TOPLINE: Speculation over who may fill the top posts at the Pentagon and State Department in a Donald Trump administration is heading into overdrive.
The leading candidate for Defense Secretary is Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), according to some Hill sources, but the senator received some pushback from critics on Tuesday.
But a top Trump ally in Congress defended Sessions, saying he would “root out all the B.S.” at the Pentagon.
“He’s a guy who not only knows the defense-side of stuff, but he can root out all the B.S. that the Pentagon has become and has infested the Pentagon right now,” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a former Marine and member of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Hill’s Kristina Wong.
To read more about that interview, click here.
Meanwhile for secretary of State, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton have emerged as leading contenders.
But a prominent Republican is leading the charge against Bolton.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted Bolton in an op-ed Tuesday, calling him “a longtime member of the failed Washington elite that Trump vowed to oppose.” The Hill’s Alex Bolton has more about Paul’s opposition here.
The Hill’s Jonathan Swan and Peter Schroeder have more here on how the other cabinet posts are shaping up. |