Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said Tuesday that they will vote against all of President Joe Biden’s nominees they do not consider diverse, expressing frustration that his 15-person Cabinet has no Asian American and Pacific Islander members.
“There’s no AAPI representation in the Cabinet,” Duckworth told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “There’s not a single AAPI in a Cabinet position. That’s not acceptable. That’s what I told the White House.”
“I’ve been talking to them for months and they’re still not aggressive, so I’m not going to be voting for any nominee from the White House other than diversity nominees,” she said, “I’ll be a ‘no’ on everyone until they figure this out.”
Duckworth said that she told the White House earlier Tuesday about her stance.
Later, Hirono joined Duckworth’s call in an interview with MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House.”
“Tammy’s position is that until she gets a commitment that there will be more diversity representation in the Cabinet and in senior White House adviser positions, she will not vote to confirm anyone who does not represent diversity,” Hirono said, adding that she too is calling for as much.
March 23, 202102:50
Biden’s 15 Cabinet secretary positions already have been filled. While not an Asian American or Pacific Islander, his recently confirmed pick for U.S. trade representative, Katherine Tai, is the first Asian American to hold that role. That position is not among the Cabinet secretaries, though it is considered a Cabinet-level position.
Should the two senators hold firm in their objections, a number of Biden’s nominees for administration positions requiring Senate confirmation could stall. With the Senate split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, Biden can ill afford to lose a single Democratic senator in any confirmation unless he wins some GOP votes.
Duckworth said Tuesday that she hopes the Biden administration responds with a solution, but for now “I’m a ‘no’ on everything other than the diversity candidates.”
Asked if that meant diversity of race, gender and sexuality, Duckworth said: “Right now, I’m looking at racial and obviously I will take a look at the sexual diversity.”
“But, right now, I’m focused on the fact that there’s not enough AAPI representation,” she said.
Duckworth and Hirono, two Democratic senators of AAPI heritage, spoke amid a rise in anti-Asian American hate incidents during the coronavirus pandemic and a week after a gunman in Georgia shot and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian American, in a string of spa shootings.
On a Zoom call with the White House and Democratic senators Monday, the two senators confronted White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon on the lack of AAPI representation in Biden’s Cabinet, four Senate aides familiar with the call told Axios.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
