As is always the case with the Republican Party, it is failing to deliver what the American people have asked for once again. As confirmation hearings, committee meetings, and floor votes happen for President Donald Trump’s cabinet, the Senate GOP can be heard dragging its feet from Washington, D.C. While they have been quick to confirm most of Trump’s cabinet, anyone with two brain cells in their head knew that the most brutal battles were going to come for his most controversial choices, with Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense being the first to cross over the finish line by a hair in a tie-breaking 51-50 vote. This narrow margin, due to neoconservatives like Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mitch McConnell opposing his nomination, underscores the potential challenges for future confirmations.
Now, the actual test of whether Trump will have to constantly deal with this same wing of the party during his entire presidency will be revealed this week, as the Senate takes on the nominations of former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Kash Patel as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If the confirmation hearings are any indication, the same battles that Secretary Hegseth had to fight during his process will be highly similar to the ones that Patel, Gabbard, and Kennedy will have to combat as they try and convince the ones on their side of the aisle to support their visions for their separate entities.
Patel handled questions to the tune of convincing even his harshest critics, such as Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, that he was the right man for the men and women of the FBI, even if his vision was very different than the directors of years past. Patel’s knowledge of the department’s history, his rebuke of the accusation of using weaponized federal power by Democrats, and his handling of questions about January 6th were all impressive moments that essentially helped seal his confirmation and even impressed Hegseth swing votes like North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. Many doubted Patel as a viable candidate for the moderates in the Senate GOP. Still, he nailed his hearing so masterfully that he is the most likely of the remaining important three to be confirmed.
With Gabbard and Kennedy, though, there are more questions than answers as to why they are getting so much flak from the men and women in power due to the man who has proposed their nominations, President Donald Trump. Republicans in name only, such as Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Indiana Senator Todd Young, seemingly threw out every roadblock to oppose both Kennedy and Gabbard’s confirmation. Whether it be their pressing questions concerning Gabbard’s support of the pardon for Edward Snowden or Kennedy’s back-and-forth with multiple Senators concerning his attacks on the big pharmaceutical companies as Secretary of HHS, the grilling of the two was so far apart from what the American people voted for.
The mandate that the American electorate demanded from the Trump Administration is precisely the policies and goals that both Kennedy and Gabbard bring to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Health and Human Services. Instead of criticism of federal whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, who exposed the corruption of the United States intelligence community and its abuse of the American people and foreign bystanders in war, the United States voters rebuked the federalized weaponry of its government that Snowden helped expose. Gabbard and Kennedy’s policies promise to bring significant changes and benefits to these crucial departments, aligning with the mandate of the American people.
Rather than continue to allow big pharma to control the media, government, and the campaign funds of members in Congress, Americans mandated a change and a change that Robert F. Kennedy promised to bring to Washington. Making America Healthy Again will not come without opposition from members who are controlled by rich, big pharmaceutical companies and their executives. Kennedy even called out members, such as Vermont Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders, for being funded by big pharma more than any other member of the United States Senate. Kennedy posed the threat that lobbyists would not direct the health industry anymore, and the media convinced the ‘deep state, a term used to describe entrenched government officials and bureaucrats, that he brought danger to their control.
Kennedy, Kash, and Gabbard are the needed change agents that the Senate GOP has to make sure to get through the confirmation process. While cabinet members like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum will do great in their positions, there is a reason that Trump has brought fighters like Hegseth, Patel, Gabbard, and Kennedy into the fold for his administration.
Changes are coming for the deep state that has run the federal government for so long, and these three need to get confirmed to initiate the mandate the American people demanded Trump and his cabinet implement.
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