The conservative group America Rising Squared released a new video Tuesday castigating Senate Democrats for being hypocritical when it comes to their handling of President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
America Rising compared Democrats' treatment of DeVos during her Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday to their past treatment of President Obama's nominees for education secretary.
The video first showed several Democratic senators on the Health and Education Committee complaining about a lack of time to question DeVos.
"I think this is a real shame, this rush job," Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said during his allotted time for questioning.
While Democrats like Murphy complained about a lack of time to ask questions, the video showed that DeVos sat before the committee for 3 hours and 25 minutes, over an hour longer than Obama's two previous nominees to lead the Education Department. The total hearing time for Arne Duncan and Dr. John King, Obama's two nominees, were 2 hours and 2 minutes and 2 hours and 17 minutes, respectively.
Committee Republicans appeared aware of the hypocrisy. Chairman Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) pointed out the hearing length to Democrats, noting, "This hearing started at 5:15, it's 8:15. That's 3 hours and 5 minutes of questions. This is already 3 hours and we're not finished yet."
"Mr. Chairman, I cannot help but think that if my friends on the other side of the aisle had used their time to ask questions rather than complaining about the lack of a second round, they each would have been able to get in a second question," Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) quipped before beginning her questioning.