U.S. Sen.-elect John Curtis weighed in on some of Donald Trump’s nominations for the incoming administration, saying he expects some controversial nominees will “resolve themselves” — similarly to the president-elect’s first pick to attorney general.
At the beginning of a Q&A hosted by Punchbowl News on Tuesday morning, billed as “The New Power Players,” Curtis joked with host Punchbowl CEO and founder Anna Palmer if he should answer her first question before he was even asked.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of attention right now on President-elect Donald Trump and who he is looking to put into his administration and certain appointees,” Palmer told the Utah congressman. “You have been named by a lot of folks as somebody who could be a critical vote on some of these kind of controversial or more controversial nominations.”
“Do you have concerns,” she asked, “when it comes to Pete Hegseth at DOD, Kash Patel at FBI, Tulsi Gabbard at intel?”
Hegseth is a veteran and Fox News host who Trump nominated for secretary of defense; Patel, a lawyer and former Trump administration appointee, is the president-elect’s pick to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray; and Gabbard is a veteran and former member of Congress who Trump is asking Senators to confirm as director of national intelligence. Their nominations have been criticized by some, who have accused Trump of picking allies over more qualified candidates.
“I think what’s easy to forget is there is an amazing process in place, and this process evolves over time, and there’s a lot of looking into people’s backgrounds and things they’ve said,” Curtis said. “So I’m trying to be very disciplined and let the process work.
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