Trump Blasts Schumer Over Billion-Dollar Demands: “GO TO HELL!”
President Donald Trump took aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) after Senate Democrats attempted to hold the White House hostage by refusing to confirm judicial nominees.
Senate Republicans have now said a plan is in place to bypass Schumer’s blockade once lawmakers return from the August recess.
The Senate is working to delay the August recess temporarily in an effort to confirm as many judicial nominees as possible.
Republicans had attempted to negotiate a deal to allow rapid-fire votes on dozens of nominees, though the plan was derailed after President Trump refused to submit to Democrat demands for freeing up funds that are currently being withheld.
As a result, just seven nominees were confirmed Saturday before the upper chamber left D.C. until September.
“Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer is demanding over One Billion Dollars in order to approve a small number of our highly qualified nominees, who should right now be helping to run our Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday evening.
“This demand is egregious and unprecedented, and would be embarrassing to the Republican Party if it were accepted. It is political extortion, by any other name. Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!”
Trump went on to instruct Republican senators to go home and refuse to give in to Schumer’s demands.
“Have a great RECESS and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
As of Saturday, Senate Democrats had managed to blockade about 150 judicial nominees by employing obscure Senate procedures.
Trump had chastised Republican lawmakers — notably Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) — for failing to counter the move after Democrats ignored the same procedures to advance Biden nominees.
The blockade has led to a historically slow pace for judicial confirmations.
The upper chamber had confirmed just one Article III judge at the time of Trump’s post.
For context, former President Barack Obama had 26 confirmations at the same point of his first term.
On Saturday, Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) announced that Senate Republicans have a plan to end the blockade and rapidly confirm Trump’s nominees when they return in September.
“We’re wrapping up a long push here. It’s late Saturday night. And the whole fight’s been trying to break this filibuster that Chuck Schumer has insisted. And what it’s all about is President Trump’s nominees, getting them in place,” he said.
Mullin accused Democrats of weaponizing Senate norms because of their “hatred” of President Trump.
“So President Trump started trying to negotiate with Chuck Schumer, trying to say, hey, this is what we’re going to do. ‘We’ll make a deal with you guys. Just let my noms, especially the non-controversial ones.’ I mean, these nominees that no one even knows what they do, but I mean, we know what they do, but the American public doesn’t know what to do,” he said.
“But these non-controversial noms, let them be pushed through. Let them go on and what do you need? What’s the price for it?” Mullin said of the negotiations.
“They wanted over a billion dollars, a billion dollars for special pet programs. That’s unheard of. And President Trump told them to go pound sand. He said, we’re not doing it. Go pound sand.”
Republicans will now be forced to do things “the hard way,” Mullin said.
“Then the only option we have is a change of Senate rules to break the log jam to move on through. So unfortunately, this is where we’re at.”
READ: Chuck Schumer Melts Down Over Trump Budget Bill: “We’re All Going to Die!”