Senate recesses as Trump tells Schumer to ‘go to hell’

By Mary Clare Jalonick and Joey Cappelletti Associated Press WASHINGTON The Senate is leaving Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump s nominees calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can GO TO HELL Without a deal in hand Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations Trump has been pressuring senators to move swiftly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee I think they re desperately in need of change Senate Majority Leader John Thune commented of Senate rules Saturday after negotiations with Schumer and Trump broke down I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process nominations is broken And so I expect there will be several good robust conversations about that The latest standoff comes as Democrats and Republicans have gradually escalated their obstruction of the other party s executive branch and judicial nominees over the last two decades and as Senate leaders have incrementally changed Senate rules to speed up confirmations and make them less bipartisan In Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the -vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama s judicial picks In Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans for weeks to cancel the August recess and grind through dozens of his nominations as Democrats have slowed the process But Republicans hoped to make a deal with Democrats instead and came close several times over the last scant days as the two parties and the White House negotiated over moving a large tranche of nominees in exchange for reversing particular of the Trump administration s spending cuts on foreign aid among other issues But it was clear that there would be no agreement when Trump attacked Schumer on social media Saturday evening and described them to pack it up and go home Tell Schumer who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party the Radical Left Lunatics to GO TO HELL Trump posted on Truth Social Do not accept the offer go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are and what a great job the Republicans are doing and have done for our Country Thune stated afterward that there were several different times when the two sides thought they had a deal but in the end we didn t close it out It s the first time in current history that the minority party hasn t allowed at least particular quick confirmations Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days and with longer hours this year to try and confirm as several of Trump s nominees as realizable But Democrats had little desire to give in without the spending cut reversals or a few other incentive even though they too were eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over regulation We have never seen nominees as flawed as compromised as unqualified as we have right now Schumer declared Saturday