WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees at once, voting for the first time under new rules to begin clearing a backlog of executive branch positions that had been delayed by Democrats.

Frustrated by the stalling tactics, Senate Republicans moved last week to make it easier to confirm large groups of lower-level, non-judicial nominations. Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor.

The new rules allow Senate Republicans to move multiple nominees with a simple majority vote — a process that would have previously been blocked with just one objection. The rules don’t apply to judicial nominations or high-level Cabinet posts.

“Republicans have fixed a broken process,” Thune said ahead of the vote.

The Senate voted 51-47 to confirm the four dozen nominees. Thune said that those confirmed on Thursday had all received bipartisan votes in committee, including deputy secretaries for the Departments of Defense, Interior, Energy and others.

Among the confirmed are Jonathan Morrison, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Kimberly Guilfoyle as U.S. ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle is a former California prosecutor and television news personality who led the fundraising for Trump’s 2020 campaign and was once engaged to Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

  • 13igTyme@piefed.social
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    17 hours ago

    Democrats had forced multiple votes on almost every one of Trump’s picks, infuriating the president and tying up the Senate floor.

    Yet the “Both sides” group will still continue to say the Dems aren’t even trying.

    • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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      2 hours ago

      Oh no they for Dec multiple votes, whatever will we do?

      Fuck off. That’s their performative bullshit so people like you keep thinking billionaires are two groups instead of just one with different colors.

      • 13igTyme@piefed.social
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        1 hour ago

        If it’s just performative BS, then why didn’t they pass when it was 60 votes required?

        It’s also possible to acknowledge some Dems are bought by the ONE billionaire class and some Dems are actively trying to push back.

        I know you haven’t been told to think that, but maybe you’ll eventually find someone with critical thinking skills that tells you how to think.

        • Dragonstaff@leminal.space
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          1 minute ago

          Everyone with a different opinion than me has no critical thinking skills and just follows orders from… somebody I guess.

          This is such a weird, arrogant thing to think. It’s funny how you think this and you also believe the mainstream narrative.

          Sure, buddy, nobody has ever told you “the Democrats are actively trying to push back”…

        • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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          1 hour ago

          Please tell me more about how Democrats have stopped the descent into facism.

          Oh wait… Lmao. Keep sucking billiiinare dick, I’m sure they’ll throw some crumbs your way when the right billionaires* are un power.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      11 hours ago

      They’re fucking not. They could have done this exact fucking thing at any point since 2008, bUt tHAt wOuLD HavE beEn tOo DiVisiVE.

      Do not pretend for a fucking second that the Democratic Party is in any way, shape or form competent. Do not pretend for a fucking second that the Democratic Party did anything but pave the way for this fascist regime with their ineptitude and greed, thus enabling the shattering of the American republic.

    • nothingcorporate@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Thune said that those confirmed on Thursday had all received bipartisan votes in committee

      According to the article the Democrats are still helping Trump get these fascists appointed.

      • 13igTyme@piefed.social
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        1 hour ago

        51-47. A few Dems is not the entire party.

        Anyone down voting and arguing this point is an idiot without basic critical thinking skills.

        If the few dems that voted to make it 51 was planned, then why didn’t they pass them with just enough to make 60 with the older rules?

        • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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          10 hours ago

          If the party wanted, they could take those Dems off all committee assignments and cut them off of all party funds unless they work with the party. Instead the party continues to support these people. This tells us those in charge of the party, Chuck Schumer and co, support their actions.

    • nialv7@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      a very simple question: did it work?

      all they have done so far are this kind of performative, petty, menial and ineffective resistances, yet on anything that has mattered, they capitulated.

      please point me to anything effective they have done. so far the most hopeful thing i’ve seen is Zohran Mamdani getting the nomination, and the congressional Democrats still haven’t endorsed him yet.

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        15 hours ago

        yes it did work. They delayed his nominations for a long time as the minority party. they did the most effective thing possible in the situation.

    • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      In this very thread people are blaming the Dems for not being fascists themselves under Biden and Obama.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        11 hours ago

        No. You’re deeply mischaracterizing the situation.

        The Democrats could have, at any point since 2008, responded to Republican obstructionism with this very same policy. It has been brutally apparent for well over two decades that the GOP was not negotiating in good faith, and would never again negotiate in good faith. The Democratic Party refused to even consider employing even the most basic precepts of game theory. They continued to negotiate with a bad faith actor in good faith, and were somehow constantly surprised when said bad faith actor acted in bad faith. That’s not politics. That’s rank idiocy.

      • azuth@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        This is not fascism, ending the fillibuster is not fascism.

        The Democrats should have done so when they were in government to try and implement the things they were elected for.

        America’s broken political system certainly had a role in it’s slide to fascism.

      • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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        10 hours ago

        Fascism is when you don’t roll over for fascists in the name of norms, which the fascists don’t have to follow.