The following is the full transcript of an interview with Sen. John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Jan. 12, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the number two Republican in the Senate, Wyoming’s John Barrasso. He joins us this morning from Casper, Wyoming. Welcome back to Face the Nation.
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO: Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s a busy week ahead in the Senate, but before I get to that business, I do want to ask you about these fires in California. Do you expect that Congress will have to provide an additional aid package, and if so, when?
SEN. BARRASSO: What we’re seeing is heartbreaking, its horrible, affecting people, old and young, rich and poor. Everyone in the Wyoming National Guard is there on the scene, helping with manpower as well as equipment. When you see what’s being shown on television, in addition to the tragedy on the ground, you’re also seeing gross mismanagement in California by elected officials, and it’s heartbreaking to hear the fire chief say that they’ve diverted all of this money away from the fire department to be used for social programs when they were already stretched too thin. So yes, I expect there’s going to be hearings, there’s going to be requests of Congress. There can’t be a blank check on this, however, because people want to make sure that as rebuilding occurs, as things go on in California, they have to be resilient, so that these sorts of things can’t happen again. And the policies of the liberal administration out there, I believe have made these fires worse.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you expect, though, that Congress and Republicans will still help these Americans in need, even if they don’t like their local politics in the party?
SEN. BARRASSO: I expect that there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved, and it has to do with being ready the next time, because this was a gross failure this time.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, let me move on to what’s happening this week. Because you are the whip. You are the vote counter. You are watching very closely what these hearings for these picks made by Donald Trump will be like. Starting Tuesday, 13 of the picks are going to be up for questioning. Leader Thune told us last Sunday, he suspects a lot we’ll get through, but we’ll see about all of them. Which nominees are you certain will be confirmed by January 20?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, let’s start with- we were elected- Republicans are now in the House, the Senate and the White House, because Americans wanted safety and prosperity. So you’re right, the rubber hits the road this week with all of these hearings on the cabinet, and then when President Trump takes office next Monday, there is going to be shock and awe with executive orders. A blizzard of executive orders on the economy, as well as on the border. So, when we met with President Trump, just- earlier this past week, what President Trump said the number one goal for the Senate needs to be to get his team in place. I’ve met with just about all of them. I support every one of these nominees. As the whip, my job is to make sure they get across the finish line. Get on the job, and President Trump deserves a team early. Chuck Schumer said he wants to make fireworks at the hearings. If that happens, we are going to work around the clock, through the night, through weekends to make sure we get that cabinet confirmed.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I want to ask you about some of those picks on the other side of this commercial break, and how many of them will sail through since you do have the Republican majority and enough votes to do this without democratic help. We’ll talk about those specifics in a moment. Stay with us through this break.
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MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return to our conversation now with Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso. Senator, you are the whip. You count the votes. Does Pete Hegseth, the pick to run the Pentagon, have them?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, he certainly has the qualities that we need to lead the Pentagon. He knows about a fit, fighting force. He is very qualified, in my opinion. He has a record, a distinguished record, of service in the military. Every Senator gets to speak for themselves, and they will do that. The meetings have gone very well. Things are heading in the right direction. The hearings start Tuesday, and they’re going to be consequential. People will listen and make their own decision. People have already had chances to ask questions, and they’re going to continue to do so. I expect he’s going to have quality answers to the questions that they ask.,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, your colleague, Senator Joni Ernst, who is a sexual assault survivor herself did say last month that she wanted the FBI to vet the claims against Mr. Hegseth that were made by an accuser who said that he raped her. He denies that that assault happened. He claims it was consensual sex, despite her filing of that police report. She also asked that the results be presented to the committee. Is that FBI vetting being shared with members of the Armed Services Committee?
SEN. BARRASSO: Joni is a warrior. She is a patriot. I know she’s had a chance to meet with the nominee at least twice, and advice and consent is about giving advice as well as asking consent. She’s going to ask additional questions at the hearing on Tuesday and ultimately make her decision. With regard to the FBI report, reported today that the chairman and the ranking member of the committee have seen the report already. Traditionally, those reports do not get shared with the other members of the committee. That goes back four decades, back when John McCain was chairman of the committee, and I support the chairman in that decision.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, that’s why it is so notable that such a prominent member and other senators are asking to see FBI vetting. Do you prefer that the details of that sexual assault be disclosed in a public hearing, or would you support that those private investigative details be shared with members at the discretion of the chairman?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, the chairman is going to make that decision, and I support the chairman. I also support Pete Hegseth. If you take a look at the current nominee, compared to who has been in the Pentagon the last four years, where they had a woke military, where recruitment went down, morale went down. I think Pete is going to be terrific in terms of recruitment, in terms of morale, in terms of returning America to a fighting force, which is what the American people really want. They want to make sure if our military is called upon. They are ready to go, that they are ready to fight, and that with intimidating power.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Just to correct myself alleged sexual assault. So let me ask you about another nominee, or nominee to be one to run the intelligence community and oversee all the agencies. It appears the only member of Mr. Trump’s national security team that doesn’t have a real scheduled hearing is Tulsi Gabbard. Is it the FBI background check that’s holding things up, or is it the ethics disclosure that’s a problem?
SEN. BARRASSO: I support Tulsi Gabbard. She is amazing in that she has been a member of Congress and a combat veteran, a decorated combat veteran for work under fire in Iraq. You’re right. It’s a paperwork problem right now with the Office of Government Ethics. We had hoped to have the hearing later this week. It looks like it’s going to be the following week, but she continues to have promotions in the military. She’s a lieutenant colonel. She now has top level security clearances. She’s the right person to keep America secure and safe.
MARGARET BRENNAN: She took the unusual measure of releasing a public statement reversing some past policy positions she’d taken when it came to surveillance. Are you concerned that you don’t have enough Republicans who are willing to vote for her?
SEN. BARRASSO: I’m not concerned at all about that. Senator, Tom Cotton, who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has met with her on numerous occasions. She will have a hearing. She has to raise her right hand, take an oath at the time, she will be telling the truth. And the issue that you just raised, which is foreign surveillance, she is now in the mind and the position that is consistent with the chairman of the committee and Republican members of the committee.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned shocking on day one of Mr. Trump’s new term with executive orders. But some of this action is also going to require congressional help. This week, President Biden banned new offshore oil and gas drilling in 625 meters of the- of the ocean. Excuse me, miles. Are you going to reverse that in that first reconciliation bill that leader Thune told us about? Well,
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, what President Biden just did by executive order, I expect that President Trump will eliminate with executive orders as well. In terms of the reconciliation bill, what we need: results. The results are what matter. We were sent here, and President Trump says he doesn’t care if it’s one bill, two bills, three bills. He wants the results as we are united, on securing the border, on bringing down costs for American citizens, across what- we want to make sure that tax cuts don’t- don’t expire. We want to make sure that the country is safe and strong. Those are the issues that the American people elected us to. That’s what we’re here to do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Just to follow up there. Mr. Trump has said one big, beautiful bill is what he wants. It seems procedural, but we know from- from the Senate side, you would prefer two different reconciliation bills at two different times to tackle some of these big agenda items. When you hear that the Speaker of the House says it’s got to be one because he can only get one thing through, doesn’t that underscore just how difficult unified Republican leadership is actually going to be?
SEN. BARRASSO: No results matter, and we’re united with the results. And when President Trump met with us for a couple of hours, the senators this past week, he said, I don’t care how many bills, we just want to get it done. There are urgent needs and I’d like to get addressed immediately. You take a look at what happened this week in the Senate. There was actually bipartisanship, because the first bill that we brought to the Senate floor, the Laken Riley bill, is about a wonderful young woman, 22, a nursing student in Georgia who was out for a jog. Brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant. Somebody who was a criminal in this country should have either been in jail or deported, but he was done- Neither of those were done under the Biden administration. We had bipartisan support now, even though Chuck Schumer blocked that bill last year.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re going to talk about that with one of the Democratic senators who supported it later on in the program. Senator Barrasso, thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be right back.
