Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he’s still hoping to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s national security Cabinet picks on Jan. 20, just after the new president is sworn in.
After meeting with Mr. Trump in New York, Mr. McConnell emerged to say Republicans will give all the nominees scrutiny, but he’s pushing to have at least a half-dozen of them ready to go in less than two weeks.
“Everybody will be properly vetted as they have been in the past, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get up to six or seven — particularly national security team in place — on day one,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters.
Mr. Trump himself also said he’s pleased with the pace on Capitol Hill, saying he expects all of his picks to be approved.
“They are the absolute highest level, I think we’re going to do very well,” he said in a brief appearance at Trump Tower just after noon Monday.
Democrats say the GOP is trying to speed nominees through without requiring all the information needed from them.
Late last week the Office of Government Ethics fired off a letter sounding a similar alarm. The director said he was concerned that Republican chairmen had scheduled confirmation hearings even though the nominees haven’t finished their ethics review with his own office.
“I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process,” Walter M. Shaub Jr., the director, wrote in a letter to leading Democrats.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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