On Thursday, the U.S. Senate advanced the confirmation of Deb Haaland to become the next secretary of the Department of the Interior. Democrats were helped in their efforts to push through the anti-energy extremist by four moderate Republican senators, Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Susan Collins (R-ME).
Now, Haaland’s confirmation moves to its final vote in the Senate, where it looks like senators from energy-rich states such as Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Bob Casey (D-PA) will vote with their party despite Haaland’s complete assault on energy and natural resources while on the campaign trail and in power as a congresswoman.
BACKGROUND
Haaland has no qualifications to speak of. Not a single piece of legislation she has sponsored in her short two-year tenure in the House has become law, and she has a record of straight-up lying to the American people. Not to mention the fact that despite her multiple attempts at passing the bar to become a lawyer, she has failed.
During a candidate debate in October, Haaland misled on multiple issues. She claimed she worked in “a bipartisan way” while in Congress, despite voting with socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 95% of the time, she called a leftist Black Lives Matter/Antifa mob committing arson and vandalism in Lafayette Square near the White House “peaceful,” she claimed she did not support Antifa, despite calling them “peaceful protestors,” saying she has never “missed a vote,” despite missing several, and falsely claiming President Trump called COVID-19 a “Democrat hoax,” which liberal fact-checkers have even admitted is incorrect.
While running for Congress in 2018, she said, “Let’s be honest, there is a reason there has never been a Native American woman elected to Congress or to a Governorship in over 240 years. Our electoral system was not designed to elect women like me.” That should say it all about the level of pandering she is willing to go to be elected.
Also, during COVID-19, Haaland exploited the pandemic to raise campaign cash for her feeble re-election bid while New Mexicans were hurting.
But being of a minority group does not and should not be a test for any candidate up for any office of public trust—qualifications should, and Haaland doesn’t hold a single redeeming qualification other than being a partisan Democrat loyalist, who will say just about anything to hold onto power. Qualifications make someone qualified for a position, and Haaland has none.
Fifty of the farthest left Democrats in the House have sent a letter to Joe Biden begging him to pick her to run the Department of Interior along with a group of fringe organizations also lobbying him to tap Haaland for the post. Haaland’s backers say an awful lot about her extremism now and when she could arrive at the Department of the Interior. 34.72% of New Mexico is federally controlled land, meaning Deb would control over 1/3 of our state’s natural resources—meaning sudden death to our state.
During Haaland’s Senate committee hearings, she could not answer basic questions regarding the department she was vying for, stumbled on every single question she was asked and did not have a general knowledge of the energy industry, much less the public lands she claimed to be a champion of.
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) plainly asked Haaland, “Did you or do you now support the Biden action of shutting down the Keystone Pipeline his first day in office?” She refused to answer the question, responding, “I have to respect it, uh, Senator. He is the president of the United States and I realize that, um, these are some of the things that he talked about when he was running for office.” Not until Sen. Risch had to press three more times did he get a vaguely discernible answer from Haaland where she finally said, “I will tend to support President Biden’s positions. I assume you could take my answer as a yes.”
During one line of questioning by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Haaland was asked why she made the statement that she would vote to legalize marijuana to account for lost jobs in the oil and gas industry due to extreme government regulation. She claimed her argument was merely one about “diversify[ing] our funding streams.”
Barrasso pressed her, “Is selling marijuana among what the Biden administration calls ‘better choices… to give jobs to displaced oil and gas workers?” Haaland said she didn’t know Biden’s position on the legalization of weed. Barrasso clapped back, “Well, we know what your stance is on replacing the revenue from the energy jobs… And your preference is to turn to drugs is what you’ve recommended to the voters.”
During another exchange, Haaland had difficulty answering basic questions about oil and gas pipelines on federal lands from Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), ultimately admitting she didn’t know the answer to the question.
The final Senate vote on Haaland is expected on Monday. With the defection of moderate Republicans and the betrayal of moderate Democrats, Haaland’s confirmation to lead the Department of the Interior is almost certain.