President Trump took to Twitter on New Years’ Eve to berate Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for refusing to confirm his ambassadors, alleging that members of the international community were “calling him up” and demanding to know why they don’t have any ambassadors.
….Senator Schumer, more than a year longer than any other Administration in history. These are people who have been approved by committees and all others, yet Schumer continues to hold them back from serving their Country! Very Unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2018
The Twitter outburst is a miserable and transparent attempt to shunt the responsibility for his own administration’s crippling dysfunction on to his political rivals while freely abusing the truth at the same time.
The reality is that Trump simply hasn’t bothered to nominate ambassadors for a slew of important positions. Ambassadors only require 50 votes in the Senate to confirm, which the Republican Party has, meaning the only thing stopping him from nominating and confirming Ambassadors is Trump himself — or perhaps Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader of Trump’s own party.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) was quick to take to Twitter and call him out:
This is a lie. Because:
a. The problem isn’t a long list of unapproved ambassadors. It’s that Trump left the most important slots vacant for virtually his entire first 2 years (eg Saudi Arabia)
b. Ambassadors need only 50 votes. Mitch, not Chuck, is the issue. https://t.co/0lm6ybPk5L
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2018
President Trump has appointed 119 ambassadors since taking office — the vast majority of whom are white males — but over two dozen Ambassadorships remain unfilled, including envoys to important nations heavily involved in geopolitics like Turkey and Saudi Arabia and close allies like Australia.
With the Republicans still in control of all three branches of government, all fault lies with them — and Trump’s efforts to blame his own dysfunction on the Democrats are beyond pathetic.
