Schumer urges Thune to preserve Senate’s 'advice and consent' role on Trump nominees

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is urging incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to preserve the Senate’s “vital role” in ensuring the fitness of President-elect Trump’s nominees to hold senior executive and judicial branch positions.

Thune is under pressure from Trump to put the Senate into an extended recess to allow the president-elect to make recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process if necessary.

But Schumer in a letter released Monday said Democrats “stand ready and willing to work” with Republicans to provide “advice and consent” on the nominees.

“In particular, we commit to working in a bipartisan fashion to process each nominee by reviewing standard FBI background-investigation materials, scheduling hearings and markups in the committees of jurisdiction, and considering nominees on the Senate floor,” Schumer wrote.

He argued the Senate must continue to play its role of ensuring the president selects “well-qualified public officials that will dutifully serve the American people and honor their oaths to the Constitution.”

“Regardless of party, the Senate has upheld this sacred duty for generations and we should not and must not waiver in our constitutional duty,” he said.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whom Trump nominated to serve as attorney general, dropped his bid to head the Department of Justice (DOJ) last month after encountering stiff bipartisan resistance in the Senate. Senators had concerns over a DOJ sex trafficking investigation Gaetz was embroiled in, as well as a House Ethics Committee investigation of sexual misconduct and drug-related allegations.

The DOJ ultimately declined to bring charges against the congressman while two Democrats who moved to force votes requiring the Ethics panel to release its report have signaled they will continue that push.

Gaetz has vigorously denied the allegations.

Some of Trump’s other controversial nominees, including former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), whom Trump has nominated to serve as director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has tapped to head the Department of Health and Human Services, face potentially tough roads to confirmation in the Senate.