This is the Cater Daily podcast for Wednesday, November 20th, 2024.

I'm Caleb Brown.

When it comes to confirming President-elect Trump's nominees for various high-level posts,

Congress has a pretty basic job.

Confirm or reject those nominees.

It's basic oversight of the executive branch,

but the future president would like Congress to just not do that job.

Tommy Berry discusses the exceptionally weak case for full congressional abdication

in potentially allowing recess appointments for Trump nominees.

Walk me through the details here because I think this event is instructive when it comes to

understanding recess appointments and their legitimacy.

When Jeff Sessions departed from his post during Trump One, we'll call it, the first Trump

administration, when he departed, what happened next?

Sure.

So typically when a cabinet member departs unexpectedly, the norm is that the president will

use the Vacancies Act to install a temporary acting officer without

Senate consent, but someone who's received Senate confirmation to some other high-ranking

post in that same department. That did not happen under Trump One when Jeff Sessions resigned.

Trump instead picked Matthew Whitaker, who had been Sessions chief of staff. And what was unusual about that pick coming in the middle of a presidential administration when many Senate-confirmed officers were available to serve as the acting officer is that Whitaker had not been confirmed by the Senate to his position. It was not a position requiring Senate consent. And that set off a lot of alarm bells as a breaking of a norm,

someone who didn't have that kind of democratic rubber stamp to serve at the highest level of the

department. And in my view, it even raised constitutional questions about whether it violated the

appointments clause. And at that time, what was the Senate's reaction to Trump appointing someone who was

...