In addition to Nate’s excellent summary of the gas-stove imbroglio, there’s the question of the independence of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. A White House spokesman told CNN, “The President does not support banning gas stoves — and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is independent, is not banning gas stoves.”
It is true that the CPSC is an independent agency, but the attempt to distance the White House from its actions is a bit of a stretch. Commissioners retain their partisan affiliations while in office, and three out of four commissioners are Democrats appointed by Biden. The commissioner whose comments sparked the controversy, Richard Trumka Jr., is the son of longtime AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who was very close to Biden for much of his political career. In his speech to the AFL-CIO convention last year, Biden described Trumka Sr. as “a true friend” and said that Trumka had given him the title of “most pro-union president in history,” which Biden has often used. Trumka Jr. is one of many Biden appointees with union connections. It’s hardly absurd to suggest that they might have similar views.
Progressives often talk of “Trump judges,” which implies a connection more unfair than that asserted by linking Biden to the CPSC’s actions. Judgeships are nonpartisan offices, and they are in a different branch of government that has an adversarial relationship with the executive. Trump appointees to the federal bench have proved their independence numerous times in rulings against Trump’s nonsensical election challenges, and originalists have taken a variety of positions on various judicial questions.
You may recall the freak-out over the U.S. Postal Service in the lead-up to the 2020 election, when progressives convinced themselves that Trump was going to use the mail system to steal the election. We were treated to articles with headlines such as “Trump’s Postmaster General Is Sabotaging the Postal Service” and “Trump’s Postmaster General Faces Accusations of His Very Own Form of Voter Suppression.” The problem with that narrative is that the president does not appoint the postmaster general. He is appointed by the postal board of governors and serves at its pleasure. The president can neither hire nor fire the postmaster general.
If they’re “Trump judges” and it’s “Trump’s postmaster general,” then Trumka Jr. is certainly “Biden’s commissioner.”