Donald Trump’s alleged ties with Russia overshadow confirmation hearings

Donald Trump’s picks to lead the CIA and the Department of Defense both sounded warnings over Russia’s growing global ambitions during their confirmation hearings before the Senate on Thursday. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s choice for CIA director, sided with intelligence officials who accuse Moscow of attempting to skew the US election. His comments came amid an increasingly bitter row between Trump and US intelligence agencies. James Mattis, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, told the Senate armed services committee that Russia had “chosen to be a strategic competitor, an adversary in key areas”. Meanwhile, Eric Swalwell, the ranking member of the CIA subcommittee of the House permanent select committee on intelligence, has called for an independent bipartisan commission to investigate Russian influence on the US election. The commission was needed to “to set the record straight on what happened, and to recommend how best to protect ourselves from now on”, Swalwell writes for the Guardian. Trump’s inauguration is next Friday, though some have already begun to wonder what happens now and to speculate as to whether he could be impeached.