Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday that he will do his “part” to block President Donald Trump’s nominees from obtaining swift confirmation votes, taking a page out of the playbook of some of his Democratic colleagues.
Schumer announced from the Senate floor that he would place a hold on all of Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) nominees, arguing the administration’s plans to accept a Boeing 747-8 jet from the Qatari royal family is “naked corruption” and a “grave national security threat.” Senate GOP leadership compared Schumer’s blanket hold announcement to an “idle threat” given the fact that Democrats have chosen to obstruct the president’s nominees since the first weeks of the administration.
“Republicans may be too scared to stand up to Donald Trump, but I will keep pushing – and Senate Democrats will keep pushing – to get more answers to this nakedly crooked arrangement with Qatar,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Until the American people learn the truth about this deal, I will do my part to block the galling and truly breathtaking politicization at the Department of Justice.”
Senate GOP leadership observed Tuesday that almost no Trump nominees have been fast-tracked through the upper chamber. Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, another member of Senate Democratic leadership, has placed holds on more than 300 Trump nominees, forcing Senate Republicans to use valuable floor time to process each nominee individually.
“What Schumer said is no different than what they’ve done with everybody,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday. “Tell me somebody that they didn’t make us do a confirmation, a cloture vote. Schumer has held every nominee of President Trump’s, so he’s not done anything new today at all.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was confirmed just hours after Trump took the oath of office on Jan. 20, is the only Trump nominee who bypassed a cloture vote. Senate Democrats still forced Republicans to hold a final confirmation vote on his nomination despite the fact that no Democratic senators ended up voting against him.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued Tuesday that Democrats have “chosen obstruction” since Day One.
“This is the first president that hasn’t had a nominee that has been approved by voice vote or unanimous consent at this point in a Senate going back — if you believe this — to the Ford administration,” Thune said Tuesday during the Senate GOP leadership press conference. “So the Democrats have opted and chosen obstruction. They’ve chosen blocking.”
Despite Senate Democrats’ refusing to give Trump’s nominees swift confirmation votes, Senate Republicans’ confirmation schedule of Trump’s cabinet nominees outpaced the three prior administrations absent the Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) position. The UN ambassador role remains unfilled by a Senate-confirmed nominee following the president’s decision to pull Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination, citing a desire to maintain the razor-thin Republican House majority.
The Senate also confirmed ten of the president’s ambassador nominees in the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, outpacing the confirmation schedules of the previous six administrations, according to the Senate Republican Communications Center.
“We’re going to continue to move the Republican agenda, which starts with getting the President’s nominees into place as quickly as possible,” Thune said.
Though Trump has been largely successful in getting his nominees across the finish line, several individuals, including former interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin, had their nominations pulled after speculation they lacked the necessary confirmation votes.
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