After an interesting morning of questioning by the Judiciary Committee of Senator Jeff Sessions, complete with numerous interruptions by disaffected, Hillary-supporting snowflakes seeking their 15 minutes of fame, Retired General John F. Kelly is set to take the stand before the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at 3:30PM EST. While Sessions was undoubtedly one of the more controversial picks in the eyes of Washington's liberal elites, we have no doubt that General Kelly will face equally rigorous questioning and will be forced to contend for airtime with his own group of interrupting snowflakes.
As Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of Kelly's key responsibilities will be to oversee border security, immigration and the construction of Trump's "beautiful" border wall. Of course, the President-elect has made numerous controversial comments regarding immigration issues on the campaign trail including calling for "extreme vetting" of immigrants and a ban on those coming from "some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism"...all of which General Kelly will undoubtedly have to answer for. Per NPR:
DHS agencies are also responsible for defending the nation's borders and overseeing the immigration system. It's those areas that are most in the sights of the incoming president, who has called for measures including a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. and "extreme vetting" of immigrants wishing to enter the country.
Trump said on the campaign trail that should be focused on those coming from "some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism," as an adaptation of the ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Trump proposed at the end of 2015.
Senators are likely to question Kelly closely on those issues. Kelly has stated that he believes economic aid and education are as necessary to stop the flow of migrants from Central America to the U.S. as a strong barrier. He has also stated that he believes half a million Americans have died from narcoterrorism.
Of course, while immigration will be a focal point during today's hearings, it should be noted that the Department of Homeland Security is a sprawling enterprise, with a variety of responsibilities including oversight of natural disasters (FEMA), airport security (TSA), presidential security (U.S. Secret Service), the Coast Guard and cybersecurity. In fact, regarding that last point, we would expect General Kelly to be asked for his opinion on his predecessor's staggering 11th hour power grab announced just last week to designate election systems as "Critical Infrastructure" (see "In Stunning Last Minute Power Grab, Obama Designates Election Systems As 'Critical Infrastructure'"). Overall, DHS has a budget of $40 billion and over 250,000 employees.
The following is brief recap of General Kelly's bio courtesy of Politico:
Retired Gen. John Kelly is a 45-year Marine veteran who headed the U.S. Southern Command, where he focused on U.S. border security, organized crime, terrorist organizations and drug traffickers in his Latin American region for more than three years.
Also on his watch was the U.S. military prison for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which President Barack Obama has repeatedly vowed to close.
Kelly retired as a four-star general in 2016.
Before his SOUTHCOM command, based near Miami, Kelly led the Multi-National Force — West in Iraq during the first year of the Obama administration. He was also the legislative assistant to the Marine Corps commandant from 2004 to 2007 and, later, the senior military aide to Defense Secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta.
Born in 1950 in Boston, Kelly enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1970. Following his graduation from the University of Massachusetts Boston, he was commissioned as an officer and commanded a rifle and weapons platoon with the 2nd Marine Division.
The father of three, Kelly became one of the most senior U.S. military officers to lose a son or daughter in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His son, 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, died after he stepped on a land mine while leading a Marine platoon in southern Afghanistan.
And, as we noted earlier, while all of this will make for fine political theater, given that Republicans control a 52-48 majority in the Senate and that Democrats eliminated the 60-vote threshold in 2013, all of the liberal grandstanding this week will ultimately amount to nothing more than an attempt to discredit and shame Trump's appointees as they will all almost certainly be confirmed anyway. As John Cornyn of Texas pointed out, "[Democrats] can delay the process, they can’t stop it."
With that, here is a live stream of General Kelly's confirmation hearing:
http://livestream.com/accounts/16944724/events/6861532/player