Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley plotted to block Biden's Cabinet nominees -- but the scheme backfired
Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies sought to derail President Joe Biden's first 75 days in office by obstructing his transition and Cabinet selections. But their efforts appear to have backfired after the Senate confirmed all of Biden's picks for the 15 traditional Cabinet positions — and with more bipartisan support than Trump's nominees received.
Senate Republicans, particularly Trump allies like Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, as well as major recipients of corporate donations like Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Steve Daines of Montana, delayed the confirmations of Biden's Cabinet selections for weeks, dragging out the final confirmation until March 22, two months after Biden's inauguration. But despite the delay tactics, Biden became the first president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 to have all of his first choices confirmed to their positions. And despite GOP obstruction, Biden's choices received more bipartisan support than Trump's. Biden's first 12 picks were confirmed by an average of nearly 61 votes, three more than the average Trump nominee even though Republicans had a four-vote advantage in the Senate in 2017, according to a new report from the Accountable.US Senate War Room, a left-leaning government watchdog group that tracks Republican obstruction.
"Senate Republicans spent months lobbing one bad faith attack after another against Biden's slate of qualified nominees," Mairead Lynn, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement. "They gave it their best shot, but ultimately failed to do anything more than delay the inevitable bipartisan confirmation of Biden's Cabinet secretaries, and were left with nothing to show for their months of delays."
Hawley voted against every nominee for the 15 Cabinet secretary positions while Cruz only voted to confirm Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, leading the Senate in votes against Biden's nominees. But many of Biden's Cabinet and Cabinet-level choices ultimately received significant support from Republicans. Sixteen of his 21 confirmed picks received support from at least two-thirds of the Senate. Only the nomination of Neera Tanden, Biden's first choice as director of the Office of Management and Budget, failed in the Senate over complaints by Republicans (and centrist Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia) about her combative tweets, while the nomination of MIT professor Eric Lander to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy remains pending.
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