CNN
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President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for attorney general, secretary of state and several other key Cabinet positions are expected to appear before Senate committees Wednesday for high-stakes confirmation hearings.
The hearings, five days before Trump takes office, come as the Republican-led Senate appears largely to align with the president-elect’s choices.
One of his most controversial picks, Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, kicked off this week’s hearings Tuesday with a sometimes controversial appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee. But by the end of the day, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst — one of the few Republicans whose support was in question — announced she would support his nomination.
On Wednesday, two Floridians — Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick to lead the State Department, and Pam Bondi, former state attorney generalhis choice to lead the Justice Department — are among six names considered for the hearings, all of which generated less controversy than Hegseth.
The other hearings on deck: the former from Wisconsin Representative Sean Duffy for the Department of Transport; energy sector executive Chris Wright for the Ministry of Energy; John Ratcliffea former congressman who briefly served as director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, only to become director of the CIA; And Russell Voughtone of the main authors of Project 2025, for the Office of Management and Budget.
Here’s what to watch during Wednesday’s hearings:
Rubio, a respected presence in the Senate who has not always been in Trump’s political orbit, is expected to easily gain confirmation as the president-elect’s top diplomat from the moment he was tapped for the role.
However, Rubio, considered a hawk on foreign policy, will first have to explain to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – on which he served – what Trump’s “America First” approach will mean for the role of the United States in the world. Eight years ago, Rubio — after an unsuccessful election campaign against Trump — challenged Rex Tillerson, the first-term pick for secretary of state, on some of Trump’s isolationist views. It is now the Republican from Florida who will be in the hot seat, answering questions from his colleagues and trying to prove loyalty to the president-elect.
“The top priority” of Trump’s State Department “must and will be the United States,” Rubio is expected to say, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks obtained by CNN.
The Florida Republican plans to say that “while America has too often continued to prioritize the ‘world order’ above our core national interests, other nations have continued to act like countries l have always done and always will, in what they perceive to be the best of themselves. interest.”
Rubio also plans to target China, saying the country has “lied, cheated, hacked and stolen its way to global superpower status, at our expense.” Rubio’s comments come as Trump promises massive tariffs on Chinese goods.
One of the most pressing issues Rubio could face if confirmed is U.S. support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion — and how that will change in the new administration. Trump has called for a negotiated end to the war.
The son of Cuban immigrants and long a hard-liner on Cuba, Rubio could also address Tuesday’s announcement by President Joe Biden’s administration that it will remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism – a list that also includes North Korea, Syria and Iran.
Rubio has already won the support of some Democrats and is all but assured of a quick confirmation. His most important task, in the longer term, may be countering Trump’s more isolationist allies, who may seek to weaken his role once the new administration takes office.
The shadow of January 6 and political prosecutions
There is no doubt that Republicans will support Bondi, who was Trump’s second choice for attorney general after the withdrawal of former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
But Democrats will likely use her confirmation hearing, scheduled for two days, to press for answers about whether she will follow through on Trump’s oft-expressed desire to target his political enemies for prosecution.
Democrats will also likely use Bondi’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Thursday to press the details of Trump’s plans to pardon Trump supporters who were convicted of their actions during the riot. January 6, 2021 at the Capitol.
The hearing comes the day after special prosecutor Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, released a report concluding that his office “assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and maintain a conviction at trial.”
Bondi, who joined Trump’s legal defense during his first impeachment trial in 2019, has supported Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and could be questioned about the false claims.
Amid attacks from Democrats on its content, Trump, on the campaign trail, disavowed Project 2025, a far-reaching conservative plan for a second Trump term drawn up by a multitude of his allies and former collaborators.
However, a key author of this planVought, is Trump’s pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget — likely returning to the role he held in Trump’s first administration.
Vought is expected to appear before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Unlike some nominees, Vought will have to testify twice — including at a Senate Budget Committee confirmation hearing, which is not yet scheduled.
Democrats could use the hearing to embarrass Vought over whether he thinks Trump can cut spending without congressional approval — and whether Trump can replace federal employees with political appointees.
Trump’s choice of Wrightan executive from a Colorado fracking company, for the Department of Energy, signaled the dramatic policy shift his administration will make from the Biden administration’s push for renewable energy.
Democrats on the Energy and National Resources Committee had sought to delay the hearing, complaining that 24 hours before its hearing they had not received Wright’s ethics and financial disclosure documents from the Office of the governmental ethics.
Wright will also be a member of the newly formed National Energy Council, which Trump said will be made up of all agencies involved in the “permitting, production, production, distribution, regulation and transportation” of energy. energy. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum – Trump’s pick for the Interior Department – will be president.
“The world runs on oil and gas, and we need it,” Wright told CNBC in a 2023 interview, saying calls to transition away from fossil fuels within a decade was an “absurd deadline “.