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00:00In the week before Donald Trump's return to the White House, many of his most prominent
00:04cabinet choices sailed relatively unscathed through their Senate hearings.
00:09One of Trump's most embattled picks has been Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran
00:14chosen to lead the Department of Defense.
00:16He has publicly questioned whether women should serve in combat and has railed against diversity
00:21initiatives.
00:22Criteria have been changed in order to meet quotas, racial quotas or gender quotas.
00:30That is putting a focus on something other than readiness, standards, meritocracy and
00:36lethality.
00:37Hegseth has also faced allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking on the job.
00:43Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and a lawyer for Trump during his 2020 impeachment
00:48trial, has been tapped for the top law enforcement job.
00:52She was greeted politely in her hearing, where she said she was open to pardons for some
00:56convicted for their roles in the 2021 pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol.
01:02To serve as secretary of state, Trump chose Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who vowed to
01:07put America first.
01:09He described the United States as in an existential economic battle with China.
01:13If we stay on the road we're on right now, in less than 10 years, virtually everything
01:18that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or
01:21not.
01:22Rubio also said NATO relies too much on the United States for primary defense.
01:28These interviews may turn out to be the smoothest for Trump's team, as some of the most potentially
01:33fiery hearings have yet to be scheduled.
01:36They include Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has consistently
01:41spread misinformation about vaccines.
01:44He sought to stop COVID-19 vaccinations, calling the rollout a dystopian nightmare worse than
01:50life in Nazi Germany.
01:53Former Democratic Congresswoman-turned-Trumpist Tulsi Gabbard, who was tapped for director
01:57of national intelligence, has been criticized for her lack of qualifications, as well as
02:02her attitude towards U.S. adversaries.
02:05Gabbard met Syria's then-President Bashar al-Assad in 2017 and declared him not the
02:11enemy.
02:12She has also voiced sympathy for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
02:15The most controversial, however, is likely Kash Patel, Trump's nominee to run the FBI.
02:22Patel is seen as the ultimate Trump loyalist and has vowed that Trump would come after
02:26journalists, lawyers and judges he believes haven't treated him fairly.
02:31Patel has been a virulent critic of the bureau and has threatened to shut down the agency's
02:36headquarters and turn it into a museum.
02:39Republicans only have a four-seat majority in the Senate, meaning that more than three
02:43defections could doom a nomination.