Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/senate-begins-confirmation-hearings-for-gates-as-defense-secretary Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The Senate begins confirmation hearings Tuesday for ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, who President Bush chose to take outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's place. The NewsHour reports on the confirmation process. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Washington's big week on Iraq. There's the coming of the Baker-Hamilton study group report on Wednesday, and tomorrow's confirmation hearing for defense secretary-nominee Robert Gates, accompanied by the ripples from a memo written by the man he would succeed, Donald Rumsfeld, and the ongoing violence and casualty reports from Iraq itself.We begin with a look at Robert Gates, who's been here before. NewsHour congressional correspondent Kwame Holman reports.GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States: He has my confidence and my trust. And he will be an outstanding secretary of defense. KWAME HOLMAN: When President Bush nominated Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld, he touted Gates in much the same way his father did in 1991, when Gates was his choice to run the CIA.GEORGE H.W. BUSH, Former President of the United States: … that this man has my full trust. He's honest. He's a man of total integrity. KWAME HOLMAN: Robert Gates went on to direct central intelligence for the next two years, but not before and during a bruising confirmation fight in the Senate Intelligence Committee, where his trust and integrity both were questioned.ROBERT GATES, Secretary of Defense-Designate: I don't think it is unreasonable that somebody is not going to remember the details of a conversation that took place five or six years ago or even five or six weeks ago.SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), Massachusetts: … this is enormously important. KWAME HOLMAN: As Gates prepares to return to the glare of the confirmation hearing spotlight tomorrow, two former committee members who vetted Gates 15 years ago recalled the hearing that left him looking like a competent but often abrasive manager.FORMER SEN. WARREN RUDMAN (R), New Hampshire: They were some of the nastiest hearings that I participated in.FORMER SEN. DENNIS DECONCINI (D), Arizona: It was a bad scene, and Gates was caught right in the middle.