As Seen on TV!
So far, the most important qualities a second Trump Administration nominee can have is not managerial or government experience, but television experience
What do five cabinet-level nominees have in common? They’re regulars on Fox News, either as hosts or as perpetual guests. Apparently the most important qualifications for becoming a cabinet secretary this time around are either being a billionaire or a host on Fox News. Fox hosts currently outnumber billionaires 3-2.
CNN: Former congressman Sean Duffy was off his Fox Business show "The Bottom Line" last Thursday and Friday because, unbeknownst to his Fox producers, he was interviewing to be Transportation secretary. Duffy is married to Rachel Campos-Duffy, who co-hosts "Fox & Friends Weekend" alongside – until last week – DoD-designate, Pete Hegseth.
In 2004, I created and co-founded Air America Radio. In addition to Al Franken and Rachel Maddow, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was one of our hosts. Bob is a sailor at heart, so when we took some audience members on a Caribbean cruise, he entertained our passengers, and held forth on subjects as diverse as ecology and capitalism. All told, Bobby was engaging, well-informed, singularly, a star among stars.
Fast forward to 2015. I was the chair of the good government group Common Cause Georgia, and National needed some star power for an event in Boulder, Colorado. They turned to me, and I turned to longtime Kennedy confidant, and Air America’s Political Director, David Bender, to talk Bobby into helping out. Bob proceeded to thrill the audience with an insightful and wide-ranging analysis of everything from maritime law to Southern slavery and the false economics of a “free” labor force. It was both instructive and historically detailed.
In those days, the guy was a tour de force, but over time, he has become a conspiracy theorist, and vaccine skeptic who is totally unqualified to run the Department of
Health and Human Services. Way back when, he would have told you that himself.
The Others?
Dr. Oz’s qualifications are nine Daytime Emmys. It doesn’t get more credible than that. Try not to think about all the snake-oil he sold over the years. If you love pseudoscience, you’ll love Dr. Oz! In case I’ve been too elliptical, let me say it straight up: Dr. Oz is a quack.
Sean Duffy’s quals don’t stop at Fox News—he also starred on MTV’s The Real World: Boston. No relevant government, managerial or transportation expertise, but who needs any of that to run the Department of Transportation when they look good on TV?
Linda McMahon may not know anything about public education, but she did contribute $20M to the Trump campaign. Perhaps you’ve never seen her slap her daughter to the mat on her World Wrestling Entertainment Network, lucky you. She’s pledged to help disband the Department of Education. If you’re excited to see your tax dollars going to private schools, she’s your pick.
The President-elect said, “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.” That will be fine for many states, but a disaster for the traditional back-of-the-pack, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Pam Bondi has replaced Matt Gaetz as a more conventional choice for attorney general, a position that she was elected to in Florida before becoming a go-to Trump lawyer. Don’t worry, she occasionally guest hosts the Fox broadcast, The Five, so we know we’re in good hands.
Pete Hegseth, another stunningly unqualified nominee hopes to run the Department of Defense (into the ground, perhaps). Jonathan Chiat in The Atlantic calls him "Trump's most dangerous cabinet pick." Not just because he’s never even run a lemonade stand, but because he’s on the guest list of every dinner party you’d never want to attend. Heath Druzin of the Idaho Capital Sun says Hegseth has close ties to an Idaho Christian nationalist church that wants to turn the United States into a theocracy. I’m sure our military would love enforcing that.
Tulsi Gabbard is the pick for Director, National Intelligence (your joke here). As The Atlantic columnist, Tom Nichols said, she is “stunningly unqualified.” And not just for being a favorite of Russian television (they call her “our girlfriend”), or sucking up to Vladimir Putin and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Former Republican governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, suggested that Gabbard is “a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.” She has zero intelligence (again, your joke here) experience.
The president-elect watches a lot of Fox News. If you are telegenic, he pays attention to you. He has respect for that. He hires people based on the way they come across on television, and to a lesser extent, in person. For a politician, that may not be as dumb as it sounds. But these are important posts best not left to the inexperienced and unqualified.
When inaugurated, he becomes a lame duck. we’ll see whether the Republican Senate watches as much TV as he does.
©2024 Jon Sinton
And away goes trouble down the drain...
The Atlanta Air America affiliate AM1690 is now a MAGA radio station and part of the John Fredericks Radio Network. It aired Steve Bannon (No Relation!) until the two had a falling out over a Virginia congressional primary. It was the radio house organ for Trump-backed MAGA candidates in their primaries against Gov. Kemp, et al in 2022. Kemp had WSB on his side and much of the mainstream media desperate for a "good Republican" who had stood up to Trump. That made it hard for Stacey Abrams to say you have to defeat all Republicans to stop Trump. I don't know if an Air America-like station in Atlanta or others in Georgia would have won any races, and radio is declining in listenership, but right-wing talk still dominates the airwaves throughout the state.