TThe United States Senate has confirmed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The 55 to 44 vote makes Brooks-LaSure the first Black woman to lead CMS in its nearly six-decade history.
“I pledge to fight hard to rid our ranks of racists and extremists,” Gen. Austin pronounced during his confirmation hearings. He also pledged to overturn several discriminatory bans on military service put in place by the previous administration. The confirmation vote cleared by a 93-2 margin – Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) were the lone no-votes.
President-elect Donald Trump protests that he isn’t really the racist, sexist, anti-immigrant Islamaphobe that his rhetorical excesses in the presidential campaign suggested he was.