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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., showed frustration with Democrats on Tuesday after a confirmation vote was blocked for President Trump’s choice of CIA director John Ratcliffe, who has bipartisan support.
Speaking on the Senate floor after the vote was blocked by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Thune said the Senate may remain in session through the weekend to confirm Trump’s picks if progress continues to lag.
“Do we want to vote these people out on Tuesday or do we want to vote them out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Because that’s what we’re going to do. That might be easy or that might be hard,” Thune said. “This is what America is all about national security interests, and we’re stuck, so that’s not going to happen.”
NEW GOP SENATOR SLAMS DEMS’ PETE HEGSETH DOD CONFIRMATION ‘INTEND TO DELAY’
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RSD, expressed frustration with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., after he blocked a confirmation vote on John Ratcliffe as CIA director on Tuesday. (Reuters)
Ratcliffe was cleared by the Senate Intelligence Committee by 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 bipartisan way, agree that he’s very qualified for the job,” Thune said, adding that he’s not sure what the gridlock accomplishes.
As he blocked the vote, Murphy said many Democrats have “serious concerns” about Ratcliffe’s ability to work. as director of the CIA because he “repeatedly politicized intelligence” during his eight months as Director of National Intelligence in 2020.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make sure we have a full, real two-day debate in the Senate,” Murphy said Tuesday.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said there needed to be two more days of debate before John Ratcliffe could be confirmed as CIA director because of “serious concerns” from Democrats. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said the delay “doesn’t have a good reason” and is simply an attempt “to drag out all these nominations to play procedural games.”
Cotton noted that while Democrats performed similarly in 2017 with the first Trump administration and Republicans in 2021 with the election of Biden, this did not happen during confirmation votes prior to the last two elections.
“We should especially return to this practice when it comes to a highly accomplished and well-qualified candidate of integrity, such as John Ratcliffe,” Cotton said. “Now we’re going to spin the wheels for two days. But like I said, don’t make plans for the weekend. Don’t have dinner dates scheduled starting Thursday night because we’re going to get these nominees. done the easy way and collegial or, apparently, the 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 of Trump’s Cabinet nominees has been confirmed, and that was former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. He was confirmed monday by unanimity
Several nominees have advanced outside of committee votes, while others are still awaiting confirmation hearings.
