Kelly earned the respect of the president as the head of his Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as the pair shared a deep respect for the rule of law and order.
.. The president has appeared several times with Kelly to recognize the importance of the armed forces.
After the president received a sword during the United States Coast Guard commencement ceremony this May, Kelly joked, “use that on the press, sir.”
.. Trump’s decision signals that he wants more gravitas and discipline in his chaotic White House, relying on a retired Marine General to take the place of Priebus — who sometimes struggled to earn the respect of the president’s staff.
.. When he asked his wife if he should do the job, she replied, “Well, you know, if we’re nothing the Kelly family is a family of service to the nation.”
Senate Confirmation Hearings to Begin Without All Background Checks
Mr. Sessions is certain to be asked whether he, as attorney general, would make good on Mr. Trump’s pledges to get a special counsel to “jail” Hillary Clinton over her email server.
General Kelly can expect questions about whether he favors Mr. Trump’s call to build a wall on the Mexican border and create a database on Muslims.
Mr. Pompeo is likely to be asked about his views on Mr. Trump’s support for waterboarding and his skepticism about the intelligence agencies’ findings on Russian election meddling.
Mr. Tillerson will probably face a grilling over Mr. Trump’s vow to “cancel” the Paris climate accord.
.. By posing tough questions, said Sarah A. Binder, a political scholar at George Washington University, Democrats will try to lure the nominees into inflicting political damage on themselves by adopting some of Mr. Trump’s more divisive language. She said the terrain was so risky that the nominees might be better served by adopting a stance usually seen only from judicial nominees: “Don’t take a position.”
.. Democrats intend to use all the procedural moves available to slow the process on the Senate floor, possibly spending up to 30 hours per nominee, denying Mr. Trump a full cabinet when he takes office.
Republicans are indignant. “Holding up confirmations just for delay’s sake is irresponsible and it is dangerous,”
California Looks to Lead the Trump Resistance
Mr. Trump has reportedly chosen a retired Marine general, John Kelly, to run the Department of Homeland Security. He seems to fit the Trump pattern of seeing immigrants not as a resource to be tapped, but as a threat to be neutralized, beginning at the border. General Kelly, who led the United States Southern Command, warned Congress last year of the danger of terrorists and “weapons of mass destruction” coming in from Mexico. He admitted he had no evidence, but was clanging the alarm all the same.