Vance emerges as piv­otal play­er in fight to con­firm Trump’s Cab­i­net

Vance emerges as pivotal player in fight to confirm Trump’s Cabinet

Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance is earn­ing praise from Repub­li­can law­mak­ers for his efforts to get Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s Cab­i­net nom­i­na­tions more sup­port in the Sen­ate.

The vice pres­i­dent has spo­ken with sev­er­al Sen­ate Repub­li­cans to con­vince them not to vote down Trump nom­i­na­tions that are in jeop­ardy.

Sen. Bill Cas­sidy (R‑LA) has expressed hes­i­tan­cy in vot­ing in favor of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nom­i­na­tion to run the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices. Cas­sidy has cit­ed his med­ical back­ground as a doc­tor and dis­sat­is­fac­tion with Kennedy’s past com­ments against the safe­ty of cer­tain vac­cines. The Louisiana sen­a­tor, how­ev­er, said that after speak­ing with Vance, he was able to change his mind in sup­port of Kennedy.

“I want to thank VP JD specif­i­cal­ly for his hon­est coun­sel. With the seri­ous com­mit­ments I’ve received from the admin­is­tra­tion and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-Amer­i­can agen­da, I will vote yes,” Cas­sidy wrote on social media.

In a speech on the Sen­ate floor, Cas­sidy addi­tion­al­ly said he reached an agree­ment with the Trump admin­is­tra­tion to “reas­sure me regard­ing their com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the pub­lic health ben­e­fit of vac­ci­na­tion.”

“To this end, Mr. Kennedy and the admin­is­tra­tion com­mit­ted that he and I will have an unprece­dent­ed­ly close col­lab­o­ra­tive work­ing rela­tion­ship if he is con­firmed. We will meet or speak mul­ti­ple times a month. This col­lab­o­ra­tion will allow us to work well togeth­er and there­fore to be more effec­tive,” Cas­sidy said.

Then-Sen. JD Vance and Tul­si Gab­bard hug as they arrive for a cam­paign town hall at the Bed­ford Coun­ty Air­port in Bed­ford, Penn­syl­va­nia, Wednes­day, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Vance also spoke with Sen. Todd Young (R‑IN) about his con­cerns over for­mer Hawaii Rep. Tul­si Gabbard’s nom­i­na­tion to be direc­tor of nation­al intel­li­gence. Young was the key remain­ing swing vote ahead of the Sen­ate Intel­li­gence Com­mit­tee decid­ing on whether to advance Gab­bard to a full Sen­ate vote.

Accord­ing to Politi­co, Young “engaged in exten­sive con­ver­sa­tions” with Vance, seek­ing “writ­ten assur­ances” about Gabbard’s view­point on whistle­blow­ers after Gab­bard refused to call Edward Snow­den, who leaked clas­si­fied doc­u­ments from the Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Agency, a trai­tor.

Young had found him­self under pres­sure to advance Gab­bard from staunch Trump allies, includ­ing Elon Musk, who called him a “deep state pup­pet” in a post on his social plat­form X before delet­ing it, say­ing lat­er he stood “cor­rect­ed.”

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Vance had to break a tie in the Sen­ate as its pres­i­dent to get Defense Sec­re­tary Pete Hegseth, fac­ing sex­u­al assault alle­ga­tions and ques­tions about his drink­ing habits, across the fin­ish line after three Repub­li­can sen­a­tors vot­ed against him.

Vice pres­i­dents have rarely had to break ties in nom­i­na­tions in recent his­to­ry. The last Cab­i­net sec­re­tary who required a tiebreak­ing vote was Trump’s first edu­ca­tion sec­re­tary, Bet­sy DeVos.