Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly voices concern about Donald Trump’s national security picks

PHOENIX — Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said on Sunday three of president-elect Donald Trump’s national security picks lack the experience necessary to safeguard America.

He singled out the following who are waiting for Senate confirmation: Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense), Kash Patel (FBI director) and Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence).

Just prior to Kelly speaking one-on-one with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union,” newly elected Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana said Trump’s national security cabinet needs to be confirmed quickly to effectively snuff out increasing threats. However, Kelly did not share the same haste.

“We want serious people to do these very, very hard jobs,” Kelly responded to Tapper. “(Department of Defense) as an example, is one of biggest enterprises on the planet, (with an) $800 million a year budget, 3 million people. It’s a hard organization to manage. So, I would like to see someone with some significant management experience, has experience creating defense policy, maybe implementing defense policy.”

Hegseth, a former U.S. Army major and Fox News contributor, drew the most scrutiny from Kelly, who serves on the Senate’s armed services committee. Kelly said he is interested in hearing Hegseth’s testimony and essential elevator pitch as to why he is qualified for such a consequential position.

Before getting into his weariness towards Trump’s nominees, Kelly called the recent pair of terror attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas “horrible,” especially on a holiday. He gave both sets of law enforcement groups due credit but admitted the Islamic-inspired men were not on the radar of the Senate’s intelligence committee.

“It’s hard to make a decision when to act because you want to fill out who this entire network is,” Kelly said. “You want to find out if there are other bad actors out there. You want to eventually be able to arrest everybody, but to do that you have to wait.”

Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari to be youngest member of Congress

Democratic U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari joined three fellow incoming Congress members (Texas’ Brandon Gill, California’s Adam Gray and West Virginia’s Riley Moore) on the same program as Kelly to preview her goals as the youngest (32) in the 119th body of Congress.

Among her primary legislative issues are housing, reproductive rights and climate change. Though the latter two issues are split across party lines, Ansari said she has already seen some bipartisan agreement for the U.S. housing supply crisis.

“We’ve actually gotten compromise between Democrats and Republicans, we all agree there is a housing supply issue,” Ansari said. “We want to build more housing so housing can be more affordable.”

Ansari also said she is excited to serve alongside other young congressional members, such as 35-year-old Greg Casar of Texas, who inspired her to run for office and will be filling the congressional progressive caucus chair.

Ansari served on the Phoenix City Council from 2021-24 before narrowly defeating (39-vote margin) Raquel Teran for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District after a recount.

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