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

House Oversight requests Alan Dershowitz testify in Epstein probe

Published

18 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Oversight Committee requested that Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer who once represented Jeffery Epstein, testify as part of its investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files.

The interview is tentatively slated for 10 a.m. on July 9, with a video and transcript of the testimony being released “as expeditiously as practical,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote in a letter to Dershowitz on Friday.

“Due to public reporting, documents released by the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the Committee, and your former role as Mr. Epstein’s attorney, the Committee believes you have information that will assist in its investigation,” Comer wrote.

Comer told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted to hear from Dershowitz, who helped Epstein secure a controversial plea deal in his 2008 sex abuse case.

“I’m looking forward to testifying,” Dershowitz wrote in a text message to Blue Light News on Friday, adding that he is “trying to adjust my schedule” for July 9.

Congress

Cornyn tells Mike Lee to lay off John Thune

Published

20 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. John Cornyn isn’t a card-carrying member of the Senate GOP’s growing YOLO caucus. But with less than seven months left in office after losing his primary, the Texas Republican appears to be feeling newly free to speak his mind.

The latest clap-back came Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, when Cornyn called a conservative influencer a “grifter” and told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on social media to stop publicly blaming fellow Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune — for the fact that the GOP elections bill doesn’t have support to pass inside the party.

“You don’t have the votes” for the SAVE America Act, Cornyn posted on X. “@LeaderJohnThune can’t change that. It is math.”

He was directing his comments at Lee, who had just penned a post telling Thune, “let’s do this!”

Cornyn continued, “Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November.”

Lee responded to ask, “on what planet is this an attack on Republicans?” and appeared to suggest a staffer was tweeting on Cornyn’s behalf: “Once my friend John Cornyn realizes that you’re saying this in his name—whoever you are—I don’t think he’ll be happy with you.”

Cornyn, however, is known for posting himself on his social media accounts in a chamber where many Senate accounts are run solely by staff. And he’s been making it clear all week that he will push back on Trump and his party when he thinks it’s needed.

In multiple conversations with reporters in the Capitol, Cornyn said that Republicans need to “stop the circular firing squad.” And he added that he won’t intentionally be “a thorn in [Trump’s] side,” but he’s also “not going to go out of my way to try to appease him.”

“I want him to succeed, I want the Republican Party to succeed, I want the country to succeed,” Cornyn said this week. “But on a case-by-case basis, when I think there’s been overreach or just a bad idea, I’m not going to hesitate to weigh in.”

The four-term senator’s comments come after he lost his primary last month to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who Trump endorsed in the final days of the runoff.

Cornyn said in an interview with The New York Times that he was not a “wounded bear” but that he believed Trump’s insistence on “slavish adherence” was going to backfire for Republicans in the midterms and result in “the most miserable two years of his life” if Democrats flip the House or Senate.

“I think it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next seven months,” Cornyn said.

Congress

Capitol agenda: What Schumer told us about AI

Published

1 day ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Chuck Schumer wants Congress to pass AI legislation. But he’s casting doubt on it happening this year.

“In this Congress, it’s hard,” the Senate minority leader said in an interview Thursday.

Schumer’s reality check isn’t a complete door-slam. But it underscores the steep climb lawmakers face to bridge a slew of intra-party and inter-chamber divides about what Washington’s approach should be toward the emerging opportunities and risks from the rapidly developing technology.

The problems are multi-pronged.

The White House, whose posture toward AI has shifted dramatically in recent weeks, is angling to enact legislation that would preempt state laws in favor of a national standard. Most recently, administration officials have been exploring a plan to attach preemption legislation to bills designed to shore up kids’ safety online. But there are issues — House Republicans aren’t in love with the Senate GOP’s kid safety bills and Senate Majority Leader John Thune has warned that many senators have concerns “about not trampling states’ rights in the process.”

Democrats aren’t unified on what to do next, with the public broadly skeptical about AI.

Some House and Senate Democrats are leery of state preemption and want to wait until next year to tackle AI, when they might be in power. Opposition from key Democrats is a major factor derailing an attempt by Reps. Lori Trahan and Jay Obernolte to strike a deal on legislation that would set nationwide safety and transparency rules while restricting state action. And Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have proposed a moratorium on AI data centers pending stricter government oversight.

Schumer is striking a balanced tone on how to proceed, arguing that there are “tremendous benefits” from AI but that “we also have to have guardrails.”

“We should get something done on AI, and it’s … got to be balanced — keep innovation strong, but have guardrails to prevent the dangers,” he said. “That’s a hard needle to thread, but I would very much like to see that get done the sooner the better.”

What else we’re watching:

— FISA LAPSE, CLAYTON NOMINATION: Thune is vowing to move “fairly quickly” to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, with the FISA Section 702 spy authority set to lapse at midnight thanks to a stalemate between Democrats and the White House over the position.

— GOP ADVANCES BIG DEFENSE BOOST — Republicans have taken the first steps toward granting President Donald Trump’s request for the largest budget ever for the Pentagon. Senate Armed Services members on Thursday approved a draft of their annual defense authorization bill outlining priorities for $1.14 trillion in defense spending next year. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee advanced $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2027 funding for the Defense Department in a closed-door markup.

Calen Razor and Connor O’Brien contributed reporting.