'Gum up the works': Senator singlehandedly halting confirmation of over 300 Trump nominees

Hundreds of President Donald Trump's nominees for high-level positions throughout the federal government have run into a brick wall, and the lone senator behind it has no plan to relent any time soon.

During an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who is a member of both the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees, delved into why he was expanding his hold to include more than 300 of Trump's nominees along with several critical pieces of bipartisan legislation. The Hawaii senator explained that his hold — which he is doing by denying "unanimous consent" (the process by which the Senate conducts official business) — is meant to apply "leverage" to both the administration and the Republican majority.

"I cannot grant them unanimous consent ... I'm just objecting to that. If they want any of these nominees or these bills to receive a vote, they have to schedule the vote. But this will slow them down," Schatz said. "And this is designed to lay down a marker both about the lawlessness of the Trump administration, but also about the fact that Donald Trump himself is destroying the American economy on purpose."

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According to Axios, Schatz's hold includes nominees to lead the Office of Personnel Management, the inspector general for the Department of Labor and nine bipartisan bills that have already made it through their respective committees — including bills Schatz himself voted for in his own committees. Tapper pointed out that two of those bills are meant to "counter activities by the terrorist group Hezbollah in Latin America" and to oppose "China's assault on Hong Kong's democracy." He noted that those bills "seem pretty important," and asked Schatz why he's blocking them.

"Part of what it means to do a hold is that sometimes you're going to block things that you would otherwise allow to happen. And that's the case for these ... but we have to generate some leverage," Schatz responded. "And so until Secretary [Marco] Rubio comes to the committee and testifies about what they're doing in terms of illegally eviscerating United States aid, I'm not going to allow those even those bipartisan bills to move forward ... We have to be willing to stand up to these folks and gum up the works, even if it's politically uncomfortable to block a bill that you would otherwise be for."

Tapper pushed back and reminded Schatz that he called Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) a "maniac" during his blockade of hundreds of promotions for high-ranking military officers, which lasted for most of 2023. But Schatz noted that his denial of unanimous consent for Trump's nominees was completely different than Tuberville's hold on promoting military officers.

"There's a pretty important distinction between what Senator Tuberville did and what I'm doing. These are political appointees which are always or usually subject to a Senate vote. And so what i'm doing is slowing them down," the Hawaii Democrat said. "What Senator Tuberville did was prevent a one-star admiral from being a two-star admiral. These are career Department of Defense flag and general officers that were blocked. That is not the same as what I'm doing."

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Watch Schatz's segment below, or by clicking this link.