Washington Examiner Senior Investigative Editor Sarah Bedford said it is “unlikely” that the Senate will stay in Washington, D.C. this week to confirm Mike Waltz as ambassador to the United Nations before the general assembly.
Bedford said she thinks there is “a lot of pressure” not to have weekend sessions because Charlie Kirk’s funeral is on Sunday.
“I think it is unlikely that they stay there this weekend,” Bedford said on The Hugh Hewitt Show. “There is a lot of obviously interest among, especially the Republican senators, in going to Arizona for Charlie Kirk’s funeral.”
President Donald Trump nominated Waltz, who was serving as a national security adviser at the time, to the ambassador position in May. His nomination was revoted 11-10 out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
The Senate could confirm Waltz this week if senators stay over the weekend or next week if they were to miss part of the scheduled recess for the Rosh Hashanah Jewish holiday.
Bedford said there is “enormous frustration” with Waltz’s nomination being stalled.
“That meeting has been on the calendar for a very long time, and he went through the committee process relatively quickly, like all the rest of the nominations; it’s just been languishing there,” Bedford said. “For a lot of Republicans, [the confirmations] are just not moving fast enough.”
Trump is set to speak at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City next week, after he attends Kirk’s funeral this weekend.
A government shutdown is also looming if Republicans cannot get at least seven Senate Democrats to break the filibuster and keep the government open past the Sept. 30 deadline.
Bedford said Democrats “just might” shut down the government.
“They are still reeling from their experience in the Spring when some Senate Democrats, including [Minority Leader Chuck Schumer(D-NY)], did help Republicans and kept the government open,” Bedford said. “Progressives made sure those Democrats knew they were unhappy about that and never wanted to see that again.”
She said that even though Republicans aren’t asking for much, Democrats “want this fight.”
“A clean [continuing resolution] is usually how this thing is done, and [Democrats] are just really, really angry and are looking for ways to show voters that they are registering that anger,” she said.
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Hewitt questioned how Democrats are “not reading the room” following Kirk’s assassination. Bedford said the problem for Democrats “across the board” has been listening to the “most vocal” progressive activist.
“[Democrats] have not been listening to the voters who have abandoned them over the years because their brand has become so toxic to most Americans,” Bedford said. “So [Democrats] are really just listening to an outraged minority and not the majority of the country, that is, you’re right, pretty disgusted by the tactics of the Left right now.”