Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) bemoaned Thursday that Republicans “will never catch up” with confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees due to “unprecedented obstruction” by the Democrats.
“They are still in full resistance mode,” Cornyn said on Newsmax of his Democratic colleagues, “and they have yet to accept the outcome of last November’s election.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) argued that Democrats have blocked the votes because “historically bad nominees deserved historic levels of scrutiny.” The Associated Press reported.
On Thursday’s “American Agenda,” Cornyn claimed, “we’re at the point now where there’s well over 160 confirmations to be held on the floor, and Democrats are forcing us to burn the clock out on each of them. We’ll never catch up on President Trump’s administration when it comes to confirmations unless we can change the rules and expedite the confirmations of these nominees.”
Cornyn called the Democrats’ stonewalling “unfair” to President Trump, the nominees, and the American people.
“And it’s also dangerous because many of these folks are U.S. ambassador nominees who will serve in other parts of the world and represent the United States,” Cornyn said. “The problem is, we will never catch up if we have to continue dealing with this unprecedented obstruction.”
Trump has encouraged Senate Republicans to cancel their August recess if they haven’t made progress by then.
The AP noted, “Democrats have blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any quick unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that takes several days per nominee and allows for debate time. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.”
Cornyn told Newsmax that Senate Republicans are looking at changing the rules in order to get some nominations through.
“Unless this ends, we’re going to have to change the way we do business here because the status quo is completely unacceptable.”