Read Sen. Al Franken's furious takedown of his Republican colleagues after the DeVos vote

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) expressed unreserved outrage over Tuesday's 51-50 Senate confirmation of President Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos: "It's not a job for amateurs who don't know the first thing about education," said Franken in his statement, after Vice President Mike Pence took the Senate floor to cast the tie-breaking vote. "I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent Cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen."

Republicans have called DeVos, a school-voucher proponent, the kind of reformer the education system needs. Democrats have criticized Republicans' support for DeVos, pointing to her family's $200 million in donations to conservatives. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) grilled DeVos on that point during her Senate hearing, demanding to know: "Do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here today?"

Franken echoed Sanders' frustration Tuesday. "Last night I urged my Republican colleagues to oppose [DeVos'] nomination, because if we cannot set party loyalty aside long enough to perform the essential duty of vetting the president's nominees, then I don't know what we are even doing here," he said in his statement. "Betsy DeVos has demonstrated that she is fundamentally unqualified to lead the Education Department, and it's a shame that Republicans voted to confirm one of their major donors instead of looking out for our children."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up