The White House is coming out to fight for President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary pick Betsy DeVos.
DeVos’s confirmation is deadlocked in a 50-50 heat, with Vice President Mike Pence expected to kick DeVos over the goal line. But liberal activists and teacher unions are going into overdrive to try to flip vulnerable establishment Republican votes.
“Betsy DeVos…is an unbelievable champion of education,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in Friday’s press conference about the 50-50 deadheat. “She is an unbelievable, remarkable woman who has fought very hard… We are sure we are going to do everything we can.” Spicer said that he fully expects DeVos to be confirmed.
Mitch McConnell was trying to fast-track DeVos Wednesday after she met with Nevada Republican Dean Heller, who was on the fence about her. Heller supported her, and DeVos won a procedural vote Wednesday 50-50. There was a new procedural vote Friday, which DeVos won 52-48. But Collins and Murkowski still plan to vote against DeVos’s confirmation. We’re still at 50-50.
The confirmation vote will be held on Monday now, so that top GOP lawmakers can go to a fundraising retreat in Florida. That gives activists on the Left more time to fight.
Florida Democrat Bill Nelson was on the fence, but he got pressured by the unions and ended up opposing DeVos. Marco Rubio also got a lot of pressure down in Florida. My organization, the America First Project, teamed up with the Florida Coalition of School Board Members to fend off this left-wing attack in the swamplands.
The activists have also contacted Kansas Senator Jerry Moran’s staff, and the left-wingers are claiming that he’s on the fence.
