Trump shrugs off contradictions from Cabinet picks

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is shrugging off contradictions with his own Cabinet picks that have been on display during Senate hearings this week.

“All my Cabinet nominee are looking good and doing a great job. I want them to be themselves and express their own thoughts, not mine!” Trump said via Twitter early Friday.

The comment comes after members of Trump’s future Cabinet, in confirmation hearings this week, diverged from the president-elect’s positions on a series of issues, including Russia, torture and Muslim immigration.

Partly as a result the nominees have gotten mostly gentle treatment from Senate Democrats who say they’ve found the Cabinet choices more palatable than the future president himself.

“As I meet members of the Cabinet I’m puzzled because many of them sound reasonable, far more reasonable than their president,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, picked for attorney general, said he’s against any outright ban on immigration by Muslims, in contrast to Trump’s onetime call to suspend admittance of Muslims. Secretary of State candidate Rex Tillerson affirmed U.S. commitments to NATO and took a relatively hard line on Russia, both in contrast to Trump — though Tillerson irked GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida by refusing to label Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”

And CIA pick Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., affirmed his opposition to torture and said he would refuse any Trump order to torture, adding he could not imagine Trump would give such a directive.

Trump, while campaigning, suggested bringing back waterboarding and more.