Chuck Schumer is using Mitch McConnell's words against him

Mitch McConnell.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's words are coming back to haunt him.

See more

In 2009, McConnell wrote a letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, telling him the Republicans had a set of "standards" that President Obama's Cabinet nominees had to meet, and if they didn't complete background checks, ethics reviews, or financial disclosure statements, the GOP would not allow votes. On Monday, Democratic House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was going to send the letter back to McConnell, with McConnell's name replacing Reid's and Schumer's signature overriding McConnell's. "Our requests are eminently reasonable, shared by leaders of both parties," he tweeted. "I'll return this letter to [McConnell] with the same requests."

Confirmation hearings are set to start Tuesday, even though some of the nominees haven't even undergone ethics reviews yet. McConnell isn't letting that stop him from pushing the hearings through at breakneck speed; on Sunday, he said Democrats aren't worried over the lack of information from the nominees, but have "frustration" over having lost.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

That's not true, Schumer said Monday from the Senate floor. "Bear in mind President-elect Trump's nominees pose particularly difficult ethics and conflict of interest challenges," he said. "They come from enormous wealth, many have vast holdings and stocks, and very few have experience in government, so they have not been appropriately vetted for something like a Cabinet post before. What had been standard practice for the vast majority of nominees — the completion of a preliminary ethics review before their nomination — was skipped over for the vast majority of President-elect Trump's nominees."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.