Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) is contending people “can’t complain” about President-elect Donald Trump‘s Cabinet picks given Trump signaled he would make such picks before he was elected.
Romney, a longtime critic of the president-elect, is leaving the Senate in January, after one term representing Utah. He said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that since Trump won the election “overwhelmingly,” he should be given a chance to enact the policies he desires.
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“Donald Trump won. He won overwhelmingly. He said what he was going to do, and that’s what he’s doing. I mean, people are saying, ‘oh, I don’t like this appointment or this policy that he’s talking about,'” Romney said. “But those are the things he said he was going to do when he ran. So you can’t complain about someone who does what he said he was going to do.”
“And I agree with him on a lot of policy fronts. I disagree with him on some things. But it’s like, OK, give him a chance to do what he said he’s going to do and see how it works out,” the GOP senator added.
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When asked about his feelings on who Trump has selected for his Cabinet, Romney said it was not who he would have selected, but he noted that he lost the 2012 presidential election, while Trump has won.
“Well, a very famous book talked about Abraham Lincoln choosing a team of rivals. This is a team of people who are very, very different, extraordinarily different backgrounds, different perspectives on issues, in some cases, I think even than the president, so an unusual collection of individuals, not the people I would have chosen,” Romney said.
“But I lost. He won, all right? I would like to revisit that and win, but I didn’t get that chance. And so these are the kind of people he wants to run. And he’s entitled to that,” he added.
Romney also said that the Senate should fulfill its “responsibility” to properly vet Trump’s nominees.
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Several of Trump’s nominees have been viewed as unorthodox, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary, Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.
All of Trump’s Cabinet picks will have to be confirmed by the Senate, but with the upper chamber in Republican control, it appears most, if not all of them will be given a good chance at gaining approval.