NBC’s Julie Tsirkin on Trump Admin Picks: ‘The General Vibe on the Hill Right Now Is WTF’

WELKER: “Well, Julie, let’s talk about some of the picks that you just ran through. Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth. Do you think that they are confirmable at this point? What’s the buzz on the Hill right now?”

TSIRKIN: “Well, I mean, I hope you don’t forgive me for saying this, Kristen, but the general vibe on the Hill right now is WTF. People are shocked at the news of Gaetz, especially. I feel like I couldn’t even get around to getting reaction on Tulsi Gabbard when this pick of Gaetz came down the pike. Senators, Republican lawmakers, even one of them in a closed-door meeting, said ‘oh my God’ when they saw the post from Donald Trump. Several senators, I just ran into Lindsey Graham, for example, who kind of brushed me off and said he didn’t speak to Trump yet. We’ll see, he said, if Gaetz is confirmable, if he’s a good pick. Chuck Grassley, who’s going to be the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, working very closely with the next attorney general, he really didn’t have anything to say. He stood there for 30 seconds just completely baffled when reporters told him about this. Others like Collins, Murkowski, those who are seen to deflect from whatever Trump tries to do, their press handlers basically pushing us aside. And it is because, look at who Gaetz is. He’s currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for some of these personal misgivings that he’s been a part of, some of the things that the federal government has investigated him on and later dropped charges on. He is still very much being investigated by that House committee, a bipartisan sentiment across the aisle as they really can’t believe that Gaetz is the one who ended up with this top job. And the question of if he’s confirmable, well, you talk about all these picks, this really is the biggest test between Senate Republicans and Trump and a test of their allyship to him, too.”

WELKER: “It sure is, Julie. It’s well put.”