Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from consideration for lawyer common however a lot of Donald Trump’s different nominees proceed to attract controversy. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined Jeffrey Goldberg to debate Trump’s different equally unbelievable Cupboard selections, and what might come subsequent for these nominees.
With the announcement of Gaetz’s withdrawal, a lot consideration has now turned to Trump’s nominee for secretary of protection, Pete Hegseth, who, like Gaetz, additionally faces allegations of sexual assault. “The senators to look at on this nomination are going to be not simply the national-security hawks however feminine Republican senators like Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who’re all the time the wild playing cards, but in addition somebody like Senator Joni Ernst,” Andrew Desiderio mentioned final evening. Though Ernst has been complimentary to this point about Hegseth’s nomination, Desiderio defined, she has additionally been open about her assist for girls in fight roles, one thing that Hegseth has spoken out in opposition to.
As for longtime Republican lawmakers, questions nonetheless stay over how their reactions to Trump’s Cupboard picks will play out within the affirmation course of. Are we going to see Mitch McConnell “lead an rebel faction now that he’s not going to be the Senate chief?” Goldberg requested panelists final evening.
“There is likely to be a narrative of what he does behind closed doorways in comparison with what you see publicly,” Zolan Kanno-Youngs mentioned. Not serving because the chief of his celebration, “he now doesn’t want to fret about managing the factions of the Senate” and, given his previous criticism of Trump, McConnell “now has the leeway to be extra outspoken.”
Becoming a member of the editor in chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to debate this and extra: Laura Barrón-López, a White Home correspondent for PBS NewsHour; Andrew Desiderio, a senior congressional reporter at Punchbowl Information; Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White Home correspondent at The New York Instances; and Ashley Parker, a senior nationwide political correspondent for The Washington Put up.
Watch the total episode right here.