Senate Democrats are pushing back at GOP efforts to consider some controversial federal bench picks by President Donald Trump during the pre-midterm election recess, Politico reported Monday.
At issue are hearings this and next week on Trump nominees for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco — tapped hours before Democrats struck a deal to confirm 15 of the president's judges and move the chamber into recess, Politico reported.
"The Committee has never before held nominations hearings while the Senate is in recess before an election,” 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote Monday to chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Politico reported.
“The handful of nominations hearings that have been held during a recess have been with the minority’s consent, which is not the case here – in fact, we were not even consulted.”
The White House announced its three 9th Circuit judicial picks without consultation with the nominees' California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, who both quickly objected.
The 9th Circuit has long been a thorn in Trump’s side, ruling against the president’s travel ban governing majority-Muslim countries, Politico noted.
For his part, Grassley fired back to the Democrats with a letter of his own own to Feinstein, contending she’d already consented to the hearings.
A Feinstein spokeswoman countered "at no point did we think there was a possibility of going into recess before October 29th, as was scheduled" before last week's agreement that led to adjournment, Politico reported.
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