‘Top Priority’: CNN Panel Argues Trump Will Likely Get Matt Gaetz Confirmed — Even if Other Nominees Fall as ‘Sacrificial Lambs’
CNN’s Inside Politics panel discussed President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks on Monday and agreed that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was both Trump’s “top priority” and in the end likely to become the attorney general of the United States.
Anchor Dana Bash began the segment by showing a clip of Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Meet the Press over the weekend. Mullin, a fierce critic of Gaetz, suggested Trump should get his picks, but also urged the House Ethics Committee to release its report on Gaetz’s alleged sexual and drug-related misconduct.
New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon weighed in and said, “And a lot of those MAGA voters feel like the first term of Donald, the first administration of Donald Trump was thwarted by a bureaucracy, by congressional Republicans, it made Mitch McConnell a villain in that ecosystem.”
“For the last two years at these rallies, it has been a mantra of when they return, they will block out all of the kind of pressures that stop Donald Trump from doing what he wants to do. So I think this is the first step of that to test how far these lawmakers are willing to go over their party’s leader who comes in a stronger position than eight years ago,” Herndon added.
Manu Raju replied, “You could just see how pained Markwayne Mullin was at the thought of having to vote for Matt Gaetz.”
“Yeah, he clearly wants this ethics report to come out so that maybe he’s the whole nomination is withdrawn,” replied Bash.
“Do the work for him,” agreed Raju.
Bash then turned the conversation to Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for secretary of defense who is dogged by past accusations of sexual assault.
“And I think that, again, like Trump is being intentional with these choices. And I think, you know, to the point about the lack of outside vetting, we know that he kind of chooses off a whim, a hunch. Hegseth is on Fox News. I think that look is just as much important as whatever qualifications he may or may not have,” Herndon replied, adding:
But more importantly, I think it is he’s forcing Republicans to choose among a menu of options they don’t really love. But I think he has also made clear that Gaetz is the top priority. So I would be interested to see which one of these other options becomes more of a sacrificial lamb, because it could they could find a way to show toughness against Donald Trump by letting him get the biggest person he wants, which I think is Matt Gaetz, even more so than Hegseth.
As the conversation continued, Raju agreed that Trump is likely to get most of his picks, saying “It’s hard to see multiple Trump nominees going down. There’s typically one, maybe two in a new administration that fall by the wayside. We’ll see if Trump even accepts that. And if they go down, will he pressure the Senate to go into recess so he can install them unilaterally?”
“You think that’s actually going to happen?” pressed Bash on the recess appointments.
“You know, there is a lot of resistance among Republicans to go into recess if they reject an appointment. But John Thune, the new majority leader, will be under a ton of pressure from Trump. I don’t think he’s going to give up even if Matt Gaetz goes down,” replied Raju.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
