President-elect Donald Trump is wielding his decisive White House victory over the new Republican majority in the Senate to usher through a slate of unconventional Cabinet nominees who have some lawmakers reeling.
Rejecting any of the president’s picks, however, will incur the wrath of Mr. Trump and his massive base of supporters who carried him to his landslide win.
“I think the president’s electoral mandate is big,” Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said Thursday as he walked through the Capitol. “People can try to stymie the president’s electoral mandate, but I think it wouldn’t be very smart on the Republican front to do that. He’s the most popular Republican in the country.”
Mr. Paul noted this 2024 election statistic lurking in the minds of Senate Republicans: Mr. Trump, who won every swing state, often outperformed Republican Senate candidates on the ballot.
Mr. Paul said even Mr. Trump’s wildest picks stand a strong chance of winning confirmation.
“Politicians are aware of our elections. They watch how people vote,” Mr. Paul said. “It doesn’t always work, but I think there’s a pretty good chance that his nominees will get through.”
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It won’t be easy.
Republicans are questioning Mr. Trump’s selections of former Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, former Democrat and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Gaetz was under a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged drug use, sexual misconduct and other rules violations, including misuse of campaign funds, bribery and sharing “inappropriate” images on the House floor. The House investigation ended with his resignation Wednesday, but Senate Republicans and Democrats want to see the panel’s findings before voting on his confirmation as attorney general.
Republicans will control 53 votes when the confirmation process starts next year and don’t need any Democratic support to confirm nominees with a simple majority.
Rounding up the 51 Republican votes for Mr. Gaetz “is going to be very difficult,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma Republican.
Senators are questioning the qualifications of Mr. Hegseth, a major in the Army National Guard and veterans advocate who most recently worked as the weekend morning show host on Fox News. Ms. Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who served in Congress for eight years, has relatively little experience in the intelligence field. An anti-war crusader who recently quit the Democratic Party to back Mr. Trump, Ms. Gabbard also has been accused of sympathizing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which she denies.
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Mr. Kennedy, a Democrat who turned independent, will face pushback from Republican senators who reject his advocacy against fluoridated water and some vaccines and fear that he will take a wrecking ball to the government’s health agency.
Senate Republicans have settled into two camps on how they plan to respond to the controversial picks.
Mr. Paul and others said the Senate Republican majority should confirm Mr. Trump’s nominees and do so as quickly as possible so the president can advance his agenda.
“He’s the leader of my party. He’s just won a resounding victory,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican and member of the Judiciary Committee. “My state voted for him overwhelmingly, and I support him. So my intent is, my presumption is, to vote for all these folks.”
In the other camp, senators threw up caution flags. Some laughed at Mr. Trump’s picks, and others said they needed to learn more about them.
These senators want a closer look at the nominees through the traditional confirmation process, which involves running the candidates through lengthy questionnaires and hours of public hearings.
“I think we all would like for the president to be successful, and I agree he’s had a mandate here, but we have a job to do as well,” said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican and a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Cornyn said the confirmation process is designed to provide advice and consent to the executive branch and protect the president.
“If there are surprises that come up that are an embarrassment to him or the administration or the United States, then I would think he would want us to know about that ahead of time so that he can take that into consideration,” he said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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