On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) defended putting holds on nominees and bipartisan legislation, including anti-Hezbollah and anti-China legislation, as leverage against the Trump administration and argued that what he’s doing is okay while Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) hold on military promotions in 2023 is different because “These are political appointees, which are always — or usually subject to a Senate vote. And so, what I’m doing is slowing them down. What Sen. Tuberville did was prevent a one-star admiral from being a two-star admiral. These are career Department of Defense flag and general officers that were blocked. That is not the same as what I’m doing.”
Host Jake Tapper asked, “So, Axios reports that among the legislation you’re blocking is one that ‘seeks to counter activities by the terrorist group Hezbollah in Latin America and another condemning China’s assault on Hong Kong’s democracy.’ Those seem pretty important. Why block them?”
Schatz responded, “Yeah, look, part of what it means to do a hold is that sometimes you’re going to block things that you would otherwise allow to happen. And that’s the case for these. I voted for both of those pieces of legislation in committee. But we have to generate some leverage. And so, until Secretary Rubio comes to the committee and testifies about what they’re doing in terms of illegally eviscerating United States aid, I’m not going to allow those — even those bipartisan bills to move forward. It’s not that I will never let them go forward, but where we have some leverage to gum up the works, we’ve got to use it to make sure that, especially in the Senate, they do need both parties to make progress and we have to be willing to stand up to these folks and gum up the works, even if it’s politically uncomfortable to block a bill that you would otherwise be for.”
Tapper then asked, “So, the last time I remember gumming up the works such as this was by a Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville. He was putting holds on military promotions. This is what you said in July 2023 about that.”
Tapper then played a clip of Schatz saying, “Every senator has enormous power. I could probably block the defense bill this week if I wanted to, but I won’t. You know why? Because I’m not a maniac. Because I understand that when you vest someone, through your voters, with this kind of power, you have to be very careful how you exercise it.”
Tapper then asked, “Are you no longer being careful with how you’re exercising the power?”
Schatz answered, “No. There’s a pretty important distinction between what Sen. Tuberville did and what I’m doing. These are political appointees, which are always — or usually subject to a Senate vote. And so, what I’m doing is slowing them down. What Sen. Tuberville did was prevent a one-star admiral from being a two-star admiral. These are career Department of Defense flag and general officers that were blocked. That is not the same as what I’m doing.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett