Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson on Sunday left the door open for Congress to adjourn so that President-elect Donald Trump can appoint his Cabinet nominees outside the usual Senate confirmation process if necessary.
“We are in a time of very divided government and a very partisan atmosphere in Washington. I wish it weren’t so. I wish that the Senate would simply do its work of advice and consent and allow the President to place in his Cabinet the persons of his choice. But if this case goes to a standstill, it would be a great detriment to the country, to the American people,” Johnson, R-La., told Fox News Sunday in response to a question about whether he would be willing to let that happen. Trump is using the recess nomination process instead of the traditional Senate confirmation process for certain nominees.
A recess appointment occurs when a president unilaterally circumvents the Senate’s responsibility to confirm cabinet nominees and appoint them to office during a period when both the House of Representatives and the Senate are not in session for at least ten days.
Johnson said on Sunday: “We will evaluate all that at the right time and make the right decision. There may be a function for that. We’ll have to see how it turns out.”
He added: “I am sympathetic to all these arguments. Like I said, we’ll have to see how this plays out. I am very hopeful, very hopeful, that the Senate will do its job, which is to say, provide its advice and consent and move these nominees forward.”
To allow for the recess appointment process, the House and Senate would both have to vote to postpone the recess for a period of at least ten days, which would require them to agree unanimously, or both chambers would have to vote on a simultaneous decision to postpone the case for a certain period of time.
Both chambers commonly indulged in pro forma sessions, even during times of recess, specifically to prevent the president from making recess appointments and circumventing congressional approval.
President Barack Obama once tried to use recess appointments and was rebuked by the Supreme Court, which said in 2014 that recess appointments had to last 10 days or more for recess appointments to be legal.
Johnson is not the only Trump ally who has left the door open to using a recess appointment to confirm Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Also on Sunday, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that confirming some of Trump’s picks would be a “very difficult” process, so recess appointments would be a “last resort.”
“It would be the absolute last resort,” Mullin said. “But if that’s what we have to do to get confirmation through, then absolutely let’s do it. But I would say that would be the last option.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Sunday that Democrats would try to thwart the Republican Party’s efforts to make recess appointments. will work very closely with our Democratic colleagues in the Senate. I have a lot of confidence and respect in it [Senate Majority] Leader Chuck Schumer and [Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman] Dick Durbin to ensure no end runs can be made.
On Sunday, Johnson also spoke about Trump’s choice for attorney general, former Republican Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz has come under scrutiny after resigning from the House of Representatives last week following his appointment to Trump’s Cabinet.
While serving in Congress, he was the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations, but senators on both sides of the aisle have called for the committee’s report to be made public or shared privately ahead of his confirmation vote.
Johnson had previously argued against the release of the report, telling CNN on Sunday: “What I said regarding the report is that it should not come out, and why, because Matt Gaetz has resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member. There is a very important protocol, tradition and rule that we maintain that states that the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee does not extend to non-members of Congress.”
He added that senators “will undergo a rigorous review process in the Senate, but they will not have to rely on a report or a draft report, a rough draft report prepared by the Ethics Committee for very limited purposes. ”
Johnson also said he has not spoken to the president-elect about the ethics report.
“I literally haven’t discussed a word about the ethics report, not once, and I’ve talked to him quite a bit this week,” Johnson said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
