This Sunday, background checks. President elect Donald Trump's cabinets are facing intense scrutiny after his first choice for Attorney general, Matt Gates, withdraws his nomination against serious allegations of sexual misconduct. I was surprised by how abruptly it happened. He was controversial.
He understood that. Apparently he was aware of reality. Will Mr. Trump's other controversial picks face more opposition from Senate Republicans?
Plus, the agenda. Donald Trump is planning to roll out a series of executive orders within hours of taking office for his second administration. He will immediately sign executive orders sealing the border shut, beginning the largest deportation operation in American history. What are Mr.
Trump's top priorities and missile threat as the war in Ukraine passes the 1,000 day mark, tensions are rising in the region after the Biden administration lifts restrictions on long range weapons and Vladimir Putin fires back using a new hypersonic ballistic missile. My guest this morning, Democratic Senator elect Adam Schiff of California and Republican Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri. Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly o', Donnell, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Anna Palmer, co founder of Punchbowl News, and Stephen Hayes, editor of the Dispatch. Welcome to Sunday it's Meet the Press from NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history.
This is Meet the Press with Kristen Welken. Good Sunday morning. President elect Donald Trump has finished rolling out a pre holiday flurry of cabinet picks, remaking the Justice Department, Pentagon and the intelligence community with loyalists. On Tuesday as a growing number of Republican senators demanded the release of a House ethics report into allegations former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz paid women for sex, including a 17 year old.
In 2017, the President elect denied he was reconsidering Gates. Mr. President, are you reconsidering the nomination of Matt Gaetz? But just two days later, Gates withdrew from consideration, though he continues to deny wrongdoing.
I was dealing with a politically motivated body. They had an act of crime. So that was going to serve as at least enough of a basis to delay my confirmation as Attorney general. Was this decision a surprise to you?
No, I was surprised. The tiny of it. I figured it would go a little longer than this. But ultimately I think you can see the right now, hours after Gates dropped out, President elect Trump named former two term Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who served on Mr.
Trump's defense team during his first impeachment trial. Instead, after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 election, Bondi amplified his false claims of election fraud. As Eric Trump said, we are thrilled to have won Pennsylvania.
We have won Pennsylvania and they're not going to take it away from us now Bondi has been a vocal critic of the criminal cases against Mr. Trump, as well as Special Counsel Jack Smith, who charged him in two federal cases, the Department of Justice. The prosecutors will be prosecuted. The bad ones, the investigators will be investigated.
Because the deep state last term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows, but now they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated. And the House needs to be cleaned out because now we know who most of them are. According to the Washington Post, President elect Trump plans to fire the team that works with the special counsel. The press secretary for Mr.
Trump's transition team responding, quote, president Trump campaigned on firing rogue bureaucrats who have engaged in the illegal weaponization of our American justice system. And the American people can expect he will deliver on that promise. A key question now that Gates has dropped out, will other Trump picks face more intense scrutiny, including his pick to le the Pentagon, Pete Hegsen, who faces questions about sexual assault allegations, which he denies. And former Democrat Congressman Tulsi Gabbard, who made two secret visits to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in 2017.
She has also amplified Kremlin talking points, blaming the US for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ambassador Nikki Hin weighing in. This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer. DNI has to analyze real threats.
Are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies? Now, NBC News has learned that within hours of taking office, President elect Trump plans to roll out a series of executive actions aligned with his campaign promises, including setting in motion the large scale deportation of people living in the country illegally. Those people say they're going to stop us doing what they're doing. They will not.
We'll have no problem finding a place to detain these people. It's gonna cost money, so we gotta have the money to do it. But President Trump's from everything makes me have the funds to do this. Mr.
Trump and his allies disavowed the conservative policy blueprint project 2025 during the campaign. I don't know what the hell it is. It's Project 25. He's involved in Project.
And then they read some of the things that they are extreme. I mean, they're seriously extreme. I have no idea what Project 2025 is. I never read it and I never will.
But with the campaign over, Trump's transition team is turning to Project 2025 to help staff the next administration, picking its co author Russell Vogt to lead the Office of Management and Budget, as he did in Mr. Trump's first term. Top Trump aides are praising the pick. Russ Vogt has been the guy for the last four years who's been developing the plan to take down the deep state.
That's Russ. And he's going to be right there at OMB to execute that plan. And joining me now is Republican Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri. Senator Schmidt, welcome to MEET the press.
It's great to be with you. Just two and a half weeks after President Trump completed the greatest political comeback in American history, winning all the battleground states, popular vote, getting a mandate for American people to shake things up in Washington. Look forward to helping him do that with our new majority in the Senate, with our friends in the House. Well, it's great to have you here and to have your perspective.
Let's start right there. And this decision by former Congressman Matt Gates to withdraw his name from consideration for attorney general, it comes as NBC News has learned that five Republican senators were planning to vote against Gates. Do you believe it was a mistake by President Elect Trump to pick Gates in the first place? Senator Well, I think Matt Gates made a decision and I respect that decision.
And we're moving on now to the nominee that he's chosen, Pam Body, who I know very well. We come from state attorney general world. Pam has taken on the tough fights. She took on drug trafficking, she took on human trafficking.
She's a tough career prosecutor. She's smart, she's tough. It's a great pick. And the Justice Department is right for reform.
So I think President Trump is picking reformers for these kind of positions. He campaigned on that and he's delivering that promise. We are going to delve into that in just a moment. But just to stay on this issue of Matt Gates for a moment, given the severity of allegations he was facing, allegations, sexual misconduct, including that he had sex with a minority party in 2017, which he denies.
But do you think that he should have been picked in the first place? I think President Trump deserves the ability, with the mandate they got for the American people to put people in positions who are going to do reform. There's some, some things we can do in Congress, oversight and legislation. But you really need reformers at the head of these different agencies.
And I think you're seeing that as a common thing. I'm sure we'll talk about more of them. But there really is a lot of reform that needs to happen in the administrative state. And he's talked about it a lot on the campaign trail.
Like I said, he's delivering on that. Let's Talk about Pam Bondi, who we were just talking about, the former Florida Attorney General. Bondi has vowed to, quote, investigate the investigators, to prosecute the prosecutors. A different tone than you have struck, Senator.
You said that the DOJ should be, quote, going back to fighting crime and not settling political scores. How do you square those two different views? Well, I will tell you that Pambondi has a track record. She's a very serious person.
And I think she's seen the weaponization. Everybody's seen this weaponization of the Justice Department over the last four years. It really is a tragedy for once respected agency that has gone after Catholics. It's gone after parents who showed up to school board meetings under the auspices of the Patriot Act.
If this is the United States of America, then clearly weaponized that department. Joe Biden did in Merrick Garland to go after their chief political opponent. And I'll tell you, Kristen, if the arc of that story is really terrifying, if you care about the Republic after the midterms, Joe Biden said that there's no way President Trump will ever be back in the White House. After that speech, the zombie cases were resurrected.
The number three person from DOJ went to New York and he had the Alvin Brad case. The number two prosecutor in Atlanta went to the White House and coordinated. You saw all these cases resurrected. They all fell apart under the weight of the law.
And so I do think there needs to be accountability. I think that getting it back to crime fighting is important, but there has be accountability for these kinds of abuses. Okay, what specifically does accountability look like? Senator, are you suggesting you want to see Special Counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland prosecuted?
Is that what you are implying? Well, no, I think accountability means, first and foremost, the people involved in this should be fired immediately. And anybody part of this, this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn't like his politics and to continue to cast him as a, quote, unquote threat to democracy was wrong. And so we'll see where that goes.
But I just don't think in this country, unless you want to be the main republic, I don't want to see that happen. You can't have the Justice Department abused in this way. Pam Bondi is a smart, capable, tough person who I think is going to restore respect in that department. So she has your vote, Senator?
Oh, absolutely. I intend to help Pam Bondi get the votes. I know her well. She's a friend.
I've come to respect Pam Bondi she was a great attorney general in Florida. This is a home run by President Trump. All right, well, let's talk about another potential nominee. More details about the sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegset, Mr.
Trump's pick for defense secretary. The police report filed at the time says, and I'm going to read this for you, quote, jane Doe stated she got up and tried to leave the room, but Hegseth locked the door with his body. Jane Doe remembered saying, no a lot. Hegseth was not charged in this case.
He denies any wrongdoing. Etc. You have a long history of fighting for sexual assault victims as Missouri's attorney general. Does this incident raise concerns about his confirmation for you?
Well, I think that's why we have the confirmation process. Senator. Certainly are gonna ask questions about this shit, and he has a right to answer. What he said so far is that he did no wrong.
They're baseless. And it's important to know the prosecutor didn't bring any charges. Be interesting to see if there's any other memorandum from that prosecutor that would go along with that prosecutor's decision not to charge Pete Hexeth. But I think ultimately, this is a decision that President Trump made to bring in another disruptor.
And I think if you look at this election, it was disruptive versus establishment. He ran on this. And there needs. There needs to be a reform in the Pentagon, whether it's procurement, whether it's getting rid of divisive DEI that's dividing our military by race.
There's no place in our military. I think he's talked about eliminating that, and then also making sure our focus is on our chief adversary, China. Let me ask you, I guess, big picture, Senator, you're on the Armed Services Committee, and there's a known sexual assault problem in the military. Do you believe that Pete Hegseth is the right person to lead the military, given all of that?
At this very moment? He's not charged with anything. Of course. I think that's important.
And so you read from a police report. I've not seen the police report. Again, I'd like to see. There's probably more documentation around.
This would be interesting to see. Well, of course I'm gonna have questions, but that police report and no charges being brought, I think, again, answers itself. If there was, you know, something to be done here, I'm sure the prosecutor would pursue it. She didn't, which speaks to that issue, I think.
But ultimately, the Pentagon needs reform, and I think Pete Hexseth is a guy that President Trump trusts to go do that kind of reform, eliminating DEI being more innovative on Pentagon. There's a lot of red tape that failed another audit. And I think also having somebody who served on the front lines, who has the soldier's point of view on this would be really, really important. Let's talk about the pick of Tulsi Gabbard for dni.
Here is what the former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley had to say about Tulsi Gabbard. Take a look. This is not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer. DNI has to analyze real threats.
Are we comfortable with someone like that at the top of our national intelligence agencies? So, Senator, what say you? Are you comfortable? Will you vote for Tulsi Gabbard?
I think it's really interesting that anybody that has a different political view now is being cast as a Russian asset. It's totally ridiculous. Tulsi Gabbard has served in our military. She served as a congresswoman from Hawaii, as a Democrat, I might add, part of this unique coalition that President Trump has put together in one and got that mandate.
But. But I think it's insulting. It's a slur, quite frankly. You know, there's no evidence that she's a asset of another country.
She served this country honorably. And by the way, she cares deeply about our Constitution and civil liberties and making sure people aren't being targeted by these intelligence agencies. So, again, I think this is a reform. Who can come in, who maybe is not part of the same Washington cocktail party circuit that people in the intel community are used to, but maybe that's exactly what we need right now.
President Trump listened to the American people when they screamed about these issues they want to hear. They feel like Washington's broken. And I think bringing somebody in like Tulsi Garbard is welcome news. So you're a yes on Tulsi Gabbard?
Senator, just to be clear, I'm a yes on Pambondi. I'm a yes on Pete Pegseth. I'm a yes on Tulsi Gabbard. Absolutely.
Okay, well, there you have it. Let me zoom out a little bit. The Trump transition team has so far bypassed traditional background checks for his Cabinet picks. Are you confident that all of Mr.
Trump's picks will be fully and properly vetted before this confirmation process? I am. And I think that's an important role of the United States Senate. Right.
It's a uniquely American institution for a bunch of reasons. We have the role of advice and consent. And as we Go through, whether it's on services or judiciary, any of the committees that are vetting these. These candidates for these positions.
Absolutely. It's gonna be thorough. It should be. We should ask tough questions.
That's part of the process. So I have full confidence that's exactly what we're having. Forward. All right, let's do a little bit of foreign policy now.
We've seen the war in Ukraine obviously escalate this week. I wonder, do you support the US Staying in NATO and recommitting itself to the idea that an attack against one is an attack against all? You don't think anybody's talking about, not even me talking about exiting NATO. But I do think what President Trump has brought to the table in his first four years, and I think he will bring, is that it's time for European allies to step up.
I think American taxpayers are tired of footing the bill all the time. For the wars in Europe, you know, specifically as it relates to Ukraine, I think they need to step up. There's been no definition of what victory looks like. There's been no definition, you know, sort of accountability people have afforded, efforts to have, you know, independent audits of how the money is being spent.
I think our European allies need to step up. We're not exiting from NATO, but I do think President Trump has an opportunity to usher in a new era of American realism. Whereas far as this country is concerned, our core national interest defined by what America's needs are, protecting the homeland, pivoting to China, and making sure European allies play a meaningful role in the defense of that continent. Well, Senator, let me ask you this.
Would you object. Would you push back if President elect Trump were to say they wanted to pull out of NATO? Do you think it's essential the US Stays in? He's not talked about that at all.
What he has talked about is actually them spending more money on their defense. And they started to do that after a lot of whining. Initially, they started to do that. And I don't think they've.
They've met where they should go. I think that threshold should be higher than what it is right now. Again, the American taxpayers deserve a president who understands that they might be tired of subsidizing the social welfare programs in Europe. And that message is going to be delivered.
It's being delivered here today. It's been delivered four years ago to President Trump. Again, these are very important relationships for us in Europe, but I do think it's time for European allies to step up more financially and for their own Defense. All right, Senator Schmidt, your first time being on the program.
We really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much. Anytime. When we come back, Democratic Senator elect Adam Schiff joins me next.
Welcome back. And joining me now is Democratic Senator elect Adam Schiff of California. Senator Elect Schiff, welcome back to the press. Congratulations.
Thank you for. Yeah, great to have you here. Let's start off by talking about Matt Gates. You just heard me talking with Senator Schmidt about this.
He's obviously no longer in contention to be Attorney General, but there's still this report swirling around him. The House investigation. The House Ethics Committee has launched this investigation. Details of it started to leak out this week to some members on Capitol Hill.
But do you think that report should be made public? I do think it should be made public. I don't think that when someone decides to avoid the public accountability, they simply leave Congress and make it all go away. The taxpayers paid for that analysis and that report.
I think they have a right to see it. Do you think it will be made public? Do you have any indication? I don't know.
It seems like on a party line basis, Republicans are saying no, the public has the right to see this. And what's more, we don't want the public to see this. But it underscores to me why the president's lack of background checks for his nominees is flawed. He may have still decided to nominate Matt Gaetz, but if they did a thorough veting, he may have decided not to.
That vetting process, having the FBI review potential nominees is not only to protect the public interest, it's to protect the President elect's interest to make sure that he's not embarrassed by nominating someone like Matt Gaetz. So I think it shows a flaw in the process that he even got nominated. And, you know, perhaps with respect to Hagg's death as well, had a thorough investigation been done, it might have influenced the President elect's decision to nominate him in the first place. Let me ask you big pictures, obviously, President Elect Trump has now said he wants to pick Pam Bondi to serve as his Attorney General.
He has swept the battleground states. He won the popular vote. Republicans have control of the House and of the Senate. Do you think that the President elect should have his picks confirmed?
Well, I think the president has a right to nominate anyone who's qualified, who has good judgment and good character. It doesn't mean he's guaranteed dissent approval of whoever he nominates. And some of these nominees are deeply problematic. I'll be interested in the confirmation process.
Will Pam Bondi continue to tell the big lie, even under oath. Is she going to continue to say that the Justice Department should be prosecuting prosecutors who brought valid evidence before grand jury? Grand jury found probable cause to believe Donald Trump committed crimes. That's not a basis to go after them.
So she's going to have to answer tough questions. Tulsi Gabbard concerns me a great deal that someone who has echoed Gremlin talking points, someone who has appeared to make common cause with someone like Bashar Al Assad, who gasses his own people, someone who has no experience whatsoever, not even on the Intelligence Committee in the Congress, should be running those agencies. So they're going to have to have questions to answer. Senator electcheff, is there anyone on this list who, at this very moment you think you could vote yes on?
You could say, well, for example, I think Marco Rubio is enormously well qualified for the job for which he's been on it. I still want to ask questions. I'm not going to completely prejudge you on him, but he's unquestionably qualified. And there are others as well, but some really stand out for the risk they would present to the American people.
So right now, Senator Rubio would have your vote as a yes? Well, I'm strongly inclined that way. I don't want to prejudge completely because you never can tell what comes out in the vetting process, but he's unquestionably qualified. Let's talk about your former colleague who you just mentioned, Tulsi Garden.
She's been picked as Director of National Intelligence. Just last week, Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Gabbard was, quote, likely a Russian asset. Do you share those concerns, or is that overstated? Well, I wouldn't describe her that way, but I would say this.
She has certainly echoed talking points with the Kremlin. She appeared to have taken Putin's side when he invaded Ukraine. And you know, her fondness for Bashar al Assad, someone who was gassing his own people, calls her judgment deeply into question. So here you have someone with very questionable judgment and no experience.
That's not a great recipe for running agencies. And the problem is, if our foreign allies don't trust the head of our intelligence agencies, they'll stop sharing information with us. And that makes our country less safe. So I have profound concerns about her.
Well, speaking of foreign allies and adversaries, I want to play something that President Elect Trump said about you when he was a candidate. He called you, quote, more dangerous than foreign adversaries. Take a listen and get your reaction on the other side. The enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries, because if you have a smart president, he can handle them pretty easily.
I get along great with oil. I handle them. But the thing that's tougher to handle, these lunatics that we have inside, like Adam Schiff. Adam Schiff, Senator Elect, when you hear that language, how concerned are you that you will be targeted by President Electron in his administration?
Well, that's, that's dictator talk. That's how autocrats talk. They want to make their political opposition an enemy. Describe him in those terms.
But look, I'm not concerned about myself. I'm gonna do my job. I'm not gonna have his threats intimidate me from doing so. But anytime you have someone, particularly someone who's gonna become President of the United States, fawning over dictators, emulating their language, attacking the press, undermining institutions, yeah, we should be concerned about it because at the end of the day, it means that the American people will suffer.
The American people, I think, voted on the basis of the economy. They want to change the economy. They weren't voting for dictatorship. So I think he is going to misread his mandate if that's what he thinks voters are chosen for.
Let me ask you, because there is an effort underway to dismiss both the federal and the state cases that President Elect Trump is facing. Do you believe that that is appropriate again, now that he has won office, now that he is going to be in the White House again? The Supreme Court has obviously said that he has immunity for all official acts, but once he's in office, do you think these cases should be dismissed? I don't.
I think the sentencing and for proceedings in New York case should be deferred until after he leaves office. And likewise, I think for the proceedings in the two federal cases should be deferred until he leaves office, but they should not be dismissed. A jury of Donald Trump's peers found him guilty. He's no less guilty because he won an election.
There were two grand juries who found probable cause to believe Donald Trump committed federal crimes. Those cases shouldn't go out of go away simply because he was elected. The presidency is not a get out of jail free card. Instead, they should be postponed for further proceedings until after he leaves office.
All right, I want to turn now to the Results of the 2024 Election and Talk a little bit about what you think may have gone wrong. You joined this program a month before the election and you talked about Vice President Harris's chances of winning. Take a look at this. By the standards of today, I think she can win overwhelmingly.
You know, given how divided the country is, overwhelming. Maybe winning by 100,000 votes or 80,000 votes in these key battleground states, I think that's within her capacity to do so. I think we are well poised to win this thing, but it is still scary close. Why do you think that Kamala Harris didn't win and win overwhelmingly?
I think Joe Biden's decision to step aside and pass the torch was the right decision. It gave us a chance to win. It didn't give us a guarantee. And I thought she could win and I thought she could win in all the battleground states.
But ultimately, what we saw both in this country around the world, was a very strong anti incumbent wave that took out both progressives and conservatives. And our party became associated with the status quo. And that was too much to overcome. I think the principal issue is the economy.
And over years and even decades, it's gotten more and more difficult for people working full time to make a living. And until we resolve that challenge, the economy, we may find the presidency is easier to get than it is to keep. You know, you talk about President Biden's role in all of this. Speaker Emerita Pelosi said that he actually should have stepped aside sooner, that that could have made a significant difference in the outcome of this election.
Do you agree with the Speaker Emerita? Well, she has far better political instincts than I do. You know, I think it's difficult because had we gone to a competitive primary, for example, what would the results of the primary been? How ugly and divisive and chaotic would have been, very hard to tell in advance.
But I do think the Democratic Party has to recognize the challenge we have, which is for too many millions of battleground voters, working people, they don't think we represent them. And we have to make that case anew. But Senator elect, do you believe that President Biden bears some responsibility for staying in too long? Look, I think the entire Democratic Party bears responsibility, myself included.
And the former president and the not today ineffective campaign, you have to give him credit for that. But the challenge that we have is we need to put forward a bold vision for how we're going to move the economy forward, make the economy work for every American. To me, the existential question is, if you're working hard in America, can you still earn a good living? And too many people doubt that that's possible.
Before I let you go. I do want to ask you about what happened on Capitol Hill this week. Congressman Nancy Mace introduced legislation to restrict transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. Mace said the move was in response to Congressman elect Sarah McBride, who's of course set to become the first openly transgender member of Congress.
McBride has called this an effort to just distract from the real issues. But Johnson has actually been supportive of Nancy Mace. Where do you come down? How do you see this?
I think it is a distraction. We have bigger challenges ahead of us, including most immediate, which is we don't want the government to shut down. We don't want to default on our debt. We should be focused on those problems.
All right, Senator like Adam Schiff, thank you so much for being here in person. Really appreciate it. Good to see you. And when we come back, President Elect Trump experienced his first setback this week as he moves quickly to pick his cabinet.
Will Mr. Trump's other picks face more opposition? We'll delve into that. The panel's next let's kickstart your wellness journey with the app workouts, meal plans.
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NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly o', Donnell, former Secretary of Homeland Security Jay Johnson, Anna Palmer, founder of Punchbowl News and Stephen Hayes, editor of the Dispatch. Thank you all so much for being here. Kelly o', Donnell, let me start with you. Huge week in terms of President Elect Trump's picks.
And the big news, of course, that Matt Gaetz withdrew his name for consideration to be attorney general because you had five Republican senators saying they were going to vote no. Do you think this is a One off. In other words, do you think it's a sign of opposition potentially for Senate Republicans, or is this just something that happened with Matt Gates? Well, I think what the president elect did, and he may not have intended it, is he created a stress test on the system of the constitutional power of advice and consent.
And by doing that, the shock and the jolt of the Gates nomination put Republican senators, in particular, in a difficult place. They don't want to deny and defy Donald Trump's picks. And so the real question, is this the outlier or has he set up conditions now where everyone else looks favorable by comparison? And that's what I think we don't know.
And the Republicans did a quiet mission against Gates, and that was important in the context of trying to remain loyal. And it's such a great point because publicly, every Republican said, look, we might have criticisms of Matt Gates, but we're not closing the doors of no one said no publicly. How do you see this playing out? What are your sources telling you about Capitol Hill?
This is the tightrope that Senate Republicans face. And they're walking when it comes to all these nominations, particularly some of the more controversial ones, because there's a lot of concern. You talk to members of Congress and they're sat behind the scenes. And if they're being honest, there's a lot of nurses around, Hexa the Round, Tulsi, Gabriel, the others, but they don't want to get crosswise.
They want to get into a Twitter war with Donald Trump because they know they're going to lose. Yeah. Secretary Johnson, you are familiar with these confirmation processes? Intimately.
Yeah. We'll take us inside. Based on your intimate knowledge, what do you make of what we've witnessed so far? Well, on the Senate, I didn't exactly see a whole lot of profiles in courage.
Matt Gaetz was a wild pitch. Even with Donald Trump strikes on. He was. You cannot nominate credibly someone to be the head of the Justice Department who was just recently a subject of a Justice Department investigation.
And so no one said outright out of the box, he's not qualified. I've heard Lindsey Graham and others say president's entitled to his nominees. That's simply not true. The Senate has a constitutional obligation to advise and consent.
I've been through the process three times. Two of them I was nominated by Democratic president, confirmed by a Democratic Senate. And it was not a free pass. I can tell you that.
I had to, in the background investigation, go back to the address of the Sears and Roebuck where I worked when I was a college student and go through every single foreign trip I've ever taken since I was age 18. So it's the Senate has a job to do in this process. It really is instructive to hear the secretary talk about his own experience, because you think about some of these picks now, particularly a Pete Hyceff. And in my conversation with Senator Schmidt, he basically acknowledged, yeah, he has some real questions for him.
Who do you think of the remaining Cabinet picks? And now that they've all been filled out, who do you think is going to be the toughest to be confirmed at this point? I think what you're saying is Republican senators making the distinction between unconventional on the one hand and unqualified on the other. They can vote for unconventional picks.
Most of the picks are going to be unconventional in some way. What I think they don't want to do is support unqualified candidates. I guess I have a different view of this than the secretary. If you look at this first week, I would say Republican senators got their backup and said, we're not going to do this.
I think Kelly's right that there was a quiet effort to have Matt Gaetz removed. Senator Lindsey Graham, who has shown great deference in the past, I think had a stern discussion with Matt Gates, sort of laid out what the likely scenarios would be if he proceeded with the nomination, suggested there wouldn't have been those other senators back channeled with the administration, the incoming administration, about that. And I think also you heard Eric Schmidt, Senator Schmidt today on your interview suggest that background checks would be important, whether FBI background checks or others would be important. And then third, you've seen Republican senators show skepticism publicly about this recess appointment process.
So I think thus far, early on, Republican senators are saying we want to be supportive of the president's picks. But there's a line here. Yeah, you're absolutely right in the recess, because last week we're talking about recess appointments as well. That's a real possibility.
They sent a message this week that they're not necessarily building their advice and consent. Kelly Boyd, President elect Trump is rolling out these picks with incredible speed. He's now basically filled all of the positions in his Cabinet, including Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, former hedge fund CEO what do you make of the pace of this and the fact that you do have some senators saying, look, we want to start the confirmation process for the inauguration, which they can do once the new Congress is taken into office. This is a faster pace than Trump.
Point 1. It is also one where, as the president elect talked about this being a knight transition, he is not fully engaged in the transition. He has not signed the paperwork that allows him to work with the city administration for really important things. Not only is it access to office space and financial support to run the transition, but as we mentioned, the FBI background checks, that's a tool that could be used by the president elect.
But he's so wary that he's not affording himself some of the things that government allows to make a new administration successful. And that's an interesting choice that he likes to break the china. But sometimes there are tools available to him and he doesn't want to use them. They haven't yet.
Secretary Johnson, how significant is that he's not using these tools? How significant it is an FBI background check. Reports are that his betting team did not know about this settlement of this sexual assault allegation, which an FBI agent found in 10 minutes. And so I think one of the reasons we're seeing these Cabinet nominees out rapid fire is because they're not doing the proper vetting of these people.
Yeah. And I mean, do you think that Republicans, Republicans are concerned about that very fact that the I's aren't being dotted, the T's aren't being crossed? And do you think they will be with some of these newer picks that we learned about our Nightlight? Scott, Essence, it's a flood of the zone approach.
Right. That is what Trump is doing. I think Matt Gates, for the first couple weeks to call the oxygen. Everyone's focused there.
And now there is this kind of drumbeat of meetings by all these Cabinet nominees. There's going to be vetting these committees and the senators themselves take it seriously. Even though they are very supportive and will likely back all of Trump's nominees. They're still going to be going through that process and people are, you know, have questions that need to be answered.
And we should say, we should say also to the secretary's point earlier, you know, low level incoming intel analysts go through deep background checks. I mean, I've had some who used to work for me at the Weekly Standard, I spent 45 minutes on a call with somebody answering questions about their financial situation, whether they've had contacts with foreigners, particularly foreigners come from adversarial countries. These are questions that these nominees should have to answer. And we, the public, should see their answers to these questions.
Well, fascinating to hear your inside takes because you all have been involved in it. So thank you very much. Stick around. We have a lot more to discuss when we come back.
The House Ethics Committee was in the spotlight this week. The Ethics Committee made history back in 1997 when it actually punished the speaker of the House. I'll be the president. Welcome back.
The House Ethics Committee couldn't agree to release its report on its investigation of Matt Gates. But the controversy prompted Gates to abruptly withdraw his name for attorney general. Back in 1997, Newt Gingrich was the first House speaker ever to be punished for ethics violations for using a tax exempt organization for political purposes and then providing inaccurate information to the committee. In a Meet the Press interview almost a decade later, Gingrich downplayed the official sanction on every ethics charge.
In the end, I was exonerated. The one thing that happened is I signed a letter written by one of our lawyers that was technically wrong and I paid the cost of investigating the letter. The Democrats were very mad after the 94 election. They had lost power for the first time in 40 years.
They knew it couldn't be their fault, so it must be mine. But if you go back and if you were to someday take item by item what the charges were and what the results were, again and again and again, they turned out to be false. Now, I've had a very long career and there are lots of things people be able to pick out from votes to attacking my life to attacking the ethics stuff. But people have to decide at some point down the road.
First of all is are the ideas good? And a quick note. Former Speaker Gingrich was not exonerated since the committee does not vendor a legal verdict. When we come back, the day one agenda Whip Donald Trump's first news be when he returns to the White House.
More with the panel next. While the back the panel is still here. Let's talk about the day one agenda. Kelly.
We have new reporting that President Elect Trump, once he's sworn into office on day one, plans to roll out a series of executive actions as one person is saying, quote, like nothing you've ever seen before. What are you hearing that sounds like Trump himself? Yes. I think that you could argue that that first 24 hours will be the best day of either Trump term in the experience of Donald Trump because it will be the peak of his political comeback.
And it's where his skill set for marketing and branding comes into play, where he can talk about his campaign with a presidential panning to sign something. He likes to do the visual demonstration and outline these initial steps. We believe there will be several that relate to immigration and his mass deportation plan. Expect him in the economic realm to talk about tariffs.
Expect him to do things that relate to the Department of Defense, to unwind some of what Joe Biden did with respect to service members being able to, for example, cross state lines for reproductive health care. There will be a flurry of them and they will all be big, bright stamps of what he ran up. Secretary Johnson pick up on that point, because as Kelly notes, immigration is really the centerpiece. And he has this nasty portion plan.
He's going to sign some executive actions, but he's also going to then begin to roll out this plan. I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago after he was elected. I said, do you have a natural plan? How much is it going to cost?
He said, there's no price tag. You obviously, again, have intimate knowledge with what happens at the border. How complicated would it be to actually roll off? So, first of all, somebody should pass a law banning executive orders on day one, because the reality is executive orders drafted by transition teams without the input of the affected agency, before the cabinet secretary is even confirmed, are not great ideas.
You know, the travel ban, for example, eight years ago. Let's go back to that. I'll even point fingers at myself. You know, I was involved in the transition 16 years ago and Guantanamo Bay is still open.
So this idea of mass deportation, that would be the equivalent if you tried to deport everyone in this country as undocumented of the population of two New York cities, which could not happen in my lifetime. An administration, whether it's Trump or Biden or Obama, has to have enforcement priorities. Start with the criminals, start with the national security threats, recent border crossers. Tom Holman knows that.
I know he knows that because he used to work for me. And I'd rather see hero go after the criminals versus somebody who's been in this country 12 years, committed no crimes, has children who are US citizens. And that's the reality of enforcement. And that's.
I'm sure that will be the reality of enforcement even under a President Trump. And how do you see the Hill reacting to this? First, a flurry of executive actions. But look, if he is going to even attempt to try this massive rotation plan, he's going to need more funds from Congress.
Yeah, I think everybody's expecting the executive orders right away to go as fast as vastly possible. I think on this idea of where the money is, the power of the purse in Congress holds that very tight. I also think he's going to face some skepticism by Republicans on using the military, for instance, going into different states. I think that is gonna be something.
Margaret, Rand Paul and others, libertarian side of the party say hold up like leave some questions here. And Steve, obviously Republicans have control of the House but boy it's a very narrow margin which could make everything that we are talking about in this agenda a little bit tougher. It could make it somewhat tenuous. But I think that argues in favor of Donald Trump being aggressive on executive actions.
He said he ran on tariffs, he ran on massive quotations. We know that these are issues said he cares about viscerally in a way that he doesn't care about some other issues. This really I expect him to go as far as he possibly can in those two areas. What about Jay's point about Guantanamo Bay was you know, supposed to get done on day one and is still open.
Well, I'm glad that they failed actually. Look, I think there's a risk in overstaying things, but let's just say that Donald Trump is not usually restrained by overstating things. He likes to overstate things. This is what he does.
Secretary JOHN There's a larger part about these candidates. This president this time around seems to want pass throughs. When I was General Counsel of DoD, the Secretary was Bob Gates, Leon Panetta who brought a lifetime of wisdom and experience that is value added to any president. Presidents need to hear things they don't want to hear from their cabinet and I'm worried that these nominees will not be able to be in a position to do that.
Well Kelly, so thinking about the system of potential Jackson, you go back to the Senate and someone like a current leader McConnell who's not going to be the leader once the new Congress has sworn in. He is untethered by the constraints of being a leadership where you have to set the tone for the entire Republican conference. He's one of the most I think skillful tacticians of Senate rules. So he has weight and relationships.
He will be an appropriator for defense and that will be a very important part of his role in trying to get his own sense of what needs to happen. And he will talk in ways to other members that could be some conflict with Donald Trump from time to time. Certainly he had the opportunity when he was in leadership to take more dramatic position against Donald Trump. They had no relationship for a number of years.
They're back in a cooperative spirit. But he'll be someone to watch because he knows the president may not know the rules of the Senate very carefully or care about THE But Mitch McConnell, I mean and to that point he certainly is someone to watch him. We put him up as one of the Five senators who was planning to vote no on Matt Gates. What are you gonna be watching for as it relates to the Current leader, Mitch McConnell?
Mitch McConnell is a man of few words, but when he speaks, you should listen. And I think what I think his colleagues do behind the scenes as well, I think that he has no fear of Donald Trump. If he thinks that the president is doing things that are not appropriate, he will make his position known. Do you think that that's going to be really the only check?
I mean, here, you know, again, Republicans have control, very narrow control of the House, control of the Senate, the Supreme Court, conservative leaning right now. Steven, do you think that those Republican senators are going to really be able to check on his power? They're the most obvious institutional check. But like I said earlier, I think they do want to get to yes on a lot of these nominations, on most of Trump's policy priorities.
Mitchell Connell also has a very strong relationship with John Thune, Incoming Senate majority. When I Profiled John Thune 15 years ago, Mitch McConnell, before there was a presidential primary in, Thune was thinking about running, volunteered an endorsement early. So he's fond of John Thune. They go along very well.
He is going to be one to watch, certainly, as well. All right, well, thank you all so much. Hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving. That is all for today.
Thank you for watching. Have a very happy Thanksgiving to all of you. We will be back next week because if it's Sunday, it's not the press. I'm Craig Nol.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too.
It's really fascinating. Folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny and my candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. Who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half Full.
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