BY: JACK JURSNICH
Opinions Editor
The recent Trump cabinet nominees are in the hot seat this week for their confirmation hearings, and of course, these senators love to put on a show. Whether it’s a Republican senator glazing all over the nominee, or a Democrat senator asking ‘yes or no’ questions, these congressional hearings are a great window into the heads of our congress members.
Republican senators will make big speeches in favor of the nominee, and though I wish they’d ask more questions, sometimes they’ll offer their time to the nominee so they can actually answer a question from the Democrats. See, Democrats in these hearings like to ask ‘yes or no’ questions so they can trap the person testifying into an answer they don’t agree with. The question will be so vague and it’ll take at least 2-3 sentences to give an honest answer, but even if they try to be honest, they get interrupted and their answer is defaulted to ‘no’.
Senator Bernie Sanders asked a ‘yes or no’ question to HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Is healthcare a human right?” and Kennedy answered “if you smoke cigarettes for 20 years and you get cancer, …are you guaranteed the same right?” Kennedy understands that people should be allowed to have healthcare, but he also understands the implications of healthcare being an entitlement. If someone wants to make poor health decisions, why should they have the right to take more from the pool when there’s plenty of people who never had a decision over their health?
Regardless of what the answer is, Bernie shouldn’t box Kennedy into an answer he doesn’t agree with. This type of ‘yes or no’ behavior is disingenuous and it makes Bernie look like he just doesn’t care what Kennedy has to say, OR he knows how dumb the question is and he just wants to make Kennedy look bad. Coming from someone who tends to meet in the middle sometimes, Bernie is just being a poor sport here.
This type of conduct is found all over these congressional hearings, and although Republicans do it as well, Democrats might as well be professionals at it. Imagine if you tried to answer a question as best you can, but someone kept interrupting you. Imagine having a really good answer to that question but no matter what you say, it’ll be misrepresented as ‘no’. This is total BS coming from our congress, and I wish the democrats that support these boneheads could actually admit this problem.
Sadly, unless I haven’t met them, democrats tend to have a grudge towards people like Kennedy and the other nominees, therefore they’re not inclined to approach them in good faith. Basically, they’ve already justified their disrespect towards the nominees based on their own personal judgements. They don’t ask, “Are you a good person?” instead they ask “Why are you a bad person?” They go in assuming the worst but never think to ask if they’re the ones making it worse.
So for those who understand this conduct but don’t understand why conservatives like these cabinet picks, what else do I have to say? These nominees are giving honest, logical answers but once a Democrat asks a question, they’re suddenly made to stop talking. Suddenly, they were made to answer things like a toddler. Suddenly, their words are taken out of context and used against them. Suddenly, Democrats look like a bunch of fools, and the nominees start to seem pretty cool.
