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Confirmation Hearings Open for Trump’s Picks to Lead Transportation, Energy, CIA and OMB

HeadlineJan 16, 2025

Four other Trump nominees faced Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday: White House budget director nominee Russell Vought, who indicated plans for major spending cuts; John Ratcliffe for head of the CIA; Sean Duffy, a climate crisis denier, for transportation secretary; and Chris Wright, Trump’s pick for energy secretary.

Wright is a fracking executive who vowed in his hearing to implement Trump’s plans to expand fossil fuels. The climate group Sunrise Movement said 10 activists were arrested as they disrupted Wright’s hearing Wednesday. Protesters held a sign reading “Oil CEOs Profit, LA Burns.” During his hearing, Chris Wright said he stood by past comments that linking wildfires and climate change is “hype.”

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