Maggie Haberman mentioned President-opt for Donald Trump doubled down on his nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Security as a result of no person in his orbit notion it would be a good idea to decide on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative.
DeSantis unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination this yr.
Ultimate week, The Wall Boulevard Journal stated that Trump was once taking into consideration withdrawing Hegseth’s nomination and selecting DeSantis. On the time, Haberman known as the speculation “thoughts-boggling.”
The nomination of Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has been marred via an accusation of rape that he denies, in addition to serial infidelity, and smelling of alcohol at work. The report that Trump was once considering DeSantis shocked many, because the governor many times attacked Trump on the marketing campaign trail.
On Friday evening, she appeared on CNN’s AC360, the place visitor host John Berman asked about Haberman’s previous reporting about Trump tiring of the negative press surrounding Hegseth. That bad press had raised issues amongst a handful of Republican senators. In a affirmation vote, Hegseth can have enough money no more than three Republican defections – assuming all Democrats vote towards him.
“You reporting a while again that President-pick Trump had grown uninterested in listening to the entire poor tales about him and was poised to move on,” he stated. “However what’s changed his mind?”
Haberman replied:
I believe it’s still real that he was tired and is bored with terrible stories. And what changed used to be a couple of things. One was once… Trump might now not find a single particular person in his orbit, or even actually outdoor of it, who preferred this idea of making Ron DeSantis – the governor of Florida – the Defense secretary choice. And it used to be now not, you understand, ‘We’re going to drop Hegseth, and we’re going to look for a bunch of other folks.’ It was Hegseth or DeSantis at that point. And so, Trump was persuaded additionally after a name from Pete Hegseth to let Hegseth exit and see if he might combat his well past a few of these tales.
She went on to claim that Trump agreed, after which Hegseth sat for an interview with Megyn Kelly.
“And also you saw this movement, most importantly, John, this conservative now MAGA movement really, in point of fact activated on-line
on digital advertisements, making a target, particularly of Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa to check out to get her to a ‘sure.’”
Final week, Haberman mentioned DeSantis appeared an unlikely option “because you’re going to simply hear a replay of all of these items that DeSantis stated about Trump in their main.”
Watch above by means of CNN.
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