Tipsheet

Joy Reid's Take on Why Josh Hawley Is Blocking Biden's DHS Nominee

At Tuesday's Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) objected to the effort to fast track a vote on President Biden's nominee for the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Hawley explained that he was not satisfied with the vague answers the nominee gave him regarding Biden's mass amnesty plan, which grants an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, as well as the new president's promise to stop construction on the U.S.-Mexico border wall. On the latter point, Mayorkas gave the disappointing response, "we don't need nor should we have a monolithic answer to that varied and diverse challenge."

"I cannot consent to skip the standard vetting process and fast-track this nomination when so many questions remain unanswered," Hawley said following the hearing.

But MSNBC host Joy Reid came up with her own conclusions as to why Sen. Hawley stonewalled Mayorkas' confirmation process. By mentioning the nominee's ethnicity, Reid suggests that Hawley has a more nefarious objective than securing the southern border.

"It is doubly galling then, that the first action against the Biden cabinet is taken by Josh Hawley, again, to try to get in the way of getting the Department of Homeland Security secretary, the one Latino member of the cabinet, to slow him down," Reid said on Wednesday. 

"The idea that there would be even a day's delay in getting the Department of Homeland Security secretary confirmed, is morally offensive," she added. "To scream about caravans and all sorts of right wing talking points, with no substantive reason to slow this nomination down...it's repulsive."

Sen. Hawley has made several enemies ever since he continued to pursue his objections to the electoral college certification following the deadly Capitol Hill riots. Some have even called him a "traitor" and called on him to resign.