Warren on nominees: ‘This is ridiculous,’ no confirmation hearings until ethics concerns addressed

This weekend Sen. Elizabeth Warren railed against starting the confirmation process on Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, saying they must not get a hearing until their conflict-of-interest paperwork had been completed and reviewed. Nikita Vladimirov writes:

"Cabinet officials must put our country's interests before their own. No [confirmation] hearings should be held until we’re certain that’s the case," the Massachusetts Democrat tweeted.

Warren responded to a letter from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), an agency that is responsible for conducting ethics reviews of Cabinet nominees, which warned that the plan to hold confirmation hearings before the completion of ethics reviews is "of great concern."

“This is ridiculous," Warren tweeted, "[Trump's nominees] can’t drag their feet on ethics paperwork while their Senate friends try to run out the clock."

Mitch McConnell made similar demands concerning background checks of Obama nominees in 2009, but now he's rushing through at least nine confirmation hearings this week to avoid proper vetting. 

Time for Democrats to step up and join Warren. Chuck Schumer has criticized the move, but we need more than this.

“The Office of Government Ethics letter makes crystal-clear that the transition team’s collusion with Senate Republicans to jam through these Cabinet nominees before they’ve been thoroughly vetted is unprecedented,” Schumer said in a statement Saturday.