Some of Donald Trump's nominees for high-ranking government positions have objected to undergoing FBI background checks, but one of his allies said that position may change.
The president-elect's defense nominee Pete Hegseth may soon be forced to drop out in the face of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct allegations, but some of Trump's picks are still resisting standard FBI background checks until he can install his own hand-picked director for the law enforcement agency.
"I don't think it's looking good," said Trump ally Madison Gesiotto. "I'm not saying that it's a done deal, but over the past 24 hours, I think there's been a lot of comments made by senators, and what I'm hearing from the inside, from staffers in, you know, in the Senate, they they feel concerned that the votes just won't be there."
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has emerged as a contender for the defense nomination if Hegseth drops out, despite his GOP primary challenge against the former president.
"I think many, many Republicans are huge DeSantis fans still, so I think they'd be very excited to see him as a replacement," Gesiotto said. "But again, that depends on if Pete Hegseth doesn't continue forward as the nominee, and if he does, I think it's all going to hinge on that background check, whether you know, by the FBI or someone else, a lot of senators saying also that they want to make sure that is an FBI background check. I think [Louisiana Sen. John] Kennedy came out and said that maybe some others saying that behind closed doors that they want the FBI to dig into some of these allegations, specifically during his time at some of the veterans organizations."
The Trump team has suggested allowing private firms to conduct those checks, instead of law enforcement, but Gesiotto said that demand may be softening.
"I am hearing that they are going to be putting forward everyone's names as they move forward," Gesiotto said. "I'm hearing that it will be not just one or two people being FBI checked, that they're probably going to put forward everybody."
That surprised CNN's John Berman.
"Well, that would that would be an interesting development and a bit of a shift," Berman said.
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