Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) confirmed to The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Tuesday that confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for attorney general and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are set to begin in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is chaired by Iowa U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
Blackburn, a member of the committee, said it will first begin with the confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi, who Trump tapped as his attorney general, before moving on later in the week with the confirmation hearing for Kash Patel, who Trump tapped to be his FBI director.
The Tennessee senator said she expects the confirmation hearings for both Bondi and Patel, as well as all other Trump nominees, to be similar in nature when it comes to Democratic members attempting to “beat up” the nominees while Republicans “rehab them” and focus on their abilities and qualifications for the roles of which they were nominated for.
“I think that the Democrats are going to beat these people up and we’re going to rehab them and bolster them and talk about why they are qualified,” Blackburn said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Then we’re going to call the vote and the Republicans have the majority, so we will be able to move these individuals to the floor,” Blackburn added.
Blackburn said she believes most Democratic members will be in lockstep against any Trump nominee, further pointing out how Democrat U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) was recently appointed to the committee.
“I think you’re going to see most of the Democrats are going to be anti. There are a couple that might be open to some of the nominees. I would hope that they would all be fair and listen to the nominees, but realize that Adam Schiff – Old Shifty Schiff – is the new member for the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee…We pretty much know what to expect from that one,” Blackburn said.
When it comes time for the full Senate to vote on Trump’s nominees, Blackburn noted how one Democrat – Pennsylvania U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) – has been “surprisingly open-minded” and may end up voting to confirm some of Trump’s nominees.
“He’s one of the few Democrats that says, ‘Hey, we need to learn a lesson. We’re out of step with the American people,’” Blackburn said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Pam Bondi” by Pam Bondi.
