Trio of Trump Picks Creates Headaches for GOP
You know itâs a surreal time in Washington, D.C. when Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is the Democrat making the most sense. While his party has a collective âfreakoutâ over Donald Trumpâs potential hires, the Senateâs resident hoodie-wearer was asked if heâs as panicked as his colleagues about the president-electâs Cabinet choices. âItâs still not even Thanksgiving yet,â he told CNN. âAnd if weâre having meltdowns, you know, every tweet or every appointment or all of those things, I mean, itâs going to be four years.â
And yes, while Trump probably did have fun âtrollingâ Democrats with some of these picks, as Fetterman said, theyâre not the only ones with reservations. At least three of the presidentâs nominees are giving both parties heartburn heading into the holidays: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Matt Gaetz, and Pete Hegseth. Welcome to the job, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). Youâve just been handed a political nightmare.
Philip Wegmann, White House Correspondent for Real Clear Politics, said this all clears up one thing: âThis is Donald Trumpâs transition and no one elseâs.â Wegmann, who joined Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturdayâs âThis Week on the Hillâ thought â like many people â that the president-elect was âplaying it safeâ with his first string of announcements. âThere was a bit of bipartisan consensus behind a pick like, say, Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Thatâs someone who is certainly well-qualified for that position. ⊠And then came some of these more unconventional picks. Pete Hegseth for Department of Defense Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and then most recently, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz for Attorney General. What that tells you is that it is Donald Trump, fundamentally, who is making these decisions â and him alone. Itâs not an advisor. Itâs not any outside group. Itâs him.â
The only decision he couldnât control was Thuneâs promotion. While Trump didnât weigh in personally on the Republican leadership race in the Senate, plenty of his surrogates did. And in the end, the pressure they exerted didnât sway the more insulated chamber. âThe reason why I think that we should still put a pin in this and watch closely,â Wegmann said of Thune and his party, âis that thereâs sort of a bubbling frustration among the right flank. ⊠With how things are going ⊠Republicans are of the opinion that Donald Trump has a mandate after winning the Electoral College and also the popular vote. And so, the question is, when someone like Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has shown that he is ready to move the ball down the field, are Senate Republicans also going to be team players here?â
While Senator Marco Rubio, Lee Zeldon, and others are âno-brainersâ for the administration, as Perkins called them, there are other question marks, like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R), who, apart from the hysteria her dead puppy created, lost plenty of fans when she caved on popular girlsâ sports protections. As Wegmann acknowledged, Noem has had âa bit of a fall from grace certainly.â But, he predicted, âIâm not certain that weâre going to see Republicans abandon ship here.â Heading Homeland Security may seem like a big job, but âI think she is seen sort of as a key piece here whoâs going to compliment Tom Homan, the border czar.â
Although Gaetz may lead the pack of controversial picks, equally triggering to Democrats (and many conservatives) is the nod for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head Health and Human Services (HHS). âYou want to talk about a realignment?â Wegmann asked. âRFK Jr. represents so much of what is new from Donald Trump, because of Trumpâs ability to reach out to Independent voters who are perhaps homeless among the two-party system,â he pointed out. âBut letâs not forget RFK Jr. [is] a Catholic individual, but he also supports abortion rights. Heâs very skeptical of pharmaceutical companies, but heâs also anti-Big Bank, anti-Big Business. Heâs an environmentalist. This is one of these guys who sort of breaks the mold. And Democrats, I donât think many of them are going to lend their support to RFK Jr. at HHS. Iâm curious to see if there will be many Republican defections.â
If former Vice President Mike Pence got a vote, it would be an emphatic no. âThe Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made at HHS every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration always stood for life,â Pence insisted on Friday. âI believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,â he declared.
Perkins, for his part, said heâd be âwilling to sit down and talkâ with the moderate but admitted he has âreservations.â âFor me, the sanctity of human life and that moral fabric of our nation, that foundation, is absolutely critical. Iâd have to have some assurances there for now. Put me in the skeptical column when it comes to RFK.â
The nomination that has had the most heads spinning is Gaetzâs, which took even his own party by surprise. As Axios tells it, the announcement was met with âaudible gasps by House Republicansâ in the conference meeting last week. âThe reason why this is interesting,â Wegmann believes, âis that if you talk to Gaetz allies, theyâll say that in preparation for this contentious confirmation battle, heâs burning the ships like Cortez. ⊠If you talk to folks who are a bit more cynical, the timing here is very curious. The House Ethics Committee was preparing to release a report concerning [the] activity of Mr. Gaetz and an allegedly underage girl,â he explained, âand by leaving Congress that effectively stymies that effort. ⊠[T]hat was sort of the speculation that perhaps he was leaving early to avoid that accountability.â
Of course, as both men made clear, once a member leaves Congress, they are no longer under the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee, so the investigation is â for all intents and purposes â dead. But there is the very real possibility that Democrats could leak it out as the nomination advances. What Wegmann has heard is that the report is a âgrenade,â and itâs âonly a matter of time before it explodes.â Democrats, after all, âhave an incentive for this information to get out there, but they donât want it to go off right now. They want to wait until itâs able to inflict maximum damage. Then there are some Republicans who would rather this information get out earlier, so the president-elect can either reexamine his choice or perhaps Gaetz can bow out.â
The âconference-splitter,â as Axios called him, got a cool reception from senators like Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and others who donât seem anxious to give Trump a pass on this one. âThis shows why the advice and consent process is so important,â Collins said, hinting that she wonât be so quick to let the president-elect bypass the traditional vetting with recess appointments. Murkowski stressed that Gaetz wasnât even âa serious candidate.â âIf I wanted to make a joke, maybe I would say now Iâm waiting for [disgraced former Congressman] George Santos to be named.â
Of the three nominees who are most outside the box, Fox Newsâs Pete Hegseth is probably getting the most movement support. Several columnists are making the argument that the young veteran is plenty experienced, despite the Leftâs shrieks to the contrary. The rumblings over his personal life have certainly given his detractors fodder, but others believe he is skilled enough â and determined enough â to overhaul the military and purge the Defense Department of four years of social experimentation.
Still, the thought âmakes the Left go crazy,â Wegmann admitted. âBut this is someone who was in the Armed Services for 20 years. He has won medals, and his nomination makes sense if you look at his book, if you look at the Shawn Ryan interview. This is someone who is absolutely on fire for reforming the Pentagon and going after sort of the woke excesses there. I think thatâs why Donald Trump picked him. And Hegseth will be prepared for that confirmation hearing. You donât get to be on TV every weekend if youâre not quick on your feet. I think heâs got a good shot.â
AUTHOR
Suzanne Bowdey
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
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