Wednesday's Senate confirmation hearing on President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet choices was disrupted by several protesters, which lawmakers denounced.
Wednesday was packed with Senate hearings, including Pam Bondi for Attorney General, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for Secretary of State, John Ratcliffe for CIA Director, Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation, and Secretary of Energy Sean Duffy. Chris Wright will be the Secretary, and Russell Vought will be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
As of noon Wednesday, protesters had disrupted Rubio and Wright's hearing several times.
The group known as Code Pink packed into Rubio's hearing on the Israel-Hamas war, which began at 10 a.m. local time. People sat in three rows with their hands painted red to symbolize violent bloodshed.
Police warned those in attendance to keep their hands down so as not to disrupt formal proceedings.
“Peace activists are saying no to Secretary of State Rubio. He's not a diplomat, he's a war hawk,” Code Pink posted. Social media platform.
As Mr. Rubio discussed his foreign policy approach, another attendee shouted in Spanish to express his opposition to sanctions on Latin American countries.
“I’m going to get a bilingual protest,” Rubio joked after the rant.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) noted that this was a “first time.”
Risch earlier said demonstrators would be banned from attending public hearings for at least a year.
“I have a pretty low tolerance for communication and disruption of demonstrations…We have work to do. Every time we meet, we have a very limited watch,” Risch said.
The chaos at the Rubio hearing was the first after the riot at Pete Hegseth's hearing on Tuesday. Trump's nominee for energy secretary, Chris Wright, was also interrupted by protesters during his opening statement Wednesday.
Demonstrators denounced Wright's role as CEO of oilfield services company Liberty Energy. President Trump hammered home the phrase “drill, baby, drill” in a post on Truth Social, and Wright is expected to act on it.
Sen. Jim Justice (R-Va.) said at the hearing that if anyone thinks we can survive without fossil fuels, they are living in a “cave.” , added that they were “positive” that the nominee would be approved.
After his comments, three protesters spoke out about the California wildfires that have killed dozens of people and are linked to climate change.
Mr. Wright acknowledged this topic during the hearing.
“This is a global problem, a real problem, a difficult problem,” he said.
But he said he stands by his previous statement that “the wildfire hype is just hype to justify bad policy.”
