Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., showed his frustration with Democrats on Tuesday after a vote on President Trump’s choice for CIA director John Ratcliffe, who has bipartisan support, was blocked.
Speaking on the Senate floor after the vote was blocked by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Thune said the Senate could remain in session through the weekend to confirm Trump’s picks if progress continues to be delayed.
“Do we want to vote on these people on Tuesday or vote on them on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do. This could be easy or this could be hard,” Thune said. “This is about America national security interests, and we’re stalling, so it’s not going to happen.”
NEW GOP SENATOR LAWS OFF AT DEMS ‘SEEK TO DELAY’ PETE HEGSETH’S DOD CONFIRMATION
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was frustrated with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., after he blocked a vote Tuesday to confirm John Ratcliffe as CIA director. (Reuters)
Ratcliffe was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan vote of 14 to 3. Because of that, Thune said the vote to confirm him “shouldn’t be difficult.”
“Democrats and Republicans, in a very large bipartisan way, agree that he’s very qualified for this job,” Thune said, adding that he’s not sure what the delay is accomplishing.
When he blocked the vote, Murphy said many Democrats had “serious concerns” about Ratcliffe’s fitness to serve as director of the CIA for “repeatedly politicizing intelligence” during his eight months as Director of National Intelligence in 2020.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that we have a full, real debate that will last two days in the Senate,” Murphy said Tuesday.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said two more days of hearings are needed before John Ratcliffe can be confirmed as CIA director because of “serious concerns” from Democrats. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
CONFIRMATION DELAYS PILE UP FOR TRUMP’S NOMINATION DUE TO PAPERWORK DELAYS AT FEDERAL OFFICES
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who leads Senate Intelligence Committee, he said the delay was “for no good reason” and was simply an attempt “to drag out all these nominations to play procedural games.”
Cotton noted that while Democrats acted similarly in 2017 with the first Trump administration and Republicans in 2021 with Biden’s picks, that didn’t happen during confirmation votes before the last two elections.
“We should particularly return to that practice when it comes to a highly successful, well-qualified candidate of integrity, such as John Ratcliffe,” Cotton said. “Now we’re going to spin for two days. But, like I said, don’t make weekend plans. Don’t schedule dinner dates starting Thursday night because we’re going to get these nominees done the easy, collegial way or the seemingly hard way.”
John Ratcliffe served as Director of National Intelligence for eight months during President Trump’s first administration. (Getty Images)
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So far, only one nominee for Trump’s administration has been confirmed, and that is former Florida senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state. He was confirmed on Monday by unanimous vote.
Several nominees have advanced through committee votes, while others are still awaiting confirmation hearings.
