It is important for President-elect Donald Trump's appointments to be confirmed quickly so that Americans will be kept safer, Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., said on Newsmax Friday.
"It is the government's responsibility to keep our citizens safe and secure — not continue to waste time, waste effort, waste money, and in the end, accomplish nothing," said the Michigan Republican on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
Instead, lawmakers have been concentrating on "hormonally driven issues" during the past four years, Bergman said.
"That happens because of one reason: no leadership in the White House," said Bergman. "Whoever is in the president's seat has responsibility for all the secretaries and all the different agencies."
But no work was done to focus on safety and security during the Biden administration, he said.
Trump, though, is bringing in new people to lead the bureaucracies and to focus them on the mission at hand, bringing coordination on safety and security between agencies, said Bergman.
His comments come after the FBI said Thursday that before Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar's attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day, he had not been under surveillance.
Jabbar, while on his way to New Orleans from Houston, posted several videos on Facebook to proclaim his support for ISIS, according to the FBI's investigation.
"There's this one thing that most people use for good, and that's called the internet," said Bergman Friday. "[Most] of us, we use it every day for good. But the violent extremist organizations use it for bad. They use it to recruit, train, and execute missions of different sorts."
The federal government can search out and identify people like Jabbar, he added.
"We haven't used it over the last four years," Bergman said. "The Biden administration has been focused on DEI, wokism, whatever you want to call it, everything except meritocracy to get the right people in the right places."
The administration has also not encouraged coordination among those agencies who have responsibility for internet security and other matters, Bergman noted.
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
- Find Newsmax channel in your home via cable and satellite systems – More Info Here
- Watch Newsmax+ on your home TV app or smartphone and watch it anywhere! Try it for FREE – See More Here: NewsmaxPlus.com
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.