U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet spent more time tweeting complaints of yesterday’s confirmation hearing with Education secretary nominee Besty DeVos than the time that he actually allowed her to answer questions.
Ironically, he was complaining that he didn’t have enough time to ask more questions.
Only one 5-min round of questioning is not enough time to clear concerns on her commitment to high quality public schools.
— Michael F. Bennet (@SenBennetCO) January 18, 2017
You can watch for yourself here beginning at the 2:14:36 mark, where Bennet takes up a lot of his precious time to chide the chairman for not allowing a second round of questions.
Then he insults and degrades the nominee’s work, rambling on and on, before allowing her to even speak. When she begins to defend herself, Bennet cuts her off again, and a third time.
Frustrated with limited time to question Betsy DeVos on what she’s learned from poor performance of Detroit’s charter school system.
— Michael F. Bennet (@SenBennetCO) January 18, 2017
In all, Bennet used his time to showboat for about five minutes, and asked one question of the nominee who by our accounting, spoke about a minute-and-a-half, defending herself and correcting Bennet’s assertions of the Michigan school system.
Bennet corrected himself when he accidentally berated the Chicago school system instead. Freudian slip, we suppose.
When Bennet finally did actually ask a question, it was this: What do kids need in the 21st Century?
We imagine if he were allowed a second question, it would be; what do kids eat for lunch in the 21st Century?