STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This week here in Washington, some of President-elect Trump's cabinet nominees hold public job interviews. His choices to lead the departments of Justice, State and Defense face Senate confirmation hearings. That would be Pam Bondi for attorney general, Marco Rubio for secretary of state, and Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. The Senate Republican leader John Thune told Fox News that Democrats should fall in line.
JOHN THUNE: I'm hoping that they will come to their senses and realize that the election drubbing that they took was a message from the American people.
INSKEEP: Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report is following the hearings, and we're happy you're back with us, Jessica. Good morning.
JESSICA TAYLOR: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: So he mentions Democrats there, but aren't there also some Republicans who had serious questions about some of the nominees?
TAYLOR: Yeah. I'm especially watching, you know, on the Hegseth nomination. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. Now, she's herself a combat veteran. Typically, these nominees get confirmed even sometimes with bipartisan support. Even, you know, Hillary Clinton got all but two Republican votes when she was confirmed as secretary of state for Barack Obama. You know, we haven't had a nominee go down since John Tower for secretary of defense and the George H.W. Bush administration. Typically, these nominees face public pressure, see the writing on the wall and withdraw...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
TAYLOR: ...In the same way that Matt Gaetz did. But a lot of the things that sort of doomed Tower were questions about alcoholism and womanizing. And so Hegseth has a lot of those same questions. So he seems to be the one that, I think, you know, is clearly going to be front and center there. And then, you know, someone like Ernst, she could face a primary challenge - she's up for reelection this year - if she doesn't sort of fall in line and support them. You know, other senators I'm watching are just sort of the two Republican centrists, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. They're a little bit more inoculated from primary challenges. It's not clear who would challenge Collins, even though she's up for reelection this year.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
TAYLOR: Murkowski, she has a ranked-choice all-party primary voting system. And then sort of new senators like John Curtis from Utah, who just took Mitt Romney's post. So he sort of - he doesn't have to face voters for another six years, but Ernst is one I'm really focusing on in that Hegseth nomination.
INSKEEP: Let me just work through this. You point out that it's very rare to just vote a nominee down. But in watching this over the years, I realize it's much more of a dance. You mentioned that people might...
TAYLOR: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...Withdraw if things look bad. And then there are also private meetings before the public hearings where senators try to get people on the record or even get them to change their positions. Hasn't that been happening with another controversial nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, who is the nominee for director of national intelligence?
TAYLOR: Yeah. She does seem to have - you know, we had over the weekend a Republican holdout. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford said that he would vote for her. There were concerns about her backing a key foreign surveillance thing.
INSKEEP: Section 702, yeah - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Go on, go on.
TAYLOR: Yes. And then she has a lot of concerns about her past relationship with now-deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. So she is doing that. And then, you know, the person who has - she's held a lot of votes with these Republicans, but, you know, John Fetterman has emerged as sort of the, you know, iconoclastic Democrat that has met with some of these more controversial nominees, and we'll see where he votes. He could be one that switches sides.
INSKEEP: OK. I'm just looking up now - as we're talking, it happens that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s picture flashed up on one of the televisions here in Studio 31. Which makes me wonder, as you look ahead, is it certain that every one of these nominees is going to be confirmed?
TAYLOR: I don't think it's certain, you know. It is sort of that trio of Hegseth and Gabbard and then Robert F. Kennedy. You mentioned sort of senator as I'm looking at the hearings. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee, he already has a primary challenge because he voted for conviction in Trump's impeachment trial - his second impeachment trial. So I'm really watching to see how that nomination for Robert F. Kennedy goes as well. So it's really these three. I expect other ones like Marco Rubio to easily get confirmed with bipartisan support.
INSKEEP: And, of course, Pam Bondi would be controversial under other circumstances, but she's the backup choice after Gaetz went away.
TAYLOR: Yeah (laughter).
INSKEEP: So probably...
TAYLOR: Exactly.
INSKEEP: ...Favored to get confirmed. Jessica, thanks so much for your insights. Really appreciate it.
TAYLOR: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: Jessica Taylor is senate and governor's editor for the Cook Political Report. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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