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President Donald Trump has attacked the Senate for blocking his preferred nominees from being confirmed to key positions, but lawmakers and people familiar with the process say the Senate is not necessarily to blame.
Trump has faulted the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, an unwritten rule requiring nominees for judge, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal to obtain home state senators’ approval prior to being confirmed.
He said blue state senators will only greenlight “Democrats or maybe weak Republicans.” The president called on Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to abolish the practice, and he threatened to sue over it.
But Grassley and other Republicans are unbudging in their position that blue slips are an indispensable part of the confirmation process. Blue slips have been used for more than a century. Past presidents have gotten many nominees confirmed under the system, suggesting other factors are contributing to Trump’s struggle to secure blue slips from Democrats.
TRUMP TELLS GRASSLEY TO TELL DEMOCRATS ‘GO TO HELL’ OVER BLOCKED JUDICIAL NOMINEES IN SENATE
Sen. Chuck Grassley is seen in the U.S. Capitol after a Senate luncheon. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Trump threatens to sue over ‘gentlemen’s agreement’
Trump and his allies escalated attacks on the blue slip process this week, accusing Grassley of blocking nominees by maintaining it.
“This is because of an old and outdated ‘custom’ known as a BLUE SLIP, that Senator Chuck Grassley, of the Great State of Iowa, refuses to overturn,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The president threatened to sue over what he said was a “gentlemen’s agreement,” though it is unclear whom the government would sue and on what grounds.
“It’s not based on law, and I think it’s unconstitutional, and I’ll probably be filing a suit on that pretty soon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Asked about the possible lawsuit…
