Summary
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has told Donald Trump that Pete Hegseth likely has enough votes to be confirmed as Defense Secretary, despite controversy over past sexual misconduct allegations, a financial settlement, and concerns about his leadership and alcohol use.
Hegseth’s confirmation hearing is set for Jan. 14, with Senate Republicans aiming to expedite key national security confirmations before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Other high-profile hearings, including for Marco Rubio (State), Pam Bondi (Attorney General), and Tulsi Gabbard (DNI), are tentatively scheduled for the same week amidst ongoing bipartisan negotiations.
Fuck that. Fight even if you’re going to loose because it literally costs them nothing to fight it.
Hot take: the Venn Diagram of people saying fighting is a waste of political capital and those saying people who didn’t vote for Harris consented to Trump’s agenda is a perfect circle.
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Was fighting the Brett Kavanaugh appointment a waste of political capital?
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If effort is the only cost, then yes. If political capital in the form of bipartisan goodwill is your concern, they should not have fought Kavanaugh or any appointment where the odds aren’t better than a coin toss.
Voting against this clown doesn’t burn any political capital for a Democrat.
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If they don’t fight then appointments like this get normalized.