Senator Schumer is leading an unprecedented effort to oppose President Trump’s nominees. This effort is across the board and is not based on the nominees’ qualifications. In 2009 after President Obama's swearing in:
The very next day the Senate confirmed six of his Cabinet secretaries — Hillary Clinton, Ken Salazar, Tom Vilsack, Steven Chu, Arne Duncan, and Janet Napolitano. Clinton received two no votes, Duncan and Napolitano received so little opposition that Senate only did unrecorded voice votes, and the other three were literally unanimous. The very next day, the Senate unanimously confirmed Obama’s nominees for HUD, Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations ambassador, Securities and Exchange Commission chair, and the Council on Environmental Qualities.
Other Obama nominees were more controversial but still had plenty of Republican support. Eric Holder, not exactly a conservative favorite, got 19 Republican votes. Hilda Solis got 24. Ron Kirk got 38. Tim Geithner got 10. Kathleen Sebelius ended up being the most contentious nomination, since anti-abortion groups decided to go hard at her, but she still got nine Republican votes.
At the time, there were only 40 Republican senators, so that meant about a quarter of the GOP caucus was voting for even the most controversial nominees.
Trump’s nominees have received much less support than Obama’s. Even his least controversial nominees like Defense Secretary James Mattis and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley have drawn token opposition from someone looking to make a point.
Next week is likely President Trump’s most important nominee, a Supreme Court Justice. Senator Schumer has stated his standard for passage:
"If the nominee is out of the mainstream, we will do our best to keep the seat open."
However, the reality is Schumer has already decided to oppose ANY nominee by President Trump:
Schumer said that it is "hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support."
The media and the public needs to realize the Democrat leader of the United States Senate and his party are going to fight any nominee by the President of the United States solely because the President made the nomination.