New York

Two of US President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees for high-level positions, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr, cleared the first hurdle for confirmation to their posts after Senate committees cleared them.

The approval by the panels on Tuesday sends their nomination to the full Senate for a vote.

Meanwhile, the full Senate approved the nomination of Pam Bondi as the attorney general. She had held the same post in Florida and was one of Trump’s personal lawyers at his first impeachment trial.

Unlike some Trump nominees, Bondi was not a controversial personality and managed to get the vote of a Democratic Party senator for her confirmation.

Senate Intelligence Committee cleared Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence with a vote along party lines, with all nine Republicans voting for her and the eight Democrats opposing her.

Kennedy got the approval of the Finance Committee for Health Secretary also with votes along partisan lines, 14 to 13.

The nomination of Kash Patel, a contentious Trump pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is locked in the Judiciary Committee where Democrats are demanding another public hearing.

Hindu American Gabbard is a former national vice president of the Democratic Party who switched parties last year to support Trump.

Although she is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who has served in the Iraq War and while in Congress was a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Intelligence, her critics questioned her competence for the post.

Her controversial support for Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked to journalists classified documents on questionable surveillance programmes before seeking refuge in Russia, came up during the hearings.

It created doubts if she would get the support of all the Republicans on the panel, and while they came through, there is still uncertainty about how the votes would go in the full Senate.

Some of the attacks on her veered into Hinduphobia by making an issue of her religious affiliation.

Gabbard said at her confirmation hearing that some Democrat senators are “once again using the religious bigotry card, but this time trying to foment religious bigotry against Hindus and Hinduism”.

Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines and backing for non-scientific therapies, as well as his chaotic personal life, created doubts about the level of support among some crucial Republicans.

Senator Bill Cassidy, who is a doctor, appeared to be the last Republican holdout on the panel, but he came through finally.

Trump has made voting for his controversial nominees a loyalty test for Republican senators.

Some party hardliners like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have warned that “there will absolutely be hell to pay” for not supporting them.

The Republicans have a slender majority in the Senate, and the nominees can afford to lose the support of only three members of the party.

After Pete Hegseth lost the support of three Republicans, Vice President JD Vance stepped in to cast the tie-breaking vote because of the 50-50 deadlock for his confirmation as Defence Secretary.

Patel’s nomination has been clouded by Trump’s purge of several senior career officials of the FBI and threats against hundreds of FBI field agents who investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters in their unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election as president.

Patel gave an assurance at his confirmation hearing that he would not politicise the FBI and there would be no retributions.