MSNBC host Jen Psaki said Friday on “Morning Joe” that Republican senators were using “quiet defiance” to oppose some of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees.
Co-host Willie Geist said, “Let’s focus on Hegseth for the moment. What do you make of some of what we heard yesterday? That Republican senators kind of going through the motions saying, I’m open to the possibility?”
Psaki said, “I think there’s what’s happening publicly and then there’s what’s happening privately. What’s happening privately really tells you the whole story with nominations. This didn’t always used to be the case. It used to be many years ago that senators would come out and say ‘I’m going to vote for this person’ or ‘I’m not going to vote for this person,’ but now because so many Republican senators especially are concerned about being a target of Trump, all of this is basically quiet defiance. That’s what you saw with Matt Gaetz and I think that’s what you’re seeing right now with Pete Hegseth.”
She added, “What was interesting, I don’t know if you all saw Blumenthal, comments yesterday, the senator from Connecticut, a Democrat, who said there are eight to ten Republicans or five to ten maybe he said, which is quite a range, who he thinks would oppose Hegseth. What I expect is going to happen is this is going to be quietly a nomination that is killed over the next couple of days. Meaning people on the Hill, senators, whether it’s McConnell or others will convey to the Trump team that he simply does not have the votes. Then Trump has to decide what he wants to do from there. Does he pick another nomination? We’re already seeing names floating out there, which is coming from somewhere in the Trump orbit, so that tells you a lot.”
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