Before nominees face a Senate confirmation hearing, their teams hold practice hearings called murder boards. In 2010 about 20 members of the Obama team played senators and questioned Elena Kagan for several hours a day. Rachel Brand, who helped prepare John Roberts and Samuel Alito, described the aim: to “ask those hard questions in the nastiest conceivable way, over and over and over.”
In January 2017 the Trump transition team held 30 practice hearings for cabinet nominees, more than 70 hours in all.