Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Friday he’s not happy with the decision by Senate Democrats to only allow a few votes on President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees on Friday, his first day in office.
“I’m disappointed in Sen. [Chuck] Schumer for not making an effort to try to at least get sort of a gang of six or eight through, as was done obviously during President Obama’s inauguration,” Issa said on CNN.
Issa said the party in the White House usually wants to move nominees quickly, while the party that’s out wants to delay them, and said Democrats have been playing the latter card this year.
.@DarrellIssa: It’s very concerning that the vast majority of the cabinet has not yet been confirmed. https://t.co/Ws5fSDy69p
— New Day (@NewDay) January 20, 2017
“[C]learly there has been sort of a, ‘well, we’re going to make sure it’s absolutely right because we can’t stop it,'” he said.
Issa agreed that there are some legitimate questions about some of the nominees, but said that only explains some of the delays. He defended Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who Democrats say may have inappropriately bought stock in healthcare companies while also moving legislation aimed at helping those companies.
“Some of them like Congressman Price, there’s no question that his trades were legal. You can have a discussion about it,” Issa said. “The fact is he did nothing wrong.”
Schumer said Thursday that Defense Secretary nominee James Mattis and Homeland Security nominee Gen. John Kelly would be confirmed on Friday, just hours after Trump is sworn in. Issa said that’s at least a start.
“We’ve got enough, and we’ll deal with the rest over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
