Pat Toomey: Democrats Won't Stop Trump Nominees
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - In an interview with Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey blamed Democrats in explaining why Republicans changed Senate rules to advance two of Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, after the Democrats boycotted the committee voting.
"Here's the bottom line, our Democratic colleagues on the Finance Committee, and I sit on the Finance Committee, they knew that if they could block us from having a vote within the committee, then, by Senate rules, that prevents us from having a confirmation vote on the Senate floor. Their strategy to defeat the Treasury Secretary nominee and the nominee to run Health and Human Services, their strategy was to prevent them from coming out of committee and that way, they could prevent them from ever getting a vote on the floor. Of course, it is the Democrats who changed the rules unilaterally back in 2013 so that they could pack a court with liberal judges. They are the ones who changed it to a simple majority vote."
Toomey insisted that Republicans will not let Democratic opposition stop them from enacting their agenda.
"The point is we're not going to let them stop us from doing the business we were elected to do. The people of the United States elected a President. The President deserves to be able to assemble his cabinet. We have gone through the scrutiny. These have been absolutely grilled for hours and hours. They've answered more written and oral questions than any other nominee for these posts, ever. They are eminently qualified and what our Democratic friends are doing, sadly, is they're listening to a radical fringe within their base that believes they have to oppose absolutely everything that Donald Trump wants, no matter the merits. No matter the quality of the person."
