It is that in politics people are the policy.
So That of President-elect Trump “policy” descended on Capitol Hill this week.
Thus begins the quadrennial tradition in which various cabinet candidates parade through the Senate. They’re here to meet with senators, answer questions, apply pressure, get a sense of what senators want to know about them at a confirmation hearing — and where the pitfalls lie.
We got a piece of it before Thanksgiving. That’s when former attorney general candidate and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., huddled with a handful of Republican senators. Then Gaetz took a bow, so he moved on to Trump’s second choice for attorney general: Pam Bondi.
Bondi arrived at the Capitol on Monday to meet with incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, but her first meeting was postponed because Grassley’s flight was delayed. Later that afternoon they finally talked.
“I look forward to working with you and guiding your nomination through the United States Senate,” Grassley said as he finally reached his office in the Hart Senate Office Building.
President-elect Donald Trump looks on during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
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“Should I win the confidence and nomination of all Senators, I will do my best every day to work tirelessly for the American people. And I will make you, the president and our country proud,” Bondi added.
“Is this going to be easier than Mr. Gaetz?” asked you honestly.
‘No questions. No questions,” Grassley ordered.
Bondi soon went to the Russell Senate Office Building to meet with the current top brass Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“She’s a great choice. I’ve been a friend for a long time. I think it’s the right person at the right time,” Graham said.
Bondi may have an easier path to Senate confirmation than the other nominee wandering the Senate corridors, according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
He met Sens. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
“We’re taking it one meeting at a time,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth faces a host of questions about whether he is qualified to lead such a massive organization as the U.S. military. A slew of allegations have been leveled against Hegseth.
“Have you ever been drunk while traveling for work?” CBS’s Nikole Killion asked.
“I won’t dignify that with an answer,” Hegseth replied.
He then moved on to a series of sessions with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Tex.Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah. Hegseth appears to have won the support of some of the Senate’s most conservative members.
“We don’t need a general officer, admiral or anyone in high command,” Tuberville said. “We need a drill sergeant in the Army. We need someone who can put the army in order. Take out the wokede, the DEI affiliation and go from there.”
Hegseth was at it again Tuesday morning and met with Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., Ted Budd, R-N.C., Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Eric Schmitt, R-ma.
Wednesday meant meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
Hegseth has also expressed reservations about women serving in combat.
Colleague Aishah Hasnie pressed Hegseth on this point as he moved between Senate offices.
“We have great women serving in our military. Great women,” Hegseth said.
“Do you think they should fight?” Hasnie asked.
“I think they’re already fighting,” Hegseth replied.
Donald Trump’s President-elect Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense is accompanied by his wife Jennifer Rauchet as they walk through the basement of the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Amid all the attention on Bondi and Hegseth, United Nations ambassador nominee and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., snuck in to meet with Grassley. And Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent will also meet with Thune and newly tapped Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo.
Out of nowhere, Linda McMahon, nominee for education secretary, emerged Tuesday for a session with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.
Do you think things are taking a feverish turn now? Wait for the FBI to pick Kash Patel and Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. their office visits begin.
And we haven’t even gotten to Hegseth, Kennedy and Patel’s future confirmation hearings in early January. Cable TV channels will likely broadcast these hearings wall-to-wall. And depending on the day, deciding which hearing to take live can be a challenging programming decision, especially if two or three are all happening around the same time.
A dynamic duo is coming Capitol Hill later this week – which don’t need confirmation. And in fact, their visits could attract more attention than any of the nominees for the next cabinet.
President-elect Trump tapped former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They will meet with House and Senate Republicans about their plans to roll back the government. They’ll start with meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who leads the Senate DOGE Caucus.
“We have a lot of waste within the federal government,” Ernst said. “We have already identified more than $1 trillion in savings for the DOGE.”
Left: Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on October 26, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Right: Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Left: Samuel Corum/Getty Images; Right: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Even Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., became the first Democrat to join the House DOGE Caucus.
“I believe that streamlining government processes and reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue,” Moskowitz said. “The caucus should look at the bureaucracy that DHS has become and include recommendations to make the Secret Service and FEMA independent federal agencies reporting directly to the White House.”
When it comes to confirmations, Democrats insist that Republicans do everything by the book. They want background checks on nominees, and they’re also pleading with the Republican Party not to allow Trump to bypass the Senate when there are problems and install people temporarily through recess appointments.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., disagreed with the snap meetings Republican senators had with nominees. Some of those sessions resulted in Republican senators subsequently declaring they would vote for confirmation.
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“You can’t do a speed dating trial in front of the Office of the President of the United States without facing embarrassment and things that would only be discovered through a thorough investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Durbin said. Privately, many Republican senators have spoken to me and said, ‘For God’s sake, we can’t get rid of FBI surveillance.’ That’s something that’s just an integral part of the system.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck SchumerDN.Y., wrote to Thune, imploring him to maintain the Senate’s customs for confirming nominees.
“The advice and consent authority is a cornerstone of the Senate’s constitutional mandate. A power that is crucial to maintaining the American system of checks and balances. The Founding Fathers knew firsthand the grave danger of allowing unchecked executives to appoint individuals to positions of power without any guardrails. Schumer said. “Hopefully this won’t be a problem. But nevertheless, it will be the responsibility of the incoming Republican majority to protect the Senate from any attempt to erode its authority.”
So this will take a few weeks.
Lots of meetings. Lots of hearings. Lots of votes. All surrounding staff for the next administration.
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Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., likes to say the Senate is “in the personnel business.”
It’s also concerned with “policy,” and that “policy” is now walking the halls of Capitol Hill.
