Thune Left Town and Made Sure Trump Can’t Fill Vacancies While He’s Gone — The Enemy Is Inside the Gates

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a nominal Republican from South Dakota, and the Senate GOP caucus flew home for their August recess. Before leaving, Thune made sure of three things: the recess is happening on schedule; the SAVE America Act didn’t pass; and pro forma sessions have been arranged every few days to keep the Senate technically “in session” — which prevents the President of the United States from making recess appointments while his own party’s Majority Leader is poolside.

This needs to be stated plainly. Usually, when you have a Republican in the White House and a Republican majority in the Senate, the Majority Leader would adjourn without pro forma sessions if normal confirmations weren’t getting done — allowing the president to make recess appointments that the Senate is blocking through its own dysfunction. That’s how the system is supposed to work when both branches of the same party need to get things done and the confirmation process isn’t cooperating.

In this case, Thune is quite literally doing the work of the opposition by arranging pro forma sessions that block Trump from doing the work of the presidency.