Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said Democrats need to “get over” their election losses and stop trying to block President Trump’s Cabinet appointments.
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McConnell, R-Ky., expressed frustration with the pace of confirmations, which has been slowed by Democrats using procedural tactics.
“I think they look foolish,” McConnell said. “The only chaos we have in the Senate is being created intentionally by the Democratic minority.”
Democrats used an arcane Senate rule on Tuesday to delay a panel vote on Trump’s attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. The committee vote will now take place on Wednesday.
Democrats also used the rules process to delay a confirmation vote on CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and Small Business Administration nominee Linda McMahon.
And Democrats have forced the GOP majority to run out the Senate clock on Rex Tillerson, Trump’s secretary of state nominee. Tillerson is expected to clear the Senate on Wednesday.
Trump expressed anger on Twitter at the slow pace of the confirmation process.
“When will the Democrats give us our Attorney General and rest of Cabinet!” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “They should be ashamed of themselves! No wonder D.C. doesn’t work!”
Republicans point out Democrats in 2009 won GOP cooperation to quickly confirm most of President Obama’s Cabinet at the beginning of his tenure.
“It’s really important Democrats get over it and start to play ball,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the number three GOP leader.
Democrats have raised numerous objections to Trump’s nominees, including accusations some have provided false statements to the committee.
Democrats failed to show up to a Senate Finance Committee vote on the nomination of Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin. They accused him of giving false testimony about the aggressive foreclosures carried out by the bank he once ran.
“If it wasn’t that it’d be something else,” McConnell said. “I mean you all are alert. You’re alert. You know what’s going on. They are manufacturing issues on a daily basis to drag this process out, and to treat this president’s initial Cabinet appointments differently from the way we have treated presidents of the Democratic Party in similar circumstances.”
