Senate votes to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state, first Trump Cabinet official to be approved
CNN
The Senate voted on Monday to confirm Marco Rubio as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, the first high-level Cabinet official for the new administration to be approved by the chamber.
The Senate voted on Monday to confirm Marco Rubio as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, the first high-level Cabinet official for the new administration to be approved by the chamber. The confirmation vote took place just hours after Trump was sworn in as president. The overwhelmingly bipartisan vote was 99 to 0 with no senators voting against the nomination. Rubio has served as a Republican senator from Florida since 2011, and his nomination drew strong support from a number of Senate Democrats, who called their colleague highly qualified for the role. Rubio went from Trump adversary to ally in recent years in a remarkable political turnaround. Now, he will play a key role as a high-ranking official in Trump’s new administration. The two had a bitter rivarly during the 2016 GOP presidential primary, with Rubio calling Trump a “con artist,” while Trump derisively called him “Little Marco.” After his failed GOP presidential primary bid in 2016, Rubio sharpened his foreign policy credentials as the leading Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, while building relationships in his party and across the aisle.

Janet Mills and her allies are counting on a gender gap to narrow Platner’s wide lead ahead of the June 9 primary to decide who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered style that has brought Platner widespread attention as someone who could help Democrats reach young men will backfire with women.

As a shrinking number of Transportation Security Administration agents work to keep hourslong security lines moving despite not being paid, President Donald Trump stepped into the fray Saturday, announcing he will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports by Monday if Congress doesn’t agree to a plan to end the partial government shutdown.











