Let's review a few of Donald Trump's cabinet picks so far:

First, there’s Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for the Department of Defense. I’ll just say it: A Fox & Friends Weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. But beyond that, he has been accused of sexually abusing a woman and buying her silence with an NDA. He preyed on female staff and attended work events drunk. And he ran a veterans nonprofit so far into debt they nearly went bankrupt. This is extremely disqualifying — and he should not be confirmed.

Next, there’s Scott Bessent: a hedge fund manager nominated to be Treasury Secretary. When his name was mentioned as Trump’s pick, it drew a huge sigh of relief from Wall Street. That should be a blinking red light telling us that working people will see no help coming their way. We must determine whether Bessent will transfer his loyalty from Wall Street investors to America’s workers.

Then there’s Russell Vought, a leading figure in developing Project 2025, who was nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget. I recall not too long ago a time when Trump stressed that he had no connections with Project 2025. He lied through his teeth. Vought has a particular interest in eliminating the independence of some regulatory agencies and reworking our government’s infrastructure in order to strengthen the president’s power. We must hold Trump and Vought accountable.

We’ve got Linda McMahon, an unqualified, billionaire wrestling mogul, who was nominated to lead the Education Department (a department that Trump has called to dismantle). This is an insult to our teachers and to every kid in America who relies on a good public school education.

He picked billionaire and Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick to be our country’s Commerce Secretary — yet another win for the billionaire class at the expense of working people, and a personification of Trump’s goal to extend tax giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires.

There was the short-lived nomination of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General.

And then the supposed “Department of Government Efficiency” led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (two people to do the work of one person in the spirit of true “efficiency”). Musk must be there as a thank-you for the $250 million he poured into getting Trump elected. He has made clear one of his first priorities is to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has returned over $20 billion to consumers who were cheated by companies. Look, that’s big talk, but the laws supporting the CFPB are strong, and the agency has withstood challenges from many groups that thought they could make more money if the CFPB didn’t exist. They’ve failed, and they will continue to fail.

These nominees have enormous power over how our country operates — and it is the Senate’s responsibility to scrutinize these individuals, seriously consider the information that comes out of the vetting process, and ask the necessary questions in order to determine whether or not they’re fit to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

The confirmation process will be a true test: whether Republicans have the courage to vote against Trump nominees who are very clearly disqualified, or whether they will pledge fealty to him no matter what.

I’m going to do all in my power throughout this process to share the truth about unqualified nominees, hold feet to the fire, and fight for a government that works for the American people.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth