Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso is working to shake up traditional GOP leadership practices.
The newly-minted No. 2 Senate Republican wants to limit floor votes to 30 minutes, prioritize frequent communication with GOP colleagues and have a constant pipeline to President Donald Trump and top White House officials.
That paid off with the ever-so-narrow confirmation of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, which was Barrasso’s first real stress test as GOP whip. But Barrasso knows he’ll have even more difficult whip efforts in the future, especially as Senate Republicans look to quickly install Trump’s top nominees and a major reconciliation package makes its way through Congress.
“We are not going to be slowed down by the Democrats’ complete obstruction” on Trump nominees, Barrasso said in a Monday interview. “It is our goal to have all of these folks confirmed by the time of our first scheduled recess [in March].”
The new Senate GOP leadership team, helmed by Majority Leader John Thune and Barrasso, is playing hardball with Democrats by making good on threats of weekend and late-night votes. And like Thune, Barrasso is in constant communication with Trump and his top aides, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff and policy director.
At the same time, Barrasso’s 53-seat Republican majority includes several senators who aren’t an automatic “yes” on Trump’s nominees. A three-seat cushion is helpful, but on some nominees, it might not be enough.
“I was trying to get to 56, 57,” Barrasso said, referring to his campaign trail blitz last year for GOP candidates. “You want to make sure you have people who can support the team, stay united and also represent their own situations at home.”
Here’s what Barrasso told us when we asked about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) opposition to Hegseth — and the scathing statement the former GOP leader released afterward:
Barrasso explicitly put former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (Hawaii) Thursday confirmation hearing in that category, showing GOP leaders are clear-eyed about the hurdles Gabbard faces in her bid to win confirmation as director of national intelligence.
“People want to get reassurance that the president’s going to get the information he needs and that she’s the right person to provide that to him,” Barrasso told us. “There’s the FISA issues that have come up and where she has come to a position that I think is the correct position.”
We recently scooped that Gabbard reversed course on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a key authority she once tried to repeal. Still, some GOP senators, like Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), are skeptical that Gabbard truly means what she says. Collins is a member of the Intelligence Committee, which will consider Gabbard’s nomination.
