Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:47 pm
Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer made it official during remarks on the Senate floor; Democrats are prepared to delay confirmation of Trump’s cabinet by weeks if the president-elect’s nominees are not properly vetted.
While speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer said:
But there is another concern as well. These nominees have, even collectively, very little experience or record in government.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Many of them have taken positions quite different from the President-elect. They need to be thoroughly vetted, not just before the U.S. Senate, but before the American people. Jamming all the hearings in one or two days, making members run from committee to committee, makes no sense.
After all, they’re going to hold incredibly powerful positions for potentially the next four years. To spend an extra day or two on each nominee; even if it takes several weeks to get through them all in order to carefully consider their nominations…that’s well worth it.
It is only fair that they are given a thorough and thoughtful vetting and that they abide by the “longstanding†ethics practices that were established – and laid out quite clearly by the Majority Leader himself – to ensure Cabinet officials were in good standing to work on behalf of the American people.
Some Senate Democrats have expressed a desire to get payback on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for obstructing President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Make no mistake about it. Democrats are looking to slow down Trump’s first hundred day agenda. Republicans and Trump have made it easy for Democrats by withholding information about conflicts of interest while the GOP Senate majority is ready to rubber stamp all Trump nominees.
Mitch McConnell set this up by the way he treated Obama, and now Democrats are going give Republicans a taste of their own medicine. Trump’s presidency could get off to a very bumpy start if most of his cabinet is stuck in the Senate.
Democrats aren’t forgiving, and they are going to make Republicans remember how they treated Obama for the past eight years.
It’s payback time.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
