U.S. Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to join Republicans late Tuesday in voting to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, making a corporate lobbyist, election denier, and loyalist of President Donald Trump the nation’s top law enforcement official.
But while Fetterman was alone among Democrats in backing Bondi’s confirmation, the 54-46 vote took place earlier than initially scheduled as Senate Democrats declined to do everything in their power to hold up the confirmation process.
Some Democratic senators have said publicly that they intend to delay Trump nominees as much as possible in retaliation for billionaire Elon Musk’s White House-backed rampage through federal agencies, but no member of the minority party objected to unanimous consent on moving forward with the Bondi proceedings, paving the way for Tuesday’s vote.
Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said in a statement that “Pam Bondi’s confirmation is just another example of what we’ve seen from the Trump White House and the Republican-controlled Congress over the last two weeks: a government of, by, and for wealthy special interests.”
“I shudder to think what Pam Bondi’s response will be when Elon Musk and his band of lost boys wander into the Department of Justice and demand access to computer systems where sensitive information about ongoing criminal investigations is stored,” Harvey added. “Bondi’s record of caving to big donors and corporate interests is exactly the opposite of what we need right now in an attorney general.”
In recent days, as Musk’s lieutenants have wreaked havoc across the federal government and moved to shutter entire agencies, Senate Democrats have made a show of opposition, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) pumping his fists at a protest Wednesday outside of the Treasury Department building and chanting, “We will win!”
But as The Associated Press reported, Schumer’s chants were “quickly drowned out by chants of, ‘Shut down the Senate!'” And even as they’ve pledged to fight the Trump administration’s authoritarianism, Democrats have continued supporting the president’s nominees.
“People around the country are asking Senate Dems to fight back,” Indivisible’s Ezra Levin wrote Tuesday. “But today, 22 Senate Dems voted for yet another Trump nominee (Collins for VA). If yours voted the right way, thank them. If they voted the wrong way, do what you can to let your entire community know and express disapproval.”
Our Revolution, a progressive advocacy organization, implored Senate Democrats on Tuesday to “act as a real opposition party” by placing a “blanket hold on all Trump nominees” and “using every procedural tool available” to obstruct business as usual, “from quorum calls to blocking unanimous consent” — a procedure central to the day-to-day functioning of the upper chamber.
“This is not the time for silence or half-measures,” said Our Revolution. “Grassroots progressives demand bold, decisive action to protect democracy and halt this authoritarian takeover.”
Axiosreported Tuesday that “incensed Democrats are eyeing a wide-scale blockade of nominees that lasts far beyond the confirmation hearings for the boldfaced names in Trump’s Cabinet,” and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) has vowed to object to unanimous consent on advancing Trump State Department picks over the Musk-led dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
But progressives said anything short of all-out opposition to Trump nominees — including sweeping refusal of unanimous consent — is sufficient.
“What’s happening right now is unprecedented, dangerous, and ultimately so far beyond anything approaching acceptable that there’s only one real option for congressional Democrats. Not a single vote for anything. Nothing,” wrote Stephen Miles, the president of Win Without War. “No more [unanimous consent]. No more votes for noms. Nothing. This has to stop.”
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