Senior Republican lawmaker Chuck Grassley berated Democrat’s hypocrisy in comments on the Senate floor. Senator Grassley referenced how Democrats use “two sets of rules” for Cabinet nominees based on party. The Senate Judiciary Chairman also said it’s “pretty darn rich” seeing Democrats urge Republicans to defer to President-elect Joe Biden and quickly confirm his nominees.
Grassley called out the irony of Democrat’s push to Republicans after watching for four years as Democrats put up unprecedented resistance to Trump’s judicial nominees as well as some of his Cabinet choices.
Fox News reports:
“We’re getting perhaps close to a new presidency and so there’s a lot of talk about how the Senate might handle new Cabinet people. Democrats are always lecturing Republicans about approving future Biden Cabinet nominees even if we don’t agree with them,” Grassley said. “Now that’s pretty darn rich.”
Grassley continued: “In other words, they are saying something like this: ‘Don’t follow our example from the past four years.’ Or another way to put that is, ‘Don’t treat Biden nominees to the Cabinet like we treated Trump nominees to the Cabinet.’ So they seem to want two sets of rules for Republican and Democratic Cabinet nominees just like they want with judicial nominees.”
Grassley then went on to say that several of former President Obama’s Cabinet nominees were approved quickly while Trump’s were stalled by Congress. He said some Democrats’ presidential ambitions caused them to vote “against virtually every single Trump nominee no matter how well qualified.”
Senator Grassley has said what while he prefers to give the president wide deference regarding Cabinet choices he’s wary how Democrats will act the next time a Republican is elected to the White House.
“But can Senate Republicans be sure that if we employ that standard, Democrats will play fair with the next Republican president?” Grassley said. “I don’t want retaliation for its own sake, but the threat of holding Democrat senators to their own standards has been our only means of deterrence of obstruction. I want to hear from Democrats why we should not now adopt their standards and vote down nominees based on their politics.”
Senator Grassley is set to resume his post as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee if Republicans maintain control of the Senate. However, if Democrats take control Senator Dick Durbin is set to step into the role as top as Senator Dianne Feinstein steps down.
Control for the Senate will be decided in a Jan. 5 run-off election in Georgia as Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler defend their seats from Democrat challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
