Sen. John McCain has vowed to press Donald Trump to strike back at Russia for its election meddling. | Getty The new Cabinet litmus test: Admitting Russia hacked the U.S.

Senators of both parties are preparing to employ a new litmus test for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees: making them acknowledge Russia’s alleged election-year cyberattacks.

“We want to hear — I want to hear — from the incoming administration’s nominees that they’re going to take this threat seriously,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters in advance of the avalanche of confirmation hearings that kicks off Tuesday.


In deference to the incoming president, Trump’s transition team is training Cabinet picks to eschew major policy pronouncements and stick to generalities in the nomination hearings, putting them through grueling, hours-long mock sessions called “murder boards.”

But that might be tough after intelligence agencies last week officially accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering a cyber “influence campaign” to sway the election, with an aim that eventually evolved to putting Trump in the Oval Office.

The president-elect himself has repeatedly declined to say whether he agrees with the report, despite receiving a briefing from top U.S. intelligence officials on a classified version of the assessment.

That could leave Trump’s proposed starting lineup in a tough spot as they face both Republican and Democratic lawmakers who have expressed reservations about the cozy relationships the real estate mogul and some of his nominees have formed with the Kremlin and Putin.

“The president is entitled to his views and I am entitled to my views and I will do my job as chairman,” Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters last week when asked if he would hold up Cabinet nominees over Trump’s skepticism on Russian hacking. McCain has vowed to press Trump to strike back at Russia for its election meddling.

McCain’s panel is one of three Senate committees that have launched investigations into Moscow’s alleged interference. Each will oversee the confirmation hearings of key Trump appointments.

The Armed Services Committee — which handles the Defense secretary’s confirmation — held the first public foray into the topic last week. Democrats used the gathering as a forum to chastise Trump and try to drive a wedge between him and Senate Republicans who believe the intelligence community’s findings.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee — which oversees the State Department — also held a closed-door briefing on the topic with Obama administration officials.

And on Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee — in charge of holding confirmation hearings for the CIA director and director of national intelligence — is set to hold a rare open hearing featuring the government’s top intelligence leaders. That hearing could lay the groundwork for the confirmation hearing Wednesday on Rep. Mike Pompeo’s bid to become CIA director.

Warner, the top Intel Democrat, suggested he would hit nominees with questions about Trump’s “rather dismissive attitude of the intelligence community,” in addition to queries on Russian hacking.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who sits on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services panels, said she’ll press both Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson and retired Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s pick for Defense secretary, on the issue.

“I’m going to be very interested in hearing what the nominees have to say about not only Russia’s role in hacking and trying to influence our election, but also about Russia’s aggressive policies in eastern Europe, in Ukraine, their strategy to undermine European democracy,” said Shaheen, who started pushing last year for hearings into Russia’s election interference.

Most of Trump’s Cabinet picks have aroused Democratic criticism, but Tillerson has drawn perhaps the most bipartisan fire on Russia. As Exxon Mobil’s CEO, Tillerson conducted extensive business in Russia, won the country’s Order of Friendship Award from Putin and lobbied against U.S. sanctions after Russia annexed Crimea, a region in Ukraine.

That history has made Tillerson a contentious pick amid heightened congressional concern over the Kremlin’s alleged meddling in the 2016 elections.

McCain, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have indicated that they are not automatic “yes” votes when it comes to Tillerson.

The Arizona lawmaker seemed the most dubious last week when asked if he could support Tillerson's nomination.

“Sure. There's also a realistic scenario that pigs fly,” McCain told reporters.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) acknowledged that Russian hacking will come up during Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Tillerson. But he doesn’t expect it will scuttle Tillerson’s chances.

“I’m sure that it’ll be brought up multiple times by multiple committee members,” Corker told POLITICO before throwing water on the idea that Tillerson might share Trump’s skepticism on Russian hacking.

“I think he’s very much in the mainstream, so I don’t think you need to worry about that,” he said.

But the Tennessee lawmaker wouldn’t speculate on whether he thought McCain, Graham and Rubio would fall in line behind Trump’s nominee.

“My guess is … they’re going to find a person that they will not think is other than mainstream on the issues that have been discussed publicly,” according to Co rker.

For his part, Rubio simply told POLITICO, “I’m sure it will be discussed.”

Appearing on “Meet the Press” recently, Graham said Tillerson “has got to convince me, and I think other members of the body, that he sees Russia as a disruptive force, that he sees Putin as undermining democracy all over the world, not just in our backyard.”

Graham and McCain have joined with numerous Democrats to lead the charge to impose more penalties on Russia over the 2016 hacking, building on sanctions the Obama administration recently slapped on Moscow.

Tillerson, Graham said, “has to realize that the Russians did it when it came to the hacking, and that new sanctions are justified.”

Mattis, a retired four-star Marine general, will face his own round of questions about Moscow’s alleged interference.

Mattis “has made past statements relative to Russia’s role [in cyberspace], so I’ll be interested in hearing whether what he says today is consistent with those past statements,” Shaheen said.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who sits on both the Armed Services and Intelligence panels, said he “absolutely” intends to press nominees on cybersecurity.

Intelligence panel lawmakers could try to box in Pompeo (R-Kan.) at his Wednesday confirmation hearing. The clandestine agency was reportedly the first to conclude that Moscow’s cyber assault was eventually intended to help Trump get elected, jump-starting a simmering public spat between the incoming commander in chief and the U.S. intelligence community.

King declined to say if the answers would color his vote.

“I’m going to make that decision after I see what their answers are,” he said.

The cyber interrogations are likely to spill into numerous confirmation hearings beyond these core positions. Since digital security touches nearly every corner of the federal government, nominees for roles like attorney general and energy secretary could also face grillings.

“We’re going to be talking a lot about cybersecurity, not just with Mr. Tillerson, but [former Gov. Rick] Perry as well, and other nominees,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), referencing Trump’s picks to lead the State and Energy departments.

The Colorado lawmaker — who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy — wouldn’t speculate on whether answers by nominees on the topic would sway his vote.

“I think [the nominees will] be very concerned about cyber,” said Gardner, who wants to create a permanent select committee on cybersecurity. “I anticipate them to be and look forward to having conversations about how we can address those important issues.”

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who sits on the 16-member "executive committee" for Trump's transition team, said that “anyone that’s going for these positions … should expect the Senate to do a thorough job of vetting and asking a whole multitude of questions.”

“People in the press and the American people may feel, ‘Why are they asking that?’ But that may be relevant six months or a year later,” he told POLITICO last week.

“Anybody that’s going for these positions knows the drill,” Nunes added. “And I know they’re preparing for that.