By Stephen Groves
Washington (AP) – Republican skepticism in the Senate of President Donald Trump’S -Cabinet nominated has been exhausted, putting its unconventional choices for some of the most powerful positions of the federal government on the edge of confirmation.
Votes on the ground are expected this week on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., online to be the country’s health secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, the choice of national intelligence director. The two come from traditional republican circles and opinions adopted in the confirmation process which sometimes alarmed the Senators of the GOP. However, their appointments qualified in the complete Senate after the votes of the crucial committee.
One by one, the Republicans have agreed to the choices of Trump, even those whose personal history, lack of experience and unorthodox views would have once imagined them for a cabinet.
It is a striking demonstration of the way in which GOP legislators are standing as Trump, in a demonstration of force, disturbs the federal government and installs loyalists to direct the key departments. Republican leaders of the Senate, eager to show Trump their value, have confirmed a quick clip.
The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, barely a month of this role, made a vote on Gabbard as the first order of commerce, followed by Kennedy later in the week. The Secretary of Defense, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has already faced allegations on alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior towards women. And the Republicans seem ready to install Kash Patel soon as Director of the FBI.
These four nominees have long been considered in Capitol Hill as the most vulnerable to the loss of support of the Republicans, who hold a majority in the Senate of three seats.
“There are never guarantees, but we are reaching the right direction,” said Thune, Rs.d. the president during the weekend.
Thune’s prudent optimism followed a week when the opposition of republican senses. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Todd Young of Indiana – who both tried to maintain a certain independence from Trump – threatened to derail Kennedy and Gabbard. But after a series of intense calls and negotiations led by Vice-President JD Vance, even in the moments leading to the committee votes on Tuesday, the new management team persuaded the main selected to come.
The two have moved away from talks speaking of insurance that the candidates would contain some of their most worrying opinions.
The collapse of the resistance has set a new tone in the government controlled by the Republican and has shown how the most independent legislator prefers to work with Trump than the risk of crossing it. Trump himself has abstained from the threats of the GOP skeptics which defined his first mandate and counted on Vance, a former Senator of Ohio, to quietly walk some of his former colleagues through their concerns.
“You cannot think of this as a normal president who is in office for the first time,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Who was involved in the effort to pass Trump’s candidates through The finish line. “Everyone with whom I was doing business was really undecided to try to go to yes, and therefore it was just a process.”
It doesn’t always look so simple.
Cassidy, a liver doctor, told Kennedy during a committee hearing he had “fought” to support the appointment because Kennedy had built an audience as a vaccination skeptic and refused to denounce a discredited theory according to which vaccines cause autism. Cassidy cited his ethics as a doctor – “devote my life to saving lives” – as a main cause for his concern.
Young, a former intelligence officer of the Marine Corps, questioned the previous declarations that Gabbard made, including the support for the leak of the Edward Snowden government and expressions of sympathy for Russia. Young said he had asked for written insurance from Gabbard that she would punish those who disclose sensitive government information. Vance played a crucial role, browsing a letter from Gabbard which stated these insurance.
“I obtained them at the 11th hour,” said Young after the vote of his committee for Gabbard.
Young said Vance was approaching him with a “respectful” tone and “listened to much more than he spoke”.
This is a change in relation to the mandate of the Senate of Vance, when he has often challenged the management of the GOP under the senator of Kentucky Mitch McConnell. Now Vance works in close collaboration with the new team.
A similar process was played with Cassidy. He said he had voted to advance Kennedy after “intense conversations” and reassured about how health agencies would manage the recommendations of vaccines. The senator thanked Vance for his “honest advisor”.
Cassidy and Young insisted that the political benefits of blocking the choices of Trump’s office did not take into account their negotiations, but the issues were clear. Cassidy, who is ready to re -elect in two years, already has a main challenger after voting to condemn Trump on an accusation of indictment in 2021 resulting from the role of Trump in the riot of the Capitol.
Senator Kevin Cramer, RN.D., said that Trump offers senators such as Cassidy or Young A Campaign Apartment, no Republican wants to open the president openly.
“I think Donald Trump at his heart is ultimately a transactional guy,” said Cramer, adding: “You never draw an approval, without having an active enemy. It can be quite effective as you know and it is proven , so no one wants to be in this place.
This leaves the democrats almost helpless to hinder Trump’s office. With online republican support, democrats have had little appeal but to draw the process thanks to each possible procedural movement. They also try to hold the Senate soil for a maximum debate time to slow down the pace of votes.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Said he hoped that the tactic would draw attention to the expansion of presidential power by Trump and would help “persuade the American people to express their members of the Congress, in Particularly of red states, where so far their senators are not willing or unable to listen. »»
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
