The Senate had its hands full this week with a slew of confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
Among this week’s hearings were Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director who says he wants to close down the FBI; Tulsi Gabbard, who is nominated to lead national intelligence despite having promoted foreign propaganda; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services who has routinely pushed dangerous pseudoscience.
Democrats did an excellent job dissecting RFK Jr.’s awful positions on health care during his confirmation hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont broke down RFK Jr.’s crass profiteering, shaming him for selling anti-vaccine merchandise while telling the committee he would support vaccines.
YouTube Video
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts exposed his inability to separate his business from his potential government role.
YouTube Video
And Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire passionately synthesized just how harmful RFK Jr. is to public health.
YouTube Video
Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois grilled Patel on his myriad flaws, including his relationship with Hitler fanboy podcaster Stew Peters. Patel seemed to have a serious case of cognitive decline as he claimed not to remember that name, even though he has appeared on Peters’ show no less than seven times.
Kash Patel testified under oath today that he wasn’t sure who right-wing Nazi talk show host Stew Peters is. Stew? Never heard of him …— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T17:39:57.031Z
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey confronted him on his testimony in Trump’s classified documents case, for which Patel was compelled and granted immunity. His testimony, along with the second half of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report, was sealed by Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon.
Not letting up, Booker repeatedly asked Patel whether he had “committed a crime.”
YouTube Video
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans—like domestic war hawk Tom Cotton—seemed to get over their initial misgivings about Gabbard, Trump’s (and probably Vladimir Putin’s) choice to head U.S. intelligence.
But Gabbard, who helped spread unfounded and heinous Russian propaganda, was taken to task for her past words and actions by Democrats.
“You have repeatedly excused our adversaries’ worst actions and instead often blamed them on the United States and allies,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said.
US Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) to Tulsi Gabbard: “You have repeatedly excused our adversaries worst actions and instead often blamed them on the United States and allies.”— Craig R. Brittain (@craigbrittain.com) 2025-01-30T15:37:25.994Z
Similarly, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado shared a quote of Gabbard’s from February 2022.
“At the very moment that Russian tanks were rolling across the peaceful border of Ukraine, for the first time, you tweeted … ‘this war and suffering could have easily been avoided if the Biden administration/NATO had simply acknowledged RussiMarka’s legitimate security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.’ Did you say that, yes or no?” he asked.
Senator Bennett hits the ground running making a case that Tulsi Gabbard is pro Russia.— Outspoken™️ (@out5p0ken.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T18:57:18.206Z
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona very deftly dismantled Gabbard’s poor logic, pointing out the defectiveness of her explanations for promoting foreign propaganda.
“What I have seen makes it clear that at the same time that you were skeptical of our intelligence community’s assessments. You would not apply the same skepticism to information that came from sympathizers of Russian Assad,” he said.
YouTube Video
The fact that Pete Hegseth, an alleged rapist, domestic abuser, and alcoholic, was able to secure enough GOP votes to lead the Department of Defense might indicate that these nominees for Trump’s dumpster fire Cabinet will make it through, too.
Daily Kos is now on Bluesky—and we want to make it easy for you to join us! Click here for the Daily Kos Bluesky Starter Pack.
