Schumer: Trump should blame himself for vacancies

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is firing back at President Trump’s charge that Democrats are “obstructionist,” saying the president is to blame for hundreds of vacancies in his government. 

 

“If the President is looking for someone to blame on the slow pace of confirmations, he needs only to look in the mirror. There are more than 500 Senate confirmable positions. Even though it is now June, the administration has failed to select a nominee for 442 of them,” Schumer said in a statement on Monday. 

 

He added that Trump “ought to roll up his sleeves and get to work rather than pointing false fingers of blame.” 

 

Earlier Monday, Trump blamed Democrats for slow-walking his political nominees and urged the Senate to approve more of his picks. 

Democrats can’t block a nominee without GOP support, but they have slow-walked many of Trump’s nominees and forced even sub-Cabinet picks to overcome procedural hurdles. 

 

{mosads}Schumer argued on Monday that senators have a “responsibility to give a thorough vetting for such important positions, with many of the nominees having conflicts of interest and incomplete ethics agreements when they were named.” 

 

Of the 559 “key positions” tracked by The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, the Senate has confirmed 39 individuals and the president has nominated an additional 63. 

 

The Senate has already confirmed five of Trump’s ambassador nominations. An additional six have been formally nominated, but only one— Scott Brown to be ambassador to New Zealand — is currently ready for a Senate vote. 

 

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, also blasted Trump’s tweets as “fake news,” adding that “your lack of nominations is the problem.”

Seven Democratic senators sent Trump a letter last month urging him to quicken his pace on State Department nominations, arguing the vacancies “threaten to undermine our leadership on many of the national security crises we face today.”

Sean Bartlett, a spokesman for Cardin and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, added that “the President should get off Twitter and lead his team in sending more ambassadors and other crucial nominees to the Senate. We’re ready to do our job, but he needs to do his first. That’s how the process works.”

GOP senators have also voiced frustration at Trump’s pace, which have left key sub-Cabinet positions without a Senate confirmed nominee for months.