Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Republicans’ need to get Vice President Pence to break a 50-50 tie to confirm Betsy DeVos as secretary of education shows President Trump is building a “rigged Cabinet.”
“Today @VP Mike Pence did something no one else has ever done: cast the tie breaking vote on his own cabinet nominee. #RiggedCabinet,” Schumer tweeted.
Democrats were joined by two Senate Republicans in opposing DeVos, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala. Those defections set up a 50-50 tie.
In a statement Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., called DeVos the “most incompetent Cabinet-level nominee” he has ever had to deal with.
“It’s not a job for amateurs who don’t know the first thing about education,” Franken said. “I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent Cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen.”
Many other Senate Democrats echoed Schumer’s comments about the tiebreaking vote. In a tweet, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Ct., called for those who stood against DeVos to not be “disheartened.”
