Trump's Cabinet nominees face sharpest bipartisan grilling yet & other takeaways from Thursday's confirmation hearing
Washington (CNN)— Three of President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees faced sharp questions in the Senate during hearings Thursday from Democrats as well as several Republican senators in what amounted to the most direct skepticism from GOP senators over Trump’s nominees to date.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to be Health and Human Services secretary, was pressed on his views on vaccines by GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who said he had “reservations” about Kennedy’s past positions on vaccine safety.
And Tulsi Gabbard, who has been tapped to be the director of national intelligence, faced questions from several Republicans about her views on Russian aggression, US government surveillance and NSA leaker Edward Snowden.
Asked multiple times by senators in both parties whether Snowden was a “traitor,” Gabbard said repeatedly that he broke the law – but she would not directly say whether he was a traitor.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/politics/rfk-gabbard-patel-confirmation-hearings-takeaways/index.html