Senate confirmation hearings have been filling up the week as each of President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees goes before the Senate to see if they can get voted into the Cabinet.
Trump made headlines for picking some controversial figures, but also a couple of surprises as well. Over the course of the week, voters have been seeing some nominees split from some of Trump’s policies.
Rex Tillerson, the former chief of Exxon Mobile, is Trump’s pick to run the State Department and he parted ways with Trump on Russia. Tillerson said he believed Russia “poses a danger.” Trump, who just recently acknowledged Russia’s interference with the election, has said that he believes he and Putin “would get along very well.”
Tillerson also said that he believes that “the risk of climate change does exist and that the consequences of it could be serious enough that action should be taken.” However, he said the ability to predict the effects of greenhouse gases are “very limited.”
Trump has been very skeptical on the topic of climate change. Trump once said that climate change is a “hoax” that the Chinese made up, but he later said that was a joke.
When Tillerson was asked about Trump’s calls for a national registry of Muslims, Tillerson would only say that he needed “to have a lot more information around how such an approach would even be constructed.”
Republican Senator Marco Rubio told the press that he would not say if he was going to vote for Tillerson but that he was “prepared to do what’s right.”
Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s cabinet nominee for Attorney General, faced the Senate last week. In a surprising move, a fellow Senator, Democrat Cory Booker, testified against Sessions making him the first sitting Senator to testify against a fellow senator.
“His record indicates that we cannot count on him to support state and national efforts toward bringing justice to the justice system,” Booker said.
Congressman John Lewis, who visited Sinclair Community College in October, also testified against Sessions saying, “Those who are committed to equal justice in our society wonder whether Sen. Sessions’ calls for law and order will mean today what it meant in Alabama when I was coming up back then.” Lewis marched with Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
Sessions defended himself saying, “I deeply understand the history of civil rights and the horrendous impact that relentless and systematic discrimination and the denial of voting rights has had on our African-American brothers and sisters,” Sessions said. “I have witnessed it. We must continue to move forward and never back. I understand the demands for justice and fairness made by our LGBT community. I will ensure that the statutes protecting their civil rights and their safety are fully enforced. I understand the lifelong scars born by women who are victims of assault and abuse.”
When asked if grabbing a woman by the genitals without her consent is sexual assault, Sessions answered, “Yes.”
Trump’s pick for the leader of the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine General John Kelly split from Trump on several positions, including Trump’s infamous wall.
“A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job. It has to be a layered defense,” Kelly said.
When asked by Senator John McCain about torture and waterboarding, Kelly said that he believed waterboarding should continue be prohibited.
“I don’t think we should ever come close to crossing a line that is beyond what we as Americans would expect to follow in terms of interrogation techniques,” Kelly said.
Trump has been a proponent of using torture as an interrogation technique and has pledged to bring it back.
When asked whether it was lawful to conduct surveillance on mosques or to create a national registry for Muslims, Kelly agreed that it would violate the constitution, which is also a clear break from Trump.
What’s surprising about the hearings is that they took a distinct turn from Trump’s policies as the candidates sat before the Senate.
There has been several other hearings such as one for the CIA Director nominee, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross and Secretary of Housing, Ben Carson.
There will be more Senate hearings in the coming weeks. People will be keeping an eye out to see if even more candidates depart from more of Trump’s promised policies.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor