Democrats Only Have Themselves to Blame for the State of the Senate’s Nominations Process

In the Past, Democrats Lamented Partisan Gridlock Pertaining to the Senate’s Role in Confirming Presidential Nominees. But Under President Trump in 2017 and 2025, They Have Pioneered the Practice of Obstruction for Obstruction’s Sake.

WHEN A DEMOCRAT IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, SENATE DEMOCRATS EMPHASIZE THE NEED TO GET THE PRESIDENT’S TEAM IN PLACE WITHOUT DELAY

Senate Democrats have a long history of emphasizing the need to confirm a president’s nominees… when a Democrat is in the White House:
- “For decades, Democrats and Republicans have regularly cooperated to swiftly confirm the many, many individuals selected by each President to serve in their Administration. Regardless of the party in the White House, both sides have long agreed that a President deserves to have his or her Administration in place, quickly.” – Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
- “When the Founders of our Republic came together to write the Constitution, they knew that the President would need help in administering this great and expansive nation. Without help, without a government that was staffed, justice would not be established, our common defense would be threatened, and the blessings of liberty we hoped to secure through our laws would go unfulfilled.” – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
- “I think we owe deference to a president for choices to executive positions, and I think that that is a very important thing to grapple with. The American public choose someone to be president, they're giving that individual a mandate to govern, and that mandate includes the assembly of the team that the president feels is the appropriate team… I approach any executive nomination with that in mind.” – Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
- “When my colleagues have said on the floor that the President deserves his nominee, really it is the Nation that deserves a nominee to be confirmed.” – Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Many Senate Democrats have also expressed concern about partisanship destroying the nominations process and the Senate’s traditional role of advice and consent:
- “That doesn’t mean we don’t disagree. But it does mean when nominees are held up, opposed, or blocked—it’s for a legitimate purpose, not for leverage in partisan games, to score political points at the expense of public safety. Most of us still believe in that principle.” – Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
- “[T]his expanding tension in which our warfare is conducted… by the minority against the president of an opposite party is just not serving our democracy well…” – Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
- “I am worried about the willingness of other Americans to put their hand up and say ‘Let me serve’ for fear that they will get caught in the crazy politics of the Senate.” – Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
- “The time the Senate is spending to confirm nominees not only impacts our work and legislation, but also delays a president — no matter his or her party — from filling important positions.” – Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

DEMOCRATS, LED BY SENS. AMY KLOBUCHAR AND ANGUS KING, INTRODUCED A PLAN TO SPEED UP THE SENATE’S CONFIRMATION PROCESS

In 2023, Democrats introduced a rules change proposal “to expedite the process for confirming certain presidential nominees and reduce the backlog waiting for approval.” (Roll Call: Resolution would allow bulk Senate confirmation without UC – 5/23/23)

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Angus King (I-Maine) led the proposal, which “would allow the majority leader to call up to 10 nominees advanced out of the same committee to be considered at the same time for a vote, excluding certain positions like circuit court judges, Supreme Court justices and Cabinet secretaries.” (Roll Call: Resolution would allow bulk Senate confirmation without UC – 5/23/23)

Sens. Klobuchar and King have both spoken about the need for a president to be able to fill roles in an administration:
- “The facts speak for themselves. In recent decades, it has taken longer to confirm nominees for each successive president… Pretty soon we are going to become a full time employment agency. Although we don't really even discuss the applicants, we just go in and vote and go in and vote. The time the Senate is spending to confirm nominees not only impacts our work and legislation, but also delays a president — no matter his or her party — from filling important positions.” – Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
- “I think our role is not to substitute our judgment for the president, not to say this is who we would have necessarily hired. But the deference goes to the president to build his team.” – Sen. Angus King (I-Maine)

BUT DEMOCRATS’ CONCERN FOR A SWIFT CONFIRMATION PROCESS ENDS WHEN A REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION COMES IN: WHEN PRESIDENT TRUMP TOOK OFFICE IN 2017, DEMOCRATS BOWED TO THEIR PROGRESSIVE BASE

“The progressive Donald Trump doomsday clock is still at a minute to midnight even as the President-elect has named a string of mainstream cabinet nominees, and Senate Democrats are signaling that they plan to fight nearly all of them. They’re even calling themselves ‘the resistance,’ which does accurately capture the combination of melodrama and failure to accept the election defeat.” (The Wall Street Journal: Editorial: ‘The Resistance’ vs. Trump’s Cabinet – 12/26/16)

- “Senate Democrats were initially caught off guard by how little cooperation their base was willing to tolerate… [T]heir base is increasingly making it clear that anything short of total, unrelenting opposition is tantamount to surrender.” (NBC News: Progressives are Demanding Obstruction and Senators are Listening 2/1/17)

“Democrats have taken the extraordinary steps… of boycotting committee votes on cabinet nominees and pledging opposition to Trump’s [Supreme Court nominee Neil] Gorsuch, whose qualifications they do not question.” (NBC News: Progressives are Demanding Obstruction and Senators are Listening – 2/1/17)

Democrats at the time were more than happy to admit they were acceding to their far-left flank and obstructing President Trump’s Cabinet nominees:
- “I’m prepared to shatter precedent in order to make it clear that we are not going to stand for what Trump is doing. The protests and the actions from Democratic senators are mirrors of each other… We are rising to what is a truly exceptional moment.” – Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
- “They’ve been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified? It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs.” – Then-Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
- “The bottom line is the people who go out to protest need to understand that their voices are being heard and they are not acting in vain.” – Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)

IN 2025, DEMOCRATS EXPANDED ON THEIR 2017 OBSTRUCTION TO INCLUDE ALL OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CIVILIAN NOMINEES, DESTROYING THE NOMINATIONS PROCESS

“We’re almost eight months into Mr. Trump’s second term, and the GOP Senate hasn’t approved a single nominee by voice or unanimous consent, the quickest path to confirmation. About 300 of Mr. Trump’s civilian nominees are in the Senate queue. Democrats are holding up even minor nominees who won bipartisan support in committee.” (The Wall Street Journal: A Senate Confirmation Fast Lane? – 9/7/25)

“[I]n less frenzied times, uncontroversial picks for relatively minor jobs—all those deputy assistant secretaries—get approved by voice vote or unanimous consent. In President Obama’s first term, 90% of nominees were confirmed that way. It was 65% in Mr. Trump’s first term and 57% under President Biden.” (The Wall Street Journal: A Senate Confirmation Fast Lane? – 9/7/25)

“[T]he increasing confirmation logjam has consequences for governance. Mr. Trump is fast approaching a year in office with many executive posts still vacant or filled by ‘acting’ officials with supposedly temporary power. This hamstrings the Administration’s ability to advance its agenda.” (The Wall Street Journal: A Senate Confirmation Fast Lane? – 9/7/25)

Senate Democrats expanded the playbook they used in 2017 beyond Cabinet nominees to encompass every single one of President Trump’s civilian nominees:
- Just two days after President Trump took office, Democrats had already “shown that they are willing to use procedural tactics to slow other nominees even if they are destined for confirmation, including forcing time-consuming floor votes on action that is usually done by mutual agreement.” (The New York Times: Democrats Slow G.O.P. Rush to Confirm Trump Nominees – 1/22/25)

- “Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, urged Democratic senators on Tuesday to join him in voting against all of President Trump’s nominees…” (The New York Times: Schumer Urged Democrats to Oppose Trump Nominees in Protest of His Policies – 2/5/25)

- Just like in 2017, “progressive activists have urged Democrats to get tougher,” including House Democrats who “have little patience for any pretense of normality in the Senate, preferring that senators do more to obstruct Trump’s nominees...” (The New York Times: Schumer Urged Democrats to Oppose Trump Nominees in Protest of His Policies – 2/5/25; Politico: ‘Blow this place up’: Frustrated Democrats want the Senate to fight harder – 2/5/25)

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