During a press gaggle on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) spoke about Democrats' decision to block some of President Trump's nominees.
00:00Of our time and energy here in the Senate on nominations these days, and we've seen an unprecedented level of obstruction and delay and blocking from Democrats.
00:12And as a consequence of that, we've had to kind of grind through, and that's what we're going to keep doing.
00:17If you look at just the historical precedent with regard to noms, we have never seen in history anything like what the Democrats are now doing.
00:27As of this date, back in 2021, Joe Biden had gotten 46 nominees confirmed, either by voice vote or unanimous consent.
00:36Donald Trump has zero. Zero. Not a single one confirmed by voice or unanimous consent.
00:42And further, the Democrats are making it hard, even on bipartisan nominees, that sometimes we'll get 60 votes plus on the floor, one even up to 83 votes on the floor.
00:52So even the bipartisan noms are being blocked and delayed, so much so that the Democrats have been forcing me, when I file cloture just to get a nominee considered on the floor, to go in and out of executive and legislative sessions.
01:08So these are just dilatory tactics designed to block and obstruct the president and his agenda.
01:15And the sad reality is that there are a lot of these people who fill important positions in our government who need to be able to be confirmed to get there so they can do their jobs.
01:25And that's the way the American people, that's what they voted for.
01:27They voted for this president, and he has not had an opportunity to get the people that he wants to have man his administration get there to do their jobs.
01:35So this has got to stop, and clearly the Democrats are starting something and creating a precedent that is going to come back to haunt them.
01:43This is really bad. This is a bad practice on their part because, as you all know, what goes around comes around around here.
01:51And I think, regrettably, for the Democrats, they're going to rue the day if they keep this practice up.
01:56So I am hoping that they will work with us, come to their senses in the next few days here, to try and put together a package of nominees.
02:04There are a whole bunch of bipartisan nominees that are out there that are available for consideration right now.
02:09But this simply is, again, I've said it before, but it is.
02:12It's Trump derangement syndrome on steroids with the Senate Democrats.
02:17There are Senate Democrats who actually do want to work on getting some noms through the process, but their leadership is blocking that.
02:25And, unfortunately, here in the Senate, at least, on the Democrat side of the aisle, it is the tail wagging the dog.
02:31It is the far left of their caucus that is preventing even good government people, people who are bipartisan, from getting confirmed.
02:40So that's got to change, and if it doesn't, we're going to be here a while.
