Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is urging his Democratic Senate colleagues to create a spectacle during the confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, instructions that appear to be insanely tone-deaf given Trump’s and Republicans’ massive wins in the 2024 elections. “Republicans spent four years attacking the Democratic brand, and we need to use the hearings to begin returning the favor,” Schumer told top committee Democrats in a meeting Wednesday afternoon, Axios reported.
Schumer told the Democratic caucus during a lunch on Tuesday that they should interrogate Trump’s nominees about the president-elect’s agenda and its potential impact on Americans, according to Axios. He reminded senators that they have a chance to take control of the narrative from the GOP on key issues such as the economy, the border, and cultural matters, despite virtually ignoring all three issues for the past four years of the Biden-Harris regime.
Schumer argued that there is more political advantage in challenging Trump’s agenda than in finding common ground with it, according to Axios — an assessment that is at odds with the fact that Trump won a mandate victory by blowing Vice President Kamala Harris out in terms of electoral votes while also capturing a popular majority.
Democrats have raised objections to several of Trump’s nominations, including Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, Kash Patel for FBI director, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Friday that he is “really not expecting any help from Democrats” as the confirmation hearings approach. “I wish we were going to get some, but I doubt it,” Johnson said. “I’ll be satisfied if they don’t obstruct our process of moving forward and confirming those people.”
Corporations and developers, meanwhile, aren’t waiting for Trump’s inauguration before pledging billions of dollars to help rebuild America’s economy. On Tuesday, Trump announced that DAMAC Properties, an Emirati property development company, will invest $20 billion to build data centers in eight states, including Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.
“They may go double or even more than double that amount of money,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence. “It’s a very great thing,” he continued, adding he believes billionaire CEO Hussain Sajwani is making the commitment “because of the fact that he was inspired by the election. He wouldn’t do it without the election, I can tell you a lot of people wouldn’t.”