Eric Schmitt Fires Back at MAGA Fury: ‘We Changed the Rules’
Conservatives are furious over the Senate’s pro forma sessions.
These are the quick, blink-and-you-miss-it meetings where a senator gavels in, gavels out, and no real business happens. But they still matter. By keeping the Senate technically “in session,” they can block a president from making recess appointments.
That has set off a wave of anger across X and conservative media. Many Trump supporters see the move as another Washington trick. They want President Donald Trump’s nominees in place, and they do not want Senate Republicans hiding behind old procedure while the clock runs.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley took serious heat after gaveling in one of the sessions after Memorial Day. Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and John Hoeven of North Dakota have also faced backlash for doing the same during the Fourth of July recess. Since Trump’s second term began, more than 30 Republican senators have reportedly presided over these short sessions.
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But Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., says the outrage is missing a key piece of the story.
In an interview with The Gateway Pundit, Schmitt argued that Senate Republicans already changed the process to deal with Democratic obstruction. His point is simple: the pro forma sessions may look bad, but they are not the reason Trump’s nominees are being held up.
When the Democrats were blocking the appointments…we actually changed the rules. So, we can do en bloc appointments now.
It used to be, you had to do one by one. Democrats were dragging that out, and you had a record low number of appointments. Now because we changed the rules to do the en bloc appointments, we are actually ahead of pace than President Trump’s first term…We are getting those nominations through. So, it’s a different process now — we changed the rules. We were… anticipating the Democrats’ obstructionism. We… accounted for that and I think that’s a good development.
No, no. I get it. As one of President Trump’s closest allies, the last thing we want to do is hold up his appointments. So, we are moving forward.
https://rumble.com/v7cvhtm-sen.-schmitt-asked-why-republicans-keep-gaveling-pro-forma-sessions-to-bloc.html
The rule change Schmitt is pointing to involves en bloc confirmations. That means nominees can be moved in batches instead of one at a time. Democrats had been dragging out the process nominee by nominee. Republicans say the batch-vote approach helps break that logjam.
Senate records cited in the report show Republicans have confirmed more than 340 nominees so far this term. That is faster than Trump’s first-term pace at a similar point in 2017, when the Senate had confirmed roughly 220 to 260 nominees by mid-July.
Still, the frustration is not coming out of nowhere.
Plenty of major nominees remain stuck in committee or waiting on the Senate floor. That is the part voters see. They see long recesses. They see short gavel sessions. They see key posts still open. And they see entrenched bureaucrats still sitting inside the federal government.
That is why the pro forma fight has hit such a nerve. Democrats used this tactic for years. Now Republicans control the Senate, and voters want results, not excuses.
Schmitt’s defense may calm some of the backlash, especially if the confirmation numbers keep improving. But the GOP base is in no mood for business as usual. Congressional approval was already deep underwater as of July 16, 2026, with Ballotpedia’s polling index showing 26% approval and 58% disapproval. An Economist/YouGov poll was even worse, showing 15% approval and 66% disapproval.
For Schmitt, the message is that Republicans are moving Trump’s nominees faster by changing the rules. For angry voters, the demand is even simpler: prove it, and get them confirmed.