Summary
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) dismissed the necessity of FBI background checks for Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees, claiming the public prioritizes implementing Trump’s policies over vetting appointees.
On ABC’s This Week, Hagerty criticized Biden officials and supported Trump’s expedited transition process, despite reports that many nominees, including Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, have bypassed FBI checks.
Moderator Jonathan Karl expressed concern over abandoning standard vetting practices, but Hagerty argued the FBI is “weaponized” and insisted checks would be completed quickly, though no evidence supports his claims of agency bias.
I had a top secret clearance in my old job. The whole process usually takes less than 9 months and anything outside a year usually means there’s something fishy with your background. It boggles my mind that members of Congress aren’t required to have security clearances and waiving background checks is completely insane. They’re clearly hiding a lot of nefarious and dodgy crap that would otherwise disqualify them from office
In my experience, if you’re white, male, and have a semblance of your shit together, you’ll be done in 6 months or less. I’ve seen minorities stuck in the process for years, despite having the squeaky-cleanest of records. (On the flip side, I heard a rumor that someone in the building recently got their reinvestigation processed successfully despite having recently received their 3rd DUI…) The exception to that is if you’re in the military, as the government will have a record of anything you’ve ever done, and if you’re an officer then you probably already have a clearance to begin with.
The process must have slowed down considerably. About two decades ago I had a security clearance (just a basic one for access to some military bases for contract work) and that process, although the paperwork was a nightmare, got cleared in under 2 months. I’m sure a higher level of access takes longer, but equally someone being vetted for one of the highest offices in the world is certainly going to be a higher priority than some military contractor pleb.
About a decade ago there was a huge Chinese hack into one of the security clearance contractors, who then lost the contract, so the final remaining contractor has been playing catch up ever since.
That was fucking insane. I remember being dumbfounded to learn that the clearance agency had fired all of the investigators from that contractor, only for a new contractor to rehire them all and win the contract to process clearances again. Horrorshow.