Trump’s controversial nominees
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
That the Democrats are arguing that some of Trump’s nominees are not qualified is laughable. Have they looked at Pete Buttigieg’s resume? I guess he got the Transportation gig because he was known as Pothole Pete. What about Xavier Becerra who is clearly not qualified to head HHS? Also, Granholm at Energy has zero qualifications for the job.
However, I wonder what motivated Trump to nominate Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence since she criticized many of his foreign policy moves during his first term. I am certain that the Democrats will have a field day quizzing her on her previous positions.
I would rate her confirmation chances as “toss up.”
Speaking of field days, the hearings for RFK Jr. will be must-see TV. He ran his presidential campaign on “Make America Healthy Again.” He noted that Froot Loops sold in the U.S. were less healthy than Canadian Froot Loops. He is anti-vaccine and called the Covid vaccines the “deadliest ever made” which is interesting since Trump is responsible for bringing the Covid vaccines to market. He only drinks raw milk and wants fluoride out of our water systems. He has questioned the safety of pesticides and claimed that he suffered mercury poisoning from eating too much fish. Mind you, these are just a few of his views.
Needless to say, the public health/pharmaceutical/food complex is beside itself and is in a panic thinking that Kennedy will head HHS. I think that this is why Trump nominated him.
I rate his chances of confirmation as “toss up.”
What about Pete Hegseth for secretary of Defense? The main criticism (aside from his being on Fox) is that he has no managerial experience and Defense is a massive agency. Clearly, Trump wants a defense secretary to aggressively wind down the ongoing social experiment of DEI, trans soldiers and perhaps even women in combat roles. Hegseth has been a vocal opponent of all these and more.
As to the administrative role, the Pentagon has just flunked its seventh consecutive audit. Hey, if you are given $800 billion surely you don’t really expect them to account for every penny? Thus, an auditing firm could not give the Pentagon a “clean audit.” Doesn’t the Pentagon have a chief financial officer? If this were a corporation, failure to get a clean audit would drive the firm’s stock price down, adversely impact credit ratings and the CFO would likely be fired. Yet the Pentagon’s CFO still has a job.
Maybe Hegseth will pledge to hire a capable person to oversee the Pentagon’s administration, fire the CFO and get the books finally straightened out.
I would rate Hegseth’s chances as “lean confirm” unless it gets derailed with the accusations of sexual misconduct.
Another controversial nominee is Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the Oregon Republican nominated for secretary of Labor. J. D. Vance’s fingerprints are all over this nomination. She was one of only three House Republicans who voted for the PRO Act which would override states’ right-to-work laws that give workers the choice of whether to join a union. The Teamsters enthusiastically endorsed Ms. Chavez-DeRemer. More ominously so did Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers’ union – which should have been disqualifying. It will be interesting to see if there is any pushback from the Republicans in the Senate. No doubt she will get every Democrat vote.
I rate her chances as “confirm.”
Lastly, we have the nomination of Kash Patel to head the FBI. This nomination is the most controversial of them all. Patel’s nomination clearly shows Trump’s disdain for the FBI. Patel has been solidly in Trump’s corner criticizing the FBI and its politicalization. Naturally, his critics say he is unqualified. What really troubles his critics is his staunch support of Trump and his intent to replace entrenched officials at the agency. Patel wants to rebuild public trust in an agency that has harassed Christians, right-to-lifers, parents against woke in their children’s schools, Trump and his supporters. The Democrats are howling. The establishment at the FBI is quaking in its boots. Old-line Republicans dislike him. Our Bill Hagerty loves the nomination. Expect Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell to be problematic.
I rate his nomination as “toss up.”
