I'm not going against the president," insists Utah Sen. John Curtis, even as he refuses to commit his vote for Donald Trump's controversial nominees to lead the Pentagon and the nation's intelligence operations.
During a Politico Live event on Tuesday, Curtis said he’s trying to get more information about former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, whom Trump nominated for Secretary of Defense.
“I can’t make a good decision whether it’s somebody as controversial as Pete Hegseth or non-controversial as Marco Rubio if I don’t look at the entire sheet of music.”
Curtis said personal character will be a big part of his decision-making process.
“It’s huge,” Curtis said. “We’re all flawed. The question is, at what point do you cross that line? None of us are perfect, and I have things in my past that if I were a nominee would be coming up. That’s the burden on us is to decide where that line is.”
Curtis implied that former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who withdrew his nomination for Attorney General, had too many skeletons in his closet to earn his vote.
“There was a nominee, you all know who I’m referring to, that didn’t make it. I think universally, it was felt that the equation was way out of whack.”
Curtis said he doesn’t have nearly enough information on Gabbard to decide. He’s still waiting to meet with her.
“The biggest problem for me is she’s been so low-profile. The others have come to my office. If you go back to the analogy of a sheet of music, her sheet’s pretty blank for me, and I need more information to start filling that in. If I can’t fill that in, I can’t vote for her.”
Curtis has faced criticism for hedging on whether he’ll vote to confirm Donald Trump’s nominees. He says thoroughly vetting those nominees should be viewed as an advantage to Trump, not a roadblock.
“I’m not going against the president. In my view, that’s actually helping the president.”
Curtis sees his role in the advice and consent process as similar to that of a board of directors.
“Who would hire a board of directors and say, ‘I want you to say yes to everything I propose’? That’s not a good way to run a business. You want your trusted people around you to tell you what they’re seeing,” Curtis said.
“It’s not only consent, it’s advice. I can’t give the president advice if I’ve not thoroughly investigated and understood every moving part.”
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