Senate Democrats work to delay speedy confirmation of Trump nominees

Washington — Senate Republicans are trudging through the process to confirm President Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and top administration posts, facing delays by Democrats who are pushing back on their speedy approval. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on John Ratcliffe’s nomination for CIA director, Kristi Noem’s nomination for Homeland Security Secretary and Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary on Tuesday. But Democrats forced procedural maneuvers to stall the nominations’ consideration, prompting a tense scene on the Senate floor late Tuesday.

“Now we’re not going to have a vote today, and apparently we’re not going to have a vote tomorrow,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said after Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy objected to a time agreement that would have allowed the Senate to vote on Ratcliffe’s nomination Tuesday night. “Which means I hope nobody’s making any plans for the weekend.”

Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said there are “serious concerns” about Ratcliffe’s ability to distance himself from Mr. Trump’s political interests during his first term, urging that it’s not too much to ask for senators to have time to debate the nomination on the floor.

“If he’s got the votes, he can be on the job this weekend,” Murphy added.

Cotton, the new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he didn’t understand the objection to Ratcliffe’s nomination, noting that he was previously confirmed by the Senate as the director of national intelligence and was voted out of committee on a 14-3 vote earlier this week. He added that the Senate would get Ratcliffe, Hegseth and Noem confirmed “the easy way or the hard way,” saying the GOP tried to cooperate with the Democrats, but the cooperation “has not been forthcoming.”

“What this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations to play procedural games,” Cotton said, adding that Democrats are doing so to try to “deny President Trump his Cabinet in a prompt and timely fashion.”

If Democrats don’t agree to speed up the process, the confirmations could run through the weekend. 

The standoff comes after the Senate unanimously confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state on Monday, hours after Mr. Trump was sworn in. On Tuesday, the president met with Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson as the Republicans face pressure to get Mr. Trump’s team in place and begin working on passing his agenda.

Thune backed Cotton up Tuesday night, reiterating that “this can be easy or this can be hard.”

“This is about America’s national security interest, and we’re stalling,” Thune said. “So that’s not going to happen.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has pledged that Democrats won’t “reflexively oppose” Mr. Trump’s nominees, citing Rubio’s speedy confirmation. But the New York Democrat warned Tuesday that “too many of the president’s nominees do not match Sen. Rubio’s caliber.” 

“Too many have troubling backgrounds, too many seem unprepared for the job and proved so during testimony,” Schumer added, saying “it’s wrong to try and rush them through.”