WASHINGTON — The fate of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet remains unclear after Republican senators spent much of December carefully avoiding questions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. s views on vaccines, sexual assault allegations against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbards Meeting in 2017 with then Syrian President Bashar Assad.
While some GOP senators have indicated they are all-in for Trump’s pick, others have withheld support for now, particularly for some of his more controversial nominees. The dynamic injects uncertainty into the process as Republicans prepare to take the Senate majority in January by a four-seat margin and as Trump aggressively challenging them to immediately confirm his cabinet.
It is not uncommon for senators to wait until after confirmation hearings to publicly announce a decision. But Republicans are under more pressure than usual as Trump and his allies make clear they will confront senators who don’t align.
“You only have control of the Senate because of Donald Trump,” the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., warned during a media appearance this month. “Without it, you would be relegated to insignificance.”
There has been one casualty in the process so far – former rep. Matt Gaetz from Floridawho withdrew from the battle as prosecutor after senators forwarded private concerns. But Trump has enthusiastically stood for the rest, including Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
With hearings starting in mid-January, before Trump is even inaugurated, senators must soon decide how closely they will scrutinize the nominees and whether they are willing to vote against any of them. Republicans will have a 53-47 majority, so Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any nomination if Democrats are united in opposition.
The outcome of the confirmation process, and the level of dissent in the Senate, will likely set the tone for Trump’s presidency and his relationship with Congress, which was often tumultuous during his first term. He often clashed with the Senate, in particular, but has signaled that he expects Republican senators to be more compliant this time around.
“It’s not about saying yes to the board, it’s about keeping the no from the board,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, one of Trump’s best allies in the Senate, who speaks with him frequently.
While most Senate Republicans have struggled to show as much loyalty to Trump as possible, a handful have made clear they are willing to defend the body’s “advise and consent” role. Among the senators to watch are moderate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Sen.-elect John Curtis of Utah.
“Anyone who wants to give me heat for doing my job, bring it on,” Curtis said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” when asked to scrutinize Trump’s nominees. “This is my job. It’s my constitutional responsibility.”
Yet even moderate senators have refrained from directly criticizing Trump’s election. And not a single Republican has gone on the record against a nominee.
Several of Trump’s picks are expected to sail to confirmation, perhaps even with some Democratic votes. Late. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has indicated he will support Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for State Secretary and Rep. Elise Stefanik for UN Ambassador, as well as some other Democrats.
For the more controversial nominees, however, unity within the party will be key.
One of Trump’s most embattled picks is Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran who some see as inexperienced and who has publicly questioned whether women should serve in combat. He has also faced allegations of sexual abuse and excessive alcohol consumption which he has denied. But the whole thing has given some senators pause, despite Trump’s enthusiastic support.
Hegseth has faced particular pressure from Iowa Later Joni Ernsthimself a combat veteran who has worked to address sexual abuse in the military. She has met Hegseth several times, and has yet to say that she will support him. She will have a chance to question him, publicly and face-to-face, in a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing scheduled for Jan. 14.
Although a hearing for Gabbard has not yet been set, senators will also be able to question her in public and in classified settings about her trip to Syria after the United States severed diplomatic ties. Gabbard has defended the trip, saying it’s important to open the dialogue, but critics hear echoes of Russia-driven talking points in her comment. Assad fled to Moscow earlier this month after opposition forces took over Syria in a surprise attack, ending his family’s five decades of rule.
While Republican senators have mostly refrained from publicly expressing concern about Gabbard’s ties abroad, nearly 100 former senior US diplomats and intelligence and national security officials has urged Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings to allow for a full review of the government’s file on her.
Senators have been a bit more openly skeptical of Kennedy, who has long questioned the use of certain vaccines.
After a report in the New York Times that one of his advisers filed a petition to revoke the approval of the polio vaccine In 2022, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying that “efforts to undermine public confidence in proven remedies are not only uninformed—they are dangerous,” and that “anyone seeking Senate consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
McConnell, who had polio as a childleaves the leadership next year but remains in the Senate. His votes will also be closely watched years of tensions with Trump as he takes on a new role free from the responsibilities of leadership.
Like McConnell, many senators have taken an “advisory” approach, telling nominees what they need to do to be confirmed.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis says he’s told all the nominees he’s met so far, “go out and see what the press is saying about you, find your top 10 and defuse the conversation by having a good solution to why it’s ‘you.’”
Also, Tillis said, “you have to have a good showing in committee.”
