Takeaways from the second day of Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings
(CNN) — Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees for key roles in the intelligence, foreign policy and law enforcement agencies all pledged to keep politics out of their offices amid concerns from Democrats that the president-elect will carry out his vows to go after his political enemies once in office.
Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, repeatedly insisted she would not allow politics to infect her Justice Department – accusing President Joe Biden’s DOJ of being responsible for politicizing law enforcement against Trump.
“Every case will be prosecuted based on the facts and the law that’s applied in good faith, period. Politics have got to be taken out of the system,” Bondi said before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “This department has been weaponized for years and years and years, and it has to stop.”
In addition to Bondi’s pledge not to be influenced by politics, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, John Ratcliffe, said he would not impose “political litmus tests” at the agency, while secretary of state nominee and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, defended the importance of NATO, an alliance Trump has often questioned.
The confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks kicked off Tuesday with a highly contentious session for defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. On Wednesday, the slate of a half-dozen hearings struck a much more conciliatory tone, where the concerns raised by senators were about the conduct of the president-elect and not the nominees themselves.
There were still heated moments Wednesday, particularly with Bondi and questions about claims of 2020 election fraud and Trump’s calls for jailing his enemies including special counsel Jack Smith and former Rep. Liz Cheney. “I’m not going to be bullied by you,” Bondi declared during a testify back-and-forth with Sen. Alex Padilla of California.
But Democratic senators made clear they were not going to blanketly oppose all of Trump’s nominees, particularly Rubio, a fellow senator. On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado introduced Trump’s energy secretary nominee, fracking CEO Chris Wright, who is also from Colorado.
There are still more contentious hearings looming, including Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; his pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; and for FBI director, Kash Patel – who was invoked by Democrats multiple times during Bondi’s hearing.
Here are the takeaways from Wednesday’s slate of confirmation hearings:
Bondi vows to lead an independent Justice Department
Democrats repeatedly pressed Bondi on Wednesday about her ability to stand up to Trump, who has said he has an “absolute right” to be involved in Justice Department matters and clashed with his attorneys general in his first administration when they did not bend to his wishes.
“I need to know that you would tell the president ‘no’ if you are asked to do something that is wrong, illegal or unconstitutional,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat.
Bondi responded by blasting the “weaponization” of the Biden Justice Department and said that she would not improperly target people with criminal probes like those against Trump.
“I will not politicize that office,” Bondi said of being attorney general. “I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”
Bondi also vowed Wednesday to follow the Justice Department’s policy to limit contacts between the White House and the Justice Department.
“I believe this Justice Department must be independent and must act independently,” she said.
Pressed on whether she would investigate officials Trump has suggested should be jailed – including special counsel Jack Smith and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney – Bondi said “no one would be pre-judged.”
Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii questioned Bondi over comments she made during the 2024 election cycle that “bad” prosecutors should be held criminally responsible.
“Sometimes ‘bad’ is in the eye of the beholder. I am just asking whether you would consider Jack Smith to be one of the people,” Hirono said. “How about Liz Cheney? How about Merrick Garland?”
“Senator, I am not going into hypotheticals,” Bondi responded. “No one has been pre-judged, nor will anyone be pre-judged if I am confirmed.”
Later, Bondi clashed with Sen. Adam Schiff of California – another of Trump’s longtime targets – over whether her personal political beliefs would affect decisions on January 6 pardons and the preservation of evidence from the special counsel investigations into Trump.
At one point in the exchange, Bondi raised the House’s Republican-led censure of Schiff in 2023, while he pressed her on whether there was evidence to start an investigation into Smith.
“It would be irresponsible of me to make a commitment regarding anything,” Bondi said. “What I’m hearing on the news is horrible. Do I know if he committed a crime? I have not looked at it.”
Trump’s 2020 election lies still loom over DOJ role
Bondi was questioned about whether she accepts that Biden won the 2020 election – a fact that Trump continues to falsely dispute after he tried to overturn the 2020 election results.
Bondi told lawmakers Wednesday she accepts that Trump lost the 2020 election but falsely claimed “there was a peaceful transition of power” that year, ignoring the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol that disrupted the election certification.
“President Biden is the president of the United States,” Bondi said. “He was duly sworn in, and he is the president of the United States. There was a peaceful transition of power. President Trump left office and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”
She also sowed doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 results, citing her on-the-ground legal work that year for the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania. Trump has falsely claimed there was massive fraud in the state, and dispatched Bondi and other allies like Rudy Giuliani to try to overturn the results there.
“I accept the results. I accept, of course, that Joe Biden is President of the United States,” she said. “But what I can tell you is what I saw firsthand when I went to Pennsylvania as an advocate for the (2020) campaign… I saw many things there. But do I accept the results? Of course I do. Do I agree with what happened? I saw so much.”
Bondi was also questioned about pardons for those convicted of crimes related to January 6, as Trump has suggested he will do in some cases once in office.
Asked whether she believes “violent assaults on police officers should be pardoned,” Bondi said that she would advise the president as her job requires.
“The pardons, of course, fall under the president,” Bondi said. “But if asked to look at those cases, I will look at each case and advise on a case-by-case basis, just as I did my entire career as a prosecutor.”
Several Democrats asked Bondi to respond to comments that Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has made about prosecuting the president-elect’s enemies. Bondi defended Patel’s credentials, while suggesting at several points that senators should pose their questions to him when he testified before the panel.
Still, Bondi was clear when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island pressed her on Patel’s comments about going after the president’s enemies. “There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi said.
Top Democrat says Rubio ‘well qualified’ to serve as secretary of state
Rubio, who has served as a senator for more than a decade, may have received the warmest reception from his colleagues when he appeared on the other side of the dais Wednesday as Trump’s nominee to lead the State Department.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Rubio “has the skills” and is “well-qualified to serve as secretary of state.”
“I believe this committee has a responsibility to get your team out to the field and we hope you will send us qualified, experienced, and well-vetted nominees to consider,” she said, noting the need to confirm career diplomats.
During questions from senators, Rubio voiced his support for NATO – as well as the bipartisan law he co-sponsored, which states that the US cannot withdraw from the alliance without Senate approval or an act of Congress.
“I was a co-sponsor of the law, and so it’s tough to say I’m not in support of a law that I helped to pass and that I think it’s an important role for Congress to play,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In response to questions about Russia’s war against Ukraine, Rubio said it’s “unrealistic to believe” Ukraine can push Russian forces back to where they were before the 2022 invasion and that the official US position should be that the war should end.
Rubio added he and Trump agree about the war needing to come to an end and criticized the Biden administration for not setting a clear “end goal” for the war.
“What Vladimir Putin has done is unacceptable, there’s no doubt about it, but this war has to end, and I think it should be the official policy of the United States that we want to see it end,” Rubio said.
While Rubio was testifying, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was announced, which committee chairman Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho announced to the hearing room.
Rubio credited both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for the agreement. “I dare to say that all involved deserve credit for the ceasefire that the chairman has just announced,” Rubio told senators.
“Before we all celebrate, though, obviously, we’re all going to want to see how that executes,” Risch cautioned.
Ratcliffe pledges an ‘apolitical’ intelligence community
Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe pledged not to politicize his work and the intelligence that’s produced in the Trump administration. He told the committee he would never allow “political or personal biases to cloud our judgement or infect our products.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, urged Ratcliffe to reassure rank-and-file intelligence officials that they “need not fear reprisal for speaking truth to power.”
The Virginia Democrat expressed concerns about the attacks that some Trump loyalists have made against the intelligence community, asking Ratcliffe to commit not to fire or force out CIA employees because of their political views.
“If you are asked to remove personnel, to get rid of individuals based upon this kind of political litmus test, I’d ask that you keep the committee informed of those, those requests,” Warner said to Ratcliffe.
“I certainly will,” Ratcliffe said.
“I think my record in terms of speaking truth to power and defending the intelligence community and its good work is very clear,” Ratcliffe added.
Trump’s energy pick stands by past comments on wildfires
Across the Capitol complex, several additional Trump Cabinet picks testified ahead of the president-elect’s inauguration next week.
During tense questioning on climate change by a California senator, Trump energy pick Chris Wright said he stood by past social media comments that “the hype over wildfires is just hype” to justify climate policies he views as detrimental.
Padilla, whose state is currently battling massive wildfires in Los Angeles, asked Wright if he stood by those comments in light of the current deadly and devastating fires.
“I stand by my past comments,” Wright said.
“Tell that to the families of the more than two-dozen people” who lost their lives, Padilla shot back.
Wright later said the fires were “horrific.”
Wright, a fracking CEO in Colorado, vowed in his testimony to “unleash American energy” – echoing a talking point Trump often repeated on the campaign trail. Wright said the US should increase energy production, including liquified natural gas and commercial nuclear energy.
In another committee room, Trump’s nominee to head up the Office of Management and Budget would not commit Wednesday to releasing billions of remaining dollars approved for Ukraine funding — an early sign of contention between Congress and the incoming administration.
Russell Vought, who also served in the powerful budget role during the first Trump administration, said he wouldn’t presuppose the incoming president’s intentions on the matter.
“I’m not going to get ahead of the president on a foreign policy issue,” he said.
His answer suggested the new administration would make use of the practice known as impoundment, which allows the president to decline to spend money Congress has already appropriated. There is more than $3 billion in approved Ukraine aid remaining that it will fall to Trump to spend when he takes office.
And Trump’s nominee for transportation secretary, former Rep. Sean Duffy, discussed troubles with plane manufacturer Boeing, whether he would support more funding for Amtrak, and transparency on the mysterious drones over New Jersey at his hearing Wednesday.
Testifying before the Commerce Committee, Duffy, a recent Fox Business co-host and former Wisconsin lawmaker, told committee members that a priority for him would be restoring “global confidence in Boeing.”
The plane maker has had a string of incidents in recent years but said it has made strides to change operations and safety-related incidents.
“Boeing is a national security issue,” Duffy told the committee. “Boeing is the largest exporter of American product, incredibly important, as in one of my meetings, someone said, though, ‘they need tough love,’ which is what they do need.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen, Michael Conte, Jennifer Hansler, Kevin Liptak, Ella Nilsen, Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Manu Raju and Alexandra Skores contributed to this report.
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