1. He's not confirmed yet.
He's a lock.
If the best the Washington Post can do is dig up dirt on him that he bought playoff tickets for some friends (and was reimbursed) I agree that he's a lock.
Also, considering the debt was from 2016, and was paid off in 2017 my guess it was closer to the low end of the range than the higher.
It has nothing to do with what the Post or other media can dig up (he apparently lied, to the Senate Intelligence Committee and nobody gives a crap about that). There are 51 GOP Senators who would vote to confirm a ham sandwich at this point. Not that the Dems would be any different if they controlled all 3 branches. Such is the state of politics in the 21st century.
My point was not whether he paid off the debt or not. Financing 5-6 figures of sports tickets on credit cards is worthy of being on the Antimustachian Wall of Shame. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say that there were 10 people in his consortium and his debt was at the low end of what was reported - $60k. That's still $6k for tickets for a 50 year old with apparently only a few thousand in savings and the purchase went on multiple credit cards/loans. He almost certainly carried the debt for a while our he wouldn't have had to report it at all.
But, I guess when you have a lifetime appointment, which he already has, FIRE is not really a concern.