Out MSNBC Anchor 'Conflicted' Over Trump's Openly Gay Treasury Head Pick

Out MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart admitted to feeling "kind of conflicted" about Trump's cabinet pick to lead the Treasury, Scott Bessent.

Mediaite reports that Capehart made his comment on the Nov. 24 edition of his news program.

The outlet quoted Capehart as saying, "So yesterday morning my Nick" – his husband, Nick Schmit – "says, 'Wait, Scott Bessent is gay. He is and married and has children.' "

Capehart continued his anecdote, saying that Bessent, "if confirmed, would be the highest ranking out LGBT person ever to... be appointed and confirmed by the United States Senate.

"And I said, you know, 'Kind of conflicted about it... I'm kinda conflicted about this.'"

Capehart meant that "he feels torn about Scott Bessent's nomination because a Republican president has selected the highest ranking gay government official ever, not a Democrat," according to the UK newspaper the Daily Mail.

"It is very interesting, yes, that is Trump and not one of our team that made that historic nomination," Capehart said in response to Jon Reinish, a guest on the show at the time, commenting, "In that case, credit where it's due."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay, was nominated by President Joe Biden to the post of Secretary of Transportation and confirmed by the Senate in 2021, making him the first openly gay Cabinet nominee to be so confirmed.

But the Transportation Secretary is ranked well below the Secretary of the Treasury in the government's Order of Precedence.

Trump appointed Scott Grennell, who is openly gay, as acting director of national intelligence in 2020, but the Senate did not confirm that appointment.

"Bessent is a past supporter of Democrats who has become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump," the DM noted. "He's an advocate of cutting spending while extending the tax cuts approved by Congress in Trump's first term."

Something else that might raise MAGA hackles: "He also worked for George Soros, a major supporter of Democrats," the Associated Press recalled.

Bessent "lives in South Carolina with his husband, John Freeman, a former prosecuting attorney in New York City," The Advocate detailed. "They have two children."

Bessent has not been shy about declaring who he is. The Associated Press recalled that, "In 2015, Bessent told the Yale Alumni Magazine: 'If you had told me in 1984, when we graduated, and people were dying of AIDS, that 30 years later I'd be legally married and we would have two children via surrogacy, I wouldn't have believed you.'"