By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — One by one, all the president-elect’ s men, and women, are falling into place in his Cabinet.
While Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth’s nomination was teetering toward collapse just weeks ago, he now appears on track for confirmation after a fiery Senate hearing that focused on his drinking, views of women in combat and lack of high-profile management experience for the top U.S. military job.
President-elect Donald Trump’s other nominees pushed Wednesday through a gauntlet of confirmation hearings with the help of allied Senate Republicans carrying them toward the finish line, despite Democratic objections. One of them, potential FBI director Kash Patel, popped into a private Senate GOP lunch Wednesday to say hello.
“These nominees are bold choices,” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the GOP whip, in earlier remarks.
He predicted the Senate will begin start voting on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, to confirm Trump’s picks.
A long haul for some of Trump’s picks
To be sure, Trump’s more controversial choices of Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have yet to come before senators for public questioning. Once they do, they face a long haul ahead in winning over skeptics from both sides of the political aisle, Republicans and Democrats alike.
In a letter to Republican senators Wednesday, an organization headed by Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, said it was “deeply concerned” over Kennedy over his views on abortion, and urged senators to reject him for secretary of Health and Human Services.
But Hegseth’s ability to mount a political comeback, take the fight to his critics and turn his nomination into a litmus test of Trump’s Make America Great Again movement stands as a powerful example of the incoming White House’s ability to get what it wants. The Trump team’s allies, including billionaire Elon Musk and others, amplified support for Hegseth, pushing him…
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