Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

It has been a busy day on Capitol Hill, as three of Donald Trump's most controversial nominees were reviewed by US Senate committees.

Led by the Republican majority, senators held hearings for director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, FBI director nominee Kash Patel and secretary of health and human services nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr.

Each one has previously espoused views about their specific topic areas that would be a significant departure from those who preceded them.

While it was clear through the hearings that supporters viewed the candidates as unorthodox picks who would shake up American bureaucracies, some critics considered Gabbard, Patel and Kennedy to have had significantly changed their positions ahead of the hearings.

Senate Democrats interrogated the nominees about where they stood on a number of substantive issues, and Republicans teetered between grilling them and circling the wagons in support of Donald Trump's picks.

We are pausing our coverage for now, but we will continue to bring you the latest on Trump's picks and whether the Senate votes to confirm them.

Remember: If the committees who held the hearings confirm the nominees, each one can only afford to lose three Republicans when the entire Senate votes - assuming all Democrats oppose them.

Read our full coverage here

Image source, Getty Images

The confirmation hearing for President Trump's nominee to be FBI director, Kash Patel, had a heavy dose of political attacks, deflecting and softball questions.

Among all of that noise, here are some of the key talking points:

• Patel said tackling narco-trafficking would be a priority if he is confirmed in the role. He told the hearing he believes it is the "underbelly" of much of America's crime problems
• He denied endorsing the views of conspiracy theorists - including those whose podcasts he has appeared on, and said he did not believe in QAnon
• He conceded to reposting a social media post which depicted him taking a chainsaw to his political enemies
• Patel's so-called "enemies list", people he listed in one of his books which include high profile politicians, was brought up numerous times
• Patel committed to releasing the FBI records relating to an investigation of Joe Biden and his family
• When asked about firing people who were involved with investigations into Trump prior to the election, he also said he would honour standard review processes. He denied any knowledge of discussions about "punish[ing]" personnel associated with the investigations

Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, concludes the hearing by complimenting Patel.

"I think you did very well, and your reputation leading up to and during this hearing, I think proves that you're a person that can stand a lot of heat," Grassley says, "including a president telling you how to do your job."

"If confirmed, you'll be in charge of one of the world's best law-enforcement agencies at the time when it desperately needs strong changes."

Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, says it was a "distinct honour" to have worked with him on preparing for the hearing, adding that he thinks Patel has done an "extraordinary job".

Adam Schiff - who made some of the most direct attacks on Patel's qualifications and character - sums up his thoughts in his final remarks as the hearing draws to an end.

Schiff, like many other Democrats, has branded various Trump nominees as loyalists without the experience to lead a federal agency, and Schiff says this directly to Patel now.

"We have a new president. He's fired prosecutors who investigated him. He's investigating other prosecutors, or his department of justice is. He's fired inspectors general who might hold him accountable," Schiff says. "And this is just the start."

"As FBI director nominee, [Trump] has chosen someone whose primary qualification, in my view, is his willingness to say 'yes' when everyone else would say 'no'."

Schiff didn't ask Patel any questions during his final three minutes.

Patel is again asked about the now-dropped classified documents case, where Donald Trump was accused of illegally taking documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home after his first term.

Patel has been accused by Democratic senators in this hearing of not answering their questions on this matter, earlier appearing to upset Adam Schiff, and then frustrating Cory Booker.

"Did you or did you not see the president of the United States declassify the documents he was holding?" Booker asks twice.

"I don't know the answer to that question, because I don't know what was fully found," Patel replies, shortly after saying he witnessed Trump "issue a declassification order".

"So this is the issue - the question is, will you lie for the president of the United States? Would you lie for Donald Trump?" Booker asks.

"No," Patel says.

Booker - like Schiff - then calls on Patel to agree to allow the courts to release Patel's testimony about the classified files case before a grand jury. Patel disputes that he is legally allowed to do so.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn asks Patel about DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), raising concerns about the "emphasis" she says the FBI has put on DEI.

She argues the agency needs "qualified individuals" who stick to the "core mission", asking Patel about his first actions to "build back" recruiting and training.

Patel, who would be the first Indian-American to lead the FBI, says people who sign up have to meet "rigorous high standards", including physical standards, and he adds that those requirements will not change.

Patel predicts an "exponential" increase in enrolment. He is asked by Blackburn whether this will be a "day one item". "Yes ma'am," he responds.

What is DEI?

DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds.

Backers of DEI say it addresses historical or ongoing discrimination and underrepresentation of certain groups, including racial minorities, but critics argue such programmes can themselves be discriminatory.

Republican Senator Eric Schmitt turns the hearing back to the FBI's "core mission" and asks what Patel's priorities would be in the role.

Patel, 44, responds that there is an "underlying underbelly" for most organised crime and that is narco-trafficking.

He says the FBI has not prioritised the "collective power" that can be brought upon criminal narco-trafficking networks.

Patel further speaks of wanting to set up regional drug interdiction taskforces - ensuring local law enforcement are "folded in" with the FBI to share information and authority. He adds that he would want to work with Pam Bondi, if she is confirmed as attorney general, on these issues.

Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, questions Patel about the White House's recent and abrupt firing of over a dozen inspectors general, who act as watchdogs of various federal agencies. Critics say the firings were illegal.

"We passed a law in 2022 requiring the president to provide Congress with a 'substantive rationale', including detailed and case-specific reasons, 30 days before the removal of any inspectors general," Coons says.

Patel says Trump has been in office "approximately 10 days", seeming to indirectly acknowledge that Trump's time in office would not meet the 30-day requirement cited by Coons.

"Did Trump violate facially, violate this law in terms of the timing of the firing of the inspectors general?" Coons asks.

Patel says he's not going to "entertain a hypothetical legal violation", adding: "I will look into all possible legal violations referred."

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Image source, Reuters

Democrats have been making it pretty clear that out of all of Donald Trump’s nominees, Kash Patel is one that they intend to push hard against.

Questions about the proposed FBI director even came up during other nomination hearings, for Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi.

But Republicans on the committee today have steadfastly defended Patel in the face of questioning about his support for the Capitol rioters, his theories about political bias in law enforcement and his allegations that a “deep state” has unfairly targeted Donald Trump.

Patel himself has toned down his message, talking about transparency and standards rather than, for instance, his book Government Gangsters, which includes a list of 60 Trump opponents identified as “Members of the Executive Branch deep state”.

Today, Patel has sidestepped questions about violent rioters and has generally appeared less feisty than he can be. But while he may count on Republican support – he’ll need the votes of nearly all the party's senators to get confirmed – he doesn’t appear to have allayed any concerns among Democrats.

While Kash Patel is a former federal prosecutor who has held high-profile and short-term roles in national security and defence, he does not fit the mould of most FBI directors.

When Trump sought in his first term to put Patel in a senior FBI position, then-Attorney General Bill Barr objected.

"Someone with no background as an agent would never be able to command the respect necessary to run the day-to-day operations of the bureau," Barr wrote in his 2022 book.

Patel today cited polling suggesting that Americans of all political stripes have lost faith in the FBI and he argued a new approach is needed to restore faith in the agency.

For more on Patel's background, see our story here.

Image source, Getty Images

Senator Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Justice Committee, asks Patel if he will "commit" to releasing records that he's been asking for from the FBI related to an investigation of Joe Biden and his family.

"FBI has yet to provide us the underlying intelligence that they said formed the basis for the [Biden investigation] briefing," Grassley says.

"So, if confirmed, I want you to work with me to finally get to the bottom of what happened here."

Patel replies: "You have my commitment."

Image source, Getty Images

Although Patel won’t criticise Donald Trump’s pardoning of the Capitol rioters, not everyone on the Republican side is so reluctant.

“Every one of those people in the Capitol, I’ve said, were thugs, and I don’t apologise for it,” says Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

But Tillis, going on something of a monologue, argues for consistency. He brings up violent riots by racial justice protesters in 2020 and demands that his Democratic colleagues show “balance”.

The senator then holds up a bingo card that he first waved at the start of the hearing, which had a list of possible Democratic lines of attack against Patel that could come up during the hearing.

“I’ve hit bingo several times,” he says to laughter in the room.

California Senator Adam Schiff appears to grow frustrated as he questions Kash Patel about a since-dropped prosecution of Donald Trump for keeping sensitive files at his Florida home.

"Did you claim that Donald Trump declassified all the documents at Mar-a-Lago?" Schiff asks repeatedly.

Patel makes the distinction that he said Trump had declassified "a large number of documents".

For background, Patel was subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about the classified documents case. The justice department gave up the prosecution after Trump won the last election.

Image source, Getty Images

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Kash Patel is questioned by Democrats about his promotion of a song from the so-called “J6 prison choir”.

This is a recording made by rioters who were arrested after storming the Capitol on 6 January 2021. They sang the national anthem on a prison phone line, and the track was edited together with a recording of Donald Trump reciting the US pledge of allegiance.

Donald Trump played the track at some of his rallies, and proceeds from sales were donated to families of the rioters.

Patel was involved in promoting the song on podcasts and websites, but today he has tried to distance himself from the project. He emphasises that he didn’t make any money from the song.

Patel says he opposes violence against law enforcement - but his promotion of the song, and his deflecting of questions related to Trump’s pardons of the rioters, has led to some testy exchanges.

It's worth noting that at least half a dozen of the anonymous choir members were later identified as being convicted of assaulting police officers during the Capitol riot.

There is said to be some uneasiness among Republican senators tasked with considering Gabbard's nomination.

Two sources told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that Gabbard's nomination could be blocked. They described the situation as "fluid".

The sources said Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine are among Republicans concerned about her nomination.

Gabbard can't afford to lose Republican votes on the panel to advance her nomination. Collins is on the intelligence committee and she said on Wednesday she was undecided.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Senator Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, says Patel is "very skillful" in his responses on the 2020 election - and he's not being complimentary.

Welch presses Patel a number of times to say whether Biden won that vote.

The senator says he himself can admit that Trump won the election in 2024, but he says Patel continues to avoid stating that Biden was the winner four years ago.

"As I've said before," replies Patel, "President Biden was certified and sworn in, and he was a president. I don't know how else to say it."

Kash Patel is questioned about Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the FBI and others to surveil people outside the US.

He's being pressed about comments he made on a podcast last year where he said Republicans "bent the knee" when they re-authorised the warrantless surveillance statute.

"Which is your opinion on the most recent re-authorisation of 702?" Patel is asked. "That Republicans 'bent the knee' for not insisting or adopting significant reforms, or that reforms have gone a long way?"

Patel says: "I'm proud of the reforms that have been implemented, and I'm proud to work with Congress moving forward to implement more reforms."

Tulsi Gabbard, nominated to lead the US intelligence community, was also questioned today about Section 702.

Mike Wendling
US digital reporter

Back at Patel's hearing, several Republican senators who support The FBI director nominee's confirmation are bringing up what they call unfair targeting of certain groups for investigation.

“They’ve enjoyed targeting Catholics. They’ve enjoyed targeting parents,” says Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. “But the American people have said they want no more of that.”

The senators are referencing FBI and justice department memos which warned of extremism from “radical-traditionalist” Catholics and people threatening school officials over material which some conservatives view as too “woke”.

There are documented cases of people in both categories committing criminal offenses, and the agencies have denied blanket targeting of Catholics or parents. They say they investigate people for their actions, not their beliefs.

But in some quarters the memos have been held up as evidence of politically biased targeting.

Republican senators are trying to make the point – one that Patel enthusiastically agrees with – that resources are better spent targeting drug dealers and foreign terrorists rather than homegrown right-wing extremists.

Image source, Getty Images

Tulsi Gabbard's public hearing is over. So what next for the director of national intelligence nominee?

As she was nominated to be America's top spy, the Senate's Intelligence Committee will decide whether to advance her confirmation.

If the secretive panel of nine Republicans and eight Democrats approves her nomination, it will move to the full Senate to vote on whether she takes on the post. Gabbard cannot afford to lose a single Republican vote on the panel or three Republicans in the full Senate.

She faces a fair amount of scepticism from Democrats and to a lesser degree among Republicans, considering her past statements about US adversaries, support for NSA whisteblower Edward Snowden and her lack of background in intelligence.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

Edward Snowden, Bashar al-Assad, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the future of American surveillance cast a huge shadow in Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation hearing to serve as Trump's director of national intelligence.

Though senators' public questioning of Gabbard lasted just short of three hours before it went behind closed doors.

The former Democratic congresswoman deftly navigated many challenging questions about intelligence gathering and the workforce she will be leading - many of her answers were clearly polished by her time as a TV political commentator.

But several of her views clearly sparked concern and tense exchanges with Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Members of both parties drew focus to her defence of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who leaked millions of classified documents. Republicans and Democrats asked her multiple times whether she considered Snowden - someone who she has previously argued should be pardoned for his crimes - a traitor to the US.

Gabbard dug in her heels on the matter, refusing to answer and making the moment uneasy for several Republicans. Other exchanges on her assessment of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons, her decision to travel to Syria, and changing views on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, also drew raised eyebrows from the panel.

Gabbard's nomination was one that many believed could be derailed because of her past. Remember, she cannot afford to lose a single Republican vote in the Senate Intelligence Committee.