On November 5, the American people delivered President-elect Trump a historic mandate to advance the agenda he championed on the campaign trail. Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, several Republican senators have already turned the cabinet confirmation process into their own personal vanity project. Even before the process has officially commenced, they have signaled that they may resist confirming, or outright vote against, some of Trump’s nominees. Republicans in that camp would do well to remember—for the good of the country and their own political future—that the electoral mandate was given specifically to President-elect Trump, not the Republican Party as a whole.
Trump far outpaced many Senate Republican candidates on Election Day. He won all five swing states with concurrent Senate races, yet the Republican Senate candidate won in just one of them—Pennsylvania—and by mere thousands of votes despite Trump winning by over 100,000. In the other four swing states—Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan—all four Republican candidates came up short.
Whether a president-elect squeaks out a marginal Electoral College victory while losing the popular vote, achieves a Nixon/Reagan-esque landslide, or winds up somewhere in between as most do, a president has the absolute right, and even obligation, to follow through on as many campaign promises as possible. But for those who believe margins and public perception matter, President-elect Trump’s victory was an undeniable landslide given the current state of the electoral map.
Trump achieved the largest Electoral College victory for a Republican since the 1980s, and he became the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris became the first major party nominee to not flip a single county since President Herbert Hoover, a historically unpopular president due to his presiding over the Great Depression.
Despite this clear mandate, a potential hijacking of Trump’s appointments by a minority of Republican senators looms.
The confirmation process was intended to ensure that nominees were professionally qualified for their specific roles. It was never intended to become an exercise in sifting through personal lives to tarnish reputations over matters unrelated to the nominees’ potential future duties.
Though the Republicans now hold a 53-47 Senate majority in the 119th Congress, the effective balance of power for confirming Trump’s appointees is more like 50-50, which is due to opposition from Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and hand-picked Mitt Romney replacement John Curtis. While those three alone are not enough to derail a confirmation, just one of the other 50 Republican senators defecting would essentially put the Republicans in the minority. This insubordinate behavior toward the voters who elected them to implement President-elect Trump’s agenda is even more glaring when considering how Republicans rolled over during Joe Biden’s appointee confirmation process four years ago. Most of Biden’s nominees were comfortably approved—often with Republican support—despite a 50-50 Senate.
Categorically unqualified picks such as Pete Buttigieg and “Rachel” Levine deserved legitimate scrutiny and examination during their confirmation hearings. Yet Buttigieg received votes from 37 Republicans to lead the Department of Transportation in spite of not having prior transportation experience. And Levine garnered Republican support for a crucial health position despite suffering from gender dysphoria.
But the same Republicans who voted for Biden’s appointees are opposing Trump’s while all Democrats in the minority continue to remain in lockstep opposition. Democrats are never to be applauded given how their radical and divisive agenda has torpedoed the United States for so long. But in this instance, they can at least make the argument that they were put into power by voters who demanded they resist the Trump agenda. Republican senators have no such justification. Senators like Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn have cloaked their obstruction as mere “due diligence,” “thorough vetting,” or “letting the process play out” rather than saying what they really think—that President Trump has no right to overturn the status quo.
All Trump appointees must remain firm in their commitment to seeing the confirmation process through to a vote. If they ultimately come up short, they will have done a tremendous service to Trump and the American people by forcing RINOs to out themselves. If backroom public pressure campaigns designed to make nominees withdraw before an official vote are successful, it prevents us from knowing for certain who the internal saboteurs are who need to be primaried.
While some have cautioned against primarying long-entrenched Republican senators, there is no tangible risk in doing so. Many RINOs hail from deep red states, meaning that if they survive a primary challenge, they will still defeat their Democratic opponent. But if they lose to a MAGA primary challenger, then a RINO Senate seat becomes a MAGA one. The irony given how self-serving these RINOs are (as evidenced by their disinterest in helping Trump despite their voters overwhelmingly supporting him) is that they could avoid a catastrophic primary altogether if they simply worked to help confirm President-elect Trump’s appointments.
A major reason for the magnitude of Trump’s win was not only his personal appeal as an outsider, but also his mission to replace long entrenched bureaucrats with appointees who are outside of the system and are in touch with the desires of the American people. It is only natural for the insiders to do everything in their power to resist this influx of MAGA-aligned appointees whose presence threatens the status quo.
Being confirmed after a confirmation process headed by the uniparty establishment, Trump’s outsider appointees will emerge more battle-tested and committed to truly advancing the MAGA agenda.
This article was originally published by The American Mind here.
Matt Kane graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. His work has been posted by President Trump and published by Real Clear Politics, The Gateway Pundit, Human Events, American Thinker, The American Mind, RSBN, and AMAC. Follow on X/Twitter: @MattKaneUSA, Truth Social: @MattKane
RINOs are not Republicans, they’re Democrats lying about who and what they really are in order to win elections. If the press were doing their job, the constituents of these phonies would be adequately informed and these liars would be out of office.
Get the names of every one of those Republicans out on conservative social media, then let the anger calling start! Its one thing for Trump to say they’ll be primaried, its quite another to have ANGRY constituents calling them out on their standing in the way of progress. These calls need to take place BEFORE the Senate confirmation votes goes the wrong way. We the people DEMAND that they work for US, not themselves.
If you want to understand the coded language of the left, just consider that they intend the opposite of what they claim.
By that code, down is up, good is evil: You get the point.
Not too many years ago, Michelle Obama gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention; a speech that defined the coded way the Democratic Party actually plan and announce their acts. “When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level,” Michelle said. “Our motto is ‘When they go low, we go high.’ ”
That meant in Lefist code speak; “When they go high, we go low!”
When MAGA soars higher, the left has gone… (well, anyone can hear and see it for yourself), the left has now descended into wallowing the putrid pits of hell.
Given what the American voters said to all the “progressive highs” on last November’s election day, the next voter response should turn out wonderfully for the downside uppers of the Democrat Party!
The SWAMP is boiling! MAGA is ascending. The opposition has no clue. Democrats can only scream in disarray: ‘We’re totally, totally screwed
The injustices we continue to endure are due to our lack of ability to believe wholeheartedly in what is wanted. Most conservatives, patriots, and believers say there is a God. What we need is focus, consistency, and unwavering belief in what we want to see. It is the unseen we are creating by not allowing any negative narrators to deter our understanding of what we know is possible. Unite and stay there, believe in faith, and continue to envision what is a known possibility in the trust of God within to call it to be.
Any RINO’s should immediately be threatened with being primaried-out when they come up for reelection. Elon Musk could be a very effective tool in showing them the resources that he has – and can – put into doing just that! Funny how we never see any DINO’s on the left!!! The criminals on the Democrat side are always completely in lockstep with each other! What the he11s wrong with our side?! The GOP needs to get this nonsense cleaned up once and for all and I hope Trump is just the man to finally do that!
What happens if the majority do not confirm Presidents appointment? Legally speaking.
I would so vote those Republican senators out of their sests as soon as I could if they were in my state!
Seeds planted 2016
These RINOs better watch what people are saying about them. If they betray us by betraying Trump on his appointments, then they better prepare to be ousted in their re-election . We are sick & tired of self absorbed politicians who forget their oath of serving our country and not themselves, or their “puppeteers”.
Senators like Lisa Murkowski & Susan Collins are probably, and actually Democrats that HAD to run as Republicans in red areas in order to get elected! If they don’t get onboard, the GOP should work tirelessly to get rid of them!! Let them run as the Democrat losers that they actually are! Elon Musk has enormous resources at his disposal that he can use to assist in primarying-out these commie infiltrators obstructing good conservative progress once and for all!
Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney replacement John Curtis needd to be recalled or voted out in 2016. Same goes for Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn. Not a one of them feels they are in Congress to do what their constituents want as of Nov 5th’s landslide even in their respective states. If they don’t “listen up”, they should be ousted at least by 2016 mid-terms. They’ve been Democrats in Republican clothing for decades.
I think that it is good for Americans that Congress does not rubber stamp everything that is sent their way because they want to vote bipartisan. There is no way that 100% of the people that Trump wants are the best ones for the job. And that is the reason that we need lots of RINOs in the system so that our government is not run by one person or one party only. We are all Americans & can have different opinions on issues, or we will not continue as a Republic.
Sorry Matt Kane but according to AMAC censors this article should have been blocked and awaiting approval…you must have connections with one of their handlers or very lucky.