Trump Cabinet Hearings: Let’s play the Republican hypocrisy drinking game

Impact

The Senate is about to begin holding confirmation hearings on President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees on Tuesday, and already Republicans are lobbing hypocritical attacks as the vetting process gets underway.

From failing to follow the same demands they set when President Barack Obama sought to build his administration in 2009, to calling Democrats obstructionist despite eight years of GOP stonewalling, there will be plenty of hypocrisy as Republicans receive a taste of the medicine they've been administering since Obama entered the White House. 

So as confirmation hearings begin, Mic has created a drinking game to make the hours of questioning more interesting. Remember: As much as possible, drink responsibly.

Take a sip if:

Republicans say Trump's nominees are being held to the same standard that Obama's were

Back in 2009, when Obama was piecing together his administration, the then-Senate minority leader sent a letter with demands for the vetting process.

Mitch McConnell was insistent that all of Obama's nominees receive a sign-off by the Office of Government Ethics before their confirmation hearings could be set, and that their financial disclosures were submitted in time for a "full review" prior to their hearings. 

Now, however, the OGE has said that the time frame and scope of the vetting process needed for Trump's Cabinet nominees — many of whom are billionaires with massive portfolios to sift through — has created "undue pressure on OGE's staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews," as OGE Director Walter Shaub wrote in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Schumer, for his part, sent the same letter of demands McConnell made back in 2009, crossing off McConnell's signature and adding his own.

But even that hasn't stopped some Senate Republicans from flat-out saying that they won't hold Trump's nominees to the same standards they held Obama's to.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), admitted that they were dealing with a different threshold for Trump's nominees.

"That's just right," he told the Huffington Post when asked whether the same disclosure standards didn't apply. 

Take a shot if:

McConnell says Democrats are being uncompromising

On Sunday, McConnell made an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation to say Democrats were being sore losers as they try to hold up Trump's Cabinet nominees.

"All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration at having not only lost the White House but having lost the Senate," McConnell said on Face the Nation. "I understand that, but we need to sort of grow up here and get past that."

However, not compromising was exactly what Republicans did throughout Obama's tenure.

Back in 2010, McConnell even vowed his members wouldn't compromise with Democrats because "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." 

Finish your drink if:

Republicans say Democrats are being obstructionist

Republican groups are looking to label Senate Democrats who vote against Trump's nominees as "obstructionist."

America Rising, a GOP firm that seeks to help defeat Democrats at the ballot box, wrote in a blog post that "Democratic obstructionism is already ramping up to historic proportions."

But for the past eight years, Republicans have obstructed Obama at every turn.

McConnell and the GOP blocked half of all the nominations Obama made throughout his presidency, according to PolitiFact

In fact, PolitiFact says the number of blocked nominees under Obama add up to more than half of the presidential nominees blocked throughout the entire history of the Senate.

Still, McConnell said at a press conference on Jan. 4 that the "American people simply will not tolerate" Democratic obstructionism of Trump's nominees.

Irony, much like your liver, is officially dead.