Trump Retweets ‘Fox & Friends’ Then Wrongly Blames Democrats for Not Confirming His Nominees

‘Trump Is Far, Far Behind on Nominations for Key Posts’

The Trump White House has infamously dragged its feet in filling key posts in its own administration. Yet once again President Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for “obstruction” despite Republicans having majority control of the Senate and not needing a single Democratic vote to confirm his nominees. The Trump White House has not bothered to offer nominees for hundreds of key positions, and in many cases not followed standard protocols in meeting with Senators, and not bothered to send to the Senate the basic required paperwork to begin the confirmation process.

Tuesday morning, in a ludicrous attempt to attack Democrats rather than take responsibility for his own poor management, President Trump retweeted a “Fox & Friends” clip on his nominees, then tweeted, “The Senate Democrats have only confirmed 48 of 197 Presidential Nominees. They can’t win so all they do is slow things down & obstruct!” 

That’s misleading at best, a lie at worst.

Trump technically doesn’t need a single Democrat to vote on his nominees. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could cancel the August recess and push through every nominee Trump has sent — and his administration would still not be even half full.

Why?

The Washington Post daily keeps track of the nominees the administration has sent to the Senate. President Trump should be embarrassed. While there are 1212 positions requiring Senate confirmation, the Post is tracking 564 key positions.

As of Monday, the Post reports, the Senate has confirmed 46 key nominees. It is sitting on 130 nominees who are at various stages in the confirmation process but have yet to have a confirmation vote. And there are a whopping 384 key positions the Trump administration hasn’t even bothered to fill. That’s 68 percent with no nominee.

Then there are four who the administration has announced but hasn’t bothered to send an official notice to the Senate. Without that formality the Senate cannot begin the process of having them confirmed. While today there are just four, one month ago the number was 15.

And one month ago, on June 6, Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin, a conservative, wrote, “Trump is far, far behind on nominations for key posts.”

Next to not bothering to nominate anyone for nearly seven out of every ten key positions requiring confirmation, not bothering to formally notify the Senate is the Trump administration’s greatest screw up.

Take, for example, the position of Ambassador to our nation’s strongest and most important ally, the UK. 

“Robert Wood Johnson — better known as New York Jets owner Woody Johnson — has been waiting nearly 140 days since Trump announced that he was being tapped to serve as ambassador” to the UK, the Washington Post reported on June 5.

Johnson has finally been formally nominated and the Senate has been sent his paperwork. It took another three weeks after the Post’s report for that to happen.

So how can Trump blame Democrats?

He can’t, but he’s trying. 

Trump, if he wanted to, could point to the “blue slip” process in the Senate, which does allow any Senator to hold up any nomination, but even the right wing Washington Times quotes Democratic Senators who make clear the Trump administration is not doing its job in shepherding its nominees through the Senate and is not properly communicating with Democrats as part of the advise and consent process.

So if President Trump would like his nominees confirmed, he should ask his own administration why they’re not doing their job, and ask Senator McConnell why he’s not doing his.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr