Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general and FBI director nominees may be postponed, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday.
Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, previously scheduled a confirmation hearing on Jan. 14 for Pam Bondi to head the Justice Department.
“It may be delayed a week, because of a (background investigation), and then there’s some sort of ethics report we have to have,” Mr. Grassley told reporters.
Mr. Grassley noted that if the committee can’t get Ms. Bondi right away, it would interview Kath Patel for the FBI slot.
“But it looks like all of this is a little bit different than what we thought. So, it just seems like it sets us back one week,” Mr. Grassley said.
One inside source told The Washington Times that Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing could be scheduled for the first week of February.
Mr. Trump last week insisted that Republican lawmakers be “smart and tough” if Democrats try to delay the confirmation of his nominees.
“We just won a Historic Landslide and Mandate from the American People, but Senate Democrats are organizing to improperly stall and delay the confirmation process of many of our Great Nominees,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “They will try all sorts of tricks starting very soon. Republicans must not allow them to do that.”
He added, “We have a Country to run, and many big problems to solve, mostly created by Democrats. REPUBLICANS, BE SMART AND TOUGH!!!”
The Senate is scheduled to start confirmation hearings next week. Each nominee needs a majority of committee votes and from the full Senate to be confirmed.
The GOP has a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber, but Democrats can throw sand in the gears of the hearings using parliamentary procedural tactics.
While some of Mr. Trump’s nominees like Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, for secretary of state and Rep. Elise Stefanik, New York Republican, for ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to sail through the process, others such as Pete Hegseth for defense secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence may face choppier waters.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.