Summary
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) dismissed the necessity of FBI background checks for Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, claiming the public prioritizes implementing Trump’s policies over vetting appointees.
On ABC’s This Week, Hagerty criticized Biden officials and supported Trump’s expedited transition process, despite reports that many nominees, including Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, have bypassed FBI checks.
Moderator Jonathan Karl expressed concern over abandoning standard vetting practices, but Hagerty argued the FBI is “weaponized” and insisted checks would be completed quickly, though no evidence supports his claims of agency bias.
People in the media need to stop feigning fucking shock over this shit.
If you’re still shocked you’re complicit because these assholes have been telling you very clearly who they are and what they plan to do for over ten years now.
How do you expect us to take you seriously as arbiters of the truth when you’re fucking constantly shocked stupid by the reality that’s been staring you in the face for a decade. At a certain point, it beggars belief that you’re somehow still shocked that shitty people who promised to be shitty people are indeed shitty people doing the shitty things they promised to do.
If you’re truly, genuinely shocked at this point, you’re an idiot.
The folks who are shocked seems to be because they can’t interpret beyond the exact literal words they say.
It’s an abdication of journalistic responsibility, this refusal to contextualize and explain. It’s all just repeating the surface of what people said today, without any attempt to communicate what’s at stake and why it matters. This is the journalistic equivalent of the useless manager who does nothing but forward emails.
Funny thing… the FBI is “weaponized” against people who have dodgy backgrounds. I can see how that could present issues for the modern Republican party.
That said… I’ve had that check done. It took about 4 months. Obviously, I’m not as high a priority as the US executive team, but Trump is in a situation where he needs to get everyone vetted by mid-December. That’s better than what he did last time around, where he didn’t even begin most of the vetting for appointments until after inauguration.
There is nothing normal about this, stop trying to normalize it.
He didn’t vet people after the inauguration last time. He didn’t do it at all.
He vetted them for not being like Hitler’s generals at a record pace afterward though
I had a top secret clearance in my old job. The whole process usually takes less than 9 months and anything outside a year usually means there’s something fishy with your background. It boggles my mind that members of Congress aren’t required to have security clearances and waiving background checks is completely insane. They’re clearly hiding a lot of nefarious and dodgy crap that would otherwise disqualify them from office
Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence—have not gone through the FBI process, as Trump does not trust federal background checks.
the donvict wouldn’t even pass a background check himself.
Remember when Jared had to resubmit his SF86 like a dozen times before Trump said “fuck it, just give him a clearance”
That’s what they mean by the FBI being “weaponized” against them: it’s doing the job effectively and rightly identifying Republicans as crooks and spies.
Background checks bad, genital checks good.
This is how you get people into positions where they can be blackmailed
I’m going to be a bit provocative here and ask people:
What are YOU doing about it?
Scooping up old pressure cookers on Craigslist.
Rawlsian veil of ignorance
strikes againwould once again be awesome to use.Imagine that one side gets no background checks, and the other does, but you don’t know which side gets what. Do you agree to that?
