Over the holiday weekend, President Trump blamed Democrats for the delays in confirming his Ambassadors despite the fact that Republicans actually control the process:
President Trump on Monday complained that the Senate isn’t confirming ambassadors he has appointed and claimed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is to blame.
Trump wrote in a series of tweets that leaders from other countries have called to ask why ambassadors haven’t been confirmed and said Schumer “continues to hold them back from serving their Country!”
“Heads of countries are calling wanting to know why Senator Schumer is not approving their otherwise approved Ambassadors!? Likewise in Government lawyers and others are being delayed at a record pace!” he tweeted.
“360 great and hardworking people are waiting for approval from Senator Schumer, more than a year longer than any other Administration in history. These are people who have been approved by committees and all others, yet Schumer continues to hold them back from serving their Country! Very Unfair!” Trump continued.
Here are Trump’s tweets on the matter:
Heads of countries are calling wanting to know why Senator Schumer is not approving their otherwise approved Ambassadors!? Likewise in Government lawyers and others are being delayed at a record pace! 360 great and hardworking people are waiting for approval from….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
….Senator Schumer, more than a year longer than any other Administration in history. These are people who have been approved by committees and all others, yet Schumer continues to hold them back from serving their Country! Very Unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
This is, of course, absolute nonsense. Other than slowing the process down somewhat by using all the available debate time that Senate rules allow for nominations, there is nothing that Democrats can do to stop Presidential nominations such as those at the Ambassadorial level. This has been the case since Democrats removed the filibuster for all Executive Branch nominations, and for Judicial nominations below the Supreme Court level, more than five years ago. Since Republicans have controlled the Senate since the start of the Trump Administration, and will continue to do so through the 2020 elections, the process largely entirely in their control. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has taken advantage of this fact by swiftly moving Trump nominees through the Senate. This has been especially true of Judicial nominees but has also been true of other nominees as well.
If Trump wants to find the reason for why so many of his top Ambassadorial positions have gone unfilled, he need look no further than the mirror. As I’ve noted several times in the past, the Administration has taken an unusually long amount of time to full vacant Ambassadorial slots, including Ambassadors to important parts of the world. Indeed, this list maintained by the American Foreign Service Association shows that a number of Ambassadorial spots remain vacant even as we approached the 2nd anniversary of the President’s inauguration, including Ambassadorships for nations such as Egypt and Turkey as well as NATO allies such as Estonia and several nations in Central and South America.
Additionally, it is highly unlikely that the President is getting calls from the leaders of foreign nations regarding this issue. For one thing, if this is an issue that a foreign government wanted to address, it would obviously be handled at the Foreign Minister/Secretary of State level. For another, in those nations where an Ambassador has yet to be confirmed or nominated, the Ambassadors duties are being handled by the highest ranking Foreign Service Officer in the relevant embassy. This is not the kind of thing handled at the leadership level. Secondly, these foreign leaders obviously know that the United States Senate handles confirmation of Ambassadorial nominees and that this body is controlled by Republicans. Finally, these nations all have embassies in Washington and their representatives are well-aware of what’s going on in Congress.
This is admittedly a somewhat obscure topic, but the fact that the President is so obviously lying about it is yet another sign of how pathological his need to lie actually is.
