Trump lawyer Alina Habba said she won’t be White House press secretary: “Although I love screaming from a podium I will be better served in other capacities.“
Trump May Tap Andrew Puzder as Labor Secretary
Former restaurant CEO Andrew Puzder “is among the contenders being considered by President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to lead the federal agency that enforces worker safety, minimum wage, child labor, retirement security, and other employment laws,” Bloomberg Law reports.
“Puzder was Trump’s original choice for labor secretary when he was first elected in 2017.”
Playbook: “You may recall Puzder as Trump’s Labor secretary nominee last term — who withdrew after he admitted to having an undocumented housekeeper and after our colleagues Marianne LeVine and Timothy Noah revealed that his ex-wife appeared on a 1990 Oprah episode about domestic abuse.”
Jack Smith’s Final Report Must Be Released
The Bulwark: “Smith must decide whether to complete two separate reports covering the two distinct investigations or a single report encompassing both.”
“Either way, just over two months is not a lot of time to assemble final reports covering such large investigations, so Smith’s team will need to work fast.”
Gaetz-gate Roils the Capitol
“Capitol Hill is consumed with President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his attorney general, sparking a series of critical questions for the incoming Trump administration and the House,” Punchbowl News reports.
“Gaetz officially resigned his seat today.”
Robert Costa: “What I’m hearing privately from a few key GOP senators: yes, they’d prefer to not have a messy fight over Gaetz. Not their favorite. But they also don’t have a lot of energy for pushing back. Trump runs the show, they say. If Gaetz can reassure them, they’re open to backing him.”
Tulsi Gabbard Is a Threat to National Security
Tom Nichols: “To make Tulsi Gabbard the DNI, however, is not merely handing a bouquet to a political gadfly. Her appointment would be a threat to the security of the United States.”
“Gabbard ran for president as a Democrat in 2020, attempting to position herself as something like a peace candidate. But she’s no peacemaker: She’s been an apologist for both the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Her politics, which are otherwise incoherent, tend to be sympathetic to these two strongmen, painting America as the problem and the dictators as misunderstood…”
“A person with Gabbard’s views should not be allowed anywhere near the crown jewels of American intelligence.”
Matt Gaetz Is Just Trump’s Opening Bid
Ron Brownstein: “Trump has shown he understands a cardinal rule of strong man dominance: constantly force your allies to defend the indefensible and to make ever greater concessions they once would have considered beyond the pale. Each surrender paves the way for the next. Gaetz just an opening bid.”
Ezra Klein: “Demanding Senate Republicans back Gaetz as Attorney General and Hegseth as Defense Secretary is the 2024 version of forcing Sean Spicer to say it was the largest inauguration crowd ever. These aren’t just appointments. They’re loyalty tests. The absurdity is the point.”
Ethics Committee Won’t Release Report on Matt Gaetz
“House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-MS) is seemingly sticking to his decision to not release his panel’s report about Matt Gaetz after the Floridian’s abrupt resignation Wednesday,” Politico reports.
Said Guest: “What happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality.”
Trump Blows Through Transition Deadlines
“With 67 days until President-elect Trump is sworn in, his administration-in-waiting is still bypassing the official process designed to facilitate the transfer of control over the vast federal bureaucracy,” Axios reports.
“For now, future Trump administration officials won’t have access to the agencies they’ll soon lead, to secure communications systems, or potentially to security briefings and clearances.”
Judges Postpone January 6 Trials
“Two federal judges agreed Thursday to postpone criminal trials for defendants accused of breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, agreeing that President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent inauguration could make the proceedings unnecessary,” Politico reports.
What Trump Can (And Probably Can’t) Do
Russell Berman: “Such a slim majority means that the legislation most prized on the right and feared by the left—a national abortion ban, dramatic cuts to federal spending, the repeal of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and Joe Biden’s largest domestic-policy achievements—is unlikely to pass Congress.
Said former GOP aide Brendan Buck: “I don’t think they’re even going to try on any of those things.”
“Trump’s biggest opportunity for a legacy-defining law may be extending his 2017 tax cuts, which are due to expire next year and won’t need to overcome a Senate filibuster to pass. He could also find bipartisan support for new immigration restrictions, including funding for his promised southern wall, after an election in which voters rewarded candidates with a more hawkish stance on the border.”
More a Ripple Than a Wave
Charlie Cook: “This may be the most misunderstood election in modern American political history, even given that it came immediately after another misunderstood result in 2022. It was, if anything, a bifurcated election. As horrific as the presidential outcome was for Democrats, those claiming that it was a wipeout haven’t looked very closely at what happened below the top of the ballot, where the extraordinary thing is how ordinary the results were.”
“In the House, which is a far better barometer of where the country is than the Senate, after zillions of dollars were spent, the net change will be minimal—within a couple seats of the 221-214 majority Republicans held going into the election. Virtually nothing happened (unless you are or work for someone who lost). Republicans will almost certainly have a majority, though a tiny one—probably the tightest margins for the House since the 72nd Congress (1931-33), when they had 218 seats to Democrats’ 216 (although Democrats did get to organize the House because of deaths of several Republican members after the election but before the swearing-in took place).”
“The kind of change in the House may well be little more than a rounding error.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Split outcomes between presidential and Senate results saw a resurgence in 2024, as at least four Donald Trump-won states sent Democrats to the Senate.”
Jail Trump for One Week
Timothy Noah: “The people have spoken; Donald Trump will be our next president. But the people also spoke last May when Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the 2016 election. That wasn’t quite so many people as last week—12 jurors, against roughly 76 million voters. But no less than elections, juries are a vital part of American democracy.”
Observed Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America: “The jury is pre-eminently a political institution; it must be regarded as one form of the sovereignty of the people.”
“To honor that sovereignty, New York State Judge Juan Merchan—who’s delayed sentencing Trump three times, and on November 12 put off for one week deciding how to proceed—should sentence Trump to a week at Rikers Island, to be served before Trump is inaugurated president on January 20.”
Florida Schools Banned 700 Books Last Year
“Florida school districts axed about 700 books from school libraries in the 2023-2024 school year, according to a Florida Department of Education list,” the Washington Post reports.
The book removals follow a law that allows parents or local residents to push for the removal of any book that “depicts or describes sexual content” or is “pornographic.”
Quote of the Day
“I’m surprised that Matt would do this to himself. I want to go get a big bag of popcorn and pull up a front-row seat to that show.”
— Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), quoted by the New York Times, on the nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be attorney general.
Trump Victory Could Ease Regulatory Path for Musk
“As Tesla’s electric-vehicle sales have flattened this year, CEO Elon Musk has increasingly staked the company’s future on his vision for self-driving robotaxis, despite the massive technological and regulatory obstacles in delivering them,” Reuters reports.
“Now Musk – as one of President-elect Donald Trump’s biggest backers – may have the influence to help break through those regulatory roadblocks.”
Some GOP Senators Look to Derail Tulsi Gabbard
Punchbowl News: “Incensed by Gabbard’s isolationist views and penchant for conspiracy theories, some GOP national security hawks are already discussing ways to derail her nomination, according to two senators familiar with the matter.”
“The Senate Intelligence Committee will be charged with vetting Gabbard. The former lawmaker will also have to undergo an FBI background check.”
Confusion Consumes Harris Campaign’s Finances
“If Kamala Harris’ campaign was known for anything, it was its blockbuster fundraising. In just a matter of months, it crossed the $1 billion mark, in a stunning and record-breaking pace,” NBC News reports.
“Now, less than a week since the vice president conceded the contest, it not only has run out of money, it’s still asking for more. The campaign emails and texts, known for their ubiquity throughout the election, aren’t expected to stop anytime soon…”
“The overarching challenge at this point for what is left of Harris’ campaign is that the financial picture is shrouded in mystery — even for those within the organization. No one can — or will — spell out a clear status of its finances.”
Those Poor, Poor Vichy Republicans
William Kristol: “What a 24 hours! The lightest of lightweights, Pete Hegseth, is nominated for secretary of defense. A leading Assad and Putin apologist, Tulsi Gabbard, is announced as director of national intelligence. The poster child of moral degradation, Matt Gaetz, is selected for attorney general.”
“If you’re surprised, you’re a dupe. President Trump is going to do in his second term what he said he’d do on the campaign trail, and what he tried fitfully to do in his first term. He’s going to turn the federal government into an instrument of MAGA policy and grievance. He’s going to pursue retribution against enemies. He’s going to destroy what remains of the older norms that guide the operations of the government, and of the institutional checks that constrain the abuse of power.”
“He told us this was his plan. The only surprise is how quickly he’s acting on it.”
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