John Thune (RS.D.), incoming Senate Majority Leader, says President-elect Trump controversial cabinet elections girl difficult paths to Senate confirmation, warning, “None of this will be easy.”

Thune acknowledged during an interview Thursday night on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” that several Republican senators are likely to oppose the former congressman. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), of Trump choice to run Trump’s Justice Department and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

And Thune warned it won’t be so easy to suspend the Senate for more than 10 days to allow Trump to bypass bipartisan opposition to his nominees, break schedules.

“It’s an option,” he said of shutting down the Senate for 10 days or more, the standard set by the Supreme Court for making recess appointments.

But he warned that he might not be able to get enough votes to do that.

“All Republicans must also vote for the recess. So the same Republicans … who might have a problem voting for somebody on regular order probably also have a problem voting to put the Senate on recess,” he said, adding that the GOP-controlled House should, also, to go on an extended hiatus. .

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is a fellow GOP who said she doesn’t want the Senate to abdicate its constitutional obligation to provide “advice and consent” to Trump’s nominees.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), another Republican vote, said she was “shocked” to learn Trump had picked Gaetz, who was previously implicated in a Justice Department sex-trafficking investigation. to lead the Department of Justice.

Thune vowed that while “the Senate will fulfill its constitutional role under advice and consent,” “we will not allow Democrats to thwart the will of the American people.”

In the prospect of confirming Gaetz as Trump’s attorney general, Thune said the Senate Judiciary Committee will likely first review the Florida House Ethics Committee’s investigation.

Gaetz resigned from Congress this week in a move that appeared aimed at quickly ending the ethics committee’s investigation into alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, but Thune said it was possible that its findings would be made available to senators.

“I guess at some point it’s there,” he said of the Ethics Committee report. “These confirmation hearings are pretty comprehensive in terms of the vetting process that nominees go through.

“I think we’re going to have to say, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” Thune said when asked if the ethics probe’s findings would “figure into” Gaetz’s confirmation process.

“None of this will be easy, but again President Trump has had a huge mandate from the American people. Not just the popular vote, the electoral vote. They were historical. The people of this country want change,” he said. “I always think you defer to a president when it comes to the people they want in their cabinet.

“But obviously there’s a process where we go down and clear all of these nominees and figure out whether or not they, one, are qualified and they’re fit people to fill these positions,” he said.

Updated at 9:51 am EST

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