Getting vital cabinet positions filled and in place when President-elect Donald Trump takes office is a matter of national security, and care will need to be taken to prevent the seats from remaining open for too long while confirmation hearings proceed, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Monday.
"There is a national security interest in getting the secretary of state, the attorney general, and other cabinet members in place and on the job, and having their staffs and deputies and lower level people in place as well, in order to maintain the security of the country," Mukasey, who served under former President George W. Bush, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"Foreign countries don't run on the same calendar that we do," Mukasey continued. "Crises don't run on a calendar that says we'll take time off because there is a new administration. The crises keep coming, and they'll have to be dealt with by a new administration that needs people in place."
The confirmations of Trump nominees Rex Tillerson for secretary of state and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., as attorney general could be the toughest, Mukasey said.
Tillerson will likely face questions about his past relationships with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, and Sessions will likely be asked about his views on immigration and about past statements others have considered racist.
"What he ought to do, and what he may do, and what others may do is explain the context in which remarks were made that are now distorted into being racist remarks," Mukasey said.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama's nominees "got through very quickly and without much fuss and other at all," Mukasey said, and he does not see a problem with Trump announcing his first presidential news conference will be held Wednesday, while the confirmation hearings are taking place.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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