Republicans fume as GOP absences help Democrats move judicial nominees
Senate Republicans aired frustrations Tuesday after Vice President-elect Vance and other party members skipped votes Monday, greasing the skids for Democratic-backed judicial nominees to be greenlighted as part of a final push to fill the bench with lifetime appointees before President-elect Trump takes office.
Republicans on Monday attempted to slow down an effort by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to advance more than a dozen judicial nominees, which Democrats have prioritized before ceding power at year's end.
However, they were unable to stop them as a handful of their GOP colleagues did not show up to the Capitol for votes, which stretched until close to midnight.
Headlining that group were Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), President-elect Trump's choice to lead the State Department, angering GOP members during their weekly Tuesday policy luncheon.
"If we don't show up, we lose," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who was visibly frustrated by the lack of attendance and spoke out at lunch. "I don't care what the reasons were. We have fewer than 15 scheduled legislative days. You have to show up. Period. End of story. There's nothing more important."
"We've got potentially dozens we could have shoved down our throat — except for us being here," he continued, pointing specifically to a 4th Circuit nominee that could make it through if Republican absences continue. "We've got to talk to these folks like adults and show up."
The group of nominees includes Embry Kidd, who was confirmed to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 49 to 45 vote, despite Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) voting against his nomination.
If all Republicans had shown up and Sen. John Fetterman's (D-Pa.) absence held, the GOP would have defeated the nomination temporarily. If all senators had shown up, including Fetterman, it would likely have forced a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Harris.
Adding to the drama, Harris left Washington for Hawaii on Tuesday, depriving Democrats of a potential ability to break a 50-50 tie.
Despite the math, GOP members were incensed at the no-shows, which stretched into Tuesday as Vance did not show up for the morning vote.
Other senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), tagged along with Trump to the SpaceX Starship launch in Brownsville, Texas, further exacerbating the situation as Schumer prepared to hold another long night of nomination votes on Tuesday.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, a 12," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) when asked about his level of frustration at the situation. "Because a number of President Biden's nominees, particularly at the courts of appeal, they think they're qualified to be a federal judge if they've seen 'My Cousin Vinny,' and I don't agree with them."
"Their performance in committee demonstrated that none of them were Oliver Wendell Scalia," he continued, combining the names of a pair of Supreme Court giants. "They did horrible jobs in committee, and we had the votes to prevent them from being confirmed, but some of the folks on our side couldn't be here, and it's frustrating."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also panned those who were absent and allowed Kidd to make it through the upper chamber, writing on the social platform X that his confirmation means the people of Florida, Alabama and Georgia "will suffer the consequences."
Vance, who missed all of Monday night's votes in addition to the first one on Tuesday, received the lion's share of criticism.
The outgoing Ohio senator initially defended his decision, saying that he was meeting with Trump as part of interviews for potential candidates to become FBI director and for other slots.
"I tend to think it's more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45," he added.
However, he backtracked and deleted his post on X . He also showed up for the pair of Senate votes during Tuesday's afternoon session.
"If we're going to be effective, we've got to show up, and I think that's the frustration for those of us who did show up and stay," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), adding that the message at lunch was to "try to figure out how to get everybody there."
"I think there's going to be a lot of outreach to the folks who weren't there, like the vice president-to-be and others," said Capito on the way up to the first vote of the Tuesday afternoon session.
When told that Vance was upstairs and voting, Capito responded that she was pleased by the development.
"He must have gotten my message," she said.
