Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday he has been surprised by the tactics Senate Democrats have employed to stall the confirmation of several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and his choice for the Supreme Court.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, it’s really been surprising to me since the advent of this administration to see the obstruction by Sen. [Chuck] Schumer and Senate Democrats of one Cabinet nominee after another,” Pence told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
In the wake of a federal judge’s move to halt implementation of the Trump administration’s ban on immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, Schumer has warned that Democratic resistance to the president’s conservative Supreme Court nominee could grow even stronger.
“The President’s attack on Judge James Robart, a Bush appointee who passed with 99 votes, shows a disdain for an independent judiciary that doesn’t always bend to his wishes and a continued lack of respect for the Constitution, making it more important that the Supreme Court serve as an independent check on the administration,” Schumer said in a statement on Saturday.
“Sen. Schumer is going to reach to anything to try and continue to obstruct the nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court,” Pence fired back on Sunday.
Pence also expressed frustration about the confirmation battle that has been waged in the Senate over Trump’s education secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos. Two Republican senators announced last week that they plan to vote “no” on the Senate floor, meaning Pence is likely to have to vote as the tiebreaker to confirm DeVos in a historic vote.
“I’m going to be called on for the first time in American history as vice president to cast the deciding tie-breaking vote for a Cabinet nominee,” he said. “That’s never happened in the history of this country, but I think it shows the level of destruction by Democrats, and the American people are tired of it. They want to see the Supreme Court have its justice. They want to see this president have his Cabinet.”
