Ask any Democrat on Capitol Hill about the latest ouster from the Trump administration, and you’ll get an earful about an unstable, potentially dangerous president who lacks direction and purpose for dealing with even the most critical issues facing the nation.
“Harmful to the country, harmful to his administration,” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told the Washington Examiner when asked about the long string of departures.
But Republicans are shrugging off the changes.
“It is what it is,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said as he slid into an elevator following the Capitol’s annual Irish Luncheon with President Trump on Thursday. “The president needs to pick and empower people who share his vision and implement his policies. That’s a sign of a leader.”
Trump last week shocked the nation and congressional lawmakers when he sacked Rex Tillerson, the increasingly embattled secretary of state who often clashed with Trump on foreign policy.
Despite the differences between the two, few on Capitol Hill predicted Tillerson’s ouster, in part because the president is just weeks away from a historic meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Democrats said the timing and manner of the firing, which Tillerson claimed to have learned about on Twitter, point to an erratic leader.
“The problem with the shuffling is, what’s the national strategy?” Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, told the Washington Examiner. “To me, we don’t have one, and that is the underlying problem. You are just moving people around; no agenda has been set. It’s a one-off every single day.”
Tillerson follows a long line of top and mid-level Cabinet officials who have been shown the door or quit during Trump’s 15-month White House tenure.
Trump has hinted he may make more changes. He’s reportedly unhappy with Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who was recently ridiculed for approving a $31,000 dining room set for his government office. Carson said he didn’t know about the purchase, which has been canceled, although reports say he did approve it.
Tillerson’s exit follows the recent departure of economic adviser Gary Cohn, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, who all resigned.
Many others have left the White House after either quitting or being forced to resign, including several people in the communications office, Trump’s deputy assistant, Sebastian Gorka, and White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Just last week, Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, was ushered out of the White House by security staff because he failed to clear a background check.
Senate lawmakers did not discuss Tillerson’s ouster in their weekly lunch meeting with Vice President Mike Pence.
“It’s unusual,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said after meeting with Pence. “But this is the president’s leadership style.”
Most of the departed did not require Senate confirmation and can be replaced by the president without congressional approval.
Tillerson’s exit, however, will add two major nominees to the Senate’s already-packed confirmation calendar. Trump has nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo to take Tillerson’s place and CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo. Both require approval by a Senate majority vote.
It will require weeks of legislative floor time to confirm the two and in particular Haspel, who has drawn opposition from both parties.
“We’ve got so many backlogged nominations as it is,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner, pointing to the long list of executive and judicial nominees that have yet to clear Congress. ”It just makes life a little more complicated.”
Major nominations such as Pompeo’s and Haspel’s, Cornyn said, “tend to be more controversial and eat up more floor time.”
Trump’s administrative turnover has been a subject of interest in the Senate.
“We all kind of wonder what the internal dynamic is,” Cornyn said, adding that nobody is panicking over it, particularly because Pompeo is widely supported as Tillerson’s successor.
“It’s his prerogative,” Cornyn said. “He’s entitled to that.”
Republican lawmakers praised Pompeo, a former House lawmaker.
In a CNBC interview, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Pompeo is more aligned with Trump while Tillerson got bogged down with trying to reform the State Department, which took his focus off of foreign policy.
Corker wasn’t shocked at Tillerson’s departure, he said.
“It was sort of surprising the way it happened, but I wasn’t surprised that it happened,” Corker said.
