WASHINGTON — Democratic senators plan to aggressively target eight of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in the coming weeks and are pushing to stretch their confirmation votes into March, an unprecedented break with Senate tradition.
Such delays would upend Republican hopes of quickly holding hearings and confirming most of Trump’s top picks on Inauguration Day.
But Democrats, hamstrung by their minority status, are determined to slow-walk Trump’s picks unless they start disclosing reams of personal financial data they’ve withheld so far, according to senior aides.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., has told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that Democrats will hone in especially on Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state; Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Trump’s choice for attorney general; Representative Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., tapped to lead the Office of Management and Budget; and Betsy DeVos, set to serve as education secretary.
They will also focus on Representative Tom Price, R-Ga., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and oversee changes to the federal health care law, who is set to be attacked by Democrats for his support for privatizing Medicare.
Andrew Puzder, a restaurant executive set to serve as labor secretary, will face scrutiny for past comments on the minimum wage, among other policies. Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner set to serve as treasury secretary, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to lead the EPA, will also be the subject of Democratic attacks, aides said.
‘‘President-elect Trump is attempting to fill his rigged Cabinet with nominees that would break key campaign promises and have made billions off the industries they’d be tasked with regulating,’’ Schumer said in a statement Sunday confirming his caucus’s plans.
‘‘Any attempt by Republicans to have a series of rushed, truncated hearings before Inauguration Day and before the Congress and public have adequate information on all of them is something Democrats will vehemently resist,’’ Schumer said. “If Republicans think they can quickly jam through a whole slate of nominees without a fair hearing process, they’re sorely mistaken.’’
Absent from the Democratic list are retired Marine General James N. Mattis, set to serve as defense secretary; South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who Trump has nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Nations; and John Kelly, a former Marine general and Trump’s selection to lead the Department of Homeland Security, signaling that all three should expect little trouble from Democrats.
Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin next week.
The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the Democrats’ announcement.
In a separate development, Trump said over the weekend that he does not trust computer security and is leaning toward old methods, including couriers, to ensure the security of sensitive messages.
‘‘It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I'll tell you what, no computer is safe,’’ Trump told reporters Saturday in response to questions about Russia’s alleged hacking of Democrats during the presidential election.
Trump, who has said he doesn’t e-mail or search the Internet, said days earlier that computers ‘‘have complicated lives very greatly.’’
President Obama, who was a youthful 47 years old when he took office, carries a specially outfitted Blackberry, e-mails with a small number of friends and aides, and has received some of his daily security briefings on an iPad.
Trump, 70, rarely uses a computer and sifts through stacks of newspapers, magazines, and printed articles to read the news. He panned candidates’ reliance on data and technology in presidential campaigns, preferring to make decisions in part based on the reaction from audiences at his rallies.
While Trump’s tweet storms are already legendary, he utters some of his Twitter messages out loud and leaves the actual typing to aides.
Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he expects Trump to continue using Twitter and other social media sites as president, casting it as an effective way to communicate with Americans.
‘‘Absolutely, you’re going to see Twitter,’’ Spicer said Sunday on ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’
As Trump heads into the White House, some of the biggest questions surrounding his relationship with technology will involve security.
US intelligence agencies say Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and a top aide to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the election, exposing the vulnerabilities of systems in Washington.
As a candidate, Trump called for an immediate review of US cyber defenses and vulnerabilities, though he has not detailed specific steps he plans to take to bolster cybersecurity and has not publicly accepted the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was behind the election year hacking.
