Gabbard, Patel, RFK Jr. Face Senate Confirmation Hearings This Week

(Left) Kash Patel in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. (Center) Tulsi Gabbard on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 18, 2024 ) (Right) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Jan. 20, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Kevin Lamarque/Pool via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s administration is gearing up for another round of confirmation battles.

So far, four of his nominees have cleared the confirmation process. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sailed through with unanimous bipartisan support.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were also confirmed with relative ease.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was confirmed following after a series of contentious hearings and a tie-breaking vote.

After Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) broke ranks to vote with Democrats in opposing Hegseth, his confirmation was saved by a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance.

The no vote from the three Republican senators shows that some members of the GOP are willing to buck the party line. That may be relevant this week, as all three candidates have hearings beginning on Jan. 30.

Tulsi Gabbard

Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is nominated to be director of National Intelligence, a position that oversees 16 agencies including the CIA and the FBI.

During her time in Congress, Gabbard served on the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Homeland Security, and Armed Services.

Gabbard, a veteran of the Army National Guard, gained some notoriety after her bout with then-Sen. Kamala Harris in the 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate went viral.

Two years later, she announced that she was abandoning the Democratic Party because it was “under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness.”

Following her nomination, Gabbard was accused of being “likely a Russian asset” by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) during an interview on MSNBC.

In 2020 Gabbard filed, then dropped, a $50 million defamation suit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the same accusation.

Notably, Gabbard was an opponent of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) but has recently reversed her stance. The rule allows government officials to collect private surveillance data on Americans without a warrant if the officials are investigating foreign threats.

In 2018 Gabbard wrote on social media platform X that Section 702 was being used as a “blank check” to trample on Americans’ civil liberties. She also cosponsored a bill in 2020 with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to repeal the Patriot Act.

On Jan 10. she reversed course on Section 702, citing “significant FISA reforms,” while pledging to uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights.

RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ran as an independent candidate in the presidential election before dropping out in August 2024 and endorsing Trump.

The day he left the race, Trump vowed to appoint Kennedy to a panel addressing chronic disease among children.

During Trump’s presidential campaign, Kennedy announced his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, vowing to curtail factory-made “ultra processed” foods and address high rates of childhood obesity.

As secretary of HHS, Kennedy would oversee 13 agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

He has been a critic of the alliance between the FDA and corporate pharmaceutical interests.

“Every major pillar of the U.S. healthcare system, as a statement of economic fact, makes money when Americans get sick,” he said during a roundtable discussion.

“The most valuable asset in this country today is a sick child.”

Kennedy is often labeled as an “anti-vaxxer,” but he rejects this label, pointing out in a 2023 congressional hearing that his children are all vaccinated, and that he himself took the flu vaccine for “20 years straight.” He said he advocates for vaccine safety and transparency.

If confirmed, Kennedy has vowed to drastically overhaul the agencies under his purview, and to remove many officials—and entire departments—that he feels have not served the interest of public health.

Kash Patel

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for director of the FBI, has served numerous roles in the intelligence community.

Patel was the former chief of staff under Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, and a principal  deputy in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) under Richard Grenell.

He has been a vocal critic of alleged corruption in the intelligence community, and is expected to make sweeping reforms if confirmed.

“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state,’” Patel said during a September 2024 interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan.

“Then, I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops—go be cops.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he strongly opposes Patel’s nomination, and has requested documentation of any alleged previous misconduct by Patel from ODNI, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice.

Arjun Singh and Jeff Louderback contributed to this report.