SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — It’s been a whirlwind two days, but John Thune is out of Washington, D.C. and back home
“Always good to be in South Dakota, where I would always rather be, but it was an eventful week in Washington and we got a lot of work ahead of us,” Thune said Friday in the KELOLAND Media Group studio.
His new job as U.S. Senate Majority Leader will be demanding.
As President Donald Trump fills out his cabinet, the Senate, under the constitution, holds the important role in confirming, or rejecting high-level officials like cabinet positions.
“Constitutionally, the founders designed in our system of checks and balances to have the United States Senate under Article I perform the confirmation process for the executive branch,” Thune said. “It’s a role that my colleagues in the Senate take very seriously.”
President-elect Trump wants Thune and the Senate to consider letting him use a tool known as “recess appointments.” It essentially lets the nominees bypass Senate confirmation.
“I told President Trump and his team that we want to help him get his folks in office as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Thune said. “That can be done the hard way or the easy way and obviously if the Democrats want to be obstructionists, want to block and in my view thwart the view of the American people who spoke loudly and clearly in this election then we will look at all the options.”
Some of Trump’s picks for cabinet positions have raised eyebrows across the country, even among Republicans.
“They are his choices and he’s the one who got 75 million votes,” Thune said.
Nominees like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Congressman Matt Gaetz will have to go through the confirmation process.
“It’s a very thorough comprehensive process that these nominees have to go through and they have to sit in front of a confirmation hearing for hours at a time and answer questions from both Republicans and Democrats on the committee so that will be determined, ” said Thune.
The Senator heads back to Washington on Monday.
Thune will officially take over as majority leader the first week of January when the members of the 119th Congress are sworn in.
