Senate Republicans are facing unexpected waves of online vitriol after — essentially — standing in front of their empty chamber during recess and hitting the gavel.
MAGA social media circles have seized on what was once a little-noticed, low-drama procedural affair as the newest opportunity to eviscerate Republicans for what they see as being insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump.
Some GOP senators have even told colleagues in recent weeks they don’t want to be included in the conference’s rotation for presiding over what’s known as the chamber’s pro forma sessions because it will result in being flamed on the internet, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.
“I think people just do it to get clicks, right? And they are also misinformed,” Sen. Ron Johnson said in an interview about the online furor, adding that Republicans “broke the logjam” by confirming most of Trump’s nominees before recess.
The purpose of such sessions is to prevent any president from temporarily installing a Cabinet pick or filling other vacancies without securing Senate confirmation. A 2014 Supreme Court decision laid out restrictions on recess appointments that have limited presidents’ use of the maneuver, and the House would need to agree to terms that would allow them.
But those restrictions are lost on hard-line online activists who are now willing to publicly skewer even typical Trump allies they see as undermining the president’s ability to leapfrog the Senate’s confirmation process and make unilateral recess appointments on nominations.
The outcry also overlooks the fact that Senate Republicans have confirmed more of Trump’s civilian nominees in his second term so far as compared to this point in his first term, thanks to a rule change they made last fall allowing most executive branch picks to be confirmed as a bloc rather than individually.
Sen. Jim Justice on Monday was the latest of the 11 Republican lawmakers who will make the trek to Washington to preside over a pro forma session this summer — and he’s already being branded in corners of the internet as a “traitor” who is “BLOCKING the America First Agenda.”
He followed Sens. John Boozman and Jim Banks, who got an earful from conservatives themselves.
When Johnson presided over the chamber briefly in early July as part of Independence Day recess, he said he got flack online for it. And while he said he wasn’t bothered by the criticism, which included being called one of the “five filthy failures” who oversaw a session during the chamber’s two-week break, his Trump-supporting bona fides also didn’t spare him from the trolling.
What else we’re watching:
— PROGRESSIVES NOTCH FLORIDA WIN AS MILLS EXITS: Democratic Socialist member and state Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off a stunning upset for progressives in the Democratic Florida Senate primaries last night, defeating her better-funded opponent, retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman. It marks one of the progressive movement’s biggest breakthroughs yet this primary season, in part because other successes have been in blue and purple states. In GOP upsets: scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills lost his four-way primary battle for Florida’s 7th District to Ryan Elijah, a former local television news reporte.
— MILLER WARNS OF BLEEDING UNION SUPPORT: GOP leaders have not stood in the way of Rep. Max Miller’s reelection bid amid allegations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and young child. But the Ohio lawmaker is fretting the loss of support from a key constituency — unions — could damage his reelection prospects. Miller wrote in a July 8 court filing that multiple unions are turning their backs on him as a result of allegations raised by his ex-wife Emily Moreno. “Based on those organizations’ typical levels of support, I estimate the withdrawn organizational support at approximately $30,000, in addition to lost personal contributions from individual donors who have told me or my campaign that they will not contribute because of these allegations,” Miller wrote.
Jordain Carney, Kimberly Leonard, Gary Fineout and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
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