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,”
Trump’s CIA pick is seen as both a fierce partisan and serious student of national security issues
In closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill, Pompeo has been an intense critic of a covert CIA program to train and arm moderate rebel forces in Syria, according to U.S. officials who said that dismantling the program — or at least subjecting it to a major re-evaluation — would likely be at the top of his agenda if he is confirmed.
.. Pompeo is not widely known among the CIA rank and file but that his nomination was greeted at least initially as a reassuring development at a spy agency that has been treated largely with disdain by Trump.
.. Pompeo’s ties to the arch-conservative tea party movement and scant background on intelligence issues were also cited as a cause for concern among some CIA veterans.
“The tea party owns the drones now,”
.. He attended a dinner this week with CIA Director John Brennan at the home of former Republican congressman Mike Rogers, who had previously been seen as a leading candidate for the CIA job under Trump. The gathering included cast and producers of the CIA-themed show “Homeland,” according to a person familiar with the event.
.. Pompeo reportedly has close ties to the Koch family, Kansas billionaires ..
.. Articles in Kansas papers indicate that Pompeo built much of his wealth with investment funds from Koch industries and that his campaigns for Congress have been backed by Koch money.
.. In just five years in Congress, he has built a political following by staking extreme positions in polarizing debates
.. Pompeo was one of the more outspoken Republican members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, saying that the Obama administration was guilty of a scandal “worse than Watergate.”
..
During hearings, his questions to administration witnesses were often among the most accusatory. In October 2015, when Clinton testified for the second time, Pompeo grilled her on her relationship with slain U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. He asked a series of rapid-fire questions about why Stevens did not have her personal telephone number, did not know her personal home address and had never “stopped by your house.”
.. Separately, in remarks that drew sharp criticism from U.S. Muslim organizations, Pompeo said that Muslim leaders who fail to denounce acts of terrorism done in the name of Islam were “potentially complicit” in the attacks.
.. Pompeo cautioned against equating all Muslims with terrorism, saying that a “line needs to be drawn between those who are on the side of extremism and those who are fighting against them.”
President Trump’s Cabinet picks are likely to be easily confirmed. That’s because of Senate Democrats.
because exactly three years ago, the Democratic Senate majority — led by Harry Reid (Nev.) — rammed through controversial rules fundamentally changing the way the Senate does business. They unleashed in November 2013 what’s called the “nuclear option” allowing senators to approve by a simple majority all presidential appointments to the executive branch and the judiciary, with a big exception for Supreme Court justices.
.. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had harsh words for his colleague.
“Senator Sessions and I have had significant disagreements over the years, particularly on civil rights, voting rights, immigration and criminal justice issues. But unlike Republicans’ practice of unprecedented obstruction of President Obama’s nominees, I believe nominees deserve a full and fair process before the Senate,” Leahy said
.. “Congressman Mike Pompeo, a leading cheerleader of the Benghazi witch hunt, is now being asked to fill one of the most serious and sober national security positions there is,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement Friday.