Some of them don't even try to pretend they're not being raging hypocrites...
“This Committee, and the American people, have a right to know if a nominee for Secretary of Defense has received compensation, directly or indirectly, from foreign sources,” Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-Texas), then one month into the job,
wrote in a letter to Hagel that was signed by 25 additional Republican senators. “Until the Committee receives full and complete answers, it cannot in good faith determine whether you should be confirmed as Secretary of Defense.”
But now that President-elect
Donald Trump looks apt to retain a financial stake in his multibillion-dollar business enterprise ― with deals connected to foreign businesses and a hotel that is being rented out by foreign governments ―
the GOP no longer seems to care.
Republicans in both the House and Senate have refused to hold hearings on Trump’s conflicts of interest, and there is no apparent concern that some of the nine Cabinet nominees scheduled to testify this week have so far
failed to properly disclose their financial holdings or reach the customary agreement with the Office of Government Ethics.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who signed Cruz’s letter and defended Cruz’s attacks against Hagel during a committee vote on the nomination, made no attempt to hide the hypocrisy.
When The Huffington Post asked Inhofe on Monday night if this same standard of disclosing foreign payments should apply to Trump’s Cabinet nominees, he said it shouldn’t.
“So it’s different now because it’s Trump?” we asked.
“That’s just right,” Inhofe said.
“That’s right?” we asked to clarify.
“Yeah,” he said.
A spokeswoman later tried to walk back Inhofe’s answers. “Of course we don’t believe there’s a double standard when it comes to President-elect Trump’s Cabinet picks,” said Daisy Letendre, Inhofe’s communications director. Inhofe, it seems, had made the great political mistake of telling the truth, but you can listen to the exchange ―
complete with guffaws from surrounding reporters surprised by his honesty ― here.
Republicans Used to Care About Cabinet Nominees...Until Trump Won
Openly laughed at by reporters...