Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi cruised through the start of Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday as President-elect Trump’s key cabinet nominees move forward with few apparent major snags.
Rubio, who is well-regarded by both Republicans and Democrats alike, appears to be on a glide path to winning confirmation as secretary of state from his current Senate colleagues while Bondi looks poised to become the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Rubio vowed in his confirmation hearing to implement Trump’s “America First” vision as secretary of state.
“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It is the commonsense realization that a foreign policy centered on our national interest is not some outdated relic.”
Bondi, who was tapped for the attorney general post after ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz’s nomination imploded, sought to avoid confrontational statements in her hearing at the Judiciary Committee.
“The Justice Department must be independent and must act independently,” Bondi said. “The No. 1 job is to enforce the law fairly and even-handedly. And that’s what will be done if I am confirmed as the attorney general.”
Four other Trump cabinet nominees also faced Senate confirmation hearings, including Rep. John Ratcliffe to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, Sean Duffy for the Department of Transportation, Chris Wright for the Department of Energy and Russell Vought for the Office of Management and Budget.
Pete Hegseth picked up the endorsement of pivotal Republican Sen. Joni Ernst Wednesday as he edged closer to winning approval as the next secretary of defense after a confident performance at his own hearing a day earlier.
All of Trump’s presidential nominees need at least 50 votes to win Senate confirmation, meaning they would likely be able to lose no more than three GOP votes if Democrats are united in opposition.
Most are expected to easily win approval, but the jury is still out on controversial picks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, FBI Director nominee Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
Bondi endured some tricky moments as her hearing kicked off, including repeatedly dodging what she called hypothetical questions about whether she would resist potentially illegal or improper demands from Trump for retribution against his enemies.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) told her it’s critical that any attorney general nominee be “committed first and foremost to theques Constitution and the American people — not the president and his political agenda.”
Bondi mostly stuck to the MAGA script, echoing Trump’s claims that he was wrongly prosecuted by the Justice Department for political purposes.
“They targeted Donald Trump,” she said. “That will not be the case if I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.”
Bondi said she would advise Trump “on a case by case basis” regarding his pledge to pardon defendants prosecuted for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
She wouldn’t say if she agreed with Trump’s pledge to pardon some rioters convicted of crimes but insisted that she condemns “any violence on a law enforcement officer in this country.”
In a sign of his confidence, Rubio joked with his colleagues that both friends and foes alike might find good reasons to support his nomination.
“I hope I can earn your support, whether it’s because you believe I would do a good job, or because you want to get rid of me,” the Florida Republican said.
“Either way, the results are the same,” Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), the committee’s GOP chair, joked back.