Liberal groups are calling on senators who got contributions from President-elect Donald Trump's education secretary pick to recuse themselves from voting on her confirmation – drawing accusations of hypocrisy from Republicans who note Democrats never recused themselves in similar situations.
In a letter to 21 Republican senators, to whom nominee Betsy DeVos has given almost $1 million in campaign donations, Generation Progress and other left-wing groups called for them to recuse themselves “or risk imperiling the legitimacy of DeVos’ confirmation.”
DeVos, a strong advocate for school choice, has her Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
“In addition to these individual campaign contributions, DeVos and her family contributed $2.25 million during the fall campaign to the Senate Leadership Fund, and have also given $900,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That comes out to a $4 million bid to influence you,” the letter says. Generation Progress is an arm of the Center for American Progress.
But Republicans are pushing back, arguing that previous Obama Cabinet picks had donated to Democratic politicians and causes, and Democrats cast confirmation votes anyway.
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3 comments:
Democrats still can't believe they lost the election.
The question is...what does the law require? If recusal isn't required, disclosure would go a long way to increase transparency.
If the Congress critters had to recuse themselves every time an issue conflicted with the interests of their donors, only one or two would vote! OTOH, I'm glad this has been brought up; anything that brings more scrutiny on how the Oligarchy and Big Corporate Interests actually pull the strings of the ruling class should be welcome.
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