WASHINGTON - Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees have contradicted the president-elect one after another in Senate confirmation hearings this week, distancing themselves from his remarks Russian hacking, torture, a Muslim ban and registry, mosque surveillance, NATO, the Iran nuclear deal, even infrastructure, deportations and that border wall.
The Washington Post writes that James Mattis, Trump’s nominee to head the Pentagon, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. must honour the “imperfect arms-control agreement” with Iran that Trump has vowed to dismantle. “When America gives her word, we have to live up to it and work with our allies,” Mattis said.
The nominee for Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions spent a lot of the day on Thursday reassuring his colleagues that he would follow the law, first and foremost, and expressing his disagreements with some of the president-elect’s more extreme proposals.”
Sessions said he opposed bringing back waterboarding as an extreme interrogation technique, and he also said that he opposed other Trump campaign proposals of banning Muslims from coming into the U.S. amid terrorism concerns and also said he opposed any type of registry of Muslims either.
“And I think we should avoid surveillance of religious institutions unless there’s a basis to believe that dangerous or threatening illegal activity could be carried on there,” he added.
And on Wednesday, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, contradicted the president-elect’s suggestions that climate change is a hoax. But if Trump is bothered by the contradictions, he isn’t showing it. Friday morning, he tweeted he wants the nominees to “be themselves.”
Donald Trump’s cordial tone towards Russia contrasts with many of his nominees including Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, and James Mattis.
Tillerson’s performance, meanwhile, has left senators on the fence about whether to support him, according to The Hill newspaper. No Democrats have come out to support the former Exxon Mobil Corporation CEO, and key Republicans aren’t saying how they’ll vote. But one Republican, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said he thought Tillerson’s nomination was “salvageable” in a Thursday interview on MSNBC.
Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan was pressed Thursday night at a CNN town hall over some of Trump’s campaign promises, including a “deportation force” for undocumented immigrants. “It’s not happening” in Congress, Ryan said, doubling down on earlier statements he has made.