Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and other conservative senators are planning to block dozens of new Biden administration appointees from entering office next week in retaliation for "lawfare" being waged against former President Trump.
The Republican senator appeared on Fox News Channel’s "The Faulkner Focus" on Friday to detail plans to keep Biden from appointing around 44 new government officials.
"We can’t reward the Biden administration for engaging in lawfare," Vance told host Harris Faulkner, alluding to Trump’s conviction and various other ways Republicans feel the administration has used the law to go after its political opponents.
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The senator mentioned two main reasons why they will be blocking Biden’s nominees. The first is retaliation for Trump’s conviction, and the second, he said, "is to deny Joe Biden some foot soldiers that he has shown he will use to go after his political opposition."
Vance said this is a proper step in Republicans pushing back against the Biden administration, which he said has used undemocratic means to get an advantage over its political opponents – mainly Trump – "for years."
"I think this is one of the most fundamental elements of American democracy – is that we fight over elections. We try to persuade voters to elect us, and whenever the dust clears, however the voters decide, you don’t try to use the power of the state to throw your opponents in jail. You try to beat them at the ballot box."
"And the failure to follow that principle over the last few years from the Biden administration, I think, really threatens the foundation of our country. Republicans just have to push back against it," Vance added.
Faulkner then asked who these Biden nominees were, with the lawmaker replying that there were about 44 of them. Some are set to be appointed to the Department of Justice, others, he said, are judicial nominations and for other departments.
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Vance reiterated his position, saying that if appointees like this "support the weaponization, the criminalization of politics," "we're not gonna allow you to have this job, or at the very least, we're going to force the Democrats to fight for it."
Vance and the other senators, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., detailed their move – which they initially announced late last month – in a statement on Thursday.
Quoting their May 31 announcement, the senators’ statement read, "In a continuing response to the current administration’s persecution of President Donald Trump, we will not allow the fast-tracking of any Biden Article III court judicial nominees, as well as Biden U.S. attorney nominations."
It continued, "Further we will not permit the fast-tracking of nominees who have suggested the Trump prosecutions were reasonable, endorsed Trump’s guilt in these sham proceedings, joined or supported organizations that celebrated the indictment of President Trump, supported the ‘get-Trump’ candidacy of Alvin Bragg, or supported lawfare or censorship in other ways."
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