Utah’s new senator is taking a web page from predecessor Mitt Romney and pledging to be an impartial voice within the higher chamber and not essentially a “rubber stamp” for President-elect Donald Trump.
Sen.-elect John Curtis (R-Utah), 64, on Sunday foreshadowed that he isn’t afraid to be a maverick in terms of weighing Trump’s cupboard picks or mulling spending packages that the president-elect might search to push by way of.
“It’s crucial to me that President Trump is profitable. I wish to see him wildly profitable, and I’ll be supportive of him when he’s speaking about inflation and the financial system and every thing like that,” Curtis informed ABC Information’ “This Week.”
“However that doesn’t imply there gained’t be moments after I disagree with him,” he mentioned. “I do have my very own thoughts, and I’m not a rubber stamp. My stamp is the stamp of the state of Utah.”
The Utah sen.-elect was reportedly one in all at the least 4 GOP senators who soured on Trump’s decide of former firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to function US legal professional common.
Curtis had indicated that he’s nonetheless harboring some apprehension over a number of of Trump’s different picks, too, together with Division of Protection Secretary-designee Pete Hegseth.
The senator-elect, requested about whether or not he has resolved his points over Hegseth, mentioned, “No. … They continue to be unresolved.
“And I shouldn’t attempt to resolve them till I’ve this huge broad canvas of details about him.
“Anyone who needs to provide me warmth for doing my job, convey it on,” Curtis added. “That is my job. It’s my constitutional accountability.”
Curtis additionally mentioned he needs assurances from FBI Director-designee Kash Patel that he’ll make sure the bureau is apolitical.
The Beehive State pol insists that he’s a “regular” Republican fairly than a MAGA one. Through the 2024 major course of, Curtis prevailed over Trump-backed Trent Staggs in locking down the GOP nod for Senate.
He hailed his predecessor, retiring Sen. Romney, as “true to who he’s,” rejecting conservative ire towards the 2012 GOP presidential nominee for going towards social gathering traces now and again.
“Lots of people ask me [for specifics] after I say I’m typically going to have my variations with the president,” Curtis mirrored. “I’ll simply let you know from my earlier service with him on the identical time, it’s spending.
“We’ve to do much more to rein in our spending. And that could be a huge deal in Utah. That’s what my constituents anticipate me to do.”
Romney lately turned heads by voting towards the last-minute deal brokered Friday to avert a authorities shutdown, one thing that he described as a protest vote of “the absurd means that is to run authorities.”
Republicans are poised to have a 53 to 47 majority within the higher chamber subsequent yr. Trump has been hopeful that the Senate gained’t be an excessive amount of of an impediment for him to workers his subsequent administration.
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