THE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS for President-elect Trump's Cabinet will get underway Tuesday, with several nominees expected to face tough questions or outright hostility from the senators who will decide their fates.
Republicans are increasingly confident they'll stick together to give Trump the team that he wants, although the intense scrutiny and public nature of the hearings will inject some volatility into the process.
With a 53-47 majority in the Senate, Trump's nominees can only afford to lose three Republicans to get confirmed.
Among those who face an uncertain path forward:
• Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense.
• Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of National Intelligence.
• Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
Senators will probe the nominees about their personal lives, experience, heterodox views and promises to up-end the status quo at the departments they've been picked to lead.
• Hegseth will be the first to go through the ringer, facing 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday morning.
The former Fox News anchor is expected to face uncomfortable questions about allegations of sexual misconduct and drinking, as well as financial mismanagement at a previous job.
Most of those allegations have been passed along anonymously through the press, so the big question hanging over his confirmation battle is whether any witnesses come forward to go on the record.
One member to watch: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a veteran and survivor of sexual assault who met twice with Hegseth last year.
Meanwhile, well-funded conservative organizations are urging Republican senators to confirm Hegseth, and Trump's other nominees, or face the consequences.
• Gabbard has also been met with skepticism from some quarters in Washington.
Gabbard faces conners over her connection to the now-toppled Bashar Assad regime in Syria, as well as previous comments seen as sympathetic toward Russia.
Democrats are pumping the brakes on her confirmation, saying the proper background checks and ethics disclosures haven't come through.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) has acknowledged that a "paperwork problem" with the Office of Government Ethics is holding up Gabbard's hearing.
Last week, Gabbard reversed her stance on FISA Section 702, which gives the U.S. the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens abroad.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who had previously held out his support for Gabbard over questions about her position on that issue, says now that he'll support her nomination.
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