Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday filed a lawsuit against the House Ethics Committee in a last-minute attempt to block the panel from releasing its report on the Florida Republican, The Hill reports.
New York Times: “The push against TV drug ads threatens to dent the revenues of pharmaceutical companies, which can make back in sales five times as much as they spend on commercials, according to some analysts. It could also create uncertainty for major television networks, which bring in substantial revenue from pharmaceutical advertisers trying to reach older viewers, who tend to take more medications.”
“Though it’s not clear how such a ban might happen — Mr. Kennedy has called for an executive order — any attempt would face an uphill battle. Efforts to modestly restrict drug ads have repeatedly been defeated in the courts, often on First Amendment grounds. The first Trump administration tried to require that commercials mention the drug’s price, but a judge blocked the move, saying that it lacked authority from Congress.”
Semafor: “Trump is inheriting a particularly strong post-pandemic economy, meaning he enters office with considerable leverage in trade negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported. Already, the president-elect has floated a blanket 10% tariff on all imported goods, a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican products, and levies of up to 60% on Chinese goods.”
“But the Republican’s notorious unpredictability means many world leaders are unclear exactly how to prepare for Trump 2.0, with many hoping to score a meeting with him and begin negotiations even before he takes office.”
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) was hospitalized after being bucked off a horse he was riding on Sunday, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
New data from the progressive group Navigator Research shows that “even voters who previously backed Democrats cast the party as weak and overly focused on diversity and elites,” Politico reports.
“When asked to compare the Democratic Party to an animal, one participant compared the party to an ostrich because ‘they’ve got their heads in the sand and are absolutely committed to their own ideas, even when they’re failing.’”
“Democrats, another said, are ‘not a friend of the working class anymore.’”
“Everyone keeps asking me if I’m pregnant. Actually, a member, a Republican, came to me on the floor this week and asked me if I was pregnant… I’m not pregnant guys. I had a lot of food at Thanksgiving, OK? It happens.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), quoted by the Daily Beast.
Rachel Bade: “After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was ‘certainly happy about this outcome.’”
“Not by a long shot.”
“Amid the chaos in Washington, I was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward. This much became clear to me: Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too.”
Playbook: “Trump is backing away from Johnson just at the moment where the speaker most needs the new president’s help. Johnson won’t be able to lose more than four Republican votes on Jan. 3, and it’s impossible to see him mustering that kind of unity without Trump’s vocal backing.”
“His best friend right now? Circumstance. No Republican wants a reprise of last fall’s two-week power vacuum, least of all with the official electoral college tally scheduled for just three days later. No elected speaker means no certification. And it definitely means no progress on reconciliation — forget the one-bill-or-two debate.”
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News.
From the report: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
More: “The record overwhelmingly suggests that Representative Gaetz had sex with multiple women at a 2017 Florida party, including the then-17-year-old, for which they were paid… Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school. Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
“President Biden, citing moral and policy objections to capital punishment, said he was commuting the death sentences of 37 inmates Monday, a move that prevents President-elect Donald Trump from executing most men on federal death row,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Biden: “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”
But, citing his early experience as a public defender as well as decades in federal office: “I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level. In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
“As Joe Manchin prepares to leave Congress after nearly 15 years, the West Virginia senator — who left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent earlier this year — is further distancing himself from his former party, calling the Democratic brand ‘toxic,’” CNN reports.
Said Manchin: “The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic.”
“President-elect Trump floated taking ownership of Greenland as he named PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Denmark on Sunday,” Axios reports.
“Trump said during his first administration that he was looking into the U.S. buying Greenland and canceled a state trip to Denmark after Danish officials said the autonomous territory that’s part of its kingdom was not for sale.”
President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that he intended to nominate Callista Gingrich, who served as his ambassador to the Vatican during his first term, as ambassador to Switzerland, the New York Times reports.
President-elect Donald Trump delivered a sprawling address on Sunday that he called a “small preview of the common-sense revolution” his administration will bring, pledging to slam shut the nation’s borders, end federal regulations, lower taxes, prosecute his rivals, “stop woke” and “end the transgender lunacy,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “We will end the occupation, and Jan. 20 will truly be liberation day in America.”
Republican members of Congress took to the Sunday shows to praise Trump lieutenant Elon Musk’s involvement in last week’s government funding saga, with one likening him to “our prime minister,” Axios reports.
“The Federal Reserve is starting to contend with how President-elect Donald Trump and his ambitious policies could reignite inflation in 2025,” the Washington Post reports.
“The central bank’s leaders strive to protect their independence from the White House and avoid commenting on politics or policy proposals. Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell had said for weeks that it was premature to discuss the degree to which the president-elect’s proposals — including higher tariffs, lower taxes and deportation of immigrants — would factor into its decisions on interest rates.”
President-elect Donald Trump said the notion that he has “ceded the presidency” to Elon Musk is a fiction and that even if Musk wanted the job, he couldn’t get it because of the Constitution’s requirement that the U.S. president be a natural-born citizen, NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you. And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
A source told CBS News the House Ethics Committee is expected to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday.
Meanwhile, Gaetz floated the prospect of running for senator or governor of Florida — or landing a special counsel spot to go after his former colleagues in Congress.
Playbook: “From floor speeches to hallway chats to post-vote statements, Democrats have spent the past few days portraying Musk as a shadow president — a man perhaps more influential than Trump himself. Musk, you may recall, used his social media platform to start whipping Republicans into tanking the initial, bipartisan funding deal before Trump publicly nuked it.”
“Yes, it’s a transparent play to prey on the incoming president’s insecurities — Trump despises when people outshine him, and one of the most notable elements of his second-term team so far is that it’s filled with people who are unlikely to steal his spotlight. MAGA world is warning not to take the bait, but, nevertheless, Dems are persisting.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.