people within the republican community, maga republicans saw matt gaetz fall. they felt that it was unfair that he did not get his day in the confirmation hearings. and so they created this really robust outside network to push these senators. so, yes, bill cassidy is saying that, you know, he got enough, uh, consolidation from rfk. he feels that they can work together, but he's also facing a very tough primary. and that network of people that were engaged after matt gaetz fell, knew that. and pressed on that point. >> yeah. i'm glad you brought up the sort of bigger picture, because i do want to talk about that. what we're going to see later today is a vote for tulsi gabbard. susan collins said yesterday afternoon that she's going to support tulsi gabbard to be the director of national intelligence. it looks like unless we have a big surprise, she's also somebody who looks likely to get through. so, matt gaetz aside, if you look at the big picture of the cabinet, what donald trump wants, donald trump is getting from the republicans in the united states senate.

they recognize that they, especially after matt gaetz, had to withdraw his nomination because he wasn't going to have enough support. they felt that they had to get the others through because they didn't want there to be this precedent that the president would be kind of bowing to congress on this. they want congress to be the ones responding to the president. >> yeah. and on the verge of a clean sweep post, matt gaetz, we want to dip back into the senate floor where senator wyden, who's the top democrat on the senate finance committee, which oversaw the robert f. kennedy nomination, is speaking. >> health care possible rather than having a handful of health care companies being gobbled up in the entire market for health insurance, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, and even doctors. the results have been great for shareholder profits and disastrous for american families. costs keep climbing. the act of getting a doctor's appointment or filing an insurance claim seems to have become an olympic sport in much of america. the system delays and denies care and rakes in profits, while patients are

there's only one other member who co-sponsored this resolution and that was former congressman matt gaetz. now in 2025, ms. gabbard still refuses to call snowden what he is, a traitor to the united states. when she was asked about that at her hearing, she was given several opportunities to indicate that she understood that edward snowden is a traitor who put at risk the lives of the thousands of americans in the intelligence community. she refused to acknowledge that he's a traitor. with such a track record, how can-- how are we supposed to expect that she will properly classify our enemies? how are we to expect that she would label xi jinping or kim jong-un, who knows what ms. gabbard would do, i think there's a stark difference between our adversaries who want to undermine the united states and those who are our allies. and it doesn't appear that tulsi gabbard understands the difference. so, how can the men and women of the intelligence community trust that ms. gabbard will protect their secrets? that she'll protect our secrets, the secrets of the united states? how many russians are go

they really could use extra seats, one from stefanik, one from matt gaetz. repatriation fights venezuela, first one in a couple years. they thought that was going to be impossible, too. i personally am not worried about the pace. i just know how dangerous it is to go into these buildings with these ice guys. the ice guys go after criminals usually armed with nothing to lose. i like the pace. think about the not coming because you are cracking down that has a lot to do with these numbers. >> lawrence: i just message at senior ice official. figure out who this leaker is. >> brian: out in california? >> lawrence: who is messing up. the source just told me he says ice needs a culture of accountability that has been starved for the past four years. we have a president dhs secretary and american people who rightfully demand results. and ice leadership will deliver those results. apparently they are cleaning house with inside of the agency right now. figure out who exactly is a holdover, that is a career person that, is leaking the information. >> brian: right. >>

i mean, he has got through after the matt gaetz episode in which he nominated matt gaetz to be attorney, trump has moved. >> the trump. >> white house has moved really, really efficiently to get his cabinet in place in. >> i think, ways. >> that i didn't, definitely in ways i didn't expect. and a lot of people didn't expect up here. >> the senate is doing a lot with these confirmations. they're moving them as quickly as they possibly can. we're going to see rfk soon as well. you're also talking to me about budget reconciliation. is there anything else happening on the hill? usually by this point we have a better idea of what the agenda is going to be going forward for a new administration because after all, political capital wears out and you never have more political capital than you do at the very beginning. >> yeah. that's right. >> i mean, the. >> president has signed into law the lincoln riley act, which was that piece of legislation that the house passed last congress, which stiffens penalties and makes it easier to detain undocumented immigrants who have been accused of crimes. s

we should say that matt gaetz thing did not happen, after this, when people look at pete hegseth, lookhey are not all going to make it hegseth thing was closer than i thought, 50/50, had to break tie from vice president, now we have the republicans were worried about the committee votes for tulsi gabbard and robert f. kennedy they got through. and it does not appear that there are three republican senators in whole senate who will vote against them. so, i believe it was this morning jason miller, top aide in trump white house said this day in 2017, senate had fully confirmed four trump nominees and now it is more than 11. larry: you know, it interesting, does john thune get credit for this, or is it has someone put it to me yet, president trump repeatedly talking to senators, go doing capitol hill, unafraid to get involved. and with his super energy all of the time? >> thune gets some credit, trump gets more. the most credit goes to the 2024 election. every single republican senator comes from a state that trump won. but susan collins in maine, even in maine trump won that diff distric

on seasonally adjusted excluding matt gaetz, it was faulty seasonals but rest of it from hegseth, brillianttrength, other thing is no matter what democrats do, they are fighting to delay, they look to delay if you contrast how fast biden got his nominees, i would is a the republican senators like mckowski and collins and mitch mcconnell, who voted for some of those biden appointees, if you can vote for them, then your objected to giving president his team is ridiculous and tran transparent. it this is about what american people need, give the president his time. one thing you know about, you have known him a long time, if he does not see it work out he am fire someone -- he will fire someone that goes to effectiveness. larry: rich lowry how important is debate now between one big beautiful bill or two, and mainly centering around getting the tax cuts extended or permanently extended. or the 2.0 tax cuts tax free-tips and how important. >> t that is huge. i think going to the point david made with the appointments n nomination confirmed. in you pressure one individual senator almost unsustai

florida they made progress on two of the seats to work on filling, and so that is already in process matt gaetzltz seat so thacked add numbers back into the republican column. thing everything to get done they have to a budget to get done we have run out of government fund there's the debt ceiling looming and something things they have to do and there are some republicans who have different ideas just like within the democrat party there are frankture and fish shoes you fissures it is tougher than maybe having a buffer for five which is still exceptionally tight but it gives you a little more wiggle room. joey: can johnson keep his party together and recent year says maybe not. you have a big show on fox news sunday tell what you say you got. shannon: so secretary duffy is going to be join us for all of the latest very, very busy -- joey: look at that handsome fella. shannon: fetterman and graham they could be critical or kash patel and ready to announce their votes we'll ask this morning. joey: that is an interesting side by side fetterman and graham two very different senators. shannon: only

adjusted matt gaetz exclusion, go i along. but, he president trump hit a thousand on the rift.lping to shepard this, jd vance is making a lot of calls, but look, every republican i hope understands that on november 5 it may hurt their feelings person who really got the mandate was president trump, he run ohio by 11 points, no human in history has gotten as many votes as don't donaldon donald trump did on november 5. larry: there is a rumor that art laffer is out there somewhere. to bring you in with these two distinguished senators, president trump wants the tax cuts now, the laffer curve has worked as it always has, cbo admitted that revenues came in, art, 1.9 trillion higher than estimates 7 years ago, current policy, which means permanent. let's get it done. you don't have to score it new scoring every year. what do you think about this? look, he won. trump won. a political matter. okay. he wants tack withouts right away -- tax cuts right away, start the engine of opportunity for his working class coalition, he should get it he won. >> yeah, he not only won but so did americ

now, we should say the matt gaetz thing didn't happen but after that, when people looked at pete hegseth at tulsi gabbard and rfk jr. thinking man, they're not all going to make it. now, the hegseth thing was a little closer than i thought. 50/50. had to break the tie from the vice president. now what we've seen is the republicans were worried about the committee votes for ba ba guard and rfk -- gabbard and rfk and they got through. does not appear there's three republican senators in the whole senate that will vote against them. so i belief it was this morning, jason miller, who's a top aid in the trump white houssaying this day in 2017, the senate had fully confirmed four trump nominees and now it's more than 11. larry: you know, it is interesting, does john thune get any credit for this or is it as somebody put it to me yesterday, really president trump repeatedly talking to senators, going to capitol hill, being unafraid to get involved, and of course with his super energy all the time? >> thune gets some credit. trump get as lot more credit. most credit goes to the 2024 election. ev

donald trump appears to be getting every single nomination he's trying for with one exception, matt gaetz white house has handled this, i think, in a wise fashion. there were real doubts about tulsi gabbard. and what ended up happening is those concerns were shared directly with her and with the white house, and in response she gave a detailed letter affirming what she would do in certain instances in a letter addressed to todd young, senator from indiana, and i think that was what locked it up for her. she gave in writing commitments that would deal with the concerns that they had about her as the directer of national intelligence. and, you know, rather than ticking their feet in the ground and, you know, getting tough and saying, you know, vote the right way or you're in trouble, they said what are your concerns and we deal with those in a way that makes everybody comfortable. david: karl, i want to move to the issue of transparency with this administration, particularly in sharp contrast to what we saw in the past one. elon musk, the president and elon musk bringing transparency back i

this, on april 1st florida's going to be holding its special election the fill former congressman matt gaetz'sr republicans to advance to the special election, and jimmy joins me now. jimmy, good to see you. thanks for being here. how are you preparing for the april 1st race itself, and are you going to to make it? >> we are. and, look, thank you for having me. we are working every single day as we still have a general election to run, but there's a lot of moving parts happening in washington, d.c. right now. my vote, the congressional district 6 vote, the michael waltz seat, those are two highly anticipated republican seats to help get president trump's agenda across the finish line. david: well, and they need you rah desperately. i think think it is the slimmest majority there's ever been in the house of congress. so they need every republican they can find. you are florida's cfo. you have been responsible or at least a part of balancing the budget of that state several years in a row now. i don't know how many years it is in a row. when you look at what a doge is trying to do with the feder

what this administration is not going to do is what they did with matt gaetz and pull the nominee backtor to be accountable for this vote and vote yes or no. and that includes tulsi gabbard. there is a difference, though, in their approach, in terms of how they're encouraging or putting pressure on these senators to vote yes or r no, which a part of your reporting says, kristen. with pete hegseth, it was a very clear message to republican senators, a message sometimes sent by the president himself. at this point, we're not seeing that same level of pressure with tulsi gabbard on whether or not that leads to enough senators -- it would require four to step out and vote "no," that's something we'll probably find out this week. >> it is also a test of how the president judges those on-camera performances. for robert kennedy jr. and tulsi gabbard, the performances during the hearings did not meet the same bar that pete hegseth did. >> and mark, what do you make of tulsi ard, but then this morning, senator schmitt saying that, i'm not going to touch that, that's not a real question. yet it

matt. >> gaetz nomination. >> did move. >> quickly to. >> torpedo him. we saw. astray. >> on this vote. so i. >> wouldn't be surprised if one. >> of these nominees was. >> shot down. >> doug, last night we learned the trump administration has pushed out senior officials, senior officials at the doj and fbi involved in investigating and prosecuting january 6th rioters. at least six high level fbi executives have already been fired, and thousands of other agents are under review. as a former federal prosecutor yourself, what could be the impact of this kind of purge? >> well, i think it's very dangerous to our law enforcement system in the country. the fbi, whether you like them or not, they're still one. >> of. >> if probably the greatest law enforcement agency in the world. they have they had issues. sure. of course they have. every agency does. but they are still an incredibly good, functioning agency that does amazing work for the american people. and this makes things very, very dangerous. and going back a little bit, i think, ralph, i hope some of these repu

obviously, the senate stood up to matt gaetz and he was pushed aside.ther than that, he's been able to get everyone through. uh, tulsi gabbard probably has, you know, a handful of no votes right now, but does she have four no votes? that's the big question. that's the number she can't have. uh, i don't think she did herself a ton of favors. she didn't, uh, condemn edward snowden the way republican senators wanted her to. uh, she did reverse her stance on section 702 of fisa, which a lot of republican senators like to hear. um, but there were a lot of questions coming out of that hearing. i still think there's a bunch of people in the middle that, you know, may not be willing to vote for her. um, that said, tom cotton did come on board with her, which is a big vote in her favor. so it's really up in the air right now. i do think she's in danger. i wouldn't be surprised if they pulled her. that said, who would be that fourth senator to step up and say i oppose tulsi gabbard? we haven't seen who that person is yet. >> all right. luke broadwater, thanks so

. >> george: you had that matt gaetz happen with the beginning. >> we cleared that already. really no incentive for trump right now watching the ways republicans have fallen in line on so many matters. there's really no incentive for him to back away from either of these nominees at this point, and we'll see what happens in the next couple of days. i'm not sure there's a link between putting political capital on the line in these confirmation hearings and doing it again. >> george: the other argument is victories beget victories. >> and they do, but trump could also make a decision that this is one he might well lose, especially, i think on tulsi gabbard. i think that's why we see vice president vance making calls to the hill with his former colleagues in the senate to figure out if they can get this nomination -- this confirmation done or is it really in peril? >> george: susan page and julie pace, thank you very much. we'll be right back. peril? >> george: susan page and julie pace, thank you very much. we'll be right back. (woman) oh, come on! come on! (vo) fargo lets you

i think we're all very happy that matt gaetz didn't make it, because he would have been a terrible attorney general. even the republicans saw that. but look, it looks like the rest of his picks with the republican majority get through. i'm going to work with anybody and everybody. and i think most governors have that approach. it doesn't mean we agree with them on everything. i voiced disagreement with, for instance, rfk about his skepticism about vaccines. at the same time, if there's an opportunity to improve the health of the american people, to focus on making america. >> healthier, you, governor. >> that diet and nutrition. >> i hear you do it. but specifically, do you want rfk jr. to be the person that you work with in that capacity? do you want him confirmed? >> well, i've compared him to trump's last secretary of health, who was a pharmaceutical lobbyist. so is rfk potentially better than a pharmaceutical lobbyist? of course, there's more upside with somebody who can be an independent thinker and focuses on health rather than does the bidding of a multi-billion dollar industry that

but this is i mean, outside of the matt gaetz, who never went up for a formal vote, this is appearing to be a cabinet that donald trump wanted that was full of loyalists and people who he had the utmost faith in and may be controversial, but individuals who were ultimately going to serve in the capacities in their positions that he wanted. and it appears that republican senators are, by and large, going to support that effort. >> and, basil, i mean, talk about a trajectory. we were just talking about tulsi gabbard's trajectory. you know, robert f kennedy jr is going to most probably be in the cabinet. you know, the last time there was a kennedy in the cabinet, it was attorney general, i believe. right. his father. >> his father. >> and so you talk about the trajectory there and what it means to have a kennedy in the cabinet of the united states. >> and a different kind of kennedy, if you remember, on the president when he was running for president, his third party, his family did a press conference denouncing his candidacy, his family did that. and then in this, in this sort of proces

and, you know, matt gaetz did go down in flames. hegseth passed by one vote.bard i don't know what's going to happen with rfk jr, though. it looks like he's on the path. patel still seems like an open question to me, given the fact that a senator has accused him of perjuring himself and he has this enormous possible personal financial conflict of interest, and he's obviously not qualified for the job, what do you think? >> this is unbelievable to me. he has said he wants to shut down the fbi headquarters. my colleagues on the republican side who talk a lot about law enforcement and security, he has said that the fbi is corrupt. he has denigrated the fbi, despite the fact that during christopher wray's time, the number of applicants went up three times the amount as he restored morale in those departments. and kash patel comes in with his list of the what he calls the deep state, which includes bill barr, the former trump attorney general who just happened to be willing to say that kash patel should be promoted over his dead body. those were bill barr's words.

i think we're all very happy that matt gaetz didn't make it, because he would have been a terrible attorney general. even the republicans saw that. but look, it looks like the rest of his picks with the republican majority get through. i'm going to work with anybody and everybody. and i think most governors have that approach. it doesn't mean we agree with them on everything. i voiced disagreement with, for instance, rfk about his skepticism about vaccines. at the same time, if there's an opportunity to improve the health of the american people, to focus on making america. >> healthier. >> diet and nutrition. >> i hear you. but specifically, do you want rfk jr. to be the person that you work with in that capacity? do you want him confirmed? >> well, i've compared him to trump's last secretary of health, who was a pharmaceutical lobbyist. so is rfk potentially better than a pharmaceutical lobbyist? of course, there's more upside with somebody who can be an independent thinker and focuses on health rather than does the bidding of a multi-billion dollar industry that profits off of our illness

beast did a deep dive into kloster back in 2023, when he was hired by then republican congressman matt gaetz. according to the report, kloster has a history of making inflammatory social media posts and then deleting them, including one where he called himself a raging misogynist. another where he said, you know what i need? i need a woman who looks like she got punched. a third where he suggested slaves owe us reparations. daily beast also uncovered a comment, reportedly from kloster, on a libertarian blog post about from 2012, titled government out of bedrooms but into barnyards reading consent is probably modern society's most pernicious fetish. kloster did not respond to the daily beast's request for comment. opm has also found itself infiltrated by at least one of elon musk's very young acolytes. wired uncovered a number of these young men, including a 19 year old named edward coristine, who appears to have recently graduated from high school and to have been enrolled at northeastern university. coristine and another young man are listed in internal opm records reviewed by wired as expe

you know, matt gaetz obviously decided to step aside. and that's the one so far. the one cabinet pick who was withdrawn or rejected, i looked at all first or of course, the second nonconsecutive term in the case of trump and compared that to the average presidential first term since 1993, where there were three picks that were either withdrawn or rejected. donald trump, simply put, is winning on this metric. only one pick so far has been withdrawn or rejected, and that looks like it's going to hold through the rest of this. we'll have to wait and see. but the bottom line is trump's picks have been doing better than the average in terms of getting through the united states senate. simply put in a word, he's winning. >> getting the people he wants more so than the historic norm. harry enten. thank you. thank you very much, kate. >> and this morning, the wall street journal is reporting that president trump's advisers are discussing an executive order that could shut down key functions is how it's put of the department of education, effectively moving toward dismantl

so, given that trump's first nominee for attorney general, as we all remember, was matt gaetz, blancheugely qualified for the deputy job by comparison. now, all that said, we've learned in the early weeks of the trump administration that this president and his allies intend to exact retribution against their perceived enemies within the justice department, and also to use the doj in ways that look highly political, as in the decision to drop charges against the new york mayor now. and blanche's law partner, emil bove, has shown himself perfectly willing to carry out those mandates. so there's no reason to believe blanche won't do that as well. and i think for that reason, we can expect some fireworks today from democrats. >> on one of the big topics for deputy ag in this hearing would be the fbi, which falls under the justice department. so the top democrat on this committee, senator dick durbin, is now accusing the nominee for fbi director, kash patel, who we covered his hearing. he hasn't been confirmed at this point. but outside of actually being. >> confirmed. >> durbin's accusing

. >> matt gaetz was the. >> one that people. >> focused on, and he was the one that ultimately. >> had own nomination. over time, as. >> more and more people. >> got confirmed, controversial ones too. >> it does. >> seem like like. >> the kind of will. >> kind of dissipated and maybe also the kind of shock and awe. >> approach that the trump. >> administration has used early on has kind. >> of worked to the benefit. >> of gabbard. and kennedy and some of the more controversial ones. >> because whatever will there was at the beginning seems. >> to have dissipated and sort of gone. >> on to other controversial issues. >> yeah, i think the undercurrent that you're talking about, plus the political landscape for a lot of these other senators who might otherwise be willing to vote against the nominee, certainly palpable here, and that i want to switch to some new reporting that the new york times has this deep dive on how government investigations into elon musk's companies seem to be stalling amid president trump's firings and resignations. but also, they found that 11 federal agencies imp

gabbard and congressman matt gaetz cosponsored a resolution calling on the federal government to drop all charges against edward snowden. snowden was a contractor who was indicted for espionage and for publicly releasing the details of some of our most sensitive intelligence efforts, including those that were conducted jointly with foreign allies and partners before snowden it fled to russia. former deputy dni sue gordon responded to ms. gabbard's defense of snowden by saying, quote, it reflects a lack of understanding of who we are, and it reflects a lack of respect for what we do. unauthorized disclosures of intelligence are always bad. don't go with the good or bad. any good outcome or whether he was right or wrong. the not only harmed intelligence, he harmed our allies and partners. and he harmed our businesses by what it allowed china to assume about that. there is nothing justifiable about what he's done. none. let me be clear, edward snowden's betrayal has cost american lives. he is a traitor by every definition of the word. as the chairman of the intelligence committee, senato

today that snowden broke the law, but you introduced a bill in congress along with congressman matt gaetz to pardon him. he broke the law but it was not that serious? is that what you thought? ms. gabbard: i take very seriously upholding our constitution have sworn an oath to support and defend the constitution over eight times in my life. my statements have been reflective of the egregious and illegal programs exposed in that leak. sen. king: but you ignore the vast majority the committee found, bipartisan, the conclusion was that the vast majority of these things he released had nothing to do with constitutional rights or the fourth amendment but indeed were enormous compromises of our national security. ms. gabbard: i focused on raising concerns around a breaches illegal and unconstitutional programs our government was conducting that clearly violated americans fourth amendment rights. the most important thing i hope all of you find to be relevant here is if confirmed as director of national intelligence i would take seriously the responsibility to protect our nation secrets just as i

i just remember the first person that trump suggested for attorney general was matt gaetz and that was most ludicrous idea ever. that was really nuts. here is a guy that the ethics report said had been paying for 17-year-old girls to come to sex parties he had in florida and in the bahamas, that he had issues about his use of his political fund, his government fund to pay this and that and what he had done and the lies he put out about these parties and the drugs that he used, etc., etc. he was as bad as george santos. he was going to make him attorney general of the united states. i don't know where pam bondi is. i do know she took when she was attorney general about a $25 million contribution, i think that's what it was, was it -- it might have been $25,000. it was a lot of money. she took this money from trump. as soon as she took it, she refused to go along with the other attorney generals to use trump university for fraud which ended up being a multimillion-dollar agreement that he signed to admit he was fraudulent. then he was banned from ever being on a board or involved in a 50

but you introduced a bill in congress along with congress and matt gaetz to essentially pardon him he broke the law but it wasn't all that serious is that we thought in 2020? >> i take very seriously of holding the constitution have sworn an oath to defend the constitution over eight times in my life. my same as in the passive and reflective of the egregious and illegal programs that were exposed in that league. bipartisan i think devon newness was the chair. the conclusion was the vast majority of these things heat release had nothing to do with constitutional rights, the fourth amendment. they were enormous compromises of our national security. >> senator i focus on raising concerns or want a egregious illegal constitutional programs that our government was conducting. that clearly violated the fourth amendment. the most important thing i hope all of you find to be relevant here as if confirmed as director of national intelligence i would take seriously the responsibility to protect our nation's secrets. just as i have for almost 28 years of holding a security clearance of some sort