cabinet picks go before senate committee before their confirmation hearings, interior secretary, ryan zinke going before the energy and natural resources committee and secretary of education pick betsy devos, facing the senate health education and labor committee. our chief correspondent john roberts is live with more for us now. good afternoon to you, congressman ryan zinke s confirmation starts at 2:00, betsy devos will be an evening affair starting at 5:00 today. for ryan zinke, they are focusing on disciplinary action taken against him while he was in the military for filing, mr. presenting at least a travel expense that he filed back when he was a navy seal, sean spicer the incoming press secretary said of that people are shamelessly trying to impugn his character. we are expecting as to as he ds his confirmation hearing today is going to be a contentious one, democrats are saying she has not completed the requisite questionnaires for the office of
employees and a budget of 48 billion, with a b, dollars. the man picked to run the cia came out with a much harder line than his soon-to-be boss on russia. during today s confirmation hearing, and that apparently is okay with the president-elect. correspondent peter doocy is outside trump tower tonight with that part of the story. this was an aggressive action taken by the senior leadership inside of russia, talking about russian hacking at a confirmation hearing today, cia director nominee mike pompeo went a lot further than his boss, mr. trump went yesterday, he says he thinks russia was responsible for hocking the dnc. but mr. trump says he things he can improve ties. i don t know if i m going to get along with vladimir putin. i hope i do. but there is a good chance i won t. but i trump tower, there s apparently no problem at any time a nominee expresses a different idea about russia, from the president-elect. it has happened a few times now. he is not asking for for a . his
that they took this information in briefings to the president-elect, and the president. two people with a finite amount of time. and this operative has given credible information in the past. and three, that democratic and republican lawmakers, senators are taking a hard look at this as well. if you happen to watch the sessions confirmation hearing today, before our story came out, because a lot of the information contained in this is classified, senators asking not too veiled questions that seem to be referring to this information, saying are you investigating donald trump communications with russia, et cetera. james comey refused to comment in public session, but those senators, there s a reason they re asking these questions, because they ve seen these documents as well, and they take them seriously. i got to go. thank you gentlemen, appreciate.
what, if anything, can you say about that? well, wolf, i haven t been specifically briefed on that. i have followed your coverage of it this evening and if these allegations are true, allegations of coordination between trump campaign officials and russian intelligence officials, and allegations that the russians have compromised president-elect trump s independence, that would be truly shocking. that would be that would be explosi explosive. yeah, we have not corroborated those allegations. the fbi has not corroborated those allegations, either. were you satisfied with senator sessions answers today at the first part of this confirmation hearing process? well, one thing about jeff sessions, senator sessions confirmation hearing today, there s no surprise, he s one of the most conservative members of the senate and he came out swinging, defending many of his positions and actions. but there were a few points and you just touched on them a few minutes ago, wolf, where there we
case tweeted snowden accepted venezuela s offer for asylum but the tweets were later deleted. the obama administration has been pressuring allies not to grant him asylum to make sure he returns to face espionage charges in the u.s. one report we have, venezuela has sent a plane to moscow to bring him bab. also today, president obama s nominee for fbi director, james comey, tries to defuse criticism he had permitted waterboarding while serving in the bush justice department and his confirmation hearing today. comey declared that waterboarding is torture. previously he had endorsed a legal memo that authorized the use of waterboarding when he served as deputy attorney general under george w. bush but today comey told lawmakers that he always believed that the practice was wrong but was overruled. absolutely, senator. i when i first learned about waterboarding, when i became deputy attorney general, my reaction as a citizen and a leader was this is torture, it s still what i think.