Betsy DeVos jokes: Confirmation process has been "a bit of a bear" https://t.co/48a3U5rm33
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 8, 2017
Recently confirmed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on Wednesday said her confirmation process in the United States Senate was “a bit of a bear.”
“For me, personally, this confirmation process and the drama in engendered, has been a bit of a bear,” DeVos said in a speech to the Department of Education her first full day on the job.
{mosads}DeVos during her hearing said schools in Wyoming may need guns to “protect from potential grizzlies,” a comment that supplied her critics with ammo as they sought to prevent her confirmation.
DeVos looked up and smiled after making the joke, which prompted a laugh from her audience.
Liberal advocacy groups sought to jam Republican senators’ phone lines in the lead-up to DeVos’s vote.
DeVos was ultimately confirmed, despite two GOP senators voting against her nomination, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the 50-50 tie.