Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is not known for his constitutional scholarship. But he demonstrated a new level of misunderstanding on Thursday as he spoke to CNN’s Manu Raju about Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Defense.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has been confronted with a series of allegations about alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement since Trump announced he wanted him to oversee the U.S. military.
While the president may choose whomever he wants to fill his Cabinet and other top positions, the Constitution states that he must do so with the “advice and consent” of the Senate. In other words, it is the Senate’s job to help vet the president’s nominees.
In Tuberville’s view, however, Republican senators should offload that job onto their Democratic colleagues, trusting that Trump has vetted his nominees well enough.
Tuberville told CNN’s Raju he had concerns about Republicans who presume to be “a better vetter and picker of people than Donald Trump.”
Raju countered that providing advice and consent is Tuberville’s job.
“Advice and consent, but that’s more the Democrats,” Tuberville responded.
“But don’t you think both sides should do the vetting?” Raju asked.
Tuberville agreed, “to some degree,” but added that Democrats “should do all the background work.”
“Donald Trump did all the vetting they needed to do on Pete Hegseth, and I just can’t believe we even have people on our side that are saying, ’Well, I’ve got to look at this, got to look at that,” he said.
“What they’re doing is they’re throwing rocks at Donald Trump. They’re not throwing them at Pete Hegseth. They’re throwing them at Donald Trump because they’re saying, ‘Well, we don’t believe you did the right vetting and we don’t believe he can do that job.’ Wait a minute. That’s not our job to do that. That’s the Democrats.”
Other GOP senators have indicated they take their role seriously.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told Fox News on Thursday that she had a “thorough” conversation with Hegseth the day before but would not commit to supporting him through the nomination process just yet.
“I think, for a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process,” said Ernst, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth has indicated he intends to fight for the job, although he has no senior military leadership experience.
Tuberville’s most recent take on the Senate’s constitutional powers recalls other instances where he voiced his misunderstanding of the government.
After being elected in 2020, Tuberville, a former college football coach, misidentified the three branches of the federal government as “the House, the Senate and the executive.” (The three branches are the legislative, the executive and the judicial.) In January 2021, he suggested that President Joe Biden’s inauguration should be delayed, even though the Constitution’s 20th Amendment stipulates inaugurations must take place on Jan. 20.