Who is This John Thune?

The Democrats in the Senate are back to their old tricks of using delay tactics to stall President Trump’s nominees for cabinet positions.

The nomination of CIA Director John Ratcliffe passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee with a vote of 14-3.  However, when the Majority Leader John Thune calls the Ratcliffe nomination to the floor for a full Senate vote, suddenly individual Senators start using procedural processes to delay the votes.

The issue is not about Ratcliffe per se’, without doubt Ratcliffe will pass a full senate confirmation vote without issue when it takes place.  The Democrats are using Ratcliffe to set the stage for delays in Pete Hegseth to be Defense secretary and Kristi Noem to be DHS secretary; along with a pending confirmation hearing set for Tulsi Gabbard (DNI) and Kash Patel (FBI).

This ultimately becomes the first test for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has previously said he would fully support a rapid confirmation process for all of President Trump’s nominees.  Former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did nothing to force the Upper Chamber to confirm, Senator John Thune does not want to be seen as following McConnell’s path.  WATCH:

Leader Thune and Senator Barrasso (#2) are now pledging to keep the Senate in session until the nominees are confirmed.  This stops the Senators from going home but inevitably ends up on a game of attrition. Whose determination will last longest, the minority resistance or the Senate majority.

This activity in the Senate comes as the latest Presidential Tracking Poll shows a net approval of +14, President Trump’s highest approval rating ever.  The Democrats in the upper chamber are walking a narrow path of irrelevance; however, they are counting on their superiority in the Senate to outlast any negative public opinion.