Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called President-elect Trump’s nominees for key administration posts a “swamp Cabinet” but didn’t rule out that Democrats could allow a handful of national security nominees to be confirmed on Inauguration Day.
Schumer on Wednesday complained about Senate Republicans efforts to rush through many nominees without thorough vetting, but he said his top concerns did not extend to the nominations of Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., to be CIA director, Gen. James Mattis to be defense secretary or Gen. John Kelly to become homeland security secretary.
“Those three nominees were not on the list of the nine that we had the most trouble with and wanted the most extensive hearings,” he told reporters.
“We are discussing that with Sen. McConnell and some of the folks in the White House right now,” he said when asked if those three nominees could be confirmed on Friday.
Schumer was referring to negotiations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on which nominees could win confirmation on Friday. Even though Democrats lack the votes to defeat a nominee, they have the power to delay their confirmations for weeks by failing to agree to unanimous consent agreements for quick votes and other procedural hurdles.
When asked exactly which nominees Democrats would allow to have quick Friday votes, Schumer said that is subject of intense negotiations between him and McConnell and reiterated his complaints that Republicans are jamming the nominees through before many of them have completed their Office of Government Ethics paperwork.
“While Sen. McConnell moved a little bit in our direction last week, this week we’re making no progress at all,” he said.
Schumer brushed aside Republicans counter-arguments that the Senate confirmed seven nominees on President Obama’s Inauguration Day.
“President Obama’s nominees all had paperwork in in a timely way, and the Republicans were given ample time to question the witnesses so it’s not analogous at all,” he said.
Schumer and Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel, complained that Democrats were limited to five minutes of questions for Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Education secretary, and seven minutes for Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., Trump’s choice to serve as Health and Human Services secretary.
He also said DeVos’ hearing was held at five o’clock in the afternoon in a “blatant attempt to prevent more Americans from watching the hearing and the news coverage of it.”
Schumer complained that the GOP denied Democratic requests for outside witnesses for hearings for DeVos, Price and Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary. Meanwhile, he said, Wilbur Ross’s paperwork required for his nomination for Commerce secretary was submitted just a day before his hearing.
“And he is a billionaire,” Schumer said.
“This is a swamp Cabinet full of bankers and billionaires, many of them have hard-right views some of which directly contract the promises that the president-elect campaigned on,” he said.
