Not a one Democratic Senator will vote to confirm Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos. Or so Minnesota senator Al Franken told Rachel Maddow Thursday night.
“Is there an overarching Democratic strategy or do we have to predict all these votes just based on what we know about each one of those individuals?” asked Maddow.
“We have a strategy,” Franken insisted. “I’m not going to tell you the strategy today.”
“That is one of the most heartening things I’ve ever heard from a Democrat, it has to be said,” Maddow laughed. “It makes it sound like there is a strategy.”
Whether or not there is actually a secret plan, more Democrats have stated their opposition to her appointment and their intention to vote against her confirmation. New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, the only Senator to vote against confirming retired general James Mattis for Defense Secretary, has said she will not be voting for DeVos. And Maine senator Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, followed suit.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also sharply opposed her, saying, “Betsy DeVos would single-handedly decimate our public education system if she were confirmed”—a fairly close paraphrasing of teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten.
Three Republicans would need to join the 48 Democrats’ opposition in order to hobble her confirmation, Franken acknowledged. “We’re trying to find Republicans who will vote against her because she’s an ideologue who knows next to nothing about education policy as we demonstrated, or she demonstrated really, in her confirmation hearing.”
His foremost objection—that DeVos knows nothing about education policy—appears to stem from an exchange between Franken and DeVos during her confirmation hearing last week.
As I wrote earlier this week, Franken was not only rude but flirting with federal overreach:
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee will vote on DeVos’s confirmation in an executive session scheduled for January 31. The final confirmation will fall to a vote by the full Senate. So far, no Republican Senators have stated their opposition to DeVos.
