President Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) are making slow progress toward a deal to clear some of the Senate’s backlog of executive branch nominees to allow weary senators to leave Washington for the four-week August recess.

Walking off the darkened Senate floor at 10 pm Friday, Thune said negotiators "floated" proposals "back and forth all day" but added that the Democratic demands "are probably not going to be something at this point we can meet."

"No deal yet," he said.

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and will vote at 10 a.m. to limit debate on Andrew Puzder's nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

Democrats are under heavy pressure to oppose Trump in any way they can, including stymying his nominees, and their anger soared again on Friday after the president fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the agency released a weaker-than-expected jobs report.

Trump accused McEntarfer, a Biden appointee, of manipulating the jobs data for “political purposes” but Schumer said the president was only “shooting the messenger.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the Democrats chief deputy whip, said called the firing “absolutely insane” while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) called it “Soviet sh--.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he’s willing to stick around steamy Washington for however many days it takes to grind through votes on Trump’s nominees, showing little appetite for a deal to advance a bloc of Trump picks through unanimous consent or a voice vote.

“I know there’s a lot of things being negotiated so I’m not going to comment on........

© The Hill