Washington Senate confirmation hearings for six of President-elect Donald Trump’s top-level candidates took place on Wednesday, setting the stage for a series of political and policy battles that will characterize his second term.
The selections of Russell Vought for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, John Ratcliffe for director of the CIA, Chris Wright for secretary of energy, Sean Duffy for secretary of transportation, Marco Rubio for secretary of state, and Pam Bondi for attorney general mostly steered clear of the kinds of fireworks that can ruin confirmation chances.
Together, they also outlined plans for the agencies they intend to run that align with Trump’s political concerns and campaign pledges.
Seven things to remember from the hearings are listed below.
No one ruined their confirmation chances
Each contender was nudged by Democrats in an attempt to reveal Trump’s radical beliefs or flaws. However, they lack the votes necessary to independently block any of the nominations in the Senate, where Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority once all of their seats are occupied. Therefore, whether any candidate would say something that would cost them Republican votes was the key question.
Until the entire Senate reviews their nominations following Trump’s inauguration next week, the answers will remain unclear. However, none of them seemed to lose the GOP side’s support on Wednesday, suggesting that Wednesday’s group of picks would have an easy time.
The confirmation hearings for the toughest sells, Kash Patel for FBI director and former Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard for secretary of health and human services and director of national intelligence, respectively, have not yet taken place.
Bondi wouldn’t say Trump lost in 2020
When questioned by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., at her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Bondi steadfastly declined to state that Trump lost the 2020 election by a wide margin.
“The president of the United States is Joe Biden. “He is the president of the United States and was duly sworn in,” Bondi stated. “Power was transferred in a calm manner. In 2024, President Trump was reelected with a landslide victory.
The panel’s top Democrat, Durbin, pointed out that Bondi did not respond with a simple affirmative or negative. Later, Bondi retaliated against Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., for interrupting her and refused to take back her earlier claim that Trump had won Pennsylvania in 2020.
“You’re not going to bully me,” she assured Padilla.
During the 2020 election, Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, angered the president by declining to utilize the Justice Department to support fabricated allegations of election fraud.
Bondi’s opinions on the 2020 election, however, are unlikely to cause Republicans to vote against her.
Democrats grill Bondi over Trump’s and Patel’s
influence
Despite Trump’s frequent calls for the investigation and punishment of his opponents, Bondi assured Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that she would not utilize the attorney general’s authority to single out political enemies.
“There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi stated.
Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker last month that, if the Senate confirms, Patel and Bondi will decide who should be the subject of an investigation and who should be prosecuted.
Judges, attorneys, and media should face legal action for their alleged improper conduct in looking into Trump after the 2020 election, according to Patelhas. Bondi somewhat defended Patel on Wednesday.
Bondi said that “Kash is the right person at this time for this job” and that he doesn’t appear to have an enemies list.
However, she informed senators that they would need to directly interview Patel regarding his support of QAnon conspiracy theories.
Rubio seeks ‘concessions’ from Ukraine and Russia
Rubio was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin while serving as a senator. He has spoken more calmly about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine since being appointed by Trump as America’s top diplomat.
Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that he shares Trump’s desire for the fight to finish quickly. And to do that, Ukraine will have to make a real or symbolic concession, he said.
“Realism is crucial for everyone,” Rubio stated. “There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation, but also by the Ukrainians.”
Although Rubio’s remarks were in line with his statements since Trump’s win, they show an even stronger determination to compel a negotiated settlement at a time when Ukraine’s leverage is uncertain.
Vought previews a potential major spending fight
Vought stated that he did not consider the 1974 Impoundment Control Act to be a legally binding statute in an attempt to re-engage as the White House budget director.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that the statute, which forbids the president from refusing to spend funds that Congress has approved, is constitutional, and it was a key component of the House’s initial impeachment of Trump.
Trump was accused, among other things, of unjustly withholding Ukraine’s authorized cash to pressure Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country’s president, into announcing an investigation against Joe Biden, who was then thinking about running for president.
Vought told Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, “I don’t believe it’s constitutional.” “The president ran on that view.”
“You re saying that you re just going to defy the courts?” Blumenthal inquired.
“The incoming administration is going to take the president s view on this as he stated on the campaign, work it through with the lawyers at the Department of Justice,” Vought stated, “and put that through a policy process and I can t prejudge that policy process but I certainly can t announce the parameters of what it would produce.”
Vought’s responses foreshadow a conflict over control of the country’s finances.
Former lawmakers steer clear of controversy
During their public hearings before the Intelligence and Commerce, Science, and Transportation committees, former Republican members of the House Ratcliffe and Duffy did not create much of a stir.
Ratcliffe also had a private meeting with the Intelligence Committee to discuss critical or secret national security issues.
But during the public part of his hearing, Ratcliffe expressed his long-held belief that China meddled in Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, which he easily admitted was in disagreement with the majority of the intelligence community.
According to him, the minority believed that they were. Although I shared the minority viewpoint, I did not attempt to replace the community’s judgment with my own.
Through the department’s Federal Aviation Administration, Duffy pledged to provide more thorough oversight of the aviation sector and stated his belief that whistleblowers should be given due consideration.
“I absolutely do,” he responded.
Energy nominee pressed on past wildfire comments
During his hearing to become head of the Department of Energy, Wright, an oil and gas businessman, defended a previous social media remark about the “hype” surrounding wildfires.
In a LinkedIn post more than a year ago, Wright stated that the hysteria around wildfires is really a pretext for further poverty brought on by unwise government actions.
Wright told Padilla that he would not take back his previous statement, but he expressed “great sorrow” about the recent wildfires in Southern California.
On Wednesday, however, Wright asserted that “Climate change is a real and global phenomenon.”
Aside from several protests from climate activists that interrupted the hearing the exchange with Padilla was the most notable moment. That bodes well for his prospects.