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

The specific targets of the blocked recess appointments haven’t been itemized publicly — but the pattern is obvious. There are positions that need filling – still, nearly two years into Trump’s 4-year term. The confirmation process, which Thune controls, has been slow, contentious, and in several cases actively hostile to the president’s nominees. The pro forma sessions Thune arranged guarantee that Trump cannot work around those bottlenecks during a month-long August vacation.

Before leaving, Thune met with Senators Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Rick Scott, and emerged with an agreement: postpone the Senate budget resolution until after recess, and then vote immediately on the voter ID element of the SAVE America Act when they return.

If you believe that will happen, you probably also believe the mullahs in Iran when they say they plan to honor the next ceasefire.

Republicans have made this promise before. They’ve been going to pass the SAVE America Act for months. They were going to pass it before recess. They were going to stay in Washington and get it done. Trump came to Capitol Hill personally. Seven senators said they’d block adjournment. The president put Thune’s job on the line publicly.

And Thune went home anyway. With pro forma sessions arranged to make sure Trump can’t even work around the vacancy problem in the Senate’s absence.