By Al From
Yesterday’s votes in the Senate Finance and Intelligence Committees to advance the nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence should make it clear beyond any reasonable doubt that Senate Republicans are moving aggressively to confirm President Trump’s most dangerous and unqualified Cabinet nominees.
The confirmation last week of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense was a harbinger of the strategy they are following.
Here’s how it works. With their 53-47 majority, three Republican Senators can vote against any nominee and, with Vice President Vance casting the deciding vote, that nominee will still be confirmed by single vote. The key is not allowing a fourth Republican Senator to vote against any nominee.
As long as Republican no votes are spread around — with no more than three against any nominee — Senators who cast them, can, if they need to, tell their constituents that the were not simply rubber stamps for President Trump and still not jeopardize the confirmation of any Trump’s nominees. So, expect that three negative votes will be cast by Republican Senators against every controversial nominee.
That’s where the new majority leader, John Thune, comes in. His role in the strategy is to orchestrate the process so that there is never a fourth Republican no vote against any candidate.
The strategy starts with sham hearings where the nominees lie about their past record and statements and tell reticent committee members what they need to hear to give them the cover to vote yes.
If Senators need more than that cover to be convinced, Trump and his MAGA cronies are right there, like Mafia thugs, to apply the muscle by threatening put up and fund a primary opponent when they come up for re-election. Once the MAGA forces our unleashed, threats of physical violence against the Senators and their families often seem to follow.
In the case of Hegseth, three Republicans — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell — voted against him. The most likely fourth no vote would have come Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a military veteran whose core beliefs on sexual harassment and the role of women in the military were 180 degrees opposite of Hegseth’s. But, despite her skepticism at the hearings, when the vote was cast, Ernst was the pivotal yes that assured his confirmation.
With Kennedy’s nomination, the most likely fourth no Republican vote would have come from Bill Cassidy, the chair of the Finance Committee’s Health Subcommittee, a physician who stands for everything Kennedy’s been against his whole life. In a post last week, I said last week I would believe a Cassidy no vote when I saw it. You guessed it. I never did. Cassidy’s yes vote put the Kennedy nomination over the top.
As a member of the Intelligence Committee, Collins was in a decisive position on the Gabbard nomination. If she had voted against it this afternoon, she would have killed it on the spot. The nomination would likely have never gone to the floor. Miracle of miracles, Collins voted yes.
Think about it. When Collins vote was not needed to confirm Hegseth, she voted against him. When it was needed to confirm Gabbard, she voted for her. That’s the whole point of the strategy.
What did Ernst, Cassidy and Collins have in common when they cast a deciding vote to confirm or advance an unqualified Trump nominee? They’re all up for re-election in 2026, and they don’t want a Trump-MAGA backed primary opponent. And they don’t want to put up with threats against them or their families from MAGA faithful.
General Douglas MacArthur famously told Cadets at West Point, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” In the case of this president, Republican Senators don’t stand up to Trump, they just quake in fear.
