Editor's note: The original story predated the confirmation hearing for Trump's nominee for Treasury SecretarySteve Mnuchin. Brown, who is ranking member of the Senate Banking committee, announced late today that he'll oppose Mnuchin, who Brown said "failed to answer critical questions about the fortune he made while military service members, seniors, and working families got kicked out of their homes."
Ohio’s Democratic senator will be attending Donald Trump’s inauguration tomorrow and Sherrod Brown says he’s willing to work with the administration on trade. But, as WKSU’s M.L. Schultze reports, he’s also announced the issues – including cabinet picks – where he’ll part with the president.
Brown says he contacted Trump after the election to push for renegotiation of NAFTA and to encourage the U.S. pull out of the Trans-Pacific Trade deal. Both are positions the president-elect has espoused, and Brown says they’re good positions for Ohio.
“But if he tries to raise the eligibility age for Medicare, as his secretary of H.H.S.-designee wants to do, if he wants take people out of public schools and put them in for-profit charters like his secretary of education-designee wants to do, if he wants to compromise on civil rights and voting rights and deny climate change as his designees want to do, I will fight.”
Brown says he plans to vote tomorrow for retired Gen. James Mattis for secretary of defense and retired Gen. John Kelly for Homeland Security. He’s announced he’s voting against Attorney General-designee Jeff Sessions and he’s expressed strong reservations about Betsy DeVos as secretary of education.
