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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is paying the price for playing games over the Senate confirmation vote for Mike Pompeo as CIA director.
According to news reports, Schumer lied about the date of the vote. Originally, the Senate was supposed to vote on Pompeo on the day of the inauguration but the NY senator delayed the vote.
Schumer’s game playing did not sit well with Republican senators and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) challenged Schumer about the delay.
The Weekly Standard reports
The Senate reconvened after the inaugural ceremonies on Friday, with Pompeo’s nomination set to come up at 4:50pm. Cotton angrily confronted Schumer about his broken promise. According to witnesses, Schumer told Cotton to lower his voice and asked him move off of the Senate floor to an adjacent hallway for a private discussion. “We need to take this out into the hallway,” Schumer said. Cotton walked with Schumer but loudly rejected his first request. “Don’t tell me to lower my voice!” he shouted, with an additional salty admonition tacked on for emphasis. Burr and Cornyn were present, as was Senator Mark Warner, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and several aides.
Schumer told Cotton that the Senate had never previously confirmed a CIA director on Inauguration Day and if Cotton had been around eight years earlier, he’d know that Republicans didn’t extend that courtesy for incoming president Barack Obama. “Eight years ago, I was getting my ass shot at in Afghanistan,” Cotton snapped. “So don’t talk to me about where I was 8 years ago.”
Cotton asked Schumer why he’d gone back on his word. Schumer claimed that he’d only been speaking for himself when he promised to let Pompeo through. “I said that I would not block him,” Schumer said, emphasizing the personal pronoun, according to sources who witnessed the exchange. “I never said that I could speak for 47 other Democrats.”
Because of Schumer’s antics, Republicans are questioning whether or not he can be trusted.
Schumer should also know that challenging a war veteran is a very bad idea and it’s great to see Cotton is willing to challenge the arrogant senator.
