HUFFPOST
WASHINGTON — When Americans elected a coup-attempting, sexually abusing, fraud-committing criminal as president, did they by that choice also lower the bar for those serving in his administration?
As they prepare to go before the U.S. Senate for confirmation, Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Matt Gaetz — until Gaetz withdrew from consideration — and others have been facing questions over their previous actions and words that have raised doubts about their fitness for the job.
Yet in every case, the man who appointed them, President-elect Donald Trump, has done or said things far more egregious during his previous term in office and over his subsequent three-and-a-half-year effort to return to the White House. American voters narrowly returned him to office anyway — meaning senators will now have to decide whether Trump’s appointees should be held to a higher standard than Trump himself.
“This question breaks my heart,” said Jennifer Horn, the former chair of New…
