Senate Republicans weigh controversial cabinet picks

WASHINGTON (TNND) — Controversial cabinet picks from Donald Trump have even Republicans asking questions. The President-elect was at Mar-a-Lago this week touting his choices.

The latest selection to raise eyebrows was known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary. Trump praised him Thursday evening.

We want you to come up with things and ideas and what you've been talking about for a long time and, and I think you're going to do some unbelievable thing. Nobody, nobody's gonna be able to do it like you. And boy, does he feel it in his heart," he said.

RFK Jr. has previously suggested that he’d try to remove fluoride from the water supply and that the COVID-19 virus is an ethnically targeted bioweapon.

“Covid is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese," he told the New York Post in July of 2023.

RFK Jr. has divided Republicans and Democratic Senators, along with some in the health community. Sen. Tommy Tubberville, R-Ala., called it "an absolutely brilliant pick by President Trump” while Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said he’s “Dangerous. Unqualified. Unserious.”

Trump’s other controversial pick, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is reportedly making calls to improve his confirmation chances in the Senate.

Some Senate Republicans want a House ethics investigation into allegations of a sexual relationship between Gaetz and a then 17-year-old girl to be made available to them as they go through the nomination process. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it shouldn’t be released, adding it would be "a terrible precedent."

Incoming Senate Republican Leader John Thune looks to already be in a tight spot balancing Trump’s picks with his conference’s votes. Trump can likely only afford to lose four Republican Senators to sink his picks.

I just know that the nomination is, it's, you know, isn't formalized yet, but when it is, we'll process it in the way we typically do and provide our advice and consent role," Sen. Thune said when asked about Gaetz and the ethics report.

The Wall Street Journal reports there are already more than enough Republican Senators out on Gaetz which could doom his nomination.