A guest on “Meet the Press” Sunday turned the tables on an NBC panel questioning the qualifications of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet appointments in a tense on-air exchange.
Host Kristen Welker brought up criticism by Democrats who’ve argued that Trump’s cabinet picks are underqualified, raising potential ethical concerns and a lack of pertinent experience for their respective roles.
When former White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated her own concerns over a lack of experience among some of the nominees, Hoover Institute fellow Lanhee Chen pushed back, pointing out that the current Health and Human Services secretary, Xavier Becerra, was nominated by President Biden despite having a legal background that was completely unrelated to his assigned role.
“We have seen nominations before from both parties where there have been ethical and substantive issues,” Chen said. “Let’s not forget we had a nominee for HHS secretary in this administration who had never dealt with healthcare before being nominated, so I think the notion that – “
Psaki, now an MSNBC host, interjected, “But – look, I’m not here to defend him, but he was the attorney general for the state of California. This is a little bit of a different….”
“So he had experience suing healthcare companies, but not anything to do with healthcare,” Chen retorted.
“You can spend time talking about the controversial ones, but the reality is, there are some very good appointments here too that I think aren’t getting a lot of attention and should because they’re important from a policy perspective,” he told the panel.
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Democrats in Congress and in the media have blasted Trump Cabinet nominees over their qualifications, including combat veteran Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security; Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., as attorney general; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Biden has also faced criticism from Republicans over several members of his administration who were believed to be lacking key attributes needed to perform the duties they were assigned, including Pete Buttigieg, who was appointed Biden’s transportation secretary after serving as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Since taking office, Republicans have amplified those concerns after a series of perceived missteps from Buttigieg, including the fallout from the supply chain crises and the devastating train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Several other Biden officials have faced heated criticism over their qualifications in recent years, including former senior Department of Energy official Sam Brinton, who identifies as nonbinary and was arrested multiple times for baggage theft at airports.
In 2023, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted the qualifications of Biden’s judicial appointments, saying in a press release, “The American people deserve the best and brightest. The Democrats are producing… something else.”
