President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated in one week. The inaugural platform on the West Side of the Capitol is being finished, security fences are going up everywhere and marching bands were practicing Sunday on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Inside the Capitol, there are two things worth watching over the next few days — the blitz of Senate confirmation hearings kicking off on Tuesday for Trump’s Cabinet nominees, as well as the debate over the Laken Riley Act.
Thirteen Cabinet nominees will appear before 11 different Senate committees this week. See the schedule below. It all kicks into another gear starting Tuesday. The majority of these will have a relatively smooth confirmation process. Some of Trump’s more controversial nominees haven’t had their hearings scheduled yet.
Must-see TV: The main event will be Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning. Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has faced allegations of sexual and financial misconduct, as well as doubt over his qualifications for the role.
Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — the chair and ranking member, respectively — are the only committee members who have viewed Hegseth’s FBI file, which was delivered to the panel late last week. Republicans on SASC who have been briefed say that the report is unremarkable. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told reporters on Friday that she doesn’t expect other senators will be permitted to read it before the hearing.
Senate Republicans want Trump’s national security nominees to be confirmed on day one — or close to it — but Democrats are determined to expose what they see as an unfit nominee in Hegseth. It’s virtually guaranteed that Democrats won’t agree to fast-track Hegseth’s nomination on the floor, even if it’s clear he’d have the requisite votes to be confirmed.
Another nominee whose hearing could get testy is Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general. Bondi will sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Thursday. Bondi will face questions about her independence from Trump given her previous representation of the incoming president during his first impeachment trial.
Day One: As we’ve reported, Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) nomination to serve as secretary of state is the most likely to be approved on Inauguration Day. Rubio’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and we expect that he’ll be confirmed easily.
After Rubio, though, it’s unclear who could come next. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, has his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Ratcliffe has been confirmed by the Senate before, as director of national intelligence. He could also be a candidate for early confirmation.
All it takes is one Democrat to refuse to consent to fast-tracking any of these nominees, meaning Senate Majority Leader John Thune would have to burn a few days of floor time to confirm each one.
Remember that Thune has also promised to grind through these nominees if Democrats throw up roadblocks, even if that means keeping the Senate in session on Fridays.
Four years ago, the Senate confirmed Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Inauguration Day. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed two days later, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed a few days after Austin.
Looking ahead: In addition to Hegseth, two other national security nominees could face a difficult path to Senate confirmation.
One of them, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), nominated for the DNI post, could have her Senate confirmation hearing as soon as next week. Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, likely won’t have his confirmation hearing until February.
Gabbard is scheduled to have around 20 meetings with senators this week, we’re told, including with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Gabbard picked up support on Sunday from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a committee member who suggested last week that Gabbard’s views on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were problematic.
As we scooped on Friday, Gabbard reversed course on the key intelligence-gathering authority. Republican senators who met with her in recent weeks told us that her position on Section 702 — including her 2020 proposal to repeal it and her consistent votes against reauthorizing the program — was emerging as a major problem for her confirmation prospects.
Biden finale: President Joe Biden will give his farewell address from the Oval Office on Wednesday at 8 p.m.
