over policy questions and left open the possibility that she would cut education funding, privatize public schools and scale back the Education Department’s civil rights work.
Supporters cheer the thought at gutting the federal intrusions and allowing a more free market approach to education: “The numbers are stark. American education continues to sink. We are now 39th in math and 27th in science, having fallen dramatically under the last two presidents, a Republican and a Democrat,” wrote Doug Wead in a new article supporting DeVos.
