host: every monday when congress

is in session we'd like to take a look ahead in washington. we are joined by the senior congressional reporter at punch bowl news. andrew, it is 14 confirmation hearings this week, 13 nominees, 11 committees holding hearings. what is a senior congressional reporter to do? guest: you got to prioritize. in terms of the nominees that

are the most controversial, the most difficult time getting confirmed, you got pete hegset h, the nominee to be defense secretary. his nomination is going to be the most important one to focus on this week they couple of others are on the national security side. republicans want to prioritize national security nominees will not have confirmation hearings this week and will be continuing to meet with senators. this going to be a lot of action both inside and outside those rooms that you don't have hearings this week are of course tulsi gabbard, nominee for director of national intelligence, and cash patel. in patel's case, he probably will not get a confirmation hearing until february at the earliest. tulsi gabbard could get one as soon as next week but the intelligence committee has not yet announced that hearing.

host: what is the strategy for having 14 hearings in three days, is there a strategy here of doing that with republicans in the senate and donald trump coming in and these being is nominees? guest: this is what they tried to do every four years, stack these as close to the inauguration date as they can. the senate cannot vote to confirm until a new president is inaugurated, so who is a candidate for day one nomination? the only one i see who could be a candidate right now is marco