In the U.S. Capitol building, former college football coach turned U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) was asked about the process of vetting presidential cabinet nominations, particularly President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Fox & Friends star Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
Tuberville told Manu Raju of CNN: “Who are we to say that we’re a better vetter and picker of people than Donald Trump?” Raju reminded Tuberville: “You advise and consent, that’s your job.”
Tuberville repeated the phrase, “Advise and consent, but that’s more the Democrats.”
When asked, “But don’t you think both sides should do the vetting?” Tuberville replied, “Well, yeah, to some degree,” and then said that Democrats “should do all the background work, they should go after our nominees.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville said it should be up to Democrats to vet Trump’s nominees — not GOP.
“Who are we to say that we’re a better vetter and picker of people than Donald Trump? … Advise and consent, but that’s more the Democrats… They should do all the background work.” pic.twitter.com/VNRQcitenI
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 5, 2024
Regarding Hegseth, Tuberville said “Donald Trump did all the vetting they needed to do on Pete Hegseth,” and “I can’t believe we have people on our side saying, ‘Well, I gotta look at this, I gotta look at that.’”
(Hegseth is facing allegations of being “forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.”)
Tuberville continued: “What they’re doing is throwing rocks at Donald Trump. They’re not throwing them at Pete Hegseth, they’re throwing them at Donald Trump because they’re saying, ‘we don’t believe you did the right vetting, we don’t believe he can do the job. Wait a minute, that’s not our job to do that. That’s the Democrats.”
