CNN’s Kasie Hunt asked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) about the likelihood that figures like Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be appointed to official positions in former President Donald Trump’s administration following his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rubio joined Hunt on Wednesday on CNN This Morning where he applauded Trump’s “landslide” victory, crediting it to the former president “fundamentally remaking the Republican Party.”
Hunt at one point noted that Musk has “extensively” campaigned with Trump, and the former president has floated roles in his administration for both Musk and Kennedy. What specific roles these would be remain in question. Trump has said Kennedy will be able to do “what he wants” when it comes to health, and he’s said he wants Musk to focus on cutting government waste.
“Do you think the Senate would confirm him to a cabinet-level post?” Hunt asked about Kennedy.
Rubio replied that the Senate — where Republicans now have a majority — would have “great deference” for a president who pulled off the kind of victory Trump did. He also said Trump has a “mandate” to govern and the Senate has a responsibility to surround him with the people that will support his agenda.
Rubio said:
“Well, I think the Senate is going to give great deference to a president that just won a stunning, what I think is an electoral college landslide when all is said and done and a mandate. He’s being given a mandate to govern. And I think presidents given a mandate to govern deserve from the Senate the opportunity to surround themselves with people that are going to help them execute their policies. We have to understand the job of anybody, that President-elect Trump puts in place, the job of those people is not to be on a check on Donald Trump or to control him, it is to help carry out what the American people sent them there to do. And sent them there to do in a pretty overwhelming fashion by modern standards. So I do think that that’s important. Obviously, you have to be qualified and all of these sorts of things, but beyond that, we have to ensure that he has a team around him that helps them execute his public policy, not undermine it or stand in the way of it. That’s the same thing that Joe Biden and every president we’ve ever had has wanted to be surrounded by, people who will do a job, but ultimately help carry out the policies that the people who elected that president sent them there to do.”
Rubio was also asked during the interview whether a role in Trump’s administration is in the cards for him.
“I haven’t had any such conversations with anybody in the Trump administration,” he said. “And either way, I plan to work with them whether it’s in the Senate, which is an important place to be, or in some other capacity.”
Watch above via CNN.
Have a tip for us? [email protected]
