Democrats galvanized by President Trump’s executive order to ban travel from certain Muslim countries plan to try to hold up the president’s nominees, including Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin.
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on Mnuchin’s nomination late Monday and if Republicans hold ranks, Mnuchin is expected to be reported favorably to the full chamber.
But Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he and his colleagues will vote against Mnuchin’s nomination as well as attempt to delay a final vote until Trump's nominees provide a position on Trump's executive order.
“While I will continue to demand that each nominee issue a public statement on his or her views of President Trump's Muslim Ban, I will vote against nominees who will be the very worst of this anti-immigrant, anti-middle-class, billionaires’ club cabinet,” Schumer said Monday in a post on Facebook, citing Mnuchin by name.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a member of the finance and banking committees, also announced he would oppose Mnuchin's nomination.
"Throughout the confirmation process, Mr. Mnuchin has failed to adequately demonstrate that he will be a forceful advocate for innovative policies that will make the U.S. economy work better for the majority of Americans," Warner said in a press release. "I also am not convinced that he is committed to robust enforcement of Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, which are intended to protect taxpayers from the sort of irresponsible behavior that triggered the 2008 financial crisis."
During an interview Monday morning on NBC, Schumer said he would also ask Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell to delay a vote on Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson.
Asked if he would try to delay other nominees, Schumer said: “I think we're gonna ask about it for just about every one. … Aren't the American people entitled to know the positions of these Cabinet people before they come in?”
