Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Senate Republicans are ready to hold the Senate open “nights, weekends, and recesses” to confirm Trump’s nominees.
Thune on the Senate floor on Tuesday decried Senate Democrats holding up the nomination of John Ratcliffe to become the next CIA director.
For instance, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) spent much of his floor time this week obsessing over the January 6 protests after Trump pardoned many of the January 6 protestors.
In early January, one poll found that that only five percent of American registered voters believe that the January 6 protests were the biggest memory of Trump’s first term in office.
Thune, having enough of the stalling tactics, said he is willing to hold the Senate in session virtually indefinitely to confirm Trump’s nominees.
“As I’ve repeatedly said, Senate Republicans are ready to work as long as needed to confirm President Trump’s nominees. Nights. Weekends. Recesses,” he wrote on Monday on X.
Thune noted that Ratcliffe received overwhelming bipartisan support out of committee, proving there is little need to stall his confirmation. He remarked:
The vote was 14-3 coming out of the committee and we have now wasted a whole day where we could have been acting on that nomination and so really I think the question before the House is, do we want to vote on these folks on Tuesday or on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? This can be easy or this can be hard.
This is a nominee that came out of the Intelligence Committee 14-3, it is a bipartisan nomination to the Central Intelligence Agency. This is about America’s national security interests and we’re stalling. So that’s not going to happen we’re going to file cloture on him, you can force us to stay around here and we can vote on these things Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
On Wednesday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the Senate Majority Whip, took apart Democrats’ arguments for holding up Ratcliffe’s nomination:
According to a recent Fox News poll, 78 percent of Americans say Democrats should work with President Trump.
The American people elected President Trump to change Washington. They voted for common sense. President Trump is a common-sense President.
President Trump has proposed an agenda that is popular, optimistic, and unifying. He has chosen a strong team to work with him.
President Trump has not built a business-as-usual cabinet. His nominees are motivated. They are qualified. They are committed to Americans’ safety and prosperity.
They will work aggressively to address the challenges of high prices, open borders, crime, America-Last energy policies, and burdensome regulations.
Hours after President Trump was sworn in, Senators voted unanimously to confirm Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State.
“Democrats know that President Trump’s nominees are qualified for the job,” Barrasso said. “The Senate should give advice and consent. Disgruntled Democrats should not use the Senate’s constitutional power as an excuse to delay and deny. Americans want results, not resistance.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
