Senate Democrats today opposed President Trump’s nominee for an open Federal Communications Commission seat, and criticized Republicans for moving to confirm a new commissioner during the period before Democrats take control of Congress in January 2027. Democrats also plan to use their majority next year to launch probes of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
“After the American people last week overwhelmingly rejected the MAGA agenda, there is no justification for this committee to advance partisan nominees during the lame-duck period,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said today at the Commerce Committee’s nomination hearing for Danielle Thumann Severs, Trump’s pick to fill an empty commissioner’s seat.
Thumann Severs, an attorney and senior counsel to Carr, faced questions from Democrats about whether she supports Carr’s attacks on TV broadcasters.
“Do you support Chairman Carr’s illegal campaign to remove Jimmy Kimmel from the nation’s airwaves?” Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) asked the nominee.
Thumann Severs responded that she has not advised Carr on media-related topics and declined Luján’s request to identify any specific policy issues on which she disagrees with Carr.
Luján predicted trouble for Carr when Democrats take the majority in both chambers of Congress. He seemed to suggest that Carr will quickly grow tired of having to testify in Congress multiple times a month under the Democratic majorities.
“I don’t think Chairman Carr is going to be around more than another three or four months because when we have the gavels in here, he will be here once a month,” Luján said. “And Mr. Carr, if you’re listening now, know you’re going to be in this body once a month, if not more, and in the House of Representatives as well, answering questions, and you don’t have the protection of the gavel any longer.” Luján said Democrats will use “subpoena authorities that you have to respond to so we can get to the bottom of the nonsense and the cover-ups that have been taking place.”
