Trump’s Cabinet picks face scrutiny on Capitol Hill this week as Biden prepares to say goodbye

A flurry of Senate confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet picks, beginning Tuesday, will exemplify the president-elect’s aggressive efforts to wield swift and consequential power after taking the oath of office on January 20. Trump will also make fresh efforts this week to nail down the strategy to push his sweeping agenda of disruption through the narrowly divided House and Senate before he launches a weekend of celebrations ahead of the inauguration.

Biden, 82, will deliver his farewell speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday in his first such address since he told Americans he wouldn’t run for reelection in July after a disastrous debate laid bare his diminished capacity. The outgoing administration is still hoping for a deal that would free US and Israeli hostages in Gaza, and Biden is also pushing the Taliban for the release of three Americans the US considers unjustly held in Afghanistan.

The president is also still considering whether to grant preemptive pardons to people whom the White House believes may be targets of the next president’s retribution, such as former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the president-elect’s most prominent GOP critics. Biden said Friday he was watching Trump’s rhetoric to try to assess his intentions, at a time when the departing president is using his appearances to try to fashion last-minute adjustments to how he will be remembered in history.

An already tense transition, given the brittle personal relationship between Trump and Biden, will be further overshadowed by the disastrous wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area and killed at least 24 people