On her Tuesday show, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, along with contributor and former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill accused Republicans of being hypocrites for being opposed to certain people nominated by Joe Biden to cabinet-level positions, but it was Mitchell and McCaskill who were the true hypocrites.
Mitchell began by recalling "when we talk about confirmation battles and red lines that some of the Republican senators are laying down, they seem to have forgotten that people like Mike Pompeo got confirmed."
Mitchell, who has previously described Biden's team as one that is "not going to be political," described Trump's team as "a lot of controversial people who had hard-edged views" but who nevertheless "got confirmed because new presidents are given some deference. It just seems like the hypocrisy level you pointed out earlier is at an all-time high going in, where they're trying to preempt certain people from even being nominated."
Trump's nominees got confirmed because Republicans controlled the Senate, several of them were near party-line votes. Democrats were also so deferential, they created a new standard of alleged wrongdoing to justify impeachment.
McCaskill, who was there and voted against seven of them, predicted that Janet Yellen and Tony Blinken will be easily confirmed to Treasury and State respectively, but then re-wrote history when she said, "The Republicans remember there were many of us who voted for many of the Trump nominees, some of which I regretted after the fact, but they were qualified, and he had been elected president. And that had typically been the norm in the Senate, not you never vote for the opposite party's cabinet."
Speaking of the Treasury Secretary, only one Democrat, Joe Manchin, voted for Steve Mnuchin in 2017. As for Secretary of State, only three Democrats plus the nominally-independent Agnus King voted for Rex Tillerson; McCaskill was not one of the three.
McCaskill concluded her remarks by moving onto the nomination of Neera Tanden to be OMB Director, "But, you know, it is what it is, and I think Biden is being very smart, he is selecting by and large people that have avoided any type of controversy thus far. And I think most of these folks will get across the finish line. I certainly hope the hypocrisy around Neera Tanden's tweets don't slow her down, she would be terrific in the job."
Again McCaskill showed it was she that was being the hypocrite for Trump's first OMB Director, Mick Mulvaney, was confirmed 51-49 with zero Democratic support. McCaskill also voted no on Attorney General, EPA Director, and Secretaries of Education and HHS.
If Mitchell wanted to have a segment on cabinet nominations and hypocrisy, she should have asked McCaskill why her party broke the norm of showing deference to the president four years ago, but now now wants the norm restored.
This segment was sponsored by Subway.
Here is a transcript for the December 1 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
12:46 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: And Claire, when we talk about confirmation battles and red lines that some of the Republican senators are laying down, they seem to have forgotten that people like Mike Pompeo got confirmed. A lot of controversial people who had hard-edged views got confirmed because new presidents are given some deference. It just seems like the hypocrisy level you pointed out earlier is at an all-time high going in, where they're trying to preempt certain people from even being nominated.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL: Yeah, I think you will see in the first batch of confirmations some relatively easy votes for some of the nominees. I think Janet Yellen would go in that bucket. I think Tony Blinken will eventually go in that bucket, some of the big ones. The Republicans remember there were many of us who voted for many of the Trump nominees, some of which I regretted after the fact, but they were qualified, and he had been elected president. And that had typically been the norm in the Senate, not you never vote for the opposite party's cabinet. But, you know, it is what it is, and I think Biden is being very smart, he is selecting by and large people that have avoided any type of controversy thus far. And I think most of these folks will get across the finish line. I certainly hope the hypocrisy around Neera Tanden's tweets don't slow her down, she would be terrific in the job.
