Tim Kaine: “I rise to talk about one of the Senate's foremost constitutional duties, the advice and consent of executive…”

“I rise to talk about one of the Senate's foremost constitutional duties, the advice and consent of executive nominations. The most senior nominees, like Cabinet Secretaries, go through a floor process that normally takes about 4 days, if you run through all the procedural steps by the book. Other nominees, typically people with highly specialized expertise, go through a rigorous committee process and are often confirmed by unanimous consent. Any Senator can object; that is the right of the Senator. If they feel that even one of hundreds of lower-level nominees should take up nearly a full week of the U.S. Senate's time, they can insist upon that. I think Presidents are due an appropriate level of discretion in picking their teams, and I believe this is true whether or not the President is one I support or oppose. I believe in having the executive branch staffed with qualified professionals. I do draw the line at three areas: if a nominee is totally unqualified for the job, if there is a well-justified reason to question a nominee's ethics or honesty or impartiality, and, finally, if a nominee is so outside the mainstream in ways that go beyond normal good-faith disagreement on matters of policy. I opposed a number of President Trump's nominees who met one or multiple of these criteria, but I also supported a larger percentage of President Trump's nominees.…”