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Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., disrupted Senate Republicans’ plans to quickly confirm the president Donald Trump’s national security candidates on Tuesday night when he objected to avoiding lengthy procedural votes that are routinely skipped.
“Unfortunately, we were on the verge of almost having a consent agreement to have a vote on the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA director tomorrow. Not today, not yesterday, when it should have happened, but tomorrow,” a the Senate Republican Conference. president Tom CottonR-Ark., said on the House floor. “But the senator from Connecticut has decided to oppose it at the last minute.”
“I don’t really understand the objection Mr. Ratcliffe. He was confirmed by the Senate as director of national intelligence. It was thoroughly vetted through the bipartisan process in the Senate Intelligence Committee. We voted for it yesterday by a vote of 14 to 3,” continued Cotton, also chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
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Thune told senators they could confirm the nominations the easy way or the hard way. (Reuters)
During his objection, Murphy said there were “serious concerns” from some Democrats about Trump’s CIA pick, John Ratcliffe. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask to make sure we have a full, real two-day debate in the Senate,” he said.
The Connecticut Democrat notably predicted Trump’s second presidency over the summer. “Today there is a lot of anxiety in the country and in the party, and that is because there is a lot at stake,” he said.
“This is because Donald Trump presents an existential threat to democracy. He has announced that he will transition this country from a democracy to a dictatorship,” he said in a July appearance on CNN.
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Cotton chairs the intelligence committee. (Getty Images)
Murphy’s objection Tuesday night to speeding up routine procedural votes is the first instance of Democrats using the strategy Republicans employed while in the Senate minority to gain negotiating leverage.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., expressed his frustration with the objection on the floor, saying, “Okay, so we’re out of committee 14 to 3. And now we have lost a whole day where we could have been acting with this nomination.”
“And really, I think the question before the House is, 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,” he said, threateningly. weekend votes in the upper house.
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Ratcliffe is Trump’s choice to head the CIA. (Getty Images)
“This can be easy or this can be difficult.”
Murphy foreshadowed that kind of challenge while speaking to reporters last week.
“I think the Republicans have changed the rules here over the last couple of years,” he said. “They used extraordinary powers to block nominees and drag out all processes.”
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Murphy foreshadowed the move last week. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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“Now the rules are different, they changed the way the Senate works,” he reiterated.
Thune took the necessary actions to secure eventual votes on Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to head the Defense Department Pete Hegseth and his pick for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Because there is no agreement with Democrats to limit debate and avoid certain procedural votes, the nominations will not mature for confirmation votes for more than a day.
