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Tulsi Gabbard hugs President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2025.
Gabbard and RFK Jr. confirmed by US Senate
On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirmRobert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary. The vote also went along party lines, 52-48, with McConnell also voting with Democrats against Kennedy.
RFK Jr., like Gabbard, has set off alarm bells. Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, says Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement is “set to shake up health policy” in the US. MAHA, says Bremmer, is “a worldview that blends concerns about corporate influence on healthcare with skepticism towards mainstream medicine.” It’s also made up, notes Bremmer, of wellness culture, vaccine hesitancy, alternative medicine, and deep state conspiracy – and it crosses ideological divides. It is, in a word, messy, and will almost certainly do what its proponents promise: upset the status quo on health policy in the US.Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, January 30, 2025. She is a controversial nominee due to her previous suggestions of support for autocrats and U.S. adversaries, including the recently toppled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Senate hearings: Gabbard and RFK Jr. make it out of committee
Two of Donald Trump’s more controversial cabinet picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, made it through key committee votes on Tuesday, moving closer to securing confirmations when the full Senate votes.
Vaccine skeptic, environmentalist, and health secretary pick RFK was confirmed in a party-line vote by the Senate Finance Committee. His only potential Republican holdout, former doctor and Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, said he decided to support RFK after a series of conversations with him about “the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda.”
Ahead of her hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, secured two yeses from key Republicans who had been on the fence about her nomination – Sens. Todd Young and Susan Collins. While Tulsi made it out of the committee thanks to a party-line vote, there are still several Republican senators who have not committed to voting for her when it comes time for her full Senate vote, including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and John Curtis.
We will be watching the Senate tomorrow as it convenes to hold a full vote to confirm Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department as attorney general.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Jan. 30, 2025.
Trump’s rockiest Cabinet picks get spicy hearings
It was a rough few days for Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The day before the confirmation hearings got underway, his cousin, Caroline Kennedy called him a “predator” and said the Senate should reject his nomination.
RFK Jr. went on to struggle through his appearance in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, botching answers to questions on Medicare and raising questions about his chances of being confirmed. In a second appearance on Thursday, this one in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, he had another rough go, clashing with Sen. Bernie Sanders over vaccine safety and effectiveness and stumbling over Medicare questions once again.
FBI head nominee Kash Patel had his own raucous hearing on Thursday, though he tried to smooth over some concerns about his fitness to lead by distancing himself from conspiracy theories he’d previously sympathized with, like QAnon. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse tore into Patel, saying “There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices.”
Nonetheless, both Kennedy and Patel could squeak through the Senate. If they do, Republicans would still face their biggest confirmation challenge. Director of National Intelligence pick Tulsi Gabbard was also put through the wringer on Thursday in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. She faces, perhaps, the longest odds of any Trump Cabinet pick, and the GOP will likely struggle to confirm her in the days to come.Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's nominee to be secretary of defense, gestures as he leaves a Senate Committee on Armed Services confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Jan. 14, 2025.
The fight over Trump’s cabinet picks begins
Hegseth faced questions from Democrats on his history of opposing women in the military, allegations of misconduct, and his ability to lead a department of three million employees and the largest military in the world. But Republicans seemed satisfied with his responses about sexual assault prevention and enthused by his belief that the Pentagon should be audited. They also hailed his promise to strengthen the military. With Republicans in control of the chamber, Hegseth will likely be confirmed when the Senate votes on Friday.
Why is he controversial? The former “Fox & Friends” commentator has been accused of sexual assault and excessive drinking in the workplace, but he has denied all wrongdoing, saying that he is the victim of a “smear campaign.”
What are the chances all of Trump’s picks get through? While most are likely to be approved, the fates of Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI pick, and Tulsi Gabbard, his nominee for director of national intelligence, are rocky.
“For Gabbard, the problem lies in selling Republican senators on a nominee who was a Democrat up until very recently and who has been on the other side of several crucial issues around intelligence collection,” says Eurasia Group’s US expert Clayton Allen.
Meanwhile, Patel, who is a right-wing commentator who has made negative statements about the FBI in the past, “appears to be struggling to explain what his plans for the FBI are, a point that makes it harder for members to look past his more extreme political views.”