MAGA world backing Medicare Fraud Skeletor for Senate Majority Leader
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Having convinced themselves that a narrow, highly contingent win was in fact a massive landslide, Republicans may be going maximalist as they choose McConnell’s replacement:
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said Senate Republicans’ next leader must embrace so-called “recess appointments,” temporary appointments when the chamber is out of session that occur without the chamber’s formal seal of approval.
“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Trump wrote in a post to the social media network X. “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”
Notably, Trump did not endorse any of the three GOP candidates for Wednesday’s upcoming leadership election — Sens. John Thune (S.D.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Rick Scott (Fla.) — though influential figures in the conservative movement have rallied around Scott in the aftermath of last week’s Republican electoral victories.
Scott, though, came out strongly in support of Trump’s idea. “100% agree. I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible,” he wrote in response to Trump X post, prompting the site’s owner, Elon Musk, to post “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!”
I assume somebody will explain to Trump that you don’t want judges confirmed as recess appointments, but it’s not really about recess appointments per se as demonstrating total subservience to Trump.
Of the three candidates, Scott seems like he would clearly be the least effective, although since he’s the biggest crank the downside risk is higher (especially should he be Majority Leader during a Democratic administration.)
…and yes:
Republicans are going to have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and yet here’s Trump urging the Senate to go into recess so that he can bypass it altogether.
In other words, he wants to install folks who couldn’t even get through *that* Senate.
It’s going to be a long four years. https://t.co/hWl5xGU7qE— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 10, 2024