Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) for suggesting it is not Republican senators’ responsibility to vet President-elect Trump’s nominations for positions in his Cabinet and senior administration roles.
“That is one of the most ridiculous statements I have ever seen or heard,” Blumenthal told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview Thursday night.
“The Constitution says that every one of us must advise and consent on every nominee made by the president coming before us individually,” the senator continued.
“We take an oath, not to a president, but to the Constitution, and I think that any senator who says, ‘I’m just gonna vote in favor of whoever the president sends up because the president has vetted him enough’ is really violating their oath of office,” Blumenthal added.
In response to a request for comment from The Hill on Blumenthal’s remarks, Tuberville called for lawmakers to “give [Trump] the team he and the American people are asking for.”
“Trump went 7-0 in battleground states. The GOP Senate went 1-4 in those same battleground states. Trump won the popular vote. The GOP House didn’t gain seats. This election was a mandate for President Trump. Give him the team he and the American people are asking for and stop pretending this is business as usual,” the emailed statement read.
Blumenthal weighed in after Tuberville told CNN’s Manu Raju during an interview earlier Thursday that it’s “not our job” to further vet Pete Hegseth, one of Trump’s more controversial picks who has drawn scrutiny in his bid to become Defense secretary. The role requires Senate confirmation.
Hegseth has come under fire for some recent reports, including allegations of sexual assault connected to an encounter in 2017 he says was consensual, previous comments he’s made about not allowing women to be in combat roles in the military, and a New Yorker story that said he was forced to step down from two nonprofit groups due to mismanagement of funds and reports of intoxicated behavior.
A New York Times story published last week also reported that Hegseth’s mother sent him an email in 2018 accusing him of “routinely mistreating women for years” and displaying a “lack of character.” In a phone interview with the Times, however, Hegseth’s mother said she sent a follow-up message at the time apologizing for her original email and she also defended her son in a Fox News interview earlier this week.
Hegseth has vowed to not back down amid the scrutiny.
Tuberville in his own interview with CNN on Thursday argued that the criticisms of Hegseth are attempts to target Trump.
“Donald Trump did all the vetting they needed to do on Pete Hegseth,” the GOP senator asserted. “And I just can’t believe we’ve have people on our side there saying, ‘Well, I’ve got to look at this. Got to look at that.’ What they’re doing is, they’re throwing rocks at Donald Trump.”
“They’re not throwing them at Pete Hegseth, they’re throwing them at Donald Trump, because they’re saying, ‘Well, we don’t believe you did the right vetting, and we don’t believe he can do the job.’ Wait a minute. That’s not our job to do that. That’s the Democrats,” he added.
Some advisers to Trump had floated the idea of taking the job of conducting background checks for high-level nominees away from the FBI and giving it to private investigators, a move that could make it easier for some picks to win Senate confirmation. However, several Republicans rejected the proposal.
Trump has publicly defended his pick, yet Republicans on Capitol Hill told The Hill on Thursday that Hegseth’s nomination appears doomed, with one Republican senator saying “there’s seven or eight” GOP votes against him.
If four Republicans were to vote against the nomination early next year, Hegseth would not be confirmed.
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