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Well, we’re off to a great start. Despite a weekend of pink protest and scattered violence, the new administration of President Donald Trump is motoring ahead.
As we reported yesterday, there were two key developments, with announcements that Trump would not enforce the individual mandate in the (Un)Affordable Care Act and would immediately begin renegotiating NAFTA.
Last week, only two of Trump’s cabinet appointees (Gen. James Mattis and Gen. John Kelly) received their Senate confirmations, but it appears a third is now a shoe-in.
As Reuters reports, U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Monday said he will vote to back President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, despite the former Exxon Mobil Corp CEO’s “troubling” responses before lawmakers regarding Russia.
You might recall Marco Rubio was particularly prickly during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing, trying to goad Tillerson into condemning Philippine President Duterte, Saudi Arabia and Russia for war crimes and human rights violations.
“Despite my reservations, I will support Mr. Tillerson’s nomination in committee and in the full Senate,” Rubio said in a statement posted on Facebook ahead of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s vote on Tillerson later on Monday. A vote in the Republican-controlled Senate is expected shortly afterward. Excellent. Time for us all to get in the boat and start rowing![Note: This article was written by Michele Hickford]
