Numerous murder board sessions are being run in anticipation of one of the most consequential weeks for the Trump transition: Nine of the president-elect’s Cabinet picks, many of whom have no federal government experience, will face Senate questioning this week — including hostile Democrats eager to score points on everything from the president-elect’s admiration of Vladimir Putin to the candidate’s wealth and potential conflicts-of-interest.
The idea is to replicate the high-pressure environment of a televised hearing where senators may lob questions in rapid succession about arcane and awkward topics in an effort to trip them up. A room on the sixth floor of the team’s downtown D.C. headquarters has been transformed into a mock Senate hearing room, with staffers playing the senators on relevant committees and a countdown clock to ensure candidates keep their answers short, according to several transition officials. Those officials asked for anonymity to describe the preparations for the upcoming confirmation hearings out of fear of violating the transition team’s strict non-disclosure agreements…
Indeed, high-level transition staffers worked all day Saturday on confirmation hearing prep, many not filing out of the office until 6:30 or 7 on a wintry D.C. evening. Rick Dearborn, who will be Trump’s deputy chief of staff and has run the transition day to day, masterminded much of the prep.
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