The withdrawal of Matt Gaetz as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general serves as a reminder that the Senate is still relevant when it comes to installing a president’s Cabinet. Yet it may be only a preview of the pressure on Senate Republicans as they try to hold onto their constitutional role of giving “advice and consent” to the president’s administration. The dizzying speed of Cabinet picks showed how Trump is returning to Washington with immense power over the GOP and looking for loyalists to run his administration. He is already straining the system of checks and balances that stitch American democracy together. Republican senators are choosing their words carefully as they size up Trump’s proposed Cabinet.
