Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Thursday that Democrats will vote on just two of Trump’s nominees on Inauguration Day, as of now.
Schumer said Democrats will allow roll call votes Friday on Gen. John Kelly to be the secretary of Homeland Security and Gen. James Mattis to be the defense secretary. They will also allow debate on Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA, but a vote on him was still up for discussion. Schumer added that more votes were possible on less controversial nominees, but Democrats were still negotiating with GOP colleagues.
Schumer, who stood between two giant signs of Trump’s most controversial nominees, said issues that have come up through the vetting process “deserve to be thoroughly and rigorously reviewed by the Senate.” Schumer drew specific attention to Rex Tillerson who is Trump’s secretary of state pick and how his ties to Russia must still be reviewed. Schumer also hammered Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) who is Trump’s HHS pick because of questions over whether Price violated the law when he purchased stocks of a health care company he later introduced legislation on.
“The more we learned about the nominees, the more important a thorough fair process became,” Schumer said.
Schumer also accused Republicans of trying to rapidly move forward with nominees to shield the American public from nominees’ backgrounds.
There is very little Senate Democrats can do at this point to actually defeat Trump’s cabinet nominees. A rules change in the Senate made it so that all of Trump’s nominees will only need a simple majority to be approved. Short of Republican defections, Democrats cannot stop the nominees now.