Three of President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks prepared to face skepticism and intense grilling from Democratic senators during their confirmation hearings Thursday.
What we’re following:
1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s second hearing: Kennedy will have the second of two confirmation hearings for his Health and Human Services Secretary nomination. He will appear before the Health Committee a day after his hearing before the Finance Committee.
2. Tulsi Gabbard for DNI Secretary: Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, is expected to face tough questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee over past comments about Russia and a 2017 visit with Syria’s now-deposed leader.
3. Kash Patel’s hearing: Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, will likely encounter deeply skeptical questioning from Democratic senators Thursday about his loyalty to the president and stated desire to overhaul the bureau.
Here's the latest:
Senate Budget Committee Republicans advanced Vought’s confirmation over the objections of Democrats who call him a “threat to democracy.”
Committee Republicans voted 11-0 in a rare session off the Senate floor after Democrats boycotted the meeting.
“He is a threat to our democracy,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the committee’s top Democrat. “We’re here to say that is not okay.”
Vought was a chief architect of Project 2025 and instrumental in the White House’s federal funding freeze this week, which sparked panic in communities across the country. Advocacy organizations challenged the freeze and the White House quickly rescinded it.
The Louisiana Republican approached Kennedy at the conclusion of the hearing for a brief handshake and exchange, after once again expressing deep skepticism over whether Kennedy would promote vaccinations through the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cassidy said that his experience as a physician has showed how imperative it was to stress the life-saving powers of vaccines.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has adjourned the confirmation hearing for Gabbard after nearly three hours.
Next up is a classified, closed session with the nominee, where members are able to question her more in depth on issues that are sensitive and could not be broached in a public hearing.
Sen. Cotton, the chair, ended the public hearing by saying he hopes to quickly move to a committee vote on Gabbard. Some members have raised concerns about whether the vote will happen in public or behind closed doors. Some Trump supporters want it to be public so that any Republicans who vote against her will be immediately identified.
Kennedy’s hearing is ending after a heated exchange with Sen. Bernie Sanders.
As the Vermont Independent pressed Trump’s nominee on his views on vaccines, Kennedy shot back by saying that members of Congress, including Sanders, were receiving money from pharmaceutical companies.
The line drew cheers and applause from Kennedy’s supporters in the room.
Sanders wasn’t having any of it. He retorted that he doesn’t take money from organizations or groups that represent the drug-making industry.
Democrats are scrutinizing Patel’s appearance before a Washington grand jury investigating Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after Patel received immunity for his testimony.
Patel, who has said he was present as Trump declassified broad categories of materials, was granted a limited form of immunity after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during an earlier grand jury appearance.
Sen. Cory Booker pushed Patel to explain what he told the grand jury, but Patel told the Democrat to get a transcript of the secret proceeding instead.
Booker replied: “You are free to tell people. What are you hiding from Congress?”
A judge dismissed the classified documents case against Trump last year, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.
Kennedy was pressed about recent statements he’s made threatening to fire staffers at the National Institutes of Health and other public health agencies.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks asked Kennedy if there is a “watch list” of scientists who could be targeted for termination.
“Not that I know of,” Kennedy responded.
Alsobrooks is a Democrat representing Maryland, where NIH is headquartered. When she asked which federal scientists should be replaced, Kennedy said: “the ones who are corrupt.”
And for the second day in a row, Kennedy falsely accused NIH of quashing research into multiple causes of Alzheimer’s. The NIH’s $3.8 billion budget for Alzheimer’s and similar dementias funds researching a range of factors that may contribute to the disease.
In a round of follow up questions, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden asked Gabbard if she would be willing to refuse an illegal order from Trump, specifically regarding the role of inspector generals who the president fired in his first week back in office.
“If President Trump orders you to withhold appropriated funds from the inspector general, would you refuse that illegal order?” Wyden asked.
Her response: “I don’t believe for a second President Trump would ask me to do something that would break the law.”
When Trump approved a 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Gabbard at the time denounced it, saying there was no justification.
Soleimani had been an ally of Syria’s Assad and a top player in attacks by Iran and its allies.
Asked by New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gilliland whether she still opposed the strike, Gabbard indicated no. It turned out that “President Trump was right,” and there was no escalation in the Middle East as she had feared, Gabbard said.
Gabbard didn’t directly answer a related question on whether she agreed with Trump’s decision to pull security from his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aid who have been targeted for assassination by Iran because of that strike.
GOP Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said Snowden has been watching Gabbard’s confirmation hearing and that he hoped she could disavow on national television what he did.
Young referenced a social media post Snowden made earlier Thursday saying Gabbard “will be required to disown all prior support for whistleblowers as a condition of confirmation today.”
“I encourage her to do so. Tell them I harmed national security and the sweet, soft feelings of staff. In D.C., that’s what passes for the pledge of allegiance,” Snowden wrote in the X post.
Young said that this may be the “rare instance” where he agrees with Snowden and that the nominee should publicly distance herself from him despite her previous comments calling him “brave.”
She has refused to say Snowden was a traitor.
Republican senators have repeatedly dismissed characterizations that Patel is a conspiracy theorist, extremist or sycophant, frequently citing longstanding grievances held by the GOP base against federal investigators.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., invoked the “Russia collusion hoax” multiple times in his remarks. He then asked Patel to promise to only go after “bad” actors in the agency.
“Don’t go over there and burn that place down. Go over there and make it better. Can you commit to us today, that you will do that?” Kennedy said.
Patel promised to make the agency “the premier law enforcement agency in the world.”
He acknowledged that President Joe Biden was certified as president of the United States but did not confirm whether he believed Biden had directly won that election when asked directly by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
“President Biden’s election was certified, he was sworn in, and he served as the president of the United States,” Patel replied when asked by Hirono whether Biden had won the 2020 presidential election.
It is a similar comment made by others nominated by Trump, who never conceded the 2020 election and worked to overturn his election loss in its aftermath.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley pressed Patel on a range of conservative grievances regarding the FBI’s investigations, including of potential extremists in Catholic faith communities, people disrupting local public forums over education curricula and COVID lockdown policies.
“Once again, I can’t imagine I could have ever thought this would happen to the United States of America,” Hawley said.
“When you find out who was involved in this policy within the FBI, who agreed with it, who implemented it, who encouraged it, when you find out that, Mr. Patel, will you do an internal investigation?”
“Absolutely, senator,” Patel said, asserting that he would also discipline any agents involved and work to prevent such investigations from happening again.
Two Republican senators used the word ‘pincushion’ to describe kids who get full slates of recommended vaccines.
One even praised Kennedy for raising questions about the number of vaccines children get.
“I’ll have my first granddaughter in the next couple of weeks, and my son and his wife have done their research about vaccines and she’s not going to be a pincushion. We’re not going to allow that to happen. You brought that up,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
“As a father of six, when when my kids come out from getting their vaccines, they look like a freaking pincushion,” added Mullin.
Gabbard is dodging questions — from both parties — on Snowden, providing some of the most dramatic moments in her hearing.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said Snowden placed lives and U.S. programs in danger, and asked Gabbard twice, point blank: “Was Snowden a traitor?”
“I’m focused on the future,” Gabbard said, and turned to how she’d prevent leaks.
Colorado Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet pressed her on the same question, his volume rising each time he asked.
Bennet finally turned to lamenting Gabbard’s nomination. Do we have to have a candidate “who can’t answer whether Snowden was a traitor five times today?” he asked.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, said questioning whether Kennedy has really changed his anti-vaccine views isn’t political – it has real-world ramifications.
Hassan related the anguish of wondering if she did something during her pregnancy to cause the severe cerebral palsy in her now 36-year-old son.
She said Kennedy’s refusal to accept that a 1990s report linking measles vaccine to autism has now been thoroughly discredited is stumping the search for the real causes of autism and other disorders like her son’s.
“He is re-litigating and churning settled science so we can’t go forward and find out what the cause of autism is and treat these kids and help these families,” she said. “It freezes us in place.”
He said the new class of weight-loss medications such as Wegovy are “miracle drugs.”
But he said they should not be the first, front-line treatment for 6-year-old children, and that prescriptions should include recommendations for diet and exercise.
That aligns with guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recommend treating children with lifestyle interventions, diet and exercise before considering medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13. Similar guidelines apply to adults.
Pressed about whether the FBI under his leadership would remain independent from the White House, Patel said investigations will only be launched when there’s a “factual, articulable legal basis to do so.”
Asked by Democratic Sen. Chris Coons about whether he would use the agency to go after Trump’s political enemies, Patel suggested he would “not go backward” and vowed there will be “no politicization at the FBI.”
“There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI should I be confirmed as the FBI director,” he said.
The line of questioning cuts to the heart of Democrats’ concerns over Patel’s nomination. Trump repeatedly suggested while campaigning that he would use the justice system to exact revenge on people involved in the criminal cases against him.
Kennedy cited the Cass report when asked about gender-affirming care for young people by Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley.
The report commissioned by England’s National Health Service and led by retired pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass found “no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
England’s health service stopped prescribing puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria outside of a research setting, following recommendations from Cass’ interim report.
In the United States, the Cass report has been critiqued by medical experts for relying on flawed reviews of evidence. Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to such care.
Gabbard has often made comments in line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stands on his invasion of Ukraine. New Mexico Democratic Martin Heinrich pressed her on that in a brief exchange.
“Who’s responsible for the war in Ukraine?” Heinrich asked.
“Putin started the war in Ukraine,” Gabbard answered.
Republican Sen. Jerry Moran asked Gabbard if Russia would “get a pass” under her.
Gabbard said she was offended by the question.
“No country, group or individual will get a pass,” she said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich questioned Gabbard to reveal more information about her two-hour meeting with Assad, noting that few details about their conversation have ever emerged.
Gabbard said she used the opportunity to press Assad on his human rights record.
“I asked him tough questions about his own regime’s actions,” Gabbard said.
She refused to disavow her trip, saying that leaders, whether in Congress or the executive branch, could stand to travel to places and meet with all kinds of people for the purpose of learning and listening.
She also denied any knowledge that the two Arab-American brothers who arranged the trip were linked to a right-wing Syrian political party. And she insisted that she paid for her own travel, although records she submitted to Congress show she only reimbursed the men for travel after it became a matter of public controversy.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin is pressing Kennedy about his position on mifepristone, the pill that accounts for 6 out of 10 abortions in the U.S.
The pill was approved in 2000 and scientists have repeatedly confirmed its safety and effectiveness. Less than a fraction of 1% of women experience serious side effects requiring emergency care.
Kennedy said Trump hasn’t decided what he will do about the drug, and “I will implement his policy.”
Baldwin pointed to voluminous research supporting the drug’s use without more restrictions.
“You’ve been talking about show me the data, show me the studies,” she said. “You would have that policy regardless of what the studies say?”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, animatedly chided his colleagues for scrutinizing Kennedy’s skeptical stances on vaccinations.
“We can’t question science?” Mullin said.
Cassidy said his experience as a physician has shown him that vaccines save lives. Throughout the hearing, he listened intently as Democrats continued to press Kennedy on his past statements on vaccines.
Under questioning from Republican Susan Collins from Maine, Gabbard pushed back on reports that U.S. intelligence picked up chatter that she had met with leaders of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Collins asked if Gabbard had knowingly ever met with any members of the terrorist group.
“No and it is an absurd accusation,” Gabbard replied.
The intelligence chatter, first reported by the New York Times this week, came during a Jan. 2017 trip when Gabbard met with then Syrian President Bashar Assad. She also transited through Lebanon on her way into and out of Syria — a part of the trip that has drawn scrutiny from journalists and members of the committee.
He’s accusing them of taking controversial statements he has made out of context.
Democrats are repeatedly highlighting Patel’s statements suggesting the Jan. 6 rioters were unfairly prosecuted and that the bureau helped instigate the violence carried out by the mob, among other things.
“Anyone that thinks my 16 years of service isn’t exemplary of how I would proceed if confirmed ... is intentionally putting false information into the public,” Patel said.
His remarks followed a forceful speech from Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who said Patel’s own words are “warnings” that should not be overlooked.
“There is an unfathomable difference between a seeming facade being constructed around this nominee here today, and what he has actually done and said in real life when left to his own devices,” Whitehouse said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, asked why Kennedy said that he would “not take sides” as conspiracy theorists question what happened during the attacks.
Kennedy responded that he had been taught from a young age to question authority.
“My father told me when I was 13 years old, he said, ‘People in authority lie,’” Kennedy said.
Republican Sen. Susan Collins is one of the few Republicans who have not yet supported the nominee. She asked if Gabbard would support or recommend clemency to Snowden if she were confirmed as director of national intelligence.
Gabbard, who earlier said that Snowden exposed “egregious illegal and unconstitutional programs,” said she would not take actions to advocate for anything regarding Snowden.
Gabbard repeatedly refused to answer the question from Warner, the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee.
He pressed her on the point, noting that she sponsored legislation while in Congress to end prosecution of Snowden for leaking classified security information.
Gabbard answered that “Snowden broke the law” and that she didn’t support “all” of his release of information. That said, she added, Snowden exposed “egregious illegal and unconstitutional programs.”
Gabbard issued a stark warning to the American public, trying to get ahead of aggressive questioning on her past comments and actions related to Russia and Syria.
“You may hear lies and smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country,” Gabbard said. “Those who oppose my nomination imply that I am loyal to something or someone other than God, my own conscience and the Constitution of the United States.”
She said critics are “accusing me of being Trump’s puppet, Putin’s puppet, Assad’s puppet, a guru’s puppet, Modi’s puppet, not recognizing the absurdity of simultaneously being the puppet of five different puppet masters.”
What “truly unsettles” political opponents is her refusal to be “their puppet.”
“Faulty, inadequate, or weaponized intelligence have led to costly failures and the undermining of our national security,” Gabbard told senators.
She cited the intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq, and what she said was the intelligence community’s mishandling of intelligence on Hunter Biden.
“The bottom line is this must end.”
She called Trump’s election “a clear mandate from the American people to break this cycle of failure and the weaponization and politicization of the intelligence community and begin to restore trust in those who’ve been charged with the critical task of securing our nation.”
The Department of Homeland Security is pausing federal money for nonprofits providing immigration services.
Secretary Kristi Noem’s memo says she’s concerned the grants may be “encouraging or inducing illegal immigration.” Grants that “touch in any way on immigration” are now on hold, effective immediately, pending a review.
Many such grants help communities near the U.S.-Mexico border that are dealing with recent arrivals. Advocates say they provide vital services; critics say they essentially facilitate illegal immigration.
Cities including New York, Denver and Chicago also receive grant funding to help deal with immigration influxes.
The order — signed Tuesday — didn’t say whether their funding was affected.
Cassidy pressed Kennedy to “unequivocally” say that measles and hepatitis B vaccines do not cause autism.
Kennedy refused, calling for more research on the issue, despite the theory being long discredited.
“The data has been there for a long time,” Cassidy said.
