PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In Washington, D.C., Senate confirmation hearings are moving quickly for nominees for key positions in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is under scrutiny for secretary of state, while former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is in the hot seat for Attorney General. Security for the upcoming inauguration will be tight, with 30 miles of fencing. Pardon rumors for some Jan. 6 Capitol insurgents linger.
To discuss the latest developments just five days out from the second inauguration of Donald Trump, CBS News congressional correspondent Scott McFarlane joined KYW’s Michelle Durham live from Capitol Hill.
Michelle Durham: Tuesday was a testy day on the Hill for Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. And I know confirmations for others continue or are in the process of being scheduled.
Scott MacFarlane: Yeah, there were about a half dozen today. They're moving quickly here, but two big ones: Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, to be secretary of state (He's really being interviewed and questioned by his own colleagues, some of whom he has seniority over in the U.S. Senate), and then Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, who is seeking to be the U.S. Attorney General.
Some very animated moments there in Pam Bondi's hearing.
She is a devoted Trump ally. In fact, she defended Trump in his first impeachment in 2020.
A lot of Democrats pressing her on whether she'll truly be independent from Trump as an attorney General is supposed to be.
She also kind of failed to declaratively say Trump lost the 2020 election while being questioned today. That kind of stuck in the craw of a lot of Democrats.
Inaugural security and of course logistics, and I'm assuming as you are that security will be extremely tight, considering what happened to Trump on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania.
Yeah, there's tight—and then there's inaugural tight. We have found there'll be 30 miles of fencing surrounding Washington, D.C., the U.S. Capitol, and other landmarks for inauguration Monday.
That is just quite something—wall-to-wall federal agents near the Capitol complex.
This has been designated a national special security event. That's the type of designation they give the Super Bowl and State of the Union addresses.
This is going to be an enormous footprint, which is important to note because according to law enforcement sources, about 25 million tickets have been readied for inaugural attendees, a lot of them from the Philadelphia area, they're gonna have to go through an enormous labyrinth to get to the West Lawn of the Capitol or the National Mall to see this in person.
And I'm hearing that there could be pardons for some Jan. 6 participants. When could we start to see those?
It looks like those could happen Monday—at least some [may happen on] inaugural Monday, according to Trump. It became an issue in Senate deliberations today over the attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina says it is not appropriate for Trump to offer blanket pardons.
In fact, Tillis told me he doesn't think Trump is going to offer blanket pardons, that that prospect would be just misinformation. That it would just be some (to receive a pardon) and should not be those who were violent against police officers.
Trump has never clarified that.
That is a huge pending question between now and Monday 12 p.m.