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Sen. Capito weighs in on rescinding of Gaetz nomination, cabinet vetting

FILE - Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

CHARLESTON — U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she doesn’t see the potential for the U.S. Senate to back away from its duty to review potential cabinet picks of incoming President Donald Trump, but she expected her colleagues to give deference to Trump’s nominees.

Capito, R-W.Va., is the fourth ranking member of the incoming Senate Republican majority leadership team. She spoke to reporters Thursday afternoon in a virtual briefing from Capitol Hill.

So far, Trump has named 18 potential cabinet members who will require the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. Just an hour before Capito spoke to reporters, former Florida Republican congressman Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general.

“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Gaetz said. “There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General.”

The withdrawal followed reporting by CNN Thursday that a woman that Gaetz allegedly had underage sex with approached the House Ethics Committee about a second incident between Gaetz and herself when she was 17 involving another woman. Gaetz resigned from Congress following his nomination by Trump but before a possible vote by the House Ethics Committee to release a report on its completed investigation of him.

Gaetz had made enemies on Capitol Hill over the years for his comments attacking fellow Republican lawmakers and causing other controversies. Trump and Gaetz had been meeting and phoning senators to encourage support for Gaetz’ nomination. Capito – who is not a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that would have approved or rejected Gaetz’ nomination – said she had not been approached by Gaetz for her support.

“I think that Mr. Gaetz made a decision that he…was becoming a burden to President Trump and also President Trump’s desire to quickly fill out his cabinet and to fill it out to be effective,” said Capito. “He looked at that and after conversations with the senators, decided that the best option in consideration of the President and really the good of the country and probably the good of him personally was for him to remove himself from contention.”

There has been some pressure for the Senate to quickly gavel in next year and recess, allowing Trump to be able to appoint his cabinet through the recess appointment process and avoid Senate scrutiny over more controversial cabinet picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Department of Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Pete Hegseth for Department of Defense. But Capito believes the Senate can act quickly to review Trump’s nominations.

“If I do my job and the nominee does their job and the committee does our work, we should be able to confirm a lot of these important cabinet positions through the regular order, and that would be my desire,” Capito said. “I don’t see us going to any request from the President for us to go to a recess appointment.”

Capito, who will be taking the gavel next year of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said her committee will be vetting several Trump nominees, including former Republican New York congressman Lee Zeldin for the Environmental Protection Agency, and former Republican Wisconsin congressman Sean Duffy for secretary of the Department of Transportation. Capito said her committee will also interview several EPA undersecretaries.

Until a nominee comes before her committee or up for a vote on the Senate floor, Capito is keeping an open mind on Trump’s cabinet nominees.

“I do believe that the chief executive – whether it’s President Trump or whatever party that president is – that the president really should have wide latitude to have a team that he has great confidence in,” Capito said. “I feel like the president expects me to do my job, expects me to be fair, but he also expects me to consider that in order for us as a body and him as a president to move forward on the policies that the American people voted on and overwhelmingly accepted, that he has to have his team to do that.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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