Jennifer Rubin on Trump Admin Picks: ‘1,000 Shades of White’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Velshi: “What Norm just said is unfortunately the process of the normalization of this. Right? Senate’s has to say, Pete Hegseth more dangerous than Tulsi Gabbard? Or gabbard more dangerous than Hegseth? May reject two but not 10, 12 or 17. Nobody seems to have the stomach for that fight with Donald Trump meaning a lot of people will get confirmed who actually shouldn’t be confirmed. In a normal world this stuff disqualifying and – these people would be dismissed before a korves, conversation. Because of what norm just said a bunch will be confirmed?”

RUBIN: “Absolutely. The most encouraging thing I’ve heard and hope she has support is Lisa Murkowski who wasn’t going to continue to vet, consider, any of these people, until there was an FBI check on them. That’s progress. That would be helpful. Because many of these people including Tulsi Gabbard have backgrounds that would never make them eligible for any government post. Let alone for secretaries of these important government agencies. But I do think there are a couple of things going on. First, I have to comment. When you put up all of those faces it was 1,000 shades of white. Have you noticed that?”

Velshi: “Reading it, certainly circumstance al few to say, this is the one I’m talking about now.”

RUBIN: “Exactly. Here we have a little bit more diversity in the slide you’re showing. First one. Major characters, yes, 1,000 shades of white. Secondly, there is a certain level of dysfunction and catastrophe that will sink these people. What happens if there is a terrorist attack, god forbid? What happens if there is a pandemic? The problem with being extreme, irresponsible, ignorant is when bad stuff happens, there’s no one to blame but you. So the good news is that these people may not get everything they want. The bad news is, a lot of bad stuff may happen to a lot of innocent people, because of them. And this is kind of, touch the hot stove theory. People voted for him. We’re about to find out what he’s like. Go back to one example and writing about this shameless plug next week. Remember after 2004 George bush decided he would privatize Social Security? Riding really high after the 2004 election. Had a huge Senate majority. It went nowhere. Because there’s a certain political reality out there that if you’re proposed stuff that the vast majority of Americans hate, and the vast majority of members of Congress think is going to be toxic for them, you’re going to run into some trouble. That’s, I think, the leverage we have. Not that we’ll convince Republicans in the Senate to vote down RFK Jr. It’s that when catastrophes happen, they’ll be held accountable and when we ask that people look at the ramifications—“