On the brink of the annual August recess, Senate Republicans were trying to get a large backlog of President Donald Trump’s nominees confirmed, only to face incessant delays and outrageous demands from vehemently oppositional Senate Democrats amid a futile effort to negotiate an agreement.
With no deal in sight, Trump lashed out on Saturday against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his fellow Senate Democrats, who the president accused of being “extortionists” for making “egregious and unprecedented” demands, Breitbart reported.
Meanwhile, as dozens of Trump’s nominees remain unconfirmed and numerous key positions throughout the administration remain vacant, the once unlikely prospect that Congressional Republicans will step aside and allow Trump to make recess appointments grows greater by the day.
Senate standoff over confirming Trump’s nominees
Politico reported all week on the multi-day effort led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to negotiate an agreement on confirmations between Sen. Schumer and the White House, but as of the end of Friday, there continued to be an impasse.
In exchange for their belated cooperation on confirming just some of the dozens of still-pending lower-level nominees — who in all prior administrations had typically all been confirmed by this point with little or no opposition as a courtesy — Democrats demanded that Trump unfreeze funds for certain agencies and make other policy concessions.
“The Dems’ demands are probably not going to be something that at this point we can meet,” Thune told reporters Friday night. “But we’ll see. Tomorrow’s another day.”
Schumer can “GO TO HELL” with his “extortionist” demands
It would appear that any further negotiations on Saturday were fruitless, as President Trump took to Truth Social that evening and wrote, “Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country.”
“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,” he 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,” Trump added. “Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Just a few moments later, in a follow-up post, the president blasted, “THE DEMOCRATS ARE EXTORTIONISTS WHO ALMOST DESTROYED OUR COUNTRY. NOW WE ARE BACK, AND THE USA IS THE “HOTTEST” COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Possible rules changes and recess appointments
Axios reported on Saturday that, as the Senate’s “stalemate” on confirmations persisted, there was increasing chatter among Republicans about changing the confirmation rules or simply leaving town and allowing President Trump to bypass the process and make recess appointments to fill out the rest of his administration.
For that to occur, both the Senate and House would need to formally adjourn and cancel any scheduled “pro-forma” days, during which they merely gavel-in and gavel-out without doing anything. Trump could then make his recess appointments, but the drawback is that those appointees could only serve through the end of 2026, and can’t receive any payment from taxpayers for their service.
The outlet noted that Senate Democrats offered to confirm just some of Trump’s nominees if frozen funds were released, with a contingent agreement to confirm more nominees later in the year if Trump refrained from even proposing any additional spending recissions.
Asked about the prospect of a “nuclear option” rules change to force through the backlogged nominees, or even the allowance for recess appointments, a spokesperson for Sen. Thune told Axios, “All options remain on the table.”
The post Trump accused Schumer and Senate Dems of ‘extortion’ for ‘egregious’ demands to confirm his nominees appeared first on Conservative Institute.
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Author: Ben Marquis
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