Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended the expected quick pace for confirmation hearings on President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees – saying Democrats who want to slow things down are just "frustrated " they lost the election.
In an interview with CBS News' "Face The Nation," the Kentucky Republican said Democrats need to "grow up here and get past that."
"We need to have the president's national security team in place on Day One," he said. "I am optimistic that we will be able to get up to seven nominees on Day One just like we did eight years ago" for President Barack Obama, he said.
McConnell said Republicans didn't balk at the pace during those Obama administration nominee hearings.
"We confirmed seven Cabinet appointments the day President Obama was sworn in," he said. "We didn't like most of them either. But he won the election."
"So all of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration in having not only lost the White House but having lost the Senate."
McConnell said Democrats "should want to treat President-elect Trump just like we treated President-elect Obama. "
"We found most of his Cabinet appointments just as disturbing as they would find President Trump's, and that is what happens when you lose the election," he said.
McConnell also defended Trump's desire for a better relationship with Russia.
"My suspicion is these hopes will be dashed pretty quickly," he said. "The Russian's are clearly a big adversary and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election."
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