Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted on Wednesday morning that he would not attend Biden’s inauguration so that he could address the “remaining objections to an accelerated Senate confirmation”. Not to mention cotton, he added: “It is important that we do this as soon as possible.”
Cotton does not intend to retain his appointment and did not go public with the comings and goings as Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) Did on Tuesday with a separate nomination. Hawley said he would delay confirmation of Homeland Security candidate Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is unclear whether the Mayorkas can leave the committee in their current formation, according to a Republican senator. And there are several blockades from the GOP to bring it directly to the floor, not just Hawley, said the senator.
It would be a break with tradition if the Senate could not confirm any of Biden’s nominees on the day of the inauguration. In 2017, former President Donald Trump saw his Homeland Security and Defense secretaries confirmed after his oath.
At his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Haines, a former deputy director of the CIA and former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, promised that he would “speak the truth to power” and resist pressure from the president or any another officer to divert the intelligence.
“When it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics – never,” said Haines, who would make history as the first woman to serve as an DNI.
Martin Matishak contributed to this report.