Newly elected Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, said Tuesday that he's undecided on voting to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
Curtis, elected in November to the Utah seat vacated by Mitt Romney, made the comments at a Politico Live event in Washington, D.C.
Regarding Gabbard, Curtis said, "The biggest problem for me is that she's been so low-profile," adding he intends to "put the energy" into learning more about her.
"The others have come to my office, and so if you go back to that analogy of a sheet of music, her sheet's pretty blank for me," Curtis said. "I need more information to start filling that in, and, look, if I can't fill that in, I can't vote for her."
Curtis said it's a similar challenge regarding Hegseth and that he plans to read the nominee's book — he's authored four — and reach out to people who know the former Fox News personality to find out more, Politico reported.
New Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., recently said there isn't "clarity" just yet if all of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees will have the full support of Republican senators.
Republicans have a 53-47 advantage over Democrats in the Senate, but there has been pushback from a handful of GOP senators over Hegseth, Gabbard, and Kash Patel as FBI director.
"I do think that in most cases, at least most of our Republican senators are inclined to give the president the people that he wants in these positions, given the process that they go through and whether or not they can manage the committee process and ensure that they get to the floor for a vote," Thune said in an interview that aired Jan. 5.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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