Democrats shift tactics on Trump Cabinet picks after lessons learned from first term

(CNN) — Senate Democrats staged dramatic showdowns to protest nominations during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office. This time around, Democrats are shifting tactics, reluctant to pick endless battles with Trump Cabinet picks that are unlikely to succeed.

It’s a careful tightrope for a party that is still reeling from losing the White House and Senate in the November elections, but one that many Democrats believe reflects the underlying reality of the situation – voters picked Trump despite all of their party’s warnings and attacks against him. And Democrats may need to win over some of those very same voters to find their way out of the political wilderness.

“The mood is slightly different than the last time and there is a sense that if you are freaking out about everything, it becomes really hard for people to sort out what is worth worrying about,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, told CNN.

Now, Democrats are looking to implement a deliberate and disciplined strategy in Trump’s second term: pointing out the places where they could work with a nominee when they see fit and forcing Republicans to defend Trump’s picks when a nominee faces ethics questions, has a history of controversial statements or doesn’t have what Democrats view as the necessary qualifications for the job.

“We have to acknowledge something even if we are disappointed that’s true: Trump won. He is the president. We have to accept that,” Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, said. “We are going to approach this in a very straightforward way. President Trump won. He has a right to nominate his Cabinet members. Our approach will be to give him the benefit of the doubt but not a blank check.”

Some Democrats have already been clear they may be open to voting for some of Trump’s picks even if they’ve sparred with them before. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania told CNN earlier this month he would “absolutely” vote to confirm his one-time political rival Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead a key health care agency as long as Oz “agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare,” offering up praise for his qualifications as a doctor and even saying he would “have a beer with the dude.” And several Democrats said they are looking forward to backing their colleague Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be the next secretary of state.

During Trump’s first term in office, Democrats, in some instances, used procedural or tactical hurdles to delay votes in committee, something which can backfire quickly.

Democrats won’t back away from made-for-TV moments during public confirmation hearings as they look to drive a wedge between Republicans on issues or past statements that nominees have made. But several Democrats CNN spoke to said they are also reticent to needlessly delay confirmations or “play games,” knowing that doing so could risk a GOP backlash and could embolden Trump to use what are known as recess appointments, essentially bypassing Congress altogether.

Democrats stress that a measured approach shouldn’t be mistaken for Democratic support for Trump’s most controversial picks. In the course of conversations with more than a dozen Democrats, members and aides said it’s clear that some of Trump’s most contentious picks from Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense to his Director of National Intelligence selection, Tulsi Gabbard, are unlikely to win over many of their members. But Democrats believe their only real strategy to move the needle on these canbdidates is to give their GOP colleagues space to make the decisions about their futures on their own and not engage in partisan battles just for the sake of the exercise.

Democrats are also acutely aware that they will be in the minority and Republicans have a comfortable three-seat margin.

“Sometimes all you can do is create a record that shows people ‘Ok, this is what you are getting,’” Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, told CNN.

The Senate Democratic caucus is diverse and represents an ideological spectrum. As a result, there will won’t necessarily be one singular unified strategy. Some members may pursue divergent approaches or differ in their opinions. But based on interviews with multiple members and aides it’s clear that many in the party believe a new approach is needed after Democrats lost to Trump a second time.

During the first Trump administration, Democrats staged a surprise boycott of the Senate Finance Committee to deny Republicans a quorum to vote to advance the nominations of Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as Democrats argued they needed additional information about the nominees’ finances and business practices. Democrats similarly used procedural hurdles in the Senate Judiciary Committee to force Republicans to reconvene one day later to vote on Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general.

At the time, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell blasted Democrats for the moves, saying, “It is time to get over the fact that they lost the election..none of this is going to lead to a different outcome.”

“I can’t predict what tactics may be adopted. I personally would be inclined to show up for committee meetings, not the private committee of a forum. That’s just my personal inclination,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.

For committees, a key question emerges with Trump shifting norms

Democrats are also clear they won’t cease reminding voters of the ways Trump and his incoming administration are defying precedent if they decline to have nominees undergo FBI background checks. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer penned a letter to incoming GOP leader Sen. John Thune insisting that Thune maintain the process of confirming nominees, including FBI background checks.

Schumer wrote that the Senate should work “in a bipartisan fashion to process each nominee by reviewing standard FBI background-investigation materials, scheduling hearings and markups in the committees of jurisdiction, and considering nominees on the Senate floor.”

Democrats are grappling with how much they need to do behind the scenes if Trump’s transition team follows through with their suggestion they won’t have nominees go through the normal FBI vetting process.

“It is not like we can substitute the work of the FBI,” one Democratic source told CNN on background to discuss internal deliberations.

While each committee has slight variations in how it is briefed on the background reports or uses their contents, members have largely argued that more information – not less – is essential in backstopping their decision of whether to support a nominee. Democrats warn that with some of Trump’s picks having never worked before in government, the checks are even more essential, especially as questions have been raised about the past behavior of some, including Hegseth, who was accused in 2017 of sexual assault. Police did not press charges and Hegseth has denied the incident was an assault.

Others suggested the question of whether Democrats engage in their own vetting is still very much up for discussion.

“There have to be investigations so whether it’s the FBI or our committee staff, there have to be,” Kaine said while acknowledging “It can be challenging” especially as Democrats are seated to lose power over those committees in a matter of weeks.

Democrats will remain in the majority until January, but unlike the FBI, which is well versed in conducting the nominee background checks, committees would have to stand up a plan for an investigation and execute it in short order.

“We shouldn’t do that. We should get the FBI background check,” Welch said.

In the end, Democrats say they are going to stay flexible, recognizing some of the strategy is going to be born of organic and unforeseen circumstances in the months ahead.

“I don’t think there is an overall answer. (Trump’s) labor nominee is for example very different than his nominee for the Department of Defense and the approaches should be tailored to the individual nominees,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “Democrats are here to carry out our Constitutional duties to advise and consent. To do that, we need our FBI background checks, an opportunity to meet with the candidates and then to ask them questions in open hearings.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.