'Stunning dereliction of duty': Trump’s appointments 'too toxic to break through' GOP majority Senate

11 November 2024

As Donald Trump announces new appointments to his second administration, former Republican and Bulwark editor, Charlie Sykes, predicts that the appointees will be too "extreme" for the GOP majority Senate.

ABC News noted on Monday, "By urging the incoming GOP Senate majority to embrace recess appointments to install members of his Cabinet, Republican President-elect Donald Trump is in effect asking his party to unilaterally surrender a major constitutional responsibility and key check on presidential power."

Speaking with Sykes on the latest episode of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace — who is also a former Republican — said, "Trump won the popular vote. Trump has a mandate to do whatever he wants. Trump just has to be one inch shy of his worst impulses, and he soars into Washington, really with a mandate. I think it reveals a deeper phenomena, that, one, he still doesn't really understand power in Washington, to turn to this weak leader tool. That's what the recess appointment is. I have worked for people who have had to use it, but only when their approval ratings were at the low point of Bush's presidency, it was after reelection, he was a lame duck and he was struggling to get his appointees through. It is not a tool to use when in a position of strength."

She raised the question to Sykes: "What does it say to you that this is how he wants to bring his first batch of cabinet members into Washington?"

The ex-GOPer replied, "Well, three things. First of all, this is his first shot across the bow of any idea of checks and balances. Number two, he is demanding absolute loyalty from the US Senate, as opposed to thinking of Congress as a co-equal branch of government. You know, he is basically saying, 'Look, here is my loyalty test. I want you to take a knee for me even before I take office.' And, of course, [Senator] Rick Scott (R-FL) was the first guy to actually assume that position. And then number three, which you've been discussing, is that despite his victory, he apparently would like to install people in the cabinet who are perhaps too extreme even for the Republican party."

Sykes continued, "I think the default position we ought to have here, Nicolle, is that the Republican party will always disappoint us and will always cave in. But having said that, he obviously has some concerns about what would happen if he appointed Rick Grenell to a top position or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his cabinet as in HHS. So, he obviously is thinking that there are some people who are too toxic even for a Republican majority, but I do think the most interesting thing here is how will the Senate Republicans react to this? Because the power of advice and consent is one of the constitution's most important functions, to say that this is one of the key powers of the US Senate – they are not just potted plants, they do not work for the president. For the Republican Senate to come in and preemptively surrender would be a stunning dereliction of duty, but also just an indication that they no longer take their co-equal branch of government position seriously."

He concluded, "I think that Donald Trump is basically saying I want to have unitary control over all government, he is demanding absolute loyalty, and he is signaling that he is going make appointments that will be too toxic to get through a 53-vote Republican majority Senate."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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