Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened that he would soon expose “stories of corruption, treason and betrayal” regarding members of Congress trading stocks.
GOP Senators Want to See Tulsi Gabbard’s FBI File
Punchbowl News: “Republican senators have privately discussed their interest in viewing Gabbard’s FBI file… This is done for each Cabinet nominee, but the implication is that the documents could reveal previously unknown information about Gabbard, including possible foreign contacts.”
Trump Aide Says Mike Rogers Won’t Be FBI Director
Facing a MAGA backlash over the prospect of former Rep. Mike Rogers leading the FBI, Trump adviser Dan Scavino announced today that the president-elect told him Rogers won’t be chosen.
Scavino says Trump said he’s “never even given it a thought.”
Just this morning, Rogers was on Fox News pitching himself as the right man for the job.
Matt Gaetz Says He Won’t Return to Congress
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), “who withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general on Thursday, said Friday he will not be returning to Congress next year,” CNN reports.
Said Gaetz: “I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress.”
I’ll admit that now I’m really curious to know what’s in that House Ethics Committee report.
Elon Musk Gets a Crash Course in Trumpism
“For the first 53 years of his life, Elon Musk barely spent any time with Donald Trump. Then, beginning on the night of Nov. 5, he spent basically no time without him,” the New York Times reports.
“And so Mr. Musk, more than any other key player in the presidential transition, finds himself in a cram session to learn the courtier politics of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. For the world’s richest person — not known for his humility or patience — it is a social engineering challenge far trickier and less familiar than heavy manufacturing or rocket science.”
“Doubts abound as to whether he will graduate in 2028 with a four-year degree in Trumpism: It is now a parlor game in Washington and Silicon Valley to speculate just how long the Musk-Trump relationship will last. The answer, as discarded aides from Mr. Trump’s first term will tell you, may depend on Mr. Musk’s ability to placate the boss and keep a relatively low profile — but also to shiv a rival when the time comes.”
Putin Says Ukraine War Is Going Global
“President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to hit Russia with their weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could strike back,” Reuters reports.
“Russia, Putin said, had responded to the use of U.S. and British missiles by firing a new kind of hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at a Ukrainian military facility. More could follow, Putin warned.”
The Sexual-Abuse Cabinet
Jill Filipovic: “If everyone is a sexual predator, then no one’s history of misdeeds matters (or, at least, no one needs to be held accountable).”
“MAGA Republicans seem to be having their own #MeToo moment, except here, a growing cohort of men is essentially saying: Oh, another man accused of sexual predation? #MeToo—and so what? Being accused of sexual harassment, abuse, or assault is no longer disqualifying; on the right, it has been normalized. It may even be an asset.”
Will Musk and Trump Fall Out?
Financial Times: “In 1972, Henry Kissinger called Time’s editor-in-chief and ‘begged’ to have his name removed as the magazine’s joint ‘men of the year’ — the other being his boss, Richard M Nixon.”
Recalled Kissinger: “To be given equal treatment with the president of the United States was for me almost suicidal.”
“The magazine brushed aside Kissinger’s desperate entreaties. The two men duly shared the cover. The German-born national security adviser’s role in a highly consequential administration was too central to be ignored.”
“Eight weeks before Donald Trump takes office for a second time, that role now belongs to Elon Musk. Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, has almost dropped out of view. Musk, on the other hand, is everywhere to be seen.”
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Elon Musk has cozied into Trump’s White House. How long will this bromance last?
Democrats Are More Pessimistic About Party’s Future
Pew Research: “Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, Democrats’ pessimism about their party’s future is now higher than at any point over the last eight years.”
“By contrast, Republicans’ optimism is at its highest point in Pew Research Center postelection surveys conducted since 2016, including after Trump’s election win eight years ago.”
Key takeaway: “For the first time since 2016, more Americans say the Republican Party represents the interests of ‘people like them’ very or somewhat well than say this about the Democratic Party (50% vs. 43%).”
A Scramble for J.D. Vance’s Senate Seat
“Sen. J.D. Vance’s election as vice president has opened up one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats for the third time in as many years, setting off a scramble for the appointment among the state’s ruling Republicans,” CBS News reports.
“Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is tasked with filling the vacancy, giving the pragmatic center-right politician a hand in setting his party’s course in the state potentially for years to come. His decision will be made in the afterglow of sweeping wins by Republicans in November under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump, but a poor choice could also help Democrats reclaim a place in Ohio’s Senate delegation when the seat comes up for reelection in less than two years.”
Chuck Schumer Tries to Highlight the GOP’s Divides
New York Times: “He is keeping quiet for a reason, and it is not because he does not have opinions on President-elect Donald Trump’s administration in the making. With some Republicans raising their own profound concerns about Mr. Trump’s ethically and legally challenged choices, such as the former Representative Matt Gaetz to be attorney general and the Fox News personality Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, why get in the way of their intraparty hand-wringing?”
Charting Elon Musk’s Changing Politics
The Economist: “Using artificial intelligence to trawl through his 38,358 posts between December 2013 and November 2024, we found that he is posting far more often and with a far more political bent. Climate change and clean energy used to be the realm of policy on which he opined the most, but he now bangs on much more about immigration and free speech.”
Trump Looks to Project 2025 for Staffing Help
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team “is turning to Project 2025 to help staff the next administration,” NBC News reports.
“Already, transition officials are taking suggestions for potential hires from the extensive personnel database created by Project 2025.”
“While Project 2025’s massive book of conservative policy recommendations received most of the attention from Democrats, a central part of the effort was putting together a database that officials had framed as a conservative LinkedIn to help staff an incoming Republican administration.”
Trump’s Sentencing Pushed Back Again
“The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money case has given his lawyers more than a week to argue that his conviction should be thrown out because he was reelected as president, and officially called off Trump’s sentencing that was scheduled for next week,” the Washington Post reports.
Politico: “In a one-page decision, Justice Juan Merchan postponed the sentencing, which had been set for Nov. 26, in order to weigh Trump’s bid to dismiss the case entirely based on the fact that he is now president-elect.”
Hegseth Hearings Will Be ‘Pretty Brutal’
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said that the hearings to appoint former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense would be “pretty brutal,” The Hill reports.
Said Kinzinger: “The military’s had an issue with sexual assault that they’ve been trying to address for a number of years, and now you’re putting the guy that’s potentially guilty of that in charge of the Pentagon. The hearings are going to be pretty brutal for him, and you know, we’ll see what comes out of that.”
Trump’s First Defeat
David Graham: “Gaetz’s speedy exit shows that Senate Republicans aren’t willing to accept literally anyone Trump throws their way, and the fact that they were able to send that message so quickly suggests just how deep their reservations were. If the rejection is a sign of weakness for Trump, it is also one for his vice president–elect, Senator J. D. Vance. Vance was given the tough job of squiring Gaetz around Senate offices yesterday to drum up support, which obviously did not go well.”
“The Gaetz failure doesn’t mean that senators will reject any other picks, but with Gaetz out of the way, the troubled nomination of Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon will be able to get more attention. A police report about a sexual-assault allegation against Hegseth from 2017 was released today, and it’s a stomach-churning read. Alternatively, Gaetz could end up looking like a sacrificial pick to save the others, or like a stalking horse for Trump to appoint someone else at DOJ. It seems unlikely that Trump intended either of these—he doesn’t usually play to lose—but that could be the effect.”
Texas Offers Land for Staging Mass Deportations
“Texas is offering a parcel of rural ranchland along the U.S.-Mexico border to use as a staging area for potential mass deportations under President-elect Donald Trump,” CBS Texas reports.
Thin Resumes Are the Point
“Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks to fill his Cabinet boast resumes that are thin on the kind of subject matter the agencies they would helm oversee,” ABC News reports.
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re politically unqualified.”
“The ongoing battle on Capitol Hill over Trump’s selections underscores how outsider bona fides and shake-it-up attitudes now imbue would-be secretaries with credibility. That’s in contrast to steady-as-she-goes mantras and beefy résumés in a government bureaucracy that voters believe has failed them.”
