{"id":19303,"date":"2017-01-19T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19303"},"modified":"2017-01-19T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:51:42","slug":"trump-team-staggers-toward-starting-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19303","title":{"rendered":"Trump team staggers toward starting line"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/puzder.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19304\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/puzder-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/puzder-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/puzder-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/puzder.jpg 970w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not going well for Team Trump as it prepares to take command of the most powerful, greatest nation on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Seemingly across the board, Donald Trump&#8217;s Cabinet selections are having difficulty squaring their records with what will be expected of them when &#8212; or <em>if<\/em> &#8212; they take some highly visible public offices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Betsy DeVos<\/strong>,\u00a0 the president-elect&#8217;s choice to become education secretary, seemed flummoxed about questions pertaining to basic education policy.<\/p>\n<p>Health and Human Services pick U.S. Rep. <strong>Tom Price<\/strong> is facing scrutiny over legislation he pitched that favored a company in which he had just purchased stock.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ben Carson<\/strong>, the noted brain surgeon who has been nominated to lead the housing department, is having to explain why his spokesman said the good doctor is unqualified for the job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andrew Puzder<\/strong>, the labor secretary-designate (pictured with Trump), reportedly is having second thoughts about even taking the job. Oh, and he&#8217;s got a messy divorce settlement hanging over him, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Scott Pruitt<\/strong>, picked to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate committee that his views on whether human beings are responsible for climate change aren&#8217;t relevant.<\/p>\n<p>And on and on we go.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not all bad. The Senate Armed Services Committee has recommended confirmation for Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis &#8212; after he seemed to contradict Trump&#8217;s views about the threat posed by Russia.<\/p>\n<p>I get that sometimes these high-level Cabinet picks go awry. Do you remember when two of President-elect Bill Clinton&#8217;s picks for attorney general had to bow out because they had employed illegal immigrants?<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s OK.\u00a0Donald Trump assured us he would pick the &#8220;smartest people, the best people&#8221; to run the government while he concentrates on making America &#8220;great again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Oye!<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not going well for Team Trump as it prepares to take command of the most powerful, greatest nation on Earth. Seemingly across the board, Donald Trump&#8217;s Cabinet selections are having difficulty squaring their records with what will be expected of them when &#8212; or if &#8212; they take some highly visible public offices. Betsy &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19303\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Trump team staggers toward starting line<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[588,6864,795,1424,6839],"class_list":["post-19303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-ben-carson","tag-betsy-devos","tag-cabinet","tag-donald-trump","tag-trump-transition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19305,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19303\/revisions\/19305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}