This week, Senate confirmation hearings continue for several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Most Americans on both sides of the aisle agree that any President, Republican or Democrat, is entitled to have the people he wants in his Cabinet. But for Senate Democrats who are still reeling from the butt-whoopin’ they took in November at the hands of the man they tried for so long to imprison with their various impeachment and legal antics, Trump Derangement Syndrome appears to be overtaking them at every turn. While Senate confirmation hearings should be serious events, the behavior of Senate Democrats is anything but.
So far, we have been treated to Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) asking every nominee who has come before her if they have ever been accused of any unwanted sexual behavior. We have watched as Democrat Senate Judiciary members ask Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi basically if she would do to them what they have spent the better part of nine years doing to Donald Trump. not to be left out, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demanded to know if Robert Kennedy Jr. supports the sale of what he believes are “anti-vax” infant onesies.
It is nothing but harebrained political theater for them. But among all the nominees that have come before them, there are two that, for Senate Democrats, are distinctly different: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. And because they are different, they present a second goal for Senate Democrats.
In October of 2022, Tulsi Gabbard, who had served as a Democrat Congresswoman from Hawaii, announced she was leaving the Democrat party. She called it an “elitist cabal of warmongers.” In October 2024, she announced that she had formally become a Republican. RFK Jr., whose name is synonymous with the Democrats, announced during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” also in October that he too had left the Democrat Party. He gave a rather familiar response, saying, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.”
So, what are Senate Democrats to do with these “heretics,” these free thinkers who dared to walk away? What they are doing is making examples of both Kennedy and Gabbard. The ridiculous statements and questions, the grandstanding with the hope they are manufacturing soundbites for primetime later on in the evening, are all an attempt to make a statement to anyone like them in the future. That statement, “Here is what will happen to you if you stray from the party. Here is what we will do to you if not only you leave the party, but if you side with or even become a Republican.” And what’s even worse for Kennedy and Gabbard is they turned their backs on Democrats to ultimately serve in a Trump administration. For Democrats, the betrayal doesn’t get much worse than that.
Democrats at the state level may have even more example-making to do than their national counterparts. Since 1994, roughly 173 elected officials have switched parties. The part that Democrats might want to pay attention to is that of those 173 state lawmakers, 83 were Democrats who became Republicans, and just 23 Republicans became Democrats. If you are a Democrat and a betting person, are you taking those odds?
Make no mistake. Senate Democrats care little about Kennedy or Gabbard’s credentials or lack thereof. What they care about is preventing any more converts. Because often, it is the converts who become the truest of believers.
