A rush transcript of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” airing on Sunday, November 24, 2024 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the “This Week” transcript archive.
JONATHAN KARL, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: And joining us now is Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, a close ally of President-elect Trump.
Senator Haggerty, thank you for being with us.
I know you have spent a lot of time with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago and also in Texas since he won the election. Give – give us a sense, what do you – what do you expect – what does he expect for his first days in office? How’s he going to get started?
SEN. BILL HAGERTY, (R) TENNESSEE & (R) FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well, one, I’d say this, Jon, he’s got tremendous energy. He’s feeling great. The mandate that came from the American public is overwhelming and he’s absorbed that, I think, in a very positive way. He knows that the American public has voted to see change, radical change in Washington. And I think that’s what he’s ready to deliver. It’s our job, in the legislative branch, to work along side with him, arm in arm, and I look forward to doing that.
KARL: And I’ve – I’ve taken not with how quickly he’s made his cabinet nominees, White House staff announcements, much quicker than he did eight years ago. But, obviously, even in a Republican-controlled Senate, confirmation can be a bit sticky. What – what’s his expectation? How much of his cabinet does he expect to be in place for the first days of his presidency?
HAGERTY: He – he clearly expects to hit the ground running. He wants us to have these hearings done quickly and expeditiously. I’ve said, I’m more than happy to work through the weekends, as long as it takes, to get this done, to get people ready and – and prepared to go so that on the 21st of January the American public can begin to see his team get seated and the action that they hope to see, the change that they hope to see be put in place in terms of strengthening our economy, strengthening our military, basically making America the country that we all hope and believe it can be.
KARL: All right, so, obviously, there’s some controversy surrounding several of his picks. Perhaps most so, at this point, Pete Hegseth, to be the Defense secretary. I think he’s actually currently a constituent of yours. But – but he has faced – he’s faced these allegations of sexual assault dating back to 2017. You know, my understanding is Donald Trump didn’t even know about those allegations until after he named him. Is that your understanding?
HAGERTY: Jon, all these are, as you said, are allegations. It’s amazing how this comes down to – Pete is a very talented individual. I talked with him earlier this week. He told me, Jon, about how many people had written to him and said, look, I was thinking about getting out. You know we have a huge recruitment problem, a huge retention problem in the military. I was thinking about getting out. But now that you’ve come to lead us, Pete, I’m going to stay in. That’s the type of inspirational leader we need to see.
Don’t let these allegations distract us. What we need is real, significant change. The Pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than they have lethality the past four years. We need to get back to business, and I think Pete is just the person to do it.
KARL: But – but clearly, I mean, I’ve heard even from some of your Republican colleagues that you have to examine the allegations, you have to look at what’s there.
Are you confident that there’s nothing else to come about Pete Hegseth? I mean this was a pick that came together very quickly with – with very little vetting.
HAGERTY: Actually, the transition team has been working for months to prepare for this. I’m certain that there was significant vetting that has taken place. It has for every candidate. So, I’m not expecting anything to – to – to sort of see – drop, as you say, or – or that type of thing. What I expect is to see a thorough hearing take place, to see the Senate do its work. And I expect to see Pete Hegseth confirmed as our next secretary of Defense.
KARL: Your colleague, Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, of course, member of the Armed Services Committee, has said that she would like to see a – and a combat veteran herself, she would like to see an FBI background check that would be helpful of – of Pete Hegseth. As you know, there haven’t been FBI background checks for any of these nominees. Do you agree with her, though, that this – this should happen before we get to confirmation votes?
HAGERTY: I don’t think the American public cares who does the background checks. What the American public cares about is to see the mandate that they voted in delivered upon. We need to get to work again. Making our military stronger is absolutely critical. And I think we’re – we’re looking at a chance to do this.
If you look at the cabinet that’s in place right now, the worst that we’ve ever seen. Alejandro Mayorkas has got to go down as the worst cabinet secretary in history. If you think about the failures on his watch, the failures of FEMA, if you think about what’s happened at our southern border, the invasion that’s happened there, the murder of Laken Riley, the Secret Service failures, we have to get competent people into office.
Lloyd Austin overseeing Afghanistan. What a debacle that was.
KARL: So –
HAGERTY: No one has been held to account by the Biden administration. The American public is ready to hold the people – hold – hold these people to account now and replace them with a new team.
KARL: So, you’re saying you don’t care about FBI background checks? Should we just do away with them. That you can go ahead and not do this for – it’s been standard practice, as you know – you know for a long time, but you’re saying do away with it?
HAGERTY: Certainly not. I’ve been through it myself. I’ve been through it myself.
KARL: Yes.
HAGERTY: I’ve been through confirmation as – as well. They need to do these checks expeditiously. The FBI – I think the American public’s had great concerns about how weaponized it’s become. They need to get on with this. We’ll get this done.
KARL: I understand you’ve also had some concerns about Hegseth’s view on women in combat. You know, he said pretty flatly, although there are some exceptions that he’s outlined, but he doesn’t like women in combat. You disagree with him, as I – as I understand it. Has he given you assurances that he won’t try to change Pentagon policy on that?
HAGERTY: The – the – the policy is set by the president of the United States, not by the cabinet members. I may disagree with him. Look, I – I disagreed with Rahm Emanuel on many things, but I supported him to be our ambassador to Japan because that was what we needed to do at that point in time.
I think Pete Hegseth will follow the lead of the commander in chief. That’s what I fully expect.
KARL: OK, and let me ask you about the other – the big announcement that came Friday. Once again, Donald Trump moving very quickly. Gaetz drops out and then, boom, you have Pam Bondi announced as – actually Thursday as – as the choice for attorney general. I – you know, she’s – she’s, obviously, qualified. She’s been, you know, attorney general for Florida for eight years.
HAGERTY: Yes.
KARL: She’s also a lobbyist and – and she’s lobbied for the Qatari government. You called the Qatari government a, quote, “Hamas benefactor.” Are – are you concerned that – that you have, as the attorney general, somebody that lobbied on behalf of somebody that you consider a Hamas benefactor?
HAGERTY: Well, I’m not familiar with Pam’s background and her career beyond being attorney general of Florida, which I understand she was a great attorney general. I know Pam. I think she’ll be outstanding in the job.
I’ll say this about the Qataris. They’ve now kicked Hamas out. This is the Trump effect taking place, even before he takes office. So, I certainly am pleased to see that occur and I hope we see more of it.
KARL: OK, let me ask you about another one there. We’ve got Tulsi Gabbard to head of the intelligence agencies, DNI. She is somebody who has been harshly critical, not that long ago, of Donald Trump. In fact, while Trump was in office.
So, let me – let me just go over some of the things that she has said. On the Iran nuclear deal she said, quote, “it is unacceptable that Trump withdrew. The action that this Trump administration has taken in reneging and breaking our role in the Iran nuclear agreement when Iran is complying.” She also said that President Trump’s decision to take out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is, quote, “an illegal and unconstitutional act of war,” and that it “further highlighted his,” Trump’s, “lack of experience and understanding on a basic level and a lack of foresight in national security and foreign policy.” She has also, of course, blamed the United States and NATO for Russia’s decision – illegal action to invade Ukraine. What – what – what – what’s your feeling on Tulsi Gabbard to head DNI?
HAGERTY: Well, I certainly don’t have to agree with her on every point either, Jon, nor do the president – (INAUDIBLE) it was bold –
KARL: These are some pretty big points, though.
HAGERTY: Well, I – you know, for example, on the Iran nuclear deal, we found out later, Israel proved it, they were not complying. You know, you can have bad information. What – what I think happens here, though, is there are consequences in President Trump’s cabinet. There have been zero consequences in President Biden’s cabinet. Again, massive failures on his watch, massive failures by his cabinet members.
You look at what Tony Blinken and – and Lloyd Austin have done on an international scale. They’ve not been held to account. Again, the debacle in Afghanistan, probably the greatest embarrassment in our lifetimes. No one held to account.
President Trump will fire people that don’t do their job well. I fully expect everybody coming into the cabinet will listen to President Trump, they’ll let him set the policy, and they’ll execute according to that plan.
KARL: And – and – and finally, the issue of recess appointments. You know, Trump had suggested and – and wanted John Thune to – to agree to it, the idea that if he can’t get confirmation on any of these, that he could bypass the Senate and do what – what’s called recess appointments. Is that still on the table? Do you think that’s still something that – that – that Trump is considering?
HAGERTY: It is – it should be on the table on. President Reagan used it. President Clinton used it. George W. Bush used it. This is a constitutionally available tool.
What we want to see is Democrats cooperate with us. But as a resistance move, and, yes, as heavy as it was I – I – you know, I’ve been through the process myself of confirmation. I turn my paperwork in on the 21st of January. I didn’t get through the process until July.
So, we need to see things move in a far more expeditious pattern. We need to see things move quickly. The American public has spoken in that regard. As I said in the beginning, President Trump is ready for action. We need to put his team in place around him. And he needs every tool at his disposal to do that.
KARL: Recess appointments have certainly been used by Barack Obama and named members famously to the National Labor Relations Board in a recess appointment, but never, as I understand it, for positions as important as cabinet secretaries and – you know, of the largest cabinet agencies. And – and let me just ask you, just finally, you mentioned if Democrats are obstructing, would he do that or try to do that if he didn’t have the Republican votes to get somebody confirmed, because that’s the issue, if he doesn’t have the Republican votes, would he try to bypass the Senate and – and – and appoint a major cabinet secretary in a recess?
HAGERTY: Again, Jon, I haven’t spoken with President Trump about the specific plans. What he wants to do is see these appointments made quickly. He wants to see us get through the confirmation process. And again, I think everything should be on the table. And I think if my colleagues understand that, they’ll know that they need to step up and move – move expeditiously to get thee cabinet members confirmed.
KARL: All right, Senator Bill Hagerty, thank you very much for joining us on this Sunday.
HAGERTY: Thank you, Jon.
KARL: Thank you.
HAGERTY: Very good to be with you today.
KARL: Coming up, will Democrats get behind any of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar backed half of his first cabinet picks last time. We’re going to talk to her in just a few minutes.
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PAM BONDI, FORMER FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: — the White House and we will be back in there in 18 months or less. You know what’s going to happen. The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted, the bad ones. The investigators will be investigated because the deep state last first term for President Trump, they were hiding in the shadows. But now, they have a spotlight on them and they can all be investigated and the house needs to be cleaned out.
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JONATHAN KARL, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: That was Donald Trump’s new nominee for Attorney General Pam Bondi just 15 months ago, promising retribution at the Justice Department.
Here to discuss that and more is Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, coming to us from the Halifax Security Forum in Nova Scotia.
Thank you, Senator, for joining us.
Look —
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thank you very much, Jonathan. And it’s good to be in Canada. I have not moved here. I want to make that clear and we are — we’re really having a good discussion here, Democrats and Republicans, with foreign policy leaders about our strong support for Ukraine.
KARL: So, so let me ask you about the discussions to come on the confirmation. Let’s start with Pam Bondi. Look, I know you had serious concerns about Trump’s first choice, Matt Gaetz, I think you called him an absurd choice among other things.
What about Pam Bondi? What — what do you — what do you make of her?
KLOBUCHAR: Right. Well, to make clear to have Matt Gaetz who was under investigation for sex trafficking run in a department of 115,000 law enforcement people, yeah, I had — I thought it was absurd.
Pam Bondi will have a hearing and we’ll be able to make her views clear. I think the things that I look at, is this someone competent? And are they going to uphold the law?
It is so important. It’s the lead law enforcement officer for our country. And does it concern me that revenge would be part of her mission? Of course, it does.
I hope that’s not the case. I hope that what she wants to do is uphold the Constitution because that is a really important job, especially the attorney general job in our country’s law enforcement and in our country’s justice system.
KARL: You’re – you’re on the judiciary committee, so you’ll be part of those confirmation hearings. Do you expect to meet with her beforehand one-on-one?
KLOBUCHAR: Of course, I do and that has always been the case during Democratic or Republican presidents. Our job is to look at the FBI background check and is to ask them questions to make sure they’re fulfilling the mission of the department.
In this case, I am concerned with all these nominees — and I’m not singling her out — if we do not have an agreement for FBI background checks. As far as I know, the transition committee has not made that agreement yet. This has been something that that’s going on back to Eisenhower’s days and when you look at some of the nominees and some of the issues with them, not all of them, not all of them.
But when you look at it, you have to be able to find out what went on. We require these background checks of line DEA agents, drug enforcement agents we required of first time prosecutors for the federal government. Why wouldn’t we get these background checks for the most important jobs in the United States government?
KARL: I mean, even junior officials at the White House historically have had FBI background checks. I want to get some more of that in a second but first —
KLOBUCHAR: Right, I was noticing that when Senator Hagerty talked about getting his papers in —
KARL: Yeah.
KLOBUCHAR: — that’s part of getting your papers in. So if they keep delaying on these background checks, we will have a delay in getting these cabinet officials in.
And I don’t want to have a delay. I want to have the hearings. I want to make a decision on each one of them, on the merits. As I’ve done in the past, and I can’t do that without the background checks.
KARL: So, so to be clear, you don’t think there should be hearings until the background checks are completed?
KLOBUCHAR: Sometimes it is an ongoing process and you could do it at the same time but we just need the background checks. We need the hearings. And remember part of what Senator Hagerty was talking about and others have talked about is not even having a hearing at all.
And I want to make this really clear, this recess appointment as you pointed out Jonathan has been sometimes used on lower level officials. Very, very, very rarely for cabinet officials. As far as I know, it has never been used and the U.S. Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision said that Congress sets its own recesses and makes its own decisions.
You already have Senator Thune, the incoming leader on the Republican side, making very clear that they don’t have a vote to ram through people during these recess appointments because in the end, it is the Republicans that are going to have to make a decision if these people are qualified for these jobs. They have the votes. They have over 51 votes right now in the Senate.
So while it is our job under the Constitution to raise questions to ask them where they stand on issues, to look at if what they are going to do, whether it’s running the Justice Department or running the Health Department, if it’s truly going to help the American people, that’s our job. In the end, it’s going to be the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, their decision about whether they want to put these people in place.
KARL: You know John Thune well and you’re one of these Democrat who has had good relations with — worked with the Republicans. Do you think they would go along with this? I know Thune said everything is on the table. But do you really think Republican senators would allow would allow — would fold and allow major cabinet secretaries to be confirmed without even the Senate voting?
KLOBUCHAR: I don’t and I think a number of them both publicly and privately have said that they will not go along with that. So I don’t think that’s going to happen.
I also think you have senators such as Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and a conservative senator from North Dakota, Senator Cramer, making very clear that they believe they need the background checks to make decisions. So I mean, you add all that together, Democrats aren’t delaying anything here.
We’re not — it’s on them. They’ve got to get their background checks together. They’ve got to get qualified nominees and then we’re interested in doing the work of the American people.
We want to continue the work of President Biden to bring down drug costs and that includes on the insulin cap negotiating the Medicare prices, that’s a big, big job that’s coming up because we have a number of drugs that are going to be under negotiation next year. We want to continue the work of bringing in more affordable housing and doing something more on child care. These are basic bread and butter issues.
But if things get delayed because they’re not getting their background checks, or they don’t have the votes for certain nominees, that just mucks up things.
And so, I hope that uh they will put in qualified nominees and we will get these background checks and we will move forward and we will not have brouhahas over people like Matt Gaetz that shouldn’t have been nominated in the first place.
KARL: And as we pointed out earlier, you confirmed I think it is exactly half of Trump’s initial first cabinet picks eight years ago, when it comes to Pam Bondi, the one that’s you’re going to be taking a lead role on on the confirmation hearings, do you see — I know you did not vote for either Jeff Sessions or Bill Barr, those were Trump’s two confirmed attorneys general. Of course, Trump didn’t like them either ultimately for different reasons.
But do you see a scenario where you would vote to confirm Pam Bondi?
KLOBUCHAR: I don’t know yet and I never weigh in unless it’s something as absurd as Matt Gaetz was and which my Republican colleagues were telling me incredibly troubling things about his background. In this case, as with every nominee, I believe you need to hear them out. You need to meet with them as I will do with this nominee, and then you make a decision.
So I think you’ll see a lot of Democrats and Republicans in that posture. That being said, when you look at some of the views of some of these nominees, you asked Senator Hagerty about Pete Hegseth, the nominee for the Defense Department, the fact that he has said even just recently this was, you know, 10 years ago that he didn’t want women in combat, when 18 percent of our military is made up of women, when that is how we made our recruiting goals last year was the fact that women are signing up for the military and we have thousands in combat right now, that really concerns me for the good of our military, that someone would have that position.
So that’s an example, or when we have someone nominated for the Health Department that’s says that they question timeworn vaccines — vaccines that save kids’ lives. I’m not even talking here about the COVID vaccine which clearly saved lives, but I’m talking about other vaccines as well.
So those are the kinds of things that I think are important. It is qualifications that gets to the background check, and then it is — is there — are their views consistent with the American peoples in terms of where we need to move forward as a country? And will they be able to manage major, major departments of tens of thousands of people?
KARL: All right. Senator Amy Klobuchar from Canada, thank you very much. I mean, from Minnesota, but coming to us from Canada.
KLOBUCHAR: Well —
KARL: Thank you very — thank you very much thank you.
KLOBUCHAR: Via Canada.
KARL: Thank you.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
KARL: Thank you very much for joining us.
KLOBUCHAR: Thanks, Jonathan.
KARL: Up next, the writing was on the wall for Matt Gaetz. Is another Trump pick in danger of losing support from Senate Republicans? The round table is next.
