Colin Kahl: Harris votes first Biden nominee after Senate elects Pentagon

Colin Kahl: Harris votes first Biden nominee after Senate elects Pentagon

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The Senate broke 50-50 on a direct party vote to reject Kahl’s nomination to the Armed Services Committee, which requires Harris to break the bond. She will likely have to cast two more votes on Kahl’s nomination before being confirmed for the Pentagon’s civilian position in third place.

Harris was already on Capitol Hill earlier Wednesday awaiting a possible tie over another nominee, until GOP president Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined the Democrats in nominating Vanita Gupta as co-attorney general. to support. Gupta was confirmed by the Senate 51-49.

But Republicans are united in their opposition to Kahl. In a controversial confirmation hearing, they criticized Kahl for his tweets during the Trump administration, including statements that the ‘Republican party had degraded itself on Trump’s altar’ and the GOP was the party of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in response to a story about Syria. Kahl apologized to Republican senators for using “sometimes disrespectful” language in tweets.

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“Republicans on the committee did not vote against Dr. Kahl simply because we do not agree with his policies,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Good and friendly people cannot agree with each other – they do not have to mention their name, ad hominem attacks and accusations of war crimes.”

Republicans also accused Kahl of leaking classified information, and a group of 18 GOP senators sent a letter to the FBI last week to investigate his tweets, which they said were classified information. .

However, Democrats rejected the IDP concerns and proceeded with Kahl’s nomination. And in contrast to the nomination of Neera Tanden as president Joe Biden’s budget director – who was sunk thanks to opposition from Senator Joe Manchin – the West Virginia Democrat supported Kahl’s nomination to the committee, but his confirmation did not materialize.

Manchin told CNN last month that Kahl’s tweets were not as “targeted” to specific individuals and senators and that they were much more policy-oriented.

Kahl’s nomination got stuck in the Armed Services Committee, 13-13, and therefore Wednesday’s procedural vote was needed to drop the nomination of the committee to the Senate floor.

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