Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) pledged that the U.S. Senate would consider facts over rumors when vetting President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Matt Gaetz, Trump’s attorney general appointee, and Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense appointee.
The Alabama Republican referenced charges that Supreme Court appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas faced at the time of their confirmation hearings.
“Senator Tuberville, I’m worried about Matt Gaetz,” host Larry Kudlow said. “And I’m worried about Pete Hegseth. And I’m worried — I know there’ll be opposition. I get that. But I’m worried particularly about Gaetz. You’ve got the word of a convicted felon serving out an 11-year prison term, right? And his two prostitute lady friends, OK? They seem to be the principal attackers for Matt Gaetz. Now, I don’t know everything there is to know about this. I’ve spent time with Molly Hemmingway who is a great journalist, has written about this. But I have some feelings — I don’t think a lot of people in the Senate want Matt Gaetz just because he’s a tough-minded conservative who’s going to protect Donald Trump from any kind of nonsensical lawfare and weaponization. You know, ‘Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia,’ and all that garbage. What do you think about that? What kind of shape is the Gaetz thing in? And what to do about it, if anything?”
“Well, first of all, no matter who President Trump picks, the media is going to hammer them every day. You know, we’ve all been around pretty long, Larry. It doesn’t make any difference. If you’re a Republican, you have go to fight your way through all this. If you remember Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh — we’re going to look at facts, not rumors. There’s rumors up here going around about Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth. All of them will have some kind of rumor when it comes down to it. But we’ve got to look at facts. We’ve got to help President Trump. He’s not going to pick somebody that’s a criminal. He’s not going to do that. He’s going to vet everybody — he’s done that. I’m looking forward to working with all of them. I’m looking forward to backing all of them as long as the facts are there.”
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