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It's Wednesday, January 15th, and the path to the cabinet starts with defending yourself.

We start here.

Pete Hegsett becomes the first Trump cabinet pick to face Congress. I'm not a perfect person, but redemption is real.

This hearing got contentious, but it might have already had its desired effect.

Jack Smith packs up his desk with some parting words about his investigation.

They believed that if he were not to be elected by the American people,

that they still would have been able to secure his conviction.

But he wasn't the only special counsel with some choice words for a president.

And if your whole case rested on some evidence being tampered with, well, tongue rats.

This is difficult getting these rodents out of there.

I mean, think about it. They're drug-addicted rats.

Rodents have infested an evidence vault

with thousands of cases at stake.

From ABC News, this is Start Here.

I'm Brad Milky.

When Donald Trump was elected in November, he almost immediately started naming cabinet nominees.

You might have expected Republicans in Congress to start holding confirmation hearings immediately.

Trump's not the president, but senators can ask people questions whenever they want, get them lined up to be confirmed inauguration day.

However, Republicans were not in charge of the Senate then.

...