As Senate Republicans prepare to confirm former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) as director of national intelligence today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune — less than six weeks into his new job — can feel the culmination of a dedicated strategy to convince his rank-and-file senators to back some of President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees.
Senate Republicans are aiming to confirm both Gabbard and HHS nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week. This would be a dramatic turnaround from just a few weeks ago, when one or both of the nominees, facing a tidal wave of bad press and Democratic attacks, looked like they could go down.
In fact, other than former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who had years worth of scandals and personal attacks on GOP senators to overcome, Trump and Senate Republicans haven’t lost out on a nominee.
Trump’s picks are also being confirmed at a faster rate than former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, which Thune and other top Senate Republicans repeatedly tout.
In an interview on Tuesday, Thune told us that this is all according to plan.
“With respect to Tulsi, RFK, [Pete] Hegseth, Kash Patel — they’re obviously all folks that sort of went into the process with concerns about whether or not they were going to have a path forward,” Thune said. “But I could see in each one of those how they would get there and so far, it’s kind of worked out that way.”
Thune also credited the White House with being proactive in responding to GOP senators’ concerns. He praised Vice President JD Vance for being an “honest broker” and a key link to the White House during the process, as well as White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and James Braid, director of the White House legislative affairs office. Trump also reached out to Republican senators on several occasions.
“[Vance] did a nice job of just getting them information they needed, responding to the questions they had, in a way that certainly wasn’t high pressure,” Thune said.
For the 64-year-old Thune, this whole episode has been a huge challenge. Taking over for longtime GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Thune faced heavy pressure from Trump and his allies to move quickly. And Senate Democrats have been increasingly unwilling to cut time agreements to speed up the process, especially on high-profile nominations. Thune has been forced to move forward with late-night and weekend votes on several occasions.
“You just take it a day at a time,” Thune said. “You try to figure out how can we win the day, how can we get through the meetings, the hearing process, take it one step at a time, and just ensure — as we said from the beginning — that there was a fair process.”
On Gabbard: After a rocky start to her meetings with GOP senators, Gabbard issued a statement walking back her previous criticism of FISA Section 702. Some GOP senators weren’t convinced that Gabbard really had shifted her stance, so this was a critical move.
And during Gabbard’s hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, several Republicans were shocked that the nominee couldn’t bring herself to unequivocally condemn NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
But again, Gabbard reached out to her detractors and eventually won over Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) to advance out of committee. Vance and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), the Intelligence Committee chair and number three Senate Republican, worked behind the scenes, as well.
With Pete Hegseth, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) spoke repeatedly with the now-defense secretary in the critical days leading up to that floor vote. Vance ended up casting the deciding vote for Hegseth’s nomination.
What’s next: The Senate will consider Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretary, Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) for small business administrator. Thune said he’ll keep pressing for quick action on these nominees, including potentially staying in over the weekend if Senate Democrats continue to drag out the process.
