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Confirmation Hearings for Cabinet; Boni Confirmation Hearing; Rubio and Ratcliffe Face Confirmation Hearings. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 15, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: From Clark.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three two, one, ignition and liftoff. We've got a fire flying (ph), go. (INAUDIBLE).

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SIDNER: And that was the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket early this morning from Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On board are two lunar landers for two different missions. The liftoff is kicking off what's expected to be a really busy year of moon launches as a new space race is underway to try to put humans back on the lunar surface.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we are following the breaking news, which is all of the action is on Capitol Hill this morning, especially this hour. Six of Donald Trump's cabinet nominees will face lawmakers in confirmation hearings today. His picks for attorney general, secretary of state, transportation secretary, CIA director, energy secretary and his pick to lead the White House Budget Office, all facing hearings.

First up, just minutes from now is one of the positions in government wielding the most power. Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, is Donald Trump's choice to be the next attorney general of the United States.

And just moments ago, we got a first look at her opening remarks released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. In them she says, in part, "lastly, and most importantly, if confirmed, I will work to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice and each of its components. Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all."

She has long supported Donald Trump. She spearheaded legal efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania, and also has said publicly she wants to prosecute the prosecutors, investigate the investigators of the Biden administration.

Let's get to it. Manu Raju, Evan Perez, Paula Reid, Elie Honig all standing by for coverage of these confirmation hearings that are about to begin.

Manu, let me start with you.

You're right outside that committee room. What are you hearing there?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is going to be another eventful day. There will be some fireworks at some of these hearings, but these - some may be less controversial than others. This will - there will be, you're right, six confirmation hearings today. A busy day for Trump's picks to fill out his cabinet.

Pam Bondi undoubtedly will be the one that will get perhaps the most attention given her closeness with Donald Trump, her allegiance to him, and whether she will show any independence from him. That's going to be one of the issues that Democrats plan to push on in this hearing that could be very contentious, but could really go along party lines. We're not hearing any real Republican opposition to her at the moment, which was one big reason why there is confidence between the Trump team, as well as with Republican leaders, that ultimately she will get the job unless something goes drastically wrong for her in this confirmation hearing.

But other ones could be much smoother, including Senator Marco Rubio, the outgoing Florida Republican senator who has been picked to be the next secretary of state. He is someone who is getting bipartisan support. That could be a much more smoother ride for him.

There could be some other fireworks as well. Watch for Russ Vought. He is the next pick to be the next budget director of the White House. It is a very powerful position that could help determine federal policy, help determine how regulations are implemented and the like. He is someone who has pushed for very conservative policies. That is someone who has been targeted by Democrats.

But again, the question ultimately here will be, Kate, is, if any Republicans raise concerns, because ultimately if there's Republican support, that's enough to get any of these nominations to the Senate floor and get confirmation from the full United States Senate in which they can afford to lose as many as three Republicans on any party line vote. At the moment, no Republicans are opposed to any of these six nominees, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, but still very important what we're going to be hearing in these confirmation hearings.

Manu Raju, right outside that - that hearing room.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's focus in on Pam Bondi, Donald Trump's pick to be attorney general.

CNN's senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, is with us now.

So, what kind of questions is she likely to face, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the closeness to Donald Trump is probably going to be a lot of the focus, especially from Democrats. I mean they obviously know that she was involved in defending him in one of his impeachments. She was very, very much involved in some of the efforts that he made to try to overturn the election results back in - back in 2020. And so the - the focus for Democrats is to try to figure out how to tie Pam Bondi closely to Donald Trump and raise questions as to whether or not she will ever say no to him. And - so, that's part of the work that you will see from - from Democrats.

Look, I think, as Manu pointed out, the Republicans have the majority here. They know that unless something goes terribly wrong at this hearing, that she is very likely to be the next attorney general. And one of the interesting things, John, that, you know, going into - into the beginning of this - of this administration, there's a lot of things that will be on her plate, including, for instance, what to do about Trump's co-defendants down in Florida, right?

[09:05:11]

Do they dismiss that case immediately? Everyone expects that that will happen very quickly.

And, of course, this whole idea that she highlighted in that - in that opening statement that she is going to get rid of the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, the president, the incoming president, has already said that he wants people targeted because of what happened to him over the last four years to federal charges, to federal prosecutions under the Joe Biden Justice Department.

So, we'll see whether that really is the way she's going to turn this around, which is that she believes that this would - there was weaponization during the current administration.

John.

BERMAN: It will be interesting to hear how she answers those questions.

Evan Perez, we know you'll be watching. Thanks so much for being with us.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, let's bring in CNN legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid on Capitol Hill for us, and CNN's senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig, to discuss some of this.

Paula, I'm going to start with you.

Just give us some sense of what you're expecting today, what you are focusing in on, and what you think will be focused in on, on The Hill.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bondi has kept a remarkably low profile given the job that she is interviewing for today. This is not just a cabinet position. This is thee cabinet position because President-elect Trump has made it clear that he wants to leverage this agency to pursue his political enemies.

Now, sources tell me that Bondi has been preparing for weeks for tough questions from this committee. She's met with lawmakers from both parties. And look, she's coming into today with three decades of law enforcement experience. For eight years she was the attorney general of the state of Florida. In her opening statement, she says she, quote," wants to make America safe again." I'm sure that she would prefer that much of today's hearing focus on the bread and butter work of the Justice Department. Recent terrorist attacks remind us that the Justice Department is always dealing with the threat of ISIS. They also deal with violent crime, opioids, fraud, anti-trust.

But we know that Democrats believe her biggest liability is, of course, her question - questions about her loyalty to Trump. We know that in the past, Trump has put enormous pressure on his attorneys general to pursue his political whims. So, she is going to face questions about how she will handle this.

Now, she has served as a surrogate for Trump. She's been on his legal team. She helped push false claims about the 2020 election. So, this is going to be a big focus for Democrats.

Her team declined to tell me how she is going to handle those questions. But whatever comes her way today, she is going to have a lot of moral support because she's going to be accompanied today by 16 members of her family.

SIDNER: Yes, we did see what happened when he tried to push Bill Barr. Bill Barr did not do his bidding in the end. We will see what happens here.

Elie, you have so much to do, but you simply somehow had time to write a piece in "The New York Times" called "The Perplexing Case of Pam Bondi." Say that three times. What's perplexing to you?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Sara, I'm easily perplexed, as you know. But Pam Bondi does provide a really complicated case for attorney general because, on one hand, she's absolutely qualified by any objective measure. She's been a prosecutor for over two decades. She was the attorney general of Florida, the third most populous state in the country for eight years. She's handled all types of prosecutions.

On the other hand, there are genuine questions about Pam Bondi's independence and her credibility. She was a vocal 2020 election denier. She has said publicly that Donald Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020, which he did not, that there were fake ballots cast. She also, and I think most concerningly, watch for Democrats to ask about this, has said publicly that inside DOJ, prosecutors need to be prosecuted and investigators need to be investigated. Now, she said that before she was nominated for attorney general, but I think she will be confronted with those prior statements, and I cannot wait to see how she responds to them.

SIDNER: Yes, those will be, I think, the big questions that you will definitely hear from Democrats.

I guess the big question, Paula, is, when you're, you know, talking to some of these Congress members, some of these senators, do they think that she can be independent? What are you hearing?

REID: Yes, speaking - here listening to senators, particularly Democrats, they don't believe that Pam Bondi, or really any Trump appointed attorney general is independent because, if they show any independence or push back on the boss, they get fired. See Jeff Sessions, see Bill Barr for examples of this. So, they are going to raise a lot of these concerns today.

This is going to be really, I think, the theme of this hearing, the questions from Democrats are likely mostly to be about loyalty to Trump. I would also expect that someone might ask about that second Jack Smith report, the second volume of his report related to the classified documents case. Sources tell me the Trump legal team, they're concerned about that report, and it will be up to Pam Bondi whether it gets released to the public.

[09:10:05]

It's a good litmus test of just how loyal she will be to Trump.

So, I really think this is going to be difficult for her to convince Democratic senators that she will be completely independent from Trump.

But again, this is a woman who comes with three decades of experience as a prosecutor. She is more than capable of handling these kinds of questions. But she's - she's going to be grilled, which is why she has spent so much time with her team preparing. And, really, we haven't heard from her at all since she's been nominated.

SIDNER: Elie, I'm just curious, would you expect someone in her position, who does have a long history of implementing the law as she is supposed to do in Florida, she is the first female attorney general there, how do you expect her to answer these questions? How should she answer these questions, even though, look, they're going to be likely brought by Democrats, and the Democrats don't - you know, they can't change things if all the Republicans vote for her.

HONIG: So, first of all, I found it really interesting, in the opening statement that Paula just obtained the draft of, there's no mention of any of these issues. There's a sort of oblique reference to it when she says, we need to get rid of the weaponization at DOJ, but that's sort of a perfectly ambiguous statement. You could look at that and say, oh, good, we're not going to see people kicked out and prosecuted for partisan or political reasons. Or you could look at it as saying, sort of, we're going to enact the Trump agenda of retribution. And that would even the scales. I think when she's asked those questions, and she certainly will be.

We saw Senator Durbin being questioned earlier about how he's going to question Pam Bondi. I look for her to be quite lawyerly in her response. I would listen for a lot of this kind of answer. While I've made no prejudgment about any given case, every case that comes across my desk as attorney general I will assess independently on the facts and the law and do the right thing. So, I think that will be her mantra today.

SIDNER: Yes, we saw Pete Hegseth, who's up for defense secretary, sort of changing what he said in past times. We will see what happens with this nominee. Paula Reid and Elie Honig, thank you both so much. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, more confirmation hearings. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, he is minutes away as well from his own confirmation hearing, sitting on the other side of the table now taking questions rather than giving them. Taking questions from his Senate colleagues in his quest to become secretary of state. What he says his top priority will be for the State Department if he is confirmed.

Also next hour, the confirmation hearing for Donald Trump's pick to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe. What - what it would mean - what he would mean for the future of America's spy agency.

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[09:17:19]

BERMAN: We are just minutes away now from a new day of confirmation hearings for Donald Trump's cabinet picks. Six in all, but two major hearings in terms of national security. Senator Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, and John Ratcliffe to be CIA director.

Let's get right to CNN's Alex Marquardt for a sense of what we think the major issues will be today in these hearings, Alex.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is a very big day for Donald Trump's national security team on the heels of another big day just yesterday with the hearing for Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. Here we have Marco Rubio for state, John Ratcliffe for CIA. These are two men who are slightly less - they are less controversial, it should be said, but they will be core members of not just the national security team, but for Trump's cabinet as well. They are going before committees today who know them well, in particular Marco Rubio. He will be grilled by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It's a committee that he has been on for quite some time. So, he knows those players. He knows those issues well.

John, we've gotten some of his opening remarks. We're expecting him to take a swing at what he has seen from the Biden administration in terms of what he calls prioritizing the global order above our core national interests.

Here's a little bit more of what he plans to say in his opening remarks. "The top priority of the State Department must be and will be the United States. Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must be justified with the answer to three simple questions, does it make America safer, does it make America stronger, does it make America more prosperous?"

Now, John, Rubio has also been the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is known as a hawk on China. He has long advocated for tougher measures against Iran. But as is always the case with incoming national security teams, Democrat or Republican, John, they often want to prioritize the longer term issues, major issues, like China. But at the same time, of course, they've got more immediate, shorter-term crises and conflicts to deal with, like Ukraine, like what's going on in the Middle East. We're expecting this ceasefire in Gaza any moment now. So, there are going to be a lot of issues that Rubio is going to have to tackle right off the bat.

John.

BERMAN: It is a big job, no doubt about that.

Alex Marquardt, stand by. It's going to be a long day for all of us. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just minutes from now, Trump loyalist Pam Bondi will take the hot seat at her confirmation hearing, hoping to become the next attorney general. A major question Democratic senators wanted answered, would she back the president-elect's threats to prosecute his political enemies? That is ahead.

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[09:24:33]

BOLDUAN: We are standing by. Any minute now, Pam Bondi's Senate confirmation hearing to be attorney general of the United States is about to get underway. It's a huge committee room, and it is filling up.

Standing by with us, senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid, senior legal analyst Elie Honig and, of course, Manu Raju, who's outside that committee hearing room.

Paula, let me start with you. What is Pam Bondi going to face today?

REID: Well, she's going to face a lot of tough questions, especially from Democrats, about her loyalty to Trump.

[09:25:04]

This is going to be the theme of this confirmation hearing. Look, there are no questions about her experience and her resume. She

comes to this job interview with three decades of experience as a prosecutor, eight years as Florida's attorney general. There's no question that she is experienced enough to handle the day to day, the bread and butter issues that face the Justice Department, like violent crime, fraud. She also has a really strong record on pill mills and opioids.

But it's her loyalty to Trump that is going to come under scrutiny, because we've seen the kind of pressure that he has put on his previous attorneys general, pressuring them to use this agency, leverage it to pursue his political enemies. And he has made it clear on the campaign trail that he intends to do that this time around as well. So, she is going to be in a position where she is going to have to confront things Trump has done in the past, vis a vis his attorneys general, and figure out how she is going to handle similar situations.

Now, one example they could ask her about is what she will do with Jack Smith second special counsel report. It will likely fall to her discretion as to whether that ever sees the light of day, whether the public gets it. That is a report about his alleged mishandling of classified documents. His team is very worried about it. So, that's a perfect example of something they could ask her about. Will you release this? If so, I think that would be a little surprising.

But she's going to face a lot of questions about her relationship with Trump, about false claims she pushed in the 2020 election, about her work as a surrogate for him, that's going to be the big theme. And I'm really fascinated to see how she threads this needle, because we really haven't heard from her at all since she's been nominated. Unlike the first nominee, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, she has been really keeping a low profile. I'm told she's been preparing for weeks for these confirmation hearings. She's been quietly meeting with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in preparation for today.

SIDNER: All right, thank you to Paula there.

We are looking again live inside the hearing room.

But outside the hearing room, our Manu Raju has been running down senators, trying to get their thoughts before this all starts.

What are you hearing from them this morning, Manu?

RAJU: Yes, that's - Paula's exactly right, that is going to be how Democrats plan to go after Pam Bondi, question whether or not she'll be able to show any independence from Donald Trump. A question about some of the things that she did, her alliance with him, allegiance with him, as Trump was trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. How does she respond to those questions? Thats going to be something that Democrats plan to focus on, as well as trying to push back against anything that could potentially be illegal coming from the president of the United States. Would she resist anything that could be out of bounds? That's going to be another question.

Both Senator Dick Durbin, who is the top Democrat on the committee, as well as Senator Chris Coons, both indicated that would be a theme of their questions going in. Both of them did have a chance to meet with - or both of them had a chance to ask her some of these questions. Durbin indicated that he was not satisfied with how she responded while they met. He said, we'll see how she responds in this meeting.

Now, Republicans, much different. They plan to defend Pam Bondi. They plan to go after the Biden Justice Department. And so, expect this to really come down along party lines. One senator, Eric Schmidt, just told a group of us, he said that they - he believes there should be some consequences for people who went - some of the prosecutors who went after Donald Trump over the last several years. So, there's going to be some - some defense of Donald Trump here in - and some pushback against what happened in the Biden years.

So, expect this very much to go along party lines. We'll see if there's any surprises, if any Republicans raise any concerns with their answers. That's one thing we'll be watching. But Democrats, no question about it, plan to question her loyalty. How does she respond to those questions? That's going to be something to watch in the hours ahead here.

Sara.

SIDNER: And again, we are watching this committee hearing room. It will get underway very shortly. You can see the people milling about there.

In my hands I'm holding a "New York Times" op-ed written by CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

And, Elie, you outlined in this op-ed basically, Pam Bondi's resume is the kind of resume that gets someone confirmed as attorney general. Very similar to Janet Reno's and others. You know, you worked as a state prosecutor for years, has experience in that front. What you also say, though, is that one area that she needs to talk about or be asked about, "Ms. Bondi must explain her 2020 election denialism."

Now, you were a good prosecutor, Elie. How would you ask those questions? If you're the Democrats, what specific questions do you ask and what answers do you anticipate?

HONIG: So, John, I would confront Pam Bondi with her own words. Quote them. She said, we won Pennsylvania. She said there were fake ballots cast. I would read those back to her. I would have her say, first of all, did you say those things? Yes, she did. And then I would say, are they true? Did you believe them to be true when you said them in 2020? Do you still believe them to be true now? And I would demand, to the extent possible, some sort of yes or no explanation. And if she says, yes, I believe them to be true then, yes, I believe them to be true now, that's a major problem.

[09:30:04]

I don't know that Democrats - they don't have necessarily the numbers to do anything about it.

The other question I would ask her is.