CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Tuesday that all of President Donald Trump’s remaining cabinet picks will probably be confirmed.
Nine of Trump’s cabinet nominees have already been confirmed, while the remainder have yet to face a vote, according to The New York Times. Enten, on “CNN News Central,” noted that even Trump’s “two most controversial picks” — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard — appear on track for confirmation, based on the betting markets.
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“[The betting markets] seem to be pretty gosh darn bullish. Their numbers, their chances, have been rising. Tulsi Gabbard, specifically to be the national intel director. She’s up to, get this, a 92% chance. A week ago, she was closer to 52%. But as some Republican senators have come out like Susan Collins, in support of her, her chances have gone through the roof,” Enten said. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the HHS [Health and Human Services] secretary, he’s up to 82%. Again, that is also higher than it was a week ago. At this particular point, the two most controversial picks remaining for Donald Trump seem to see their prospects going through the roof at this hour.”
The Senate Finance Committee advanced Kennedy’s nomination on Tuesday along party lines, with 14 Republicans voting in favor while 13 Democrats opposed him, according to The Hill.
“What about the field? So the remaining picks, ‘chance of Trump’s picks being confirmed.’ The average besides Gabbard and RFK, you can’t really get much higher than 99%. So look, there’s a chance, I guess, you know, a one in 1,000,000, basically, or a one in 100 in this particular case, that one of the remaining picks do not get confirmed,” Enten added. “But the bottom line at this hour is RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard look likely to be confirmed, and the rest of the field looks really, really, really likely to be confirmed.”
The data reporter also pointed out that Trump’s nominees have fared “better than the average” when it comes to receiving Senate confirmation.
“[Former attorney general nominee] 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 And that’s the one so far, the one cabinet pick who was withdrawn or rejected.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and compared that to the average presidential first term since 1993, where there were three picks that were either withdrawn or rejected,” he said. “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.”
The Senate voted 59 to 38 on Monday evening to confirm fracking executive Chris Wright as energy secretary. As Wright becomes the president’s ninth cabinet nominee to be confirmed, it places Trump’s nominees on a significantly faster schedule to secure confirmation in comparison to former President Joe Biden’s administration.
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