SIGNING BILLS — Gov Jim Justice signed several bills in March of this year, but one bill he vetoed would have expanded exemptions for vaccines for school-age children. -- Photo Courtesy/WV Governor’s Office

CHARLESTON — After saying last week that it would be too premature for him to comment on how he would vote for incoming Republican President Donald Trump’s picks for his cabinet next year, Gov. Jim Justice, the incoming junior U.S. senator for West Virginia, said all nominees should be given a chance.

“He’s got to appoint the team that absolutely that he believes in,” Justice said of Trump’s recent cabinet nominees during a weekly administration briefing Tuesday from the Capitol. “We have to absolutely be fair about this, and we’ve got to give them time to get their feet underneath of them to do the job I know they’ll do.”

According to multiple reports, Trump announced the nomination of Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick as secretary of the Department of Commerce, Tuesday.

Lutnick’s nomination is the latest in a line of cabinet announcements since Trump’s victory two weeks ago for a non-consecutive four-year term as president following his first term between 2017 and 2021. So far, 17 individuals have been nominated for cabinet-level positions that require the advice and consent of the Senate, which will be in Republican hands next year.

Republicans now control 53 seats in the 100-member U.S. Senate after the November general election, re-taking the majority after losing it after the 2021 special elections. Justice will be joining senior U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who now holds the fourth-ranked position in the Senate GOP leadership.

According to reporting from CNN, Trump has been personally calling senators to secure support for some of his more controversial nominees, such as former Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Gaetz has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct.

Speaking Tuesday, Justice said he will support Trump’s nominees, but will remain objective as he prepares for his role as a senator.

“I am supportive of (Trump’s) choices because I have that level of faith in him,” Justice said. “I’ll support all the choices and everything, but I do think that every one of these folks deserves a fair shot. That’s all there is to it.”

That’s a change in Justice’s position during last week’s administration briefing, when Justice said it was too soon to begin commenting on whether he would support or reject any potential cabinet pick.

“I think it’s premature for me to comment,” Justice said last Friday. “Naturally, I’m very supportive of President Trump and I’m sure that his folks are really evaluating and vetting the appointments and everything. From that standpoint, we’ll do the same thing in the Senate.”

Another cabinet pick raising eyebrows is former Democratic environmental lawyer and failed independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is a vocal critic of mandatory vaccine requirements, such as West Virginia has for school-age children.

“I’ve never met him,” Justice said of Kennedy Jr. “I may have an adversarial opinion from the standpoint of our new appointee, but I will just say this: today we know so much more (about COVID vaccines).”

Justice has been a supporter of vaccines for school children, vetoing a bill earlier this year that would have expanded vaccine exemptions for students attending statewide virtual charter schools, as well as students attending private or parochial schools in the state.

Justice was also a major supporter of COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, rolling out the vaccines to seniors and those in assisted living and nursing home facilities. But while Justice remains proud of the work done to distribute COVID vaccines to seniors across the state in December 2020, he said it is good to reconsider other actions taken during the pandemic.

“This pandemic hit and not a living one of us had ever, ever seen anything like it,” Justice said. “Donald Trump scrambled in every possible way that he could to get us the vaccines. And Donald Trump and all his administration promoted those vaccines like crazy and we all jumped behind it and I was 100% on board. But we learn more, don’t we?

“Now we learned really and truly in many ways there are people or medical knowledge that just maybe (COVID vaccines) didn’t help much,” Justice continued. “On the other hand, we were so frenzied that our folks in our nursing homes or whatever, God knows we saved a pot-full of lives…because they were vaccinated. I was a proponent of that, and I do think we did the right thing there.”