Less than two weeks into the Trump administration, and Senate Democrats have charged into battle.

Goaded by demonstrations across the nation — and the groundswell of progressive anger over President Donald Trump’s nominees and executive orders — Democrats blockaded three Cabinet picks on Tuesday, preventing them from advancing out of committee. Five Democrats later joined Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York to vote against Elaine Chao's nomination to run the Transportation department — even though she's married to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.


It was a sharp escalation in the clash between Senate Democrats and the Trump administration, which galvanized the opposition by unilaterally installing severe restrictions on immigration from seven majority-Muslim nations. The chamber descended into disarray, as Democrats deployed the same tactics against Trump’s picks that Republicans had used against them during the Obama years — and then some.

Sen. Patty Murray, the No. 3 Democratic leader, noted that "hundreds of thousands of people are making their voice heard" to oppose Trump's "truly awful nominees," adding that "Democrats are fighting back with every tool we have."

The day’s Cabinet chaos frustrated the White House and Republicans while thrilling the Democratic base even as the party grapples with internal tension over whether they should try to filibuster Trump's coming Supreme Court nomination.

"There are a lot of challenging dynamics in the Senate right now," Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told reporters. "President Trump is shaking the frame and the foundations of this structure in a way that hasn’t happened in my lifetime."

But the Democratic boycotts won’t derail the nominees, and GOP vowed to keep the chamber in session well into the night to overcome the resistance.

“It’s just an old-fashioned hissy fit," Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters. "They are angry by the outcome of the election and they want to continue to litigate the election after it’s over. They need to get over it and get to work.”

Democrats insisted that their moves to block committee votes on health secretary pick Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Treasury secretary-in-waiting Steven Mnuchin stemmed from new press reports that raised questions about statements both made under oath. But Schumer's vote against Chao, and the judiciary committee’s delayed vote on attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), stemmed from sharp Democratic objections to Trump's immigration crackdown — as well as its fumbled execution. The new travel restrictions set off global disarray, hundreds of detentions and massive protests nationwide.

The empty seat of Sen. Claire McCaskill can seen as Democrats skip a Senate Finance Committee meeting where they were supposed to vote on the nominations of Rep. Tom Price to be HHS secretary and Steven Mnuchin to be treasury secretary on Jan. 31 in Washington D.C.

Schumer downplayed the significance of his vote against Chao, telling reporters that he would oppose all further Trump nominees who do not clarify where they stand on "this horrible executive order" on immigration.

The Finance panel's chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) slammed the obstruction of the Price and Mnuchin votes as "unprecedented," calling it "the most pathetic thing I've ever seen" during his years in the Senate. McConnell later told reporters that "the only chaos we have in the Senate is because of Senate Democrats."

"I think they look quite foolish," the Kentucky Republican jabbed.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer echoed the alarm among Republicans, calling the hearing boycott "truly outrageous."

"The idea that these highly qualified nominees have the votes for their nomination to be endorsed out of committee and get a full vote are being stalled because Democrats are boycotting the committee vote is outrageous," Spicer told reporters.

Republicans boycotted a 2013 committee vote on confirming Gina McCarthy, the former head of Obama's EPA, and used the obscure "two-hour rule" that year to delay committee consideration of John Koskinen, the Internal Revenue Service commissioner hated by many conservatives.

Moderate West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin told POLITICO that he has underlined his disagreement with the use of delaying tactics to his fellow members of the Democratic leadership team. But Manchin said he shares his party's objections to the immigration order, which was rolled out quickly with "no advisement or consultation from the people that we fast-tracked through" to join Trump's Cabinet hours after his inauguration, including Defense Secretary James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown — a liberal stalwart — on Monday pitched the idea of boycotting the Finance committee’s vote on Price and Mnuchin to the panel’s top Democrat, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden.

“I learned in the last 48 hours that they both lied to the committee,” Brown said of Price and Mnuchin. The Democrat was referring to reports this week on the “robo-signing” of mortgage documents at OneWest, the bank where Mnuchin served as CEO, and on Price’s alleged discount for a lucrative purchase of biomedical stock.

The halted Cabinet votes in committee were also marked by multiple protests. Hours after the Finance panel boycott, 47 demonstrators were arrested in front of Hatch’s office during a sit-in of roughly 70 people, including health care workers and patients from the Save My Care coalition.

A spokesperson for the group said individuals were charged with unlawful crowding and obstruction.

Hatch told reporters he would try again to vote on Price and Mnuchin on Wednesday, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also set up a Wednesday attempt to complete a vote on Sessions. But it's all but guaranteed that Trump's Tuesday night Supreme Court selection will raise temperatures in the Senate, and Democrats said they might keep withholding consent for routine decisions.

And beyond the three Cabinet nominees still stuck in committee, signs of trouble were emerging for two others. Democratic senators on the environment committee huddled Tuesday afternoon to decide whether to mount a boycott of Wednesday’s panel vote on Scott Pruitt, the conservative Oklahoma attorney general Trump tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins said today that she is still undecided about whether to support Pruitt once the full Senate considers him, although at least three more Republicans would need to defect in order to bring down the nomination. Collins and Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski also on Tuesday reserved the right to oppose Betsy DeVos on the floor after backing the Education Secretary pick during a contentious committee vote.

Seung Min Kim, Zachary Warmbrodt, Madeline Conway, Adam Cancryn, Brianna Ehley, Michael Stratford, and Nick Juliano contributed to this report.