The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NOMINEES MAKE THEIR CASE
President-elect Donald Trump’s choices for 3 key posts faced hearings Thursday.
Defense
Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. defense secretary, placed Russia first among principal threats facing the United States. “I have very modest expectations for areas of cooperation” with Russia, he said. He also signaled that he doesn’t intend to reverse the Obama administration decision that opened combat positions to women.
CIA
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., the nominee for CIA director, said he would “absolutely not” comply with any orders from Trump to start using enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. Pompeo repeatedly assured members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that he would not restart the CIA’s use of secret prisons and brutal interrogation tactics.
Housing
Ben Carson, the nominee for housing secretary, detailed his vision for the Department of Housing and Urban Development: one that integrates government assistance with greater involvement of businesses and faith groups. Carson said he understands the needs of the country’s most vulnerable. “I have actually in my life understood what housing insecurity was,” he told lawmakers.
WASHINGTON — Ben Carson, nominee for secretary of housing and urban development, presented himself Thursday as a credible manager for a sprawling federal bureaucracy, navigating an unlikely transition from celebrated neurosurgeon and genial conservative presidential candidate to the steward of U.S. housing policy.
At a Senate confirmation hearing, Carson, 65, strained at times to square his past remarks on the dangers of federal assistance — he once called poverty “really more of a choice than anything else” — with the mission of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an agency with a $47 billion budget and a mandate to help millions of low-income renters and struggling homeowners.
Forgoing many specifics, he laid out a vision of a more “holistic” approach: recruiting private sector dollars and seeking to end what he called a cycle of “generation after generation of people living in dependent situations.”
“Safety net programs are important. I would never advocate abolishing them without having an alternative for people to follow,” he said, adding that “some have distorted what I’ve said about government.”
Yet Americans have come to view HUD’s mission as “putting roofs over the heads of poor people,” Carson said. “It has the ability to be so much more than that.”
As with his presidential campaign, Carson leaned heavily on his compelling biography, straying frequently from his prepared opening remarks as he spoke of life in an impoverished section of Detroit as the son of a single mother with a thirdgrade education.
He waded through several contentious moments, including some aimed at his prospective boss, President-elect Donald Trump, and the specter of conflicts over HUD funding and Trump family business ventures.
But Carson, who was prone to occasionally bewildering remarks as a candidate, appeared to avoid any major slips Thursday.
The tone of the proceedings diverged sharply from that of hearings this week for Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the selection for attorney general. Both men faced aggressive questioning from Democrats — and, in Tillerson’s case, from a Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
On Thursday, however, Rubio introduced Carson as a leader with “the values, the compassion and the character and the kind of drive that we need.”
Senators from both parties made warm reference to Carson’s granddaughter in attendance, who wore pink headphones during the testimony. They thanked him for his career in medicine.
Even some of the more pointed questioners, like Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, ranking Democrat on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, were disarmed.
“You remind me of Columbo,” Carson said at one point, to extended laughs.
“I’ve actually heard that before,” Brown said.
Still, there were sharp exchanges.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sought to pin Carson down on a simple question: “Can you assure me that not a single taxpayer dollar that you give out will financially benefit the president-elect or his family?”
Carson said he would be driven by morals. Warren cut him off, saying her specific concern was whether grants and loans could specifically benefit Trump.
“It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any American,” Carson said, becoming flustered for a moment before quickly clarifying that he wanted to use the department to help “all Americans.”