6 hours agoMike Wendling and Nadine YousifUS President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees have gained momentum as Robert F Kennedy Jr and Tulsi Gabbard cleared a key hurdle in the Senate, and Pam Bondi was confirmed.The full Senate voted to approve Bondi as the next US attorney general, tasked with running the Department of Justice. Kennedy, picked to be the next US health secretary, was advanced by the Senate Finance Committee in a 14-13 vote that split along party lines. Only Republicans voted in favour of him.Gabbard chosen to serve as Director of National Intelligence, survived a narrow 9-8 vote before the Senate Intelligence Committee – also split along party lines.Kennedy and Gabbard, both considered controversial picks, will now move to a vote before the full US Senate, which Republicans control 53-47. Pam Bondi confirmed as US attorney generalPam Bondi will become the country’s top law enforcement officer on Tuesday evening after the Senate approved her by a 54-46 vote.All Republican senators voted to confirm Bondi; Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote in favour. The Senate currently is controlled by Republicans. When she was nominated by Trump, he wrote on social media that she would end what he called the ”weaponization” of the justice department against Republicans and himself, which the Biden White House denied.Born in Tampa, Florida, Bondi studied criminal justice at the University of Florida then received a degree from Stetson University College of Law. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991. A longtime Trump ally who has criticised the criminal cases against him, she was elected as Florida’s first female attorney general in 2010, zoning in on opioid abuse and human trafficking.Kennedy’s nomination advancesDuring the confirmation process, Kennedy received some opposition from lawmakers of both parties due to his scepticism of vaccines. Some also questioned whether he had enough expertise on matters including US public health infrastructure and healthcare programmes. He spent much of his hearings, however, insisting he was not opposed to vaccines – nor a conspiracy theorist – but merely supported more stringent safety tests.Still, senators often zeroed in on his past comments, including a podcast appearance where he said: “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who works with Democrats, praised Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan. But the senator also showed pictures of baby clothes printed with anti-vaccine messages sold by Children’s Health Defence, an organisation that the nom …
