Shogan promises transparency at hearing for National Archives leadership role

A North Huntingdon native was questioned for 30 minutes Wednesday during a Senate confirmation hearing to review her nomination to be archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Colleen Joy Shogan said she would provide transparency in regards to all emails and communications between the agency and the FBI and Department of Justice pertaining to the records Trump held at his Florida home.

In her opening statement, Shogan, a 1993 Norwin graduate, praised her teachers at Norwin, saying that “my passion for the American story started in the public high school I attended outside Pittsburgh, with engaging teachers who taught United States history and government.”

She also acknowledged her 89-year-old father, Richard, watching from home in North Huntingdon, her brother, George, in Texas, as well as her husband, Rob.

Shogan was grilled by Republican senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee on how she would handle those records and communications regarding the FBI’s Aug. 9 search of Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

The FBI performed the search on the grounds that Trump was holding records from his time in the White House, some of which reportedly were classified, and would not return those documents despite repeated requests.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, wanted to know about the request from the National Archives that triggered “something” in the FBI that resulted in the raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

“A raid at a former president’s house is unprecedented,” Lankford said.

As the nominee, Shogan, who lives in Arlington, Va., said she has not been briefed about those communications or what happened to trigger the raid. She said she does not know the status of the Justice Department’s investigation into the documents seized from Trump’s home.

Shogan pledged that she could work with the Trump administration on a presidential library, despite having speculated in a tweet in January 2020, whether one of Trump’s tweets was “more of a self-pardon.”

She defended her relationship with the Trump administration, saying she had a working relationship with his staff in her role with the White House Historical Association. She said she worked with Trump and his wife as the vice-chair on the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission in 2019, which recognized the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote through the 19th Amendment.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, ripped Shogan for an article she wrote in 2007 on Republican populism for the American Political Science Association. The story questioned the intellectual capabilities of Republican presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Shogan defended the story, repeatedly saying it was a scholarly piece that focused on the rhetoric of those presidents, specifically in the ways they communicated with the voters and in no way questioned their intellect. She said some of the quotes pulled from the story by the Republican senators were observations made by others.

Hawley contended that Shogan’s article painted a picture that “Republican voters are stupid,” which Shogan repeatedly denied.

“You’re extremely partisan. Your record is denigrating two-term Republican presidents,” Hawley said.

Shogan contended that her 15 years of nonpartisan service to the government in the Congressional Research Service and Library of Congress and White House Historical Association is proof she isn’t partisan.

Hawley questioned how Shogan could assure him, for the 75 million Trump voters, that she would be “truly nonpartisan” in a role that he claimed has become a “very politically challenged position.”

Related

• Norwin grad could head National Archives at critical time
• Trump FBI search puts unusual spotlight on National Archives nominee, a Norwin grad

Sen. Shelley Capito, R-West Virginia, praised Shogan, saying she is committed to making records transparent.

“She has the knowledge, the experience, the energy and dedication” for the position, said Capito, who is not a member of the committee.

With the Democrats having the majority of the members of the committee, it is likely that Shogan’s nomination would be approved by the committee and moved to the full Senate for a vote. Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the deciding vote, if the votes fall along party lines.

Shogan was nominated for the post in August by President Joe Biden.