Congress

Thune faces first loyalty test: What to do with Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks

Published

2 years ago

November 15, 2024

A series of controversial Cabinet picks have become an early test for how Senate leader-in-waiting John Thune will balance proving his loyalty to Donald Trump with the interests of his wide-ranging conference.

So far, he seems to be giving the president-elect wide deference.

Trump hasn’t finished his selections yet, but three picks for some of the most influential roles in the Cabinet are already prompting anxiety among GOP senators who must decide whether to confirm them: Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Pete Hegseth for secretary of Defense and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. And Blue Light News first reported another pick Thursday afternoon: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary.

Broadly, Republican senators, led by Thune (R-S.D.), say Trump should be allowed to fill out his Cabinet the way he wants — though a couple are openly expressing doubts, especially on Gaetz. Nominees can only afford to lose three votes on the Senate floor and still get confirmed.

“We don’t know until we start the process,” Thune said about Gaetz’s chances of getting confirmed. “And that’s what we intend to do with him and all the other potential nominees.”

The wait-and-see approach isn’t a ringing endorsement, and Thune will have his work cut out for him if he moves forward on confirming each nominee. In addition to publicly aired doubts from Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday he wanted to see a House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz that details an investigation into several allegations against the attorney general nominee, including that he had sex with a minor. The chair of that panel has indicated the report won’t be released now, because Gaetz resigned from the House on Wednesday night.

The Department of Justice conducted its own investigation as part of a sex trafficking probe and, according to Gaetz’s lawyers and DOJ officials, decided not to bring criminal charges. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

There are issues with Hegseth, Gabbard and Kennedy, too. Combat veteran Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has said Hegseth needs to “explain” his recent comments on a podcast that “we should not have women in combat roles.” Gabbard has sparked concern within the intelligence community due to her sympathetic views on autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. And some senators have dodged questions about confirming Kennedy — who has touted for years the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism — before reports of his official pick.

There’s a general theory on Senate-confirmed nominations that new presidents will offer a sort of sacrificial lamb, a nominee meant to go down to make others look better or provide cover to purple-state senators to approve others. But GOP leaders said they don’t think that’s Trump’s intention here, and regardless, more than one failure could sour Thune and Trump’s relationship early in the term. Thune has vowed to advance Trump’s agenda, and his nominees are the first test on how effectively he can deliver.

“He’s got a hard job,” said one GOP senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Be careful what you ask for. He knew it was going to be hard. He knew President Trump was going to put people in there that people [were] going to question.”

But, the senator noted, Thune remains responsible for getting members “on the same page, and that’s tough as Republicans.”

Compare it to 2017, when Republican senators had a slightly slimmer majority to confirm Trump’s picks in his first term. At the time, Trump had to withdraw his secretary of Labor nominee Andrew Puzder after it became clear he didn’t have the votes in a 52-48 Senate majority. Puzder faced multiple accusations of misconduct, most notably his admission that he did not pay taxes on the services of an undocumented immigrant who worked for him for years.

Puzder was the only Cabinet nominee that Trump had to pull in his first year, though he was far from alone over the four-year term. Senate Republicans, even those closely aligned with Trump, aren’t eager to hop into another bruising series of confirmation fights — or deal with cascading withdrawals again.

And in a further sign of the general levels of deference to Trump, leading GOP senators aren’t actively pushing back on suggestions that the president-elect use recess appointments for picks that may not have the votes in the Senate.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she doesn’t think there’s been “any serious discussions on how to move forward on a recess appointment, because hopefully it’ll prove unnecessary.”

Republicans frequently brushed off questions about confirming the controversial nominees by pointing to the need for a thorough vetting process. And some argued that even if that process turned up negative information on nominees, it was in Trump’s best interest to find out before they were confirmed.

“We need to have a complete vetting of the nominees — not only so we know that the nominee is qualified but also to protect the president,” Cornyn said. “I’m sure it’s not in his best interest to have any surprises.”

“I don’t have any preconceived notions about it,” Cornyn later added about Kennedy’s planned nomination to HHS. But he said he’s “sure” Kennedy’s strong anti-vaccine position “will come up.”

With regards to Gabbard, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — a close Trump ally — noted that “we have different foreign policy positions at times” but that he intended to give broad latitude to the president-elect in selecting his government.

“I’m gonna do with Trump what I do with everybody: Let you pick your people,” he told Blue Light News. “Defer to your choice, unless it’s too far.”

Collins, who voted against multiple Trump nominees in his first term, said she “can’t imagine” that the issues contained in the House Ethics Committee’s report about Gaetz wouldn’t “become public, either through the committee’s extensive investigation or the FBI report or questions asked by committee members at Mr. Gaetz hearing.”

“Mr. Gaetz is an example of where the Senate’s role is critical to take a look at allegations and at his fitness for a very important job,” Collins added.

And Murkowski, after saying Wednesday that Gaetz was not a “serious” pick, declined to weigh in on Trump’s selections on Thursday, saying she needs to meet with her constituents.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who’s broken with Trump on occasion, said he needed to learn more about each of the picks, especially Gaetz.

“I don’t know enough to be concerned right now,” he told reporters. “I think it would be responsible for me to learn more about each of these nominees.”

Others in the conference said nothing, even an adverse report from the House Ethics Committee, would shake their confidence and willingness to confirm Gaetz as attorney general.

“He’s very talented, and anyone who has spent any time with him knows he’s very smart and capable. I’m going to vote to confirm him,” said Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-Ind.). “I’m not gonna speculate about what [the Ethics report] says or what it doesn’t say, because we don’t know what it says.”

Joe Gould contributed to this report.

Congress

Comer: 1 NDA produced by Leon Black to House Oversight ‘unacceptable’

Published

1 day ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Oversight Committee on Friday received one non-disclosure agreement involving billionaire founder of Apollo Global Management Leon Black, an associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the panel deemed it insufficient and promised to follow up with his attorney.

The panel had provided extra time for Black to produce the non-disclosure agreements, but his attorneys only turned over one.

“Leon Black isn’t acting in good faith,” a spokesperson for Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said. “The Committee agreed to extend the deadline two weeks for full production of all NDAs and his attorney has deliberately chosen to only produce one. This is unacceptable and the Committee will follow up with his attorney.”

Susan Estrich, Black’s lawyer, said she sent the committee one NDA between Black and Guzel Ganieva, an agreement she said Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, was aware of. Ganieva and Black had an intimate relationship that resulted in Black making a payment to Ganieva for approximately $9.5 million. Ganieva filed a lawsuit against Black alleging sexual misconduct and defamation, which was dismissed by a judge in 2023.

“The responsive information includes the only confidentiality agreement that predated Epstein’s death and the only one of which Epstein was aware. Epstein was not involved with drafting this agreement,” Estrich said in a statement. “This confidentiality agreement with Guzel Ganieva resolved her attempts to extort Mr. Black.”

“The New York State Supreme Court dismissed Ms. Ganieva’s baseless lawsuit against Mr. Black with prejudice and that decision was affirmed by an appellate court,” the statement continued. “Ms. Ganieva expressly acknowledged that she never met Epstein.”

The House Oversight Committee’s subpoena demanded all NDAs for which Black is a party to, or that relate to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — a convicted sex offender and Epstein accomplice — that Black may have in his possession.

That information “is vital” to the panel’s inquiry, Comer said when he issued the subpoena after Black refused to answer questions about the agreements. “We need the NDAs to be able to move forward with the investigation,” Comer said at the time.

Black told the committee in June that he paid Epstein $158 million between 2013 and 2017 for “highly valuable and legitimate tax and estate planning services for my family office.”

Estrich said, “to imply misconduct because of the existence of a confidentiality agreement is entirely unjustified” and argued the agreements “are routinely used in business.” She also noted that “to the extent that Mr. Black may have executed confidentiality agreements in his business and private endeavors, they are not relevant to the legitimate purpose of the Committee’s work.”

Estrich added that Black “had no awareness of the criminal activities that led to Epstein’s arrest in 2019” and that Black “never abused a woman.”

Congress

Inside Trump officials’ quiet maneuvering in Louisiana’s redistricting shakeup

Published

1 day ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The White House is quietly trying to discourage a candidate previously endorsed by the president from switching congressional districts in Louisiana, as the GOP looks to pick up an additional seat in the state following a freshly drawn gerrymander.

White House officials relayed in calls earlier this week that state Sen. Blake Miguez — whom President Donald Trump backed in February to run in Louisiana’s 5th District, which is being vacated by Rep. Julia Letlow — was making moves to run in the newly redrawn 6th District, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Republicans are seeking to flip the 6th District after the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down major parts of the Voting Rights Act allowed the state Legislature to lock in a new 5-to-1 GOP majority map. In May, state lawmakers erased Rep. Cleo Fields’ (D-La.) sprawling, majority-Black and majority-Democratic district in favor of a safely Republican one.

Miguez is facing allegations of sexually assaulting a woman in 2007. Miguez has denied the claims of sexual assault, which resurfaced in March media reports and blindsided many Trump officials, according to three other people with knowledge of the conversations.

Jon George, the White House Southeast regional political director, said in the calls this week that Trump officials told Miguez in a recent meeting he would not immediately have the president’s endorsement to enter the race for the 6th District. White House officials would continue to assess the race.

George said Trump’s endorsement of Miguez in the 5th District would not be rescinded. He said on the calls that Miguez then indicated he would still push ahead to run in the 6th District.

His campaign website is now locked and password protected.

The people with knowledge of the calls and the president’s political operations were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. When reached for comment, a White House official — similarly granted anonymity — reiterated Trump has not pulled his backing.

“President Trump has not rescinded his endorsement of Blake Miguez. He will look at the candidate field after candidate filing if necessary, but at this point he has not made any changes nor does [he] have an intent to,” the official said. “If new information changes things, [we] will cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Miguez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Louisiana’s redistricting transformed Fields’ district from one then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried by about 15 points in 2024 to one Trump would have won by over 30 points, according to calculations from The Downballot.

Fields announced earlier this week he will not seek reelection, instead running for the state Senate.

Trump endorsed Miguez in February to run in the 5th District, after he ended his Senate bid to help clear the field for Letlow, who was Trump’s pick to primary GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy.

The 5th District was deep red before the Legislature redrew the lines earlier this year, and remains safe Republican territory even as the boundaries shifted a bit. A slew of GOP candidates are already in the race to replace Letlow, including state Rep. Michael Echols, the majority leader of the Louisiana House of Representatives.

State. Sen. Rick Edmonds, Speaker Mike Johnson’s former pastor, and several other Republicans are either already in or taking steps to run in the 6th District. The state’s filing deadline is Aug. 7.

Liz Crampton contributed to this report.

Congress

Trump to Senate GOP: Adopt budget blueprint before August break

Published

1 day ago

July 24, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Senate Republicans to quickly advance a $95 billion budget blueprint — even as the mood on Capitol Hill signals GOP senators are inclined to wait until later this year, if ever.

“I am asking that the Senate adopt a Budget Resolution, which can pass with a simple Majority, before leaving for the August recess,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social. “We are ready to work side-by-side with the Senate to get this done for the American People!”

House Republicans approved the budget resolution before leaving town for weeks. It’s the first step in a two-part plan to use the reconciliation process to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass billions in funding for the Iran war, farm assistance and election-related grants.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t directly ruled out taking up the budget blueprint but warned Thursday that he doesn’t believe it currently has the votes to succeed.

“I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution, but we’ll see. … The priority is funding the government, and so to me, that’s the thing we’ve got to keep our eyes on,” Thune said.

Most Senate Republicans don’t expect Thune to put the measure on the floor before the Senate leaves town in early August for its extended summer break given the deep concerns surrounding the House’s blueprint inside the GOP conference: Deficit hawks want offsets, defense and farm-state Republicans want more money for their priorities and some GOP senators aren’t convinced they should pursue a third reconciliation bill to begin with.

Even if Thune was able to overcome all of those hurdles, the Senate will need to change the resolution to add instructions for its committees to draft portions of the reconciliation measure itself — meaning the House would need to vote on the budget resolution a second time later this year to kick off the reconciliation process in earnest.

But Trump is still attempting to twist Thune’s arm. Earlier this week he urged supporters to call the senate majority leader to tell him to pass the GOP election overhaul bill known as the SAVE America Act, noting parts of it could be included under a third reconciliation bill.

Some GOP senators have pointed out, however, that the SAVE America Act would need to be ruled germane to the reconciliation process by the Senate parliamentarian, and there’s no guarantee the proposal would withstand her scrutiny. A few GOP senators have also previously voted against versions of the bill.

Senate Republicans have also tried to explain to the president for months that the bill doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to advance and that there isn’t enough support to blow up the filibuster to ram it through that way, either.

Trump’s allies expect the president to keep hammering Thune in any case — though how hard Trump pushes could depend on the outcome of the midterms.