While she voted with other Democrats to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, she’s said no to multiple other nominees like the DOT’s Sean Duffy and the VA’s Doug Collins.
Duckworth says she will be voting “no” because of Trump’s collaboration with Elon Musk.
“Until Donald Trump and unelected billionaire Elon Musk stop their relentless spree of illegal power grabs that are inflicting pain on the middle class and damaging our national security, I’ll be voting no on all remaining top-level cabinet nominees,” Duckworth told The Hill.
“I refuse to aid and abet these illegal and harmful power grabs by voting for any of this Administration’s remaining cabinet-level nominees,” Duckworth added.
Duckworth’s vote is likely not needed for Republicans, who have a 53-seat majority in the Senate, to confirm Trump’s remaining cabinet nominations. Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard have yet to be confirmed.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has been rumored as a swing vote, said he would not vote for either Gabbard or RFK Jr. on Thursday. I have met with most of the cabinet nominees and have carefully watched their confirmation hearings. After considering what’s at stake, I have voted against moving forward to the confirmation of Ms. Gabbard and Mr. Kennedy, and will be voting NO on their confirmations,” he said Thursday.
12 of Trump’s cabinet nominees have been confirmed while at least 10 are in line to face a Senate floor vote.
Democrats have been especially upset with Musk’s ventures with DOGE. Musk was likely responsible for USAID shuttering, which caused a protest to erupt outside of the agency on Wednesday.
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Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) let the administration know his feelings on the closure of the agency.
“No one is more delighted that the United States is retreating from its global leadership role than the Communist Party of China,” Warner said. “I want to be clear: The latest attempt by the Trump administration to freeze U.S.-funded foreign aid assistance and punish the men and women who are working at the agency is a gift to our adversaries that will make us less safe.”
