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President-elect Donald Trump has already announced several of his prospective cabinet picks ahead of his 2025 inauguration. Many of those picks have drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for the candidates’ lack of experience or — as in the case of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-FL — for their controversial personal histories.
Gaetz has been the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation since 2021 over allegations including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, and obstruction. An attorney representing two witnesses in the investigation recently told ABC News that one of his clients witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor. Gaetz was also responsible for leading last year’s efforts to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership position in the House, a debacle which was widely viewed as a disaster for the GOP. McCarthy had previously refused to drop the Ethics Committee investigation against Gaetz and has since accused Gaetz of moving against him because of that refusal.
Despite these serious allegations, President-elect Trump tapped Gaetz as his pick for Attorney General — head of the Department of Justice — following his victory in the general election.
And Gaetz is not the only one of Trump’s picks that has raised eyebrows.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, is a veteran and Fox News presenter with no senior military or public office experience. Fellow service members who served alongside Hegseth in the Army National Guard have claimed that he has multiple tattoos associated with white supremacist extremist groups. In 2020, Hegseth paid off a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in October of 2017. Hegseth and his attorneys claim that the incident was a “consensual sexual encounter” and deny any wrongdoing.
Trump also nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security despite Elizabeth Neumann, assistant Homeland Security secretary under Trump’s first term, claiming that Noem “knows nothing about Homeland Security and hasn’t had that much experience.”
The controversial nature of Trump’s cabinet picks — Gaetz in particular — has led to some division in the GOP. Now, it appears possible that a few Republicans might vote against some of the President-elect’s appointments despite their newfound 53-47 majority in the Senate.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, said that she doesn’t consider Gaetz to be “a serious nomination for the attorney general.” Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME, was reportedly “shocked” by Gaetz’s selection, and even Trump ally Rep. Max Miller, R-OH, called it “a reckless pick.” Miller also said that he thinks Gaetz has a “zero percent shot” of being confirmed in the Senate.
However, staunch Trump allies like Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, have made it clear that they are in full support of Trump’s selections and will do everything they can to make sure that the picks are successfully confirmed.
In an appearance on Fox Business’s “The Evening Edit” last week, Tuberville criticized Republicans who have expressed wariness concerning Trump’s appointments, referring to his colleagues as “swamp creatures.”
“At the end of the day, President Trump was elected by an enormous vote and he deserves the team around him that he wants,” Tuberville said. “It’s not [up to] us to determine that.”
“I’ve already seen where a couple of [Republicans said] ‘I’m not voting for him,'” the senator continued. “Wait a minute. You are not the United States of America. You have one vote in the U.S. Senate, you did not get elected president.”
“Vote with President Trump,” Tuberville warned his GOP colleagues. “This is the last chance we’re going to have of saving this country, and if you want to get in the way, fine, but we’re going to try to get you out of the Senate too if you do that.”
Tuberville himself has previously faced strong criticism for holding up several military promotions and appointments over the past year in an apparent feud with President Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
