Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Sunday that “we need to do background checks together” on the people President-elect Trump picks for his next administration.
At the beginning of the interview, Klobuchar told ABC News' Jonathan Karl that, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she and her colleagues on the committee “look into FBI background checks and make sure they're performing.” He said that his role is to ask questions for The “mission of the ministry'' is used to select ministers.
“In this case, I'm concerned about all of these candidates … if there's no agreement on FBI background checks,” Klobuchar added during an appearance on “This Week.” “To my knowledge, the transition committee has not yet reached that agreement.”
Some Trump advisers have suggested that the next president should shift the task of conducting background checks on high-level candidates from the FBI to private investigators.
“They need to do background checks together,” Klobuchar said of Trump's team. “They have to get qualified candidates, and then we're interested in doing the job of the American people.”
Some Republican senators are pushing back against Trump's aides' proposal to not conduct background checks by the FBI.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) previously said, “In my judgment, the FBI should conduct the background check.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., also previously said the FBI has better access than private companies to information collected by law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal levels.
“If you want to supplement that with a private company, I think it's OK. But the FBI has access to information that probably wouldn't be available to a private company, even really good information,” he said. said.
In an appearance on “This Week,” Klobuchar said the Trump campaign “put in qualified candidates, went through background checks, moved forward, and there's no fuss over people like Matt Gaetz who shouldn't have been nominated.” I hope so.” in the first place. ”
The Hill has reached out to Gaetz and contacts on the Trump transition team for comment.
