While Dems Obsessed over Whistleblower, Senate Confirmed Justice Scalia's Son as Labor Secretary
Washington, D.C., has been abuzz this week thanks to a whistleblower complaint filed by a U.S. intelligence official following a July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Democrats have focused on the phone call, during which they claim Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of an impeachment probe into Trump, citing in part the phone call.
The White House released a transcript of the call on Wednesday, and later that day, a copy of the whistleblower’s full complaint was sent to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Then on Thursday, the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee released the complaint, parts of which are redacted, to the public.
While the whistleblower controversy and impeachment have been the talk of the town, other important things have also been going on this week, as evidenced by the Senate’s 53-44 vote Thursday to confirm Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, as secretary of labor.
Meanwhile, the Senate has voted 53-44 to CONFIRM Eugene Scalia to be U.S. Labor Secretary, replacing Alex Acosta, who resigned in July after facing criticism of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) September 26, 2019
The position opened up in July, after then-Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned over his handling of a plea deal given more than a decade ago to wealthy financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who has since died in an apparent suicide.
Trump has offered high praise for Eugene Scalia’s accomplishments, believing him more than qualified to lead the Labor Department.
“Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience … working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!” Trump tweeted in July.
….working with labor and everyone else. He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019
The left approached Scalia’s nomination differently, criticizing him for being favorable to businesses.
In 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that Scalia “has emerged as one of the industry’s go-to guys for challenging financial regulations.”
Scalia has previously worked for Walmart, and has a history of fighting government regulation.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York criticized Scalia as “anti-worker.”
“This guy shouldn’t even make it for secretary of commerce, let alone secretary of labor, which is supposed to protect and defend the working people of America,” Schumer said, according to The Washington Post.
Eugene Scalia’s nomination is a slap to the face of the Labor Department.@realDonaldTrump could have chosen a union member.
Instead, he nominated a corporate lawyer who has spent his career protecting the interests of CEOs, big corporations, the wealthy elite—not workers. pic.twitter.com/SJ3lVNXZkq
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) September 26, 2019
But Trump has defended his labor pick.
“His father, as you know, was the great, great, great Supreme Court justice,” Trump told reporters last month. “Even the people with not his views would say he was a great gentleman, a great man.”
“He is a very — he’s one of the finest minds and lawyers in Washington.”
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