President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for top jobs in his administration were making the rounds on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of potential confirmation hearings next month.
Some of the choices come with controversy and face pointed questions from Republican senators.
Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth has had to deal with multiple allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety, which he’s denied. Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to be the director of national intelligence, has been scrutinized over her views on Russia and a 2017 meeting with Syria’s Bashar Assad. Kash Patel, a longtime Trump ally chosen for FBI director, has vowed to take on the alleged “deep state” and Trump’s enemies.
Trump defended his selections during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired in full on Sunday.
Patel was meeting with Sens. John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, Mike Lee, Shelley Capito Moore and Chuck Grassley.
Cornyn, a key Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said after their meeting that he is inclined to support Patel and believes some of his more extreme views — such as firing agents or closing the FBI headquarters in Washington — are “hyperbolic.”
“My position, as I told Mr. Patel, is that no one should have to go through what President Trump went through by … a partisan Department of Justice and FBI — and my goal would be to restore the non-partisan functioning of the chief law enforcement agency in the country — the FBI and the Department of Justice. To me, that is the goal,” Cornyn said.
Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the director of the FBI, attends a meeting with Sen. John Cornyn on Capitol Hill, Dec. 9, 2024, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Hegseth was back for more one-on-one meetings with GOP lawmakers after four straight days last week trying to assuage concerns about reports of financial mismanagement, sexual misconduct and public drunkenness.
Trump’s defense secretary pick met again with Ernst, a top Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and herself a combat veteran and survivor of sexual assault.
Ernst notably was not ready to voice support for Hegseth after their meeting last Wednesday. Over the weekend, Ernst said she believed Hegseth should be thoroughly vetted and that she wanted to hear him address how he’d approach sexual assault in the military.
Hegseth exited the meeting praising their conversation but would not say whether he felt Ernst was swayed to support him.
“She has been dedicated to making the Pentagon work for warfighters for a long time. We’ve had great, extensive conversations about that. I just appreciate her commitment to the process and am looking forward to working together,” Hegseth said.
When pressed by reporters again if he could say whether he was able to get Ernst to back him, he demurred. “I would never speak for her,” Hegseth said.
Ernst later released a statement thanking Hegseth for his “responsiveness and respect for the process.” While Ernst didn’t explicitly say she would vote yes on Hegseth’s confirmation, she said she would “support” him through the process.
“Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks,” she said. “As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources.”
A conservative nonprofit group with ties to billionaire Elon Musk is wading into Hegseth’s confirmation fight. Building America’s Future is spending half a million dollars on a new ad pushing the Senate to confirm Hegseth as defense secretary, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News. The ad will run on national television and specifically target digital platforms in Iowa, Ernst’s home state.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, and his wife Jennifer Rauchet arrive for meetings on Capitol Hill, Dec. 9, 2024, in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Arriving Monday for her first slate of meetings was Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and military veteran with no intelligence experience. Gabbard’s been accused of voicing support for U.S. adversaries like Russia and support for now-deposed Syrian dictator Ha.
Asked for her response to several of her former Democratic colleagues who say they consider her a national security risk, Gabbard pivoted the question to support Trump’s position that the U.S. should “not get involved” in the aftermath of the Assad regime.
Gabbard did not answer asked if she regrets her 2017 meeting with Assad after her meeting with Sen. James Lankford.
She was also to meet with Sens. Mike Rounds and Lindsey Graham.
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard walks with Sen. Joni Ernst, Dec. 9, 2024, in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary, also was on Capitol Hill to meet with GOP Sen. Roger Marshall and other lawmakers.
McMahon told ABC News as she will “fall in” with Trump’s education policies if confirmed to the position. However, she distanced herself from Trump’s comments about shuttering the Department of Education.
“President Trump and I have had lots of conversations, and I think his views he’s making clear on his own,” McMahon said, adding “I’m not going to get ahead of his policy.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
