Despite sounding dull, US Confirmation Hearings have a record of being dramatic. From Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer to Justice Amy Coney-Barrett’s cool handling of her interrogation in 2020, hearings can capture the public interest. With Donald Trump’s second inauguration a mere six days away, confirmation hearings for his cabinet nominees begin today. Among the first in the firing line is Secretary of Defence-nominate, Pete Hegseth. Other than the quickly-quashed nomination of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Hegseth has endured the most amount of pressure from Democrats to turn down his nomination. The attacks on Hegseth have heralded a new approach by the Democrats to the incoming Trump term and shed some light on how the opposition party will approach this kick-off week in Washington.
Hegseth and the new A-team
Trump has nominated a diverse group to his cabinet. In addition to long-time conservatives like Doug Burgum and Pete Hegseth, former Democrats Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr got the nod after their work on Trump’s re-election campaign. The most important upshot of this is Trump’s positioning as a coalition-based, America-focused administration. It’s hard to credibly suggest that Trump is anti-democratic when he has reached across the aisle for his inner circle.
He has also learned from his failures in the last term. Nearly a decade on, Trump understands how DC works. He is not relying on the Deep State to propose appointees. Hegseth, Lutnick, and other non-political appointees will be crucial to the success of Trump’s second term – assuming they have the fortitude to handle the lingering bureaucracy within their departments.
A fresh approach
It’s likely they will, as each nominee has a specific headline goal implicitly attached to their nomination. Kennedy will remove unhealthy additives from food and roll back on vaccine hysteria. Hegseth will strengthen the military and disengage from the recent ‘woke’ trajectory. Lutnick will push back on the country’s trade deficits. Burgum will drill, baby, drill.
A glaring side effect of Trump taking office for a second time – after three consecutive high-profile elections – is the shift in the Overton Window. There is no longer any implication that virtue is a pre-requisite for effective public service. Trump is riding high electorally and in the polls. It would take a House report on the sex trafficking of minors to prevent one of these picks from taking office. Hegseth, unlike Gaetz, has no such claims against him.
The Democrat shift
So far, the Democrat party has shown signs of adapting to their new reality. John Fetterman is going out of his way to embrace the new regime. Quite literally, too. A video did the rounds before Christmas of Fetterman leaving his office specifically to shake hands with Kennedy as he passed by. Last week, he visited Mar-a-Lago to make himself available to the President-elect in his new term. Indeed, members of the media are following this new path too. Shortly after the election, MSNBC hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, took their own trip to the Gulf Coast to kiss the ring – much to the chagrin of their viewer.
The party as a whole has been more targeted in its approach to the incoming cabinet too. With the support of many Republicans, it effectively removed Matt Gaetz not only from contention for AG, but from DC altogether. By exploiting a glaring obstacle to administering justice, Democrats notched a win soon after the devastating electoral loss. This buoyed their efforts but found Pete Hegseth much more difficult to depose. Perhaps the mass hysteria over his ‘Christian Nationalist’ tattoo was a little unfounded. The same Jerusalem Cross was beamed into every home in the US last week as it was displayed prominently in Washington National Cathedral during the funeral of a Democrat President. Trump Derangement Syndrome may have a new variant for Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth: a turning point for the Democrats?
With the confirmation hearings getting underway today, the Democrats have a decision to make. Either they continue the tried and failed option of crying wolf until there are no more liberal tears – or they look towards the next election and focus on the long-term.
A new strategy
Firstly, they need to narrow their focus. Democrats must project seriousness to be taken seriously. Opposing Gaetz is not enough to undo years of gaslighting over the Mueller Report, the Hunter Biden laptop, or the Joe Biden dementia. A targeted attack on select nominees over issues with clear public support will be effective. Kennedy, Makary, and Oz are all vulnerable on abortion, for example. Mandated to align with the Republicans on the issue, there is an opportunity to force daylight between their positions and either the Republican majority or the public trust.
Another approach is to outflank the nominees from the right. If the Democrats follow Fetterman in a public embrace of the new order, they can target Hegseth on his approach to foreign wars. Why spend money abroad, after all, when DOGE is busy cutting the budget at home?
Ultimately, the Democrats are weak and they need to pick their battles. Trump has a mandate and with that mandate comes the privilege of appointing – within reason – whoever he likes to his cabinet. There’s not much Democrats can do to prevent the appointments. As a party, it may as well focus on the next election. If the appointments are so bad, there’s nothing as galvinizing for voters as bad incumbents. If they are not, then perhaps opposing them is a short-sighted move anyway.
