Tuesday Edition: What the Hearings Told Us
Cabinet nominee hearings provide insights into the state of our politics.

While President Trump’s inauguration grabbed most of the headlines yesterday, the ongoing Cabinet nominee hearings provide deeper insights into the state of our politics.
1. What Scott Bessent’s Testimony Says About Republicans
Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent’s exchange last week with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia captured the stark difference in how Dems and Republicans view the government’s role in the economy. (WSJ)
What happened: Warnock asked Bessent if he favored letting tax cuts from President Trump’s 2017 tax bill expire for Americans making more than $400,000.
Bessent replied that such a move would impact an “inordinate amount of small business owners” who rely on “pass-through” taxation to ensure their profits aren’t taxed twice.
Bessent: “Wall Street's done great. It is time for Main Street to do well and small businesses need to drive what I call the reprivatization away from this government spending. … I think it's important that we put in incentives for [small business owners] to invest.”
Context: Democrats like Warnock have tried to cast Bessent as a corporate-minded lacky for the ultra-rich, unconcerned with wealth and class inequalities.
In a press release, Warnock accused Bessent of insisting on “preserving tax cuts for the richest Americans while the deficit grows and working-class Georgians struggle.”
Related: Bessent’s back and forth with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., touched on similar themes.
Sanders pressed Bessent on whether he supported raising the federal minimum wage.
The Trump nominee said he believes the “minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue.”
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s take: “The bigger point is that one side of this debate sees the dynamic U.S. labor market as an engine of upward mobility, while Mr. Sanders thinks the way to help workers is to have the government manage the market, including with a $17 minimum wage. But setting a uniform nationwide price control on hourly labor, the same rate of pay in Midtown Manhattan and rural North Dakota, has all sorts of distorting effects.”
Bubba’s Two Cents
Watching the Dems question Bessent, it’s clear they’re locked into a mindset that leans heavily on expanding government’s role in the economy. Sure, Americans care about issues like wealth inequality and unchecked corporate power, and even Republicans are rethinking their stance on unregulated markets. But to me, Bessent’s remarks came off as pragmatic—open to leveraging market tools where they genuinely serve the public good.
2. One Moment From Pam Bondi’s Testimony Reveals the Divide on “Justice”
At last week’s attorney general confirmation hearing, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Pam Bondi displayed contrasting perspectives on what the U.S. criminal justice system should prioritize.
What happened: Schiff pressed Bondi on whether, as head of the Justice Department, she’d be able to maintain her independence from President Trump.
After his 2024 election win, Trump hinted he might try to prosecute political enemies like Liz Cheney and Jack Smith.
Schiff also referenced the House Jan. 6 committee investigation into Trump’s actions ahead of Capitol riot, asking Bondi to commit to ensuring no evidence would be “destroyed” under her watch.
Schiff: “Are you aware of any factual basis to investigate Liz Cheney? ... The president has called for it publicly. You are aware of that, aren't you?”
Bondi’s response: “You’re all so worried about Liz Cheney, senator. You know what we should be worried about? The crime rate in California right now is through the roof. Your robberies are 87 percent higher than the national average. My question is this. That's what I want to be focused on, senator, if I'm confirmed as attorney general.”
Bubba’s Two Cents
Democrats are still harping on Jan. 6 and Trump, but—however you feel about the president’s actions leading up to that day—Americans ultimately rejected this narrative by reelecting him. Meanwhile, the public’s concerns about crime have been ticking up in recent years. I think the message is clear—Americans as a whole want the criminal justice system to move on from Trump and get to work on the nuts and bolts of making streets safer for everyone.
3. Climate Change Grandstanding vs. Nuclear Substance
While Democratic senators focused on performative rhetoric about climate change, energy secretary nominee Chris Wright offered detailed, substantive insights on nuclear policy during his testimony. (WaPo)
What Dems wanted to talk about: Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., challenged Wright on past comments made by the energy executive, including a LinkedIn post in which he declared that “the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify” government policies on climate change.
During a 2021 appearance on the “PetroNerds” podcast, Wright criticized news outlets that connected wildfires to climate change.
While testifying last week, Wright said “climate change is a real and global phenomenon” but stood by his past statements.
Padilla: “Tell that to the families of the more than two dozen lost in these fires and counting because urban search and rescue teams are still going property by property with cadaver dogs. That number is going to climb. I’m disappointed, Mr. Wright.”
The drama: Multiple climate change protesters, some holding signs, were arrested after they interrupted Wright’s confirmation hearing.
What Wright wanted to talk about: Wright’s testimony emphasized his belief in the importance of boosting domestic energy production, with a focus on liquefied natural gas, and nuclear power, as key to economic growth and global competitiveness.
Wright on the nuclear fuel supply chain: “It is a significant hole in the U.S. arsenal right now—a technology we developed, but yet we import most of it from abroad. And most that's enriched in the U.S. is by companies that are not American companies. We need to build American nuclear infrastructure, on mining, on enrichment.”
Bubba’s Two Cents
Padilla’s line of questioning, framing scientific disagreement as a moral flaw, gives away the game: turning a routine confirmation into a performance. Compared to some of Trump’s other picks, Wright is remarkably uncontroversial, but in this age of soundbite and spectacle, you can’t let an opportunity to grandstand go to waste. It’s especially hypocritical for Padilla to claim Wright insulted wildfire victims while the California senator is the one exploiting their suffering for political theater.
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