After the failure of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to make it to a Senate confirmation hearing after Donald Trump tapped him to be his next attorney general, GOP resistance to secretary of defense nominee Pete Hegseth has the president-elect's inner circle in a panic.
That is the opinion of Washington Post journalist Jacqueline Alemany who stated on MSNBC that there is a growing fear that Trump is getting pushed around by Republican senators.
With Hegseth struggling to win over reluctant conservative lawmakers due to allegations of a drinking problem and an accusation of sexual assault, the president-elect facing is the prospect of two of his highest-profile Cabinet choices going down in flames.
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According to Alemany, that is a growing concern within the former president's inner circle.
"This has been the one benefit of having other candidates that are more overtly controversial," she told the hosts. "There's –– it's been a little bit of a deflection tactic from some of the other more, some of the other candidates and nominees who also have controversies, controversies that haven't yet spilled out into public view yet."
"But what you're saying exactly is why Trump aides are telling us behind the scenes that backing Hegseth and continuing to stand by him is so important," she reported. "To show and not allow this narrative to set in that the GOP-led Senate has essentially neutered Trump's power and his mandate to appoint people into his positions, people who are loyalists who are going to carry out his campaign promises and his MAGA mandate."
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