Will Graham, McConnell absences affect confirmation hearings this week?

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

The death of longtime South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and the ongoing illness and recovery of Kentucky U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell may affect proceedings in the Senate this week.

After more than a week of recess for the July 4 holiday, both chambers of Congress have returned to Washington, D.C., for a few weeks on the hill before August recess. The Senate will hold confirmation hearings for more than a dozen administration nominees, including for a new attorney general, director of national intelligence, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and secretary of Labor.

While most of the president’s nominees are confirmed by unanimous Republican support, occasionally, some party members detract. McConnell has been one of those detractors several times during the second Trump administration, voting no on key nominations like War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. McConnell was the sole Republican senator to vote against both Kennedy’s and Gabbard’s confirmations.

McConnell also spoke out against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the current nominee to lead the Justice Department, upon discovering that he had agreed to the administration’s proposal for a $1.8 billion compensation fund for people who claimed they were unlawfully targeted and prosecuted by the Justice Department. McConnell especially opposed the prospect of such a fund being used to compensate Jan. 6 rioters who were convicted of assaulting police officers.

Several Republican senators echoed McConnell’s objections and Blanche ultimately scrapped the fund.

He has also been criticized for choices he made while serving as deputy attorney general under former Attorney General Pam Bondi. Last week, more than 1,200 former department employees wrote a letter urging the Senate to reject his nomination. Some conservative groups and Epstein survivors have also opposed his confirmation.

While McConnell may have voted against Blanche’s confirmation, Graham was outspoken in his support of Blanche’s nomination and it was announced Monday that Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone, will serve as an interim South Carolina senator in her brother’s place. If she is sworn in and present for the confirmation hearing, set to take place on Wednesday, then Blanche will likely be in a stronger position than if McConnell – who according to a statement suffered a fall and then contracted a mild case of pneumonia – were present.

The Senate will also consider the nominations of Jay Clayton for director of national intelligence, Erica Schwartz for CDC director and Keith Sonderling for labor secretary. All three have seen less pushback from Republicans than Blanche, but they may lose a vote with McConnell being out as Schwartz is not associated with the Make America Healthy Again movement and Clayton is also a more conventional pick than Gabbard.