CNN’s Manu Raju Explains Trump’s ‘Very Controversial’ Demand His Appointments Should Bypass Senate Confirmation

CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju discussed the latest in the GOP Senate leadership battle on Monday with anchors Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar.

“All right, Manu, what do we know about what Trump himself wants for the person fulfilling this incredibly influential role?” Keilar asked.

“Yeah, this is a consequential role in Washington, someone who sets the agenda for the Senate, someone who actually could drive the party’s strategy, will be in charge of trying to retain the Senate Republican majority, which right now stands with 52 seats. They could potentially add 53 at any moment,” Raju began, adding:

Right now, Trump has not endorsed any of these three candidates: Senator John Thune, the number two Republican, Senator John Cornyn, the former number two as well, Senator Rick Scott, someone who does have support, as you mentioned, from Elon Musk and some folks in the MAGA world, but is still seen as an underdog, a bit of a longshot candidate at the moment.

What Trump has made one demand on is to have the next Senate majority leader essentially allow him to short-circuit the Senate confirmation process, allow him to install his cabinet nominees without Senate confirmation vote, and still use what’s known as recess appointments. That’s something that had really not been done really since before 2007, even before that. And it was very controversial. Senate majority leaders have since then taken procedural steps to block presidents from short-circuiting the Senate confirmation process.

But after Trump made that public call, all three of those candidates essentially said they were supportive of Donald Trump doing this. Now, that doesn’t mean that these candidates have always been in line with Trump, especially in the aftermath of his 2020 election loss. Senator John Thune in particular, was pretty critical of Donald Trump in the aftermath of that. John Cornyn also has has raised some concerns about Donald Trump. And I had to ask them about all these issues in the years since Donald Trump left office. Here’s some of what they have said just last year.

After playing two quick clips from Sens. Thune and Cornyn, Raju added, “Now, things have changed in recent months.”

“In fact, after the New Hampshire primary, Cornyn endorsed Donald Trump for president. Thune actually had endorsed Senator Tim Scott in the Republican presidential nominating contest. But as you can see on your screen there, there was a tweet that Cornyn put out in the heat of this fall campaign. Cornyn actually was in Austin, Texas, waiting for Trump to come tape his podcast with Joe Rogan. And there’s Cornyn on board Trump’s plane saying, ‘Glad to welcome you, President, Mr. President. Trump to Texas’ because Cornyn himself and Thune both have tried to align themselves more with Donald Trump in recent months and perhaps that it will pay off if Donald Trump decides to hold off and not endorse anybody in this contest or maybe endorse them before this key vote on Wednesday,’ concluded Raju.

Watch the clip above via CNN.