Democrats shift tactics on Trump Cabinet picks after lessons learned from first term

CNN — Senate Democrats staged dramatic showdowns to protest nominations during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term in office. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania told CNN earlier this month he would “absolutely” vote to confirm his one-time political rival Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead a key health care agency as long as Oz “agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare,” offering up praise for his qualifications as a doctor and even saying he would “have a beer with the dude.” And several Democrats said they are looking forward to backing their colleague Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be the next secretary of state. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images During the first Trump administration, Democrats staged a surprise boycott of the Senate Finance Committee to deny Republicans a quorum to vote to advance the nominations of Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin as Democrats argued they needed additional information about the nominees’ finances and business practices. For committees, a key question emerges with Trump shifting norms Democrats are also clear they won’t cease reminding voters of the ways Trump and his incoming administration are defying precedent if they decline to have nominees undergo FBI background checks. Schumer wrote that the Senate should work “in a bipartisan fashion to process each nominee by reviewing standard FBI background-investigation materials, scheduling hearings and markups in the committees of jurisdiction, and considering nominees on the Senate floor.” Democrats are grappling with how much they need to do behind the scenes if Trump’s transition team follows through with their suggestion they won’t have nominees go through the normal FBI vetting process.