Transcript: Republican Senator’s Surprise Takedown of Trump Shames GOP
Nichols: Many of them will fail that test. They may finally link arms on at least Gaetz, which I think isn’t going to happen. Gaetz is not going to become attorney general, but I could be wrong. I suspect Gabbard isn’t going to make it. [It’s] interesting that the right-wing New York Post today said, Not these two.
But the problem is—and this is why, in a recent piece, I argued the Senate leadership should go to Trump right now and say, Listen, there’s four of them on block that are not going to make it, so let’s just get past that right now and get working on other nominees—Trump wants to fight them out one by one by one with a giant crap storm with each nominee.
That means that, after Gaetz, he may get what he wants. One thing that won’t … I shouldn’t say this because I hate to speak it into existence, but it does seem like the senators are digging in about recess appointments, because what Trump was asking them is: take a walk, just take a walk. Senators have … I worked in the Senate—the only place where you get egos to match the White House is down the street in the Senate.
Telling a bunch of senators, Take a walk and ignore what I’m about to do, does not go over well with a lot of these guys, even the ones that love him. It’ll work with Tommy Tuberville, guys like that who don’t take their job seriously, but most of these senators are not just going to say, OK, your lordship. But on the other hand, I’ve learned never to say never when it comes to the Republicans now.