WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet remains unclear after Republican senators spent much of December carefully dodging questions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views. on vaccines, sexual misconduct allegations against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard’s 2017 meeting with then-President Bashar Assad of Syria.
While some Republican senators have indicated they are all in on Trump’s choices, others have withheld their support for now, especially some of his more controversial nominees. The dynamic injects uncertainty into the process as Republicans prepare to win the Senate majority by a four-seat margin in January and as Trump aggressively challenges them to immediately confirm his Cabinet.
It is not unusual for senators to wait until after confirmation hearings before publicly announcing a decision. But Republicans are under more pressure than usual as Trump and his allies make clear they will confront senators who don’t line up.
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“You only have control of the Senate because of Donald Trump,” the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., warned during a media appearance this month. “Without it you would be relegated to insignificance.”
There has been one casualty in the process so far: former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who resigned as attorney general after senators raised private concerns. But Trump has enthusiastically thrown his support behind the rest, including Kennedy as secretary of Health and Human Services, Hegseth as secretary of Defense and Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
With hearings set to begin in mid-January, before Trump is even inaugurated, senators will soon have to decide how closely to scrutinize the nominees and whether they are willing to vote against any of them. Republicans will have a 53-47 majority, so Trump cannot lose more than three votes in any nomination if Democrats are united in opposition.
The outcome of the confirmation process and the level of disagreement in the Senate will likely set the tone for Trump’s presidency and his relationship with Congress, which was often tumultuous during his first term. He has often clashed with the Senate, but has indicated he expects Republican senators to be more accommodating this time.
“It’s not about putting ‘yes’ on the board, it’s about keeping ‘no’ off the board,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, one of Trump’s top allies in the Senate who speaks with him regularly.
While most Republicans in the Senate have gone out of their way to show as much loyalty to Trump as possible, a handful of Republicans have made it clear that they are willing to defend the body’s “advise and consent” role. Among the senators to watch are moderate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and incoming freshman Sen. John Curtis of Utah.
“Anyone who wants to criticize me for doing my job, bring it on,” Curtis said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when asked about vetting Trump’s nominees. “This is my job. It is my constitutional responsibility.”
Yet even moderate senators have shied away from directly criticizing Trump’s choices. And not a single Republican has spoken out against any candidate.
Some of Trump’s picks are expected to win confirmation, perhaps even with some Democratic votes. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has indicated he will seek Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state and Rep. Elise will support Stefanik as United Nations ambassador, as will a few other Democrats.
For the more controversial nominees, however, party unity will be crucial.
One of Trump’s most controversial picks is Hegseth, a Fox News anchor and veteran who is considered inexperienced by some and has publicly questioned whether women should serve in combat. He has also faced allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking, which he has denied. But some senators have given it all a pause, despite Trump’s enthusiastic support.
Hegseth has faced particular pressure from Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, herself a combat veteran who has worked to address sexual violence in the military. She has met Hegseth several times and has not yet said she will support him. She will have a chance to question him publicly and face-to-face during a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing scheduled for Jan. 14.
Although a hearing for Gabbard has not yet taken place, senators will also be able to question her publicly and in a secret setting about her trip to Syria after the US broke off diplomatic ties. Gabbard has defended the trip and said it is important to open dialogue, but critics hear echoes of Russia-fueled talking points in her comments. Assad fled to Moscow earlier this month after opposition forces overran Syria in a surprise attack, ending his family’s five-decade rule.
While Republican senators have largely refrained from publicly raising concerns about Gabbard’s ties to foreign countries, nearly a hundred former senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials have urged Senate leaders to hold hearings behind closed doors. organize to allow a full investigation of the government’s files on her.
Senators are more openly skeptical of Kennedy, who has long questioned the use of some vaccines.
Following a report in the New York Times that one of his advisers had filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement saying that “efforts to undermining public confidence in proven treatments are not just uninformed – they are dangerous,” and that “anyone seeking Senate approval to serve in the next administration would do well to avoid even the appearance of involvement in such efforts to avoid.”
McConnell, who had polio as a child, will leave leadership next year but will remain in the Senate. His votes will also be closely watched after years of tension with Trump as he takes on a new role free from the responsibilities of leadership.
Like McConnell, many senators have taken an “advisory” approach, telling nominees what they need to do to get confirmed.
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina says he has told all the nominees he has met so far: “Go out and see what the press says about you, find your top 10 and disarm the conversation by coming up with a good solution for why that is so’ you.”
Additionally, Tillis said, “You have to do a good job in committee.”
