What A Day - Let The Senate Confirmation Hearings Begin

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Around a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are headed to Capitol Hill this week to appear for their Senate confirmation hearings. The big one to watch today is the hearing for Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, military veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who’s facing allegations of excessive drinking, financial mismanagement, and sexual assault. Hegseth’s confirmation hearings could be a litmus test for some of Trump’s other problematic picks. Burgess Everett, Congressional bureau chief for Semafor, talks about what we can expect from the coming confirmation hearings.And in headlines: House Speaker Mike Johnson said federal aid for wildfire recovery in Southern California could be tied to a debt limit increase, the Supreme Court ruled the city of Honolulu can move forward with a major lawsuit to hold oil companies accountable for climate change, and President Joe Biden said negotiators are “on the brink” of a ceasefire agreement to end the war between Israel and Hamas.Show Notes:Check out Burgess's work – semafor.com/author/burgess-everettSupport victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/reliefSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Tuesday, January 14th. I'm Jane Coaston. And this is What a Day. The show that just found out disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo is leaving polls to be the next mayor of New York City, a race he has not actually entered. And this show doesn't like that at all. Nope, not at all. Is there no other New Yorker available?

Is Martin Scorsese that busy? On today's show, President Biden shares his perspective on his administration's foreign policy legacy. And Florida and California lawmakers are gearing up to respond to Trump's deportation orders in very different ways. Let's start with this week's Senate confirmation hearings. Around a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks are headed to Capitol Hill this week to appear before various Senate committees. They'll have to answer questions from lawmakers and show they're qualified for the jobs they've been nominated for before the full Senate votes on whether to confirm them.

Today, hearings begin with Doug Collins, Trump's pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Doug Burgum, who's been nominated to run the Department of the Interior. But the big one that everyone will be watching for is the hearing for Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense, military veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. He's facing allegations of excessive drinking, financial mismanagement, oh and a sexual assault. That's on top of the fact that he seems to lack the management experience needed to run a department with close to three million employees. All of that would normally be enough to sink a nominee, especially for a job as high-ranking as defense secretary.

But Trump don't care. Wyoming's John Barrasso, the number two Republican in the Senate and the majority whip, told CBS's Face the Nation Sunday that Hegseth is the right man for the job. Well, he certainly has the qualities that we need to lead the Pentagon. He knows about a fit fighting force. He is very qualified in my opinion. He has a record, a distinguished record of service in the military. Every senator gets to speak for themselves and they will do that. The meetings have gone very well.

Things are heading in the right direction." But notably, Barrasso didn't say whether Hegseth actually had the votes to be confirmed. He can only lose three, and his hearings could be a litmus test for some of Trump's other problematic picks, like Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Cash Patel for FBI Director. None of them have hearings this week. But we will see hearings for some of Trump's other big name nominees, like Kristi Noem, his pick to head Homeland Security. Also his Attorney General nominee, Pam Bondi, Secretary of State

nominee, Marco Rubio, and John Ratcliffe, who he's tapped to head the CIA. So to preview these confirmation hearings, I spoke with friend of the pod, Burgess Everett. He's the congressional bureau chief for semaphore Burgess welcome back to water day. Hey, thanks, Jane So the big hearing today will be Pete Hicks s he is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee What are some of the questions we can expect lawmakers to ask him? Well, I think you'll get into some substantive ones and then some some more political ones and then some personal ones. I would expect he's probably gonna get asked about, for example, his drinking habits

because there's been a decent amount of reporting on that and the fact that he said he would swear off drinking if he was confirmed to the job. I think he'll get asked about the Ukraine war if we'll continue to support Ukraine in the war against Russia. I think he'll get asked about whether women should be able to serve in combat roles in the military.

I know that's come up in some of his private meetings with senators, but that'll be a lot of those questions will resurface in these public hearings because it's just a new level of scrutiny. And then I think he'll get asked a lot about his relationship with Trump by Democrats. I think it's pretty unlikely he's going to get a lot of Democratic votes, but at the same time, he's going to face probably the toughest question from Democrats, so he'll need to be able to answer all of those. But really, his audience here is the Senate GOP.

In terms of which Republican senators could sink Hegstass nomination, because he can only lose three votes. Who are we looking at? Who are you seeing? Well, so in the committee, I'd be looking at Joni Ernst. She was getting really crushed by conservatives, pro-Trump folks on social media in November, December, because she was noncommittal on his nomination. She's a Republican from Iowa.

She's a veteran herself. She's an important person in this sort of drama. She put out a statement saying that she would support Pete through this process and hasn't really added much to that since then. So a lot of people took that as she's gonna support him, but you know, you don't want to parse people's words too closely. People usually say what they mean to say. So I would be looking to see whether she has that big statement of support coming out of the hearing. If she does, I think he'll probably be confirmed. I think if she's balking and there's a chance that he can't get through committee, this whole thing gets kind of derailed. I think there's a decent likelihood that he does get through

committee. And in that case, you'd be looking at the whole Senate floor. You'd be looking at people like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, maybe somebody like John Curtis, who's a new senator from Utah, who's a bit of a wild card. But I would think at this point, if he were to get through committee, he's likely to get confirmed. It's pretty rare for people to make it to the floor and fail.

Usually they get withdrawn before that floor vote. Later this week, we'll also see hearings for Kristi Noem, enemy of puppies, Trump's pick to head Homeland Security, and Pam Bondi, his pick for Attorney General. Both are very popular with MAGA folks, but they've also held high-level government jobs. Noem is the governor of South Dakota, Bondi used to be Florida's Attorney General.

What can we expect from their hearings? Yeah, I think you're going to hear a lot, especially with Bondi. You're going to get a lot of questions about Fealty to Trump, and that's going to come from Democrats. And the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Dick Durbin, has already put out a statement saying that. It seems like Republicans generally are more comfortable with Pam Bondi than perhaps Pete Hegseth.

I think on the other side on Kristi Noem There's gonna be a lot of talk. I think policy wise about whether Trump needs more border money right away I could see the border the whole debate over whether to do a border bill before a tax bill coming up and how much they Need from that. It seems like She doesn't have problems on the Homeland Security. It seems like the new chairman Rand Paul wants to get her through very quickly. So I don't view her or Pan Bondi as really in danger at all. I think you'll probably see a decent amount of policy questions for Nome and

a decent amount of Trump-related questions for Pan Bondi. Not happening this week are hearings for some of Trump's more controversial picks. Tulsi Gabbard for DNI, RFK Jr. for HHS, and Kash Patel to run the FBI. What's the status of their hearings? Yeah, RFK's got some paperwork. He's just doing, he's kind of behind on the meeting schedule. He was doing more meetings last week. It seems like he's not quite ready for for primetime here in

the Senate. That doesn't mean he won't be confirmed. Tulsi Gabbard, same deal. She put out a statement though that I think reassured a lot of the sort of Intel hawks and you saw someone like James Langford, a Republican from Oklahoma, kind of a strong national security guy come out and support for her. So it feels like she's got a little bit more momentum. And I also think that I'm perhaps surprised as you are that Cash Patel seems to be in a decent shape for confirmation as well. But it is interesting that two of those folks, I'd say Cash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard are national security related, and they're not going to be ready to go right away. And there's been a lot of focus on getting Trump his nomineesard are national security related and they're not gonna be ready to go right away.

And there's been a lot of focus on getting Trump his nominees for these national security positions early on. It's pretty hard for me to imagine, for example, Democrats allowing Pete Hegseth to be confirmed on inauguration day next week. So it's possible that Marco Rubio is the lone high profile national security nominee that Trump has in his cabinet on day one.

Yeah, I've been very struck by how Tulsi Gabbard has decided that she's okay with warrantless wiretapping right now after saying that she wasn't okay with it for reasons. So as we've talked about, Democrats don't have the votes to block any of Trump's nominees. So what will their strategy be during these confirmation hearings? How will they look to be annoying and uncomfortable and make things uncomfortable for Republicans? Yeah, I think any way that they can get these nominees to break with Trump, either by reading him statements that he's made in the past or policy ideas that he's proposed that are perhaps unrealistic.

I could see Kristi Noem being asked about the deportation agenda for President Trump and perhaps having a level with folks about what's doable and what's not. Now, a question that I have for myself, and I'm guessing your viewers have as well, is whether you see Democrats kind of coming out of this with political momentum to be run against Republicans in 2028. I think the initial Trump term saw these confirmation hearings kind of give rise to people like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. These confirmation hearings and then

subsequent hearings that they got to participate in definitely kind of launched these folks nationally. And so I do have a question of whether Democrats will use these hearings as an opportunity to kind of launch their political aspirations nationally or whether they're going to focus more on the nuts and bolts of policy and kind of tying the Republican agenda to Trump and trying to start making the Republican agenda unpopular. It's interesting because these hearings are going to be, to me, a big test of Trump's ability to get senators to do what he wants. Because something that people keep kind of forgetting is that he's a lame duck president. He can't run again. No matter what anybody says, he can't. And we

already saw Republicans sink his original pick to head the Justice Department, former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who is now busy doing conservative media on a network that I can't get at my house. But is there any reason to believe Republicans would buck Trump on more nominees? You know, a Tulsi Gabbard or an RFK Jr. You just made a good statement about Tulsi Gabbard, which is that she has basically completely changed her position on Section 702, which is kind of the sweeping up of wiretapping of Americans when there's a foreign target. RFK has been totally softening the sharp edges on his vaccine views in these

meetings with Republican senators. So you can see how they gradually over time start to win Republican votes by sort of saying the right things. And at core, they say if they can make the case that they're not going to implement their own agenda, they're just going to implement Trump's agenda. That can work for a lot of people. Now there's a personal baggage asterisk this. I mean, there are definite stumbles that could be made that could be fatal to a nomination. Doesn't happen that often, but it can happen. It usually

happens at lower level nominations. But the fact that none of these folks have been withdrawn and have gotten up to this point suggests that the Trump administration thinks that they will have the votes and that there's a good chance that they will have the votes. And a bunch of them like Marco Rubio, like Scott Besson, they're going to get through like their slam ducks. Burgess, as always, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks so much, Shane. That was my conversation with Burgess Everett, Congressional Bureau Chief for Semaphore. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe,

leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What A Day is brought to you by Zebiotics Pre-Alcohol. Let's face it, after a night of cocktails or some drinks during a football game, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a decision. I can either have an amazing night or a great next day. That is until I found pre-alcohol. Zebiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by a PhD scientist to tackle rough mornings after drinking.

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they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to go to zbiadix.com slash wad and use the code wad at checkout for 15% off. Here are some other stories we're following today. Headlines. I think there should probably be conditions on that date. That's my personal view. We'll see what the consensus is.

On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said federal aid for wildfire recovery in Southern California could be tied to a debt limit increase. And he's also playing the blame game. He told Reporters Monday that there needs to be a serious conversation because of, quote, all sorts of problems, including water resource mismanagement and forest management mistakes. It does come down to leadership. And it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects. That's something that needs to be factored in. Factored in, I assume, for blue states, not for red states. On Saturday's episode of Pod Save America, California Governor Gavin Newsom dispelled

what he called, quote, misinformation about the state's wildfire response. Just in the last few years, I've been governor, we've close to doubled the investments in Cal Fire, the state firefighting force, close to double the number of personnel. We've increased the size of our aerial fleet by 16 new helicopters. Newsom also said they put out a forest management plan with 99 specific actions to address vegetation management and forest management. He said, quote, we've tried to move heaven and earth. Yet some California Republicans are accepting the possibility that Congress could tie the

release of disaster relief to raising the debt ceiling. Representative Doug LaMulpha said Monday they may have no choice given the potential urgency around addressing the LA fires. More strong winds are expected in Los Angeles as the National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday. Twenty-four people have been killed by the fire so far, and thousands of structures have been destroyed. The death toll is expected to rise.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the city of Honolulu can move forward with a major lawsuit that seeks to hold oil companies accountable for climate change. This case was first filed in state court in 2020. It accuses energy companies like Shell and ExxonMobil of failing to warn the public about how their products can worsen the effects of climate change. Major players in the fossil fuel industry have waged a vicious campaign on the Honolulu lawsuit because, surprise surprise, big oil executives don't want to get sued for billions of dollars.

The oil companies asked the Supreme Court to weigh in, arguing that the case should be thrown out because greenhouse gas emissions are a federal issue, not a state one. But the justices rejected the request on Monday and kicked the case back to state court. My administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play. President Biden gave his final foreign policy address on Monday to look back on his record on international affairs. And he said that his administration did a pretty good job overall. An America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others

together behind our plans and visions. And America, which is no longer war. But Biden is leaving the White House with a number of unresolved conflicts abroad, namely between Israel and Hamas. Biden said in his address that negotiators are on the brink of a ceasefire agreement that would end Israel's war on Gaza, a war that has left more than 46,000 Palestinians dead. Palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own futures. Israel deserves peace and real security.

And the hostage and their families deserve to be reunited. The most recent deal on the table guarantees the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Officials from both sides have indicated they're making good progress in hammering out the final details. But we've been here before. So close to a deal only for negotiations to fall apart in the 11th hour. Talks are scheduled to continue in Qatar today.

The immigration battle continues as California works to defend itself from Trump's promise of the largest mass deportation in American history, and Florida works to welcome it. On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a special session to prepare lawmakers for executive orders in connection with border security, deportation, and other policies. DeSantis said that in order to help enforce Trump's immigration laws, Florida will, quote, DeSantis also said he's prepared to suspend the elected officials from office if they neglect their duties under the new mandates. The session is set for January 27th.

On the West Coast, Democrats are continuing the Trump-proof California by authorizing $50 million in state funding to protect its residents. The legislation is the result of a special session that began last month. State Senate Budget Committee Chair Scott Weiner said Monday half the proposed budget will go towards legal services for people at risk of deportation. It would also fund grants for legal nonprofits and immigration centers. The other $25 million will go to the California Department of Justice. And that's the news.

One more thing. I've been watching a controversy brewing in conservative world. See, a few days ago, the podcaster and Russian money recipient, Benny Johnson, hosted Andrew Tate on his podcast. They were joined by Alina Habba, who represented Trump in court and will now be working in the White House as counselor to the president. And Alina was very, very excited to meet Andrew Tate. I agree with everything you say. And I have your back out here in the states. And when I saw that you were going to be on, I said to Benny, I have to meet Andrew Tate. Who is Andrew Tate? This is Andrew Tate, a former professional kickboxer and

current misogynist internet influencer and alleged human trafficker. Just an FYI, you're about to hear some really gross and crass language. Anyone who's followed me long enough knows that I first made my million dollars with a webcam business. I have met beautiful women with a good personality and all. She will make me money. He is currently under criminal investigation in Romania for human trafficking and in the United Kingdom for sexual assault.

In video after video after video. Because if Andrew Tate loves anything besides himself, he loves posting about himself, he talks about how he loves to abuse women, sexually assault women, and generally treat women like his property. He's been filmed viciously beating a minor with a belt. In fact, in one video, he says he moved to Romania because he believes that the Eastern European country goes easier on rapists. Which is great for him, a person who again, really, really, really likes to hurt women. She was a f***ing hoe and I spotted it instantly because she didn't humble herself when she was supposed to.

And I'm glad I didn't waste any more time on her because she's never going to be doing like my other girls do, living in my house, letting me f*** other women, remaining loyal, and f***ing bringing me coffees and doing as I say. That's what you're looking for, gentlemen. Now, Tate is saying he wants to run for prime minister of the United Kingdom, a thing he cannot actually just go do. See, in the United Kingdom, you have to run for parliament and head the main political party in order to maybe become prime minister. But Tate has decided he doesn't care about facts and rules,

and he's just going to start his own political party, the BRUV Party, which stands for Britain Restoring Underlying Values. and rules and he's just going to start his own political party, the BRUV party, which stands for Britain Restoring Underlying Values. Among his policies would be encouraging respect, responsibility, and traditional family values. You know, those things he doesn't care about at all. And Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and another guy who doesn't really care about respect or responsibility, endorsed him, saying on Twitter that, quote, his involvement will transform British politics. As you can imagine, Habba's excitement about getting to talk to Andrew

Tate was not matched by a lot of people on right wing internet. Here's right wing commentator Ben Shapiro. Even if you just believe the stuff he said about himself, what he says is evil. He made his money off of cam girls, which is to say pornography. He is a pornographer. He is a self-professed pimp and pornographer. He made his money grooming women. But when conservatives pointed out that Andrew Tate is again, a self-professed

sex trafficker and pornographer, they got pushed back from other folks on the right because as Russell Brand said on Twitter, he's popular, so people should listen to him, I guess? The fact is he appeals to a lot of people and he represents some things a lot of people are very interested in. Hey, would it surprise you to know that Brandt has been accused of sexual assault, including sexual assault of a minor? Just a fact I thought you should know. Now, why am I talking about

this? First, because Andrew Tate is a predator and an extremely famous one in the UK. So much so that teachers have been ringing the alarm about hearing kids. Kids quoting him. But secondly, I'm talking about this because he ties into a story about American conservatism I've been seeing for more than a decade. The total lack of guardrails. Basically, on the American right, you can do literally anything you want. As long as you say you're doing it to fight wokeness or make it clear that you love Donald Trump. Trump attorney Alina Habba is not the first Trump world person to get excited about talking to an alleged human trafficker. Right-wing podcaster Candace Owens and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson both did softball interviews with Tate over the last few years,

emphasizing how very cool and good he is. And according to Tate himself, he's friendly with the Trump family. So yeah, Andrew Tate is a problem. But he's also a symptom of a bigger problem. A total collapse of standards on the right. Because it turns out you can traffic women, be videotaped hitting them, describe women as bitches and horrors, and discuss in detail how you like to have sex with as many of them as possible to make them make you money.

And if you have the right politics, or say you do, you're a hero. Before we go, the era of disinformation is upon us. Meta just announced they're moving to end their fact-checking program. On this week's episode of Offline, Lena Kahn, Commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission, joins us to talk about her fight to break up Amazon and Meta. Tune into this episode now on the Offline feed or on our YouTube channel. That's all for today. If you liked the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, take some time to remember

that no matter how tough things are right now, you're not Matt Gaetz. And tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about how Matt Gaetz now hosts a television show on a network that I can't even get at my apartment, which seems like a big ol' fall from grace like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Coaston, and sometimes terrible people don't win. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Four. Our producer is Michelle Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrian Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilyard and Kshaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.