Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel, step on up.
As the outlook for Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as secretary of defense improves – it’s not a sure bet, as we noted, but the chances are better – things are looking increasingly rosy for a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s other potentially controversial nominees.
Republican senators are insistent that Gabbard and Patel — despite their unorthodox backgrounds and extreme viewpoints — are being well received by the Senate GOP. Gabbard, though, remains the toughest vote for some Republicans.
Gabbard is seeking to be the next director of national intelligence and Patel is looking to lead the FBI. Both have fiercely criticized the way things are currently run at the agencies they’re seeking to take over.
As Gabbard spoke with Republican senators with hawkish, more traditional views on foreign policy this week, the former Hawaii Democrat got a largely positive response.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he thinks Gabbard has “a very good chance” of getting confirmed.
Rounds said he’s been impressed by her performance in the one-on-one sessions with GOP senators and is working to prepare Gabbard for the inevitable grilling from Senate Democrats during her public hearing. Democrats will likely focus their efforts on Gabbard’s connections with former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as her history of anti-Trump comments.
“I don’t have a problem with someone going and visiting with an official from another country. It’s a matter of, ‘What was your purpose for getting there?’” Rounds told us. “Those are the types of questions that we want her to be prepared to respond to.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said that every senator he’s spoken to about Gabbard has told him she’s “done a phenomenal job.”
After Gabbard met with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the current ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rubio lavished her with praise. Rubio is Trump’s pick to lead the State Department and will be leaving the Senate next month when he’s confirmed.
Gabbard’s history of some foreign policy beliefs that are out of step with establishment Republican views aren’t necessarily a turn-off, Senate Republicans told us.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) is encouraging nominees — from Gabbard to Patel — to directly confront their checkered past.
“Every nominee would be well served to cover the top ten most audacious things that have been said about them, and in the first part of their meeting just take that off the table,” Tillis said. “All of us have made comments that we wish we’d been a little bit more elegant, or shouldn’t have said at all — if that’s the case, just stipulate that.”
Gabbard will meet with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday, in addition to Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).
In other nomination developments: When FBI Director Christopher Wray announced he was stepping down from his post next month, it cleared a major hurdle for Patel to get confirmed. Republicans we spoke to said that Patel was already in a strong position before Wray’s announcement. But Wray’s announcement was a boost to Patel’s chances.
Another hot-button nominee — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to lead the Health and Human Services Department — will kick off meetings next week.
Vance on the move: Vice President-elect JD Vance was at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday morning and specifically flew to D.C. to help defeat one of President Joe Biden’s National Labor Relations Board nominees. It’s a significant vote given Vance had vowed to go to great lengths to vote during the lame duck, following earlier criticism immediately following the election.
