Jan. 13, 2025, 6:47 p.m.
President-elect Trump has told Republican senators he wants as much of his Cabinet in place as possible by the time he is sworn in next week or soon thereafter. This week will demonstrate how quickly the Senate plans to comply as the first slate of those crucial confirmation hearings is scheduled to start Tuesday, including for one of his most controversial choices: Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary.
Those hearings also will provide the first tests of GOP unity behind the president-elect and his team.
The upper chamber will begin publicly examining the nominations of more than a dozen prospective nominees this week. That includes hearings for those tapped by Trump to run the Pentagon, Treasury, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, the CIA, and more.
Trump will be sworn into office next Monday, Jan. 20, and he wants as many members of his Cabinet and administration in place as possible when he retakes the reins in Washington. The president-elect made that clear when he visited Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill last week for a discussion on his agenda and its implementation.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told CBS on Sunday that Trump "said the No. 1 goal for the Senate needs to be to get his team in place.”
“I’ve met with just about all of them. I support every one of these nominees. As the whip, my job is to make sure they get across the finish line, get on the job,” Barrasso continued. “President Trump deserves a team early.”
But one of Senate Republicans' biggest challenges will be one of the first nominations they will examine: On Tuesday morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of Hegseth, a former combat veteran and Fox News personality, to lead the Pentagon.
Hegseth’s nomination has been encumbered by questions surrounding his qualifications and experience to lead the Pentagon, as well as concerns raised involving claims of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. He’s likely to be asked about a financial settlement he reached with a woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Hegseth’s views regarding NATO and the Geneva Conventions, which he has implied are outdated, as well as comments about women serving in combat, have raised eyebrows among senators from both parties on Capitol Hill. His tattoos tied to Christian nationalism and white supremacy have also raised alarm bells among security experts. Concerns over one of Hegseth’s tattoos reportedly led the National Guard in Washington D.C. to pull him out of a mission to guard President Biden’s inauguration four years ago.
Hegseth has been making rounds on Capitol Hill since Trump announced his intended nomination, meeting last week with Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Reed said in a statement Wednesday that the “meeting did not relieve my concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s lack of qualifications and raised more questions than answers."
"As with any nominee for this critical position, Mr. Hegseth must undergo the same high-level of scrutiny as prior Secretary of Defense nominees,” Reed said.
Several sources told National Journal that Hegseth has not met with the other Democrats on the committee ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
And Reed, along with Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, saw the FBI background check into Hegseth on Friday, per aides familiar with the process. Other committee members were not shown the report, which is not unusual. Traditionally, only the chairman and ranking member see the full report.
Sen. Joni Ernst, a key Republican member of the committee and a survivor of sexual assault, will be a key lawmaker to watch Tuesday morning. She has expressed interest in the FBI report, but she also faces a reelection race in Iowa in 2026, and the ever-present threat of a Trump-backed primary challenger weighs heavy on GOP incumbents’ minds.
The Armed Services Committee has a one-seat GOP majority, so if all Democrats remain united in their opposition to Hegseth, a single Republican defection would complicate his confirmation.
Hegseth isn’t the only nominee causing Democrats to be in uproar over lack of documentation leading up to the hearings.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, penned a letter to Chairman Mike Lee Monday asking him to postpone the confirmation hearing for former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be Interior secretary, claiming the committee has yet to receive documentation.
“It is now less than 24 hours before the Committee’s hearing on the nomination of Governor Doug Burgum to be the Secretary of the Interior. The Committee still has not received the standard financial disclosure report, ethics agreement, or the opinions from the designated agency ethics officer and the Office of Government Ethics stating that the nominee is in compliance with the ethics laws, which are required by law of all nominees for positions that require Senate confirmation,” Heinrich wrote.
Lee announced Monday the hearing would be delayed until Thursday in light of delays from the Office of Government Ethics.
Republicans have the Senate majority, but Trump’s nominees can afford to lose only three Republican votes on the floor—with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance using his power as president of the Senate to break any ties—once it reaches its full 53-47 membership.
Democrats have been strategizing on how they will approach the hearings. A Senate Democratic source told National Journal that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Senate Democrats last week that they should use the confirmation hearings to hold Trump’s nominees feet to the fire, and that they should push nominees on how they plan to accomplish promises from the campaign trail.
The source said the hearings are an opportunity to set the table for Democrats to be able to say down the road: “We warned you.”
Barrasso, noting to CBS that Schumer “said he wants to make fireworks at the hearings," pledged: "If that happens, we are going to work around the clock, through the night, through weekends to make sure we get that Cabinet confirmed.”
Of President Biden’s first 15 nominees for Cabinet positions, just four had Senate hearings prior to his inauguration, and six were confirmed within a month, according to the Center for Presidential Transition. For Trump’s first term, 12 nominees for Cabinet positions had hearings prior to Inauguration Day, and nine were confirmed within a month.
Former Rep. Doug Collins’ hearing, also originally scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed until next week as the FBI background check for Trump's Veterans Affairs pick isn’t yet complete. On Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s choice for secretary of State, will receive his hearing. He is expected to receive bipartisan support from the committee and on the full Senate floor.
Senators that day also will hold hearings for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the Justice Department; former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe to head the CIA; former Rep. Sean Duffy for Transportation secretary; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to lead the Homeland Security Department.
Thursday will feature Burgum’s hearing—delayed from Tuesday—as well as Bondi’s second round of questions. Other nominations getting hearings will include those for Rep. Elise Stefanik to be ambassador to the United Nations; former Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency; and Scott Turner, a former NFL player, to lead Housing and Urban Development.
