The frustration Donald Trump is feeling due to the lack of momentum in the Senate regarding his appointees is perfectly understandable.
Democrats have brought the confirmation process to a screeching halt, leaving the GOP with few options to fill these roles in a timely fashion.
Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD) just found his backbone on this front, ramming through dozens of Trump appointments this week.
Trump’s frustrations boiled over in August, as he had barely had a judicial appointment confirmed, and his administration was still filled with holes.
After Democrats were placing conditions on having the appointments greenlit, Trump lost it, stating, "This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name."
Trump continued, "Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL! Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country. Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"
At this point, Trump really started to pressure GOP leadership to step up and do whatever it took to get his appointments through the confirmation process.
The nuclear option is not something you ever want to use, as it opens the door for the other side to claim justification in doing the same down the road, but in this case, Thune has had little choice.
Thune is now going so far as to consider a move to override the 60-vote threshold.
In September, he stated, “It’s time to move. Time to quit stalling. Time to vote. Time to fix this place.”
He added, “This is a broken process, folks. That’s an embarrassment.”
I woke up this morning to the news that Thune had confirmed a large batch of Trump picks, 107 to be exact, with the nominees passing along party lines, as the majority leader is invoking drastic measures to lump nominees together and put them on the floor.
To be clear, the majority of these nominees are not controversial and would generally be passed through with ease, but Democrats are choosing to operate in quicksand these days. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) addressed this issue, stating, “Before Senate Democrats shut down the federal government, they shut down the Senate floor -- freezing the confirmation process. For months, their blockade created a growing backlog of qualified, bipartisan nominees. Tonight, Senate Republicans confirmed 107 of those qualified nominees and ended the Democrats’ confirmation blockade.”
He concluded, “President Trump now has much of his team in place and ready to get to work for the American people.”
My regular readers know I don’t like bending the rules, but the GOP really has no choice in the matter. We are quickly approaching a year of Trump in office, and the president still does not have his full slate of nominees in place. I agree with Thune here… something had to be done, and he just found his backbone and did it. It’s about time!
