In 1987, Judge Robert Bork went before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court. Expecting a sober discussion of legal issues, instead he was “borked,” as it came to be called. Led by Chairman Joe Biden, the hearings descended into a farcical attack on the most distinguished jurist of his time.
Since then, nominees for every position, whether Republican or Democrat, have given studied demurrals to tough questions, making confirmation hearings almost worthless.
That changed when President Trump’s three most controversial cabinet picks were grilled: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whom I’ll discuss, and Kash Patel for FBI director. Each showed a Trumpian combativeness that gave Americans a view of the low quality of their senators.
Like Trump rising after he was shot, they effectively raised their fists and shouted: Fight! Fight! Fight!
RFK Jr., the scion of the most famous Democratic family, faced Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who despite being an “independent” socialist ran twice for president in the Democratic Party and caucuses with them.
After grandstanding about the problems in American health care, Sanders asked if Kennedy would “guarantee health care to every single American.” That’s a socialist utopian fantasy as shown by Canada, where wait times to get procedures averaged 30 weeks in 2024.
“I’m going to make America healthier than other countries,” Kennedy said, before Sanders interrupted him. “By the way, Bernie,” Kennedy continued, using the senator’s first name, “The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies. It’s in Congress, too. Almost all the members of this committee, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, protecting their interests.”
Sanders objected that his 2020 presidential bid was paid for by thousands of “workers all over this country.” Kennedy then pointed out Sanders was the single largest recipient of pharmaceutical dollars, $1.5 million. Sanders conceded, “Out of $200 million.”
Of course, the senators questioned Kennedy on his controversial stances on vaccines. He said he wasn’t anti-vaccine. At this point, I think Americans just want to know the truth of what happened, which we’ll get if Kennedy is confirmed. Also just recently, under new Director John Ratcliffe, reported the New York Times, “C.I.A. Now Favors Lab Leak Theory to Explain Covid’s Origins.” Remember when that view was censored by the government and social media?
Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, was challenged by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, a Gulf War veteran, on Syria policy. He quoted this statement of hers from 2016, “The U.S. is providing direct and indirect support for terrorist groups in order to overthrow the Syrian government.” Kelly said that was the same position as Russia and Iran, which were supporting the Assad regime then in power.
Gabbard responded she enlisted in the Army “because of al Qaeda’s terrorist attack on 9/11…. It was shocking and a betrayal to me and every person who was killed on 9/11, their families and my brothers and sisters in uniform, when as a member of Congress I learned about President Obama’s” Timber Sycamore program, since made public, “of working with and arming al Qaeda.”
Recently, Bashar al-Assad, a nasty tyrant, was overthrown by the even worse Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, an offshoot of al Qaeda, with the assistance of the Biden administration. So we conducted the long and bloody Global War on Terror against al Qaeda only to back it?
After 9/11 we got the misnamed USA Patriot Act, a severe limit on our liberties, and the creation of new agencies, including the Office of the DNI, which remains duplicative and ought to be abolished. At least Gabbard will bring her strong patriotism to her daily briefings of Trump and will be skeptical of moves to expand the government to combat real and perceived threats.
This whole government is rotten to the core and needs to be shaken up. Kennedy, Gabbard and Patel are the disruptors we need.
John Seiler is on the editorial board of the Southern California News Group.