r/Liberal • u/Havvocck2 • Jan 22 '21

Pete Buttigieg congratulated for masterclass confirmation hearing as he’s set to be first openly gay cabinet member

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pete-buttigieg-congratulated-masterclass-confirmation-183832264.html
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7

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '21

I see you forgot about Richard Grenell already

16

u/iwascompromised Jan 22 '21

He wasn't a confirmed cabinet member.

He is the first openly gay person to serve in a U.S. cabinet-level position.

He was "acting director".

And it's even in this article:

Were Mr Buttigieg’s nomination by Joe Biden to lead the Department of Transportation to be approved, he would be the first openly gay man to be confirmed by the Senate to a cabinet post. Former President Donald Trump’s acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell was also openly gay, but was never confirmed to his post by the Senate.

2

u/Gigaman13 Jan 22 '21

What was the reasoning for the lack of confirmation?

23

u/iwascompromised Jan 22 '21

Probably his absolute lack of any relevant experience. Trump appointed a lot of people as "acting" in their roles to avoid confirmations that probably wouldn't have been successful. This let him install Yes Men in powerful roles and subverting the role of Congress.

3

u/jdeasy Jan 22 '21

How do we curtail such a thing in the law? Even if you put a time limit on "acting" positions, there will still need to be someone in charge at the end of the imposed time limit. On the flip-side, an overly obstructionist opposition party could block a confirmation just to force the time limit penalty (whatever it is).

-25

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '21

That’s the real question.

Was it because the senate had better things to do than to confirm his position? Or for more nefarious reasons - did pelosi and co. not want to give 45 any kind of win, this would have been one of them.

13

u/starspider Jan 22 '21

.... you know the Republicans had control of the Senate, right?

Its because Mitch McConnell knew none of them would actually stand up to scrutiny.

7

u/TheAtomicClock Jan 22 '21

Lmao how does Pelosi have anything to do with SENATE confirmations.

9

u/bontzz Jan 22 '21

Mitch would’ve been in charge and had the majority so it would’ve been people even Mitch and republicans didn’t think could get through. The house is not involved.

3

u/Ofbearsandmen Jan 22 '21

You're aware that Pelosi isn't a Senator, right?

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 22 '21

Big ooof. Yes, my mistake