WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet is still unclear after Republican senators spent much of December fielding questions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccines and the sexual misconduct allegations against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard carefully dodged 2017 meetings with then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
While some Republican senators have indicated they are fully in favor of Trump’s election, others have withheld their support for now, particularly for some of his more controversial nominees. The vigorous brings uncertainty to the process as Republicans prepare to win the Senate majority by a four-seat margin in January and Trump aggressively calls on them to confirm his Cabinet immediately.
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 have made clear they will confront senators who don’t comply.
“The only reason they have control of the Senate is because of Donald Trump,” the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., warned in a media appearance this month. “Without that you would be relegated to insignificance.”
There has been one victim of the trial so far – former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who withdrew from the attorney general’s office after senators raised private concerns. But Trump has enthusiastically supported 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 beginning in mid-January, before Trump is even inaugurated, senators will soon have to 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, meaning Trump cannot lose more than three votes on any nomination if Democrats are united in opposition.
The outcome of the confirmation process and the extent of dissent in the Senate will likely set the tone for Trump’s presidency and his relationship with Congress, which was often turbulent during his first term. He has often clashed with the Senate in particular, but has signaled that he expects Republican senators to be more indulgent this time.
“It’s not about putting ‘yes’ on the board, it’s about keeping ‘no’ off the board,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, one of Trump’s key Senate allies who speaks with him frequently.
While most Senate Republicans have sought to show as much loyalty to Trump as possible, a few have made clear they are willing to defend the panel’s “advise and consent” role. Senators to watch include moderate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and novel Sen. John Curtis of Utah.
“Anyone who wants to get me excited about doing my job should do it,” Curtis said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” when asked about vetting Trump’s nominees. “That’s my job. It is my constitutional responsibility.”
Still, even moderate senators have shied away from directly criticizing Trump’s decisions. And not a single Republican has come forward against a candidate.
Several of Trump’s proposals are expected to be confirmed, perhaps even with some Democratic votes. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has indicated he will support Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Rep. Elise Stefanik for United Nations ambassador, as have several other Democrats.
For the more controversial candidates, however, party unity will be crucial.
One of Trump’s most competitive candidates is Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran who is viewed by some as inexperienced and has publicly questioned whether women should serve in combat. He was also accused of sexual assault and excessive alcohol consumption, which he denied. But despite Trump’s enthusiastic support, it’s all given some senators pause.
Hegseth has come under particular pressure from Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, herself a combat veteran who has worked to combat sexual assault in the military. She has met with Hegseth several times and has not yet said she will support him. She will have the opportunity to question him publicly and in person in a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing scheduled for Jan. 14.
Although a hearing for Gabbard has not yet been scheduled, senators may also question her publicly and in private about her trip to Syria after the US cut off diplomatic relations. Gabbard has defended the trip, saying it was vital to open a dialogue, but critics hear echoes of Russia-fueled talking points in her comment. Assad fled to Moscow earlier this month after opposition forces seized Syria in a surprise attack, ending his family’s five-decade rule.
While Republican senators have largely refrained from publicly voicing their concerns about Gabbard’s ties abroad, nearly 100 former senior U.S. diplomats, intelligence and national security officials have called on Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings to conduct a full hearing to allow review of government files on them.
Senators were somewhat more openly skeptical of Kennedy, who has long questioned the operate of some vaccines.
After the New York Times reported that one of his advisers had filed a motion to revoke the polio vaccine’s approval in 2022, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell released a statement saying, “Efforts to undermining the public’s trust in proven remedies are not just uninformed – they are dangerous,” and that “anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the novel administration would do well to do just that “To avoid any appearance of connection to such efforts.”
McConnell, who had polio as a child, is leaving the leadership next year but remaining in the Senate. His voices will also be closely watched after years of tensions with Trump as he takes on a novel role free of leadership responsibilities.
Like McConnell, many senators have taken an “advisory approach,” telling nominees what they must do to be confirmed.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said he has told every nominee he has met with so far: “Go out there and see what the press says about you, find your top 10 and tone them down Discussion by finding a good solution to why that is the case.”
Additionally, Tillis said, “You have to perform well in committee.”
