Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declined to commit to supporting two of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees: former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for intelligence chief, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.

“Ask me this question again after the hearings,” Risch told Jewish Insider on Saturday in an interview at the Halifax International Security Forum. “These appointments by the president are constrained by the advice and consent of the Senate. The Senate takes that seriously, and we vet these.”

Those remarks stand in contrast to comments Risch made a day earlier about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Trump’s pick for secretary of state, on a panel alongside Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who will be the Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat.

“I’m enthusiastic about Marco, and we’re going to do our best, and Jeanne and I have talked about this, we’re going to do our best to have him confirmed as secretary of state on the same day as the president is inaugurated,” Risch said.

Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress from Hawaii who earlier this year switched her party affiliation, has drawn criticism from some national security-minded Republicans after Trump announced his intention to nominate her to be director of national intelligence. During Gabbard’s time in Congress, she went to Syria and met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as his forces engaged in a bloody civil war that included the use of chemical weapons on civilians. She has also faced scrutiny for parrotting rhetoric employed by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. had instigated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by encouraging Ukraine to join NATO. 

Risch didn’t criticize Gabbard directly, but argued that her influence would be limited by virtue of large size of the intelligence community — noting the thousands of employees and officials across departments. 

“I am not concerned that a person is going to influence the president to the point where he changes his basic view on things,” Risch said at the Friday panel. 

As incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Risch told JI he plans to focus during his tenure on the wars in Israel and Ukraine, and to shine a greater spotlight on China. 

“What takes up the time, a lot of the time, is what we have on our plate right in front of us, and that’s Ukraine and the Middle East situation,” Risch explained. “The challenge over the rest of the century, I think it may be even beyond, is China.” 

The focus in Halifax this weekend is Ukraine and promoting democracy worldwide, bringing together representatives from more than 60 democratic nations. Many of those countries, including Canada and the European Union, have pledged to abide by the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Risch said he has not spoken to anyone on the ground in Halifax about the warrants, but that his message to them is clear.

“People need to understand we’re serious about these sanctions, and if someone does engage in enforcing the warrant, thus enforcing action against Netanyahu, they easily could be the target of a third-party sanction,” said Risch.