(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, said on Wednesday he will not “back down” after new misconduct allegations have caused growing concern among Republican lawmakers.
“I’m doing this for the warfighters, not the warmongers. The Left is afraid of disrupters and change agents. They are afraid of @realDonaldTrump — and me. So they smear w/ fake, anonymous sources & BS stories. They don’t want truth. Our warriors never back down, & neither will I,” Hegseth wrote on X.
His comments come as a number of senators have privately signaled that they are not inclined to vote to confirm Hegseth as Trump’s next defense secretary, leading Trump’s advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Sources tell ABC News that at least six senators have privately indicated that they don’t intend to vote for Hegseth amid the growing allegations, including about his mistreatment of women.
Multiple sources also tell ABC News that Trump and Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the job Tuesday and DeSantis expressed interest in it.
Hegseth is expected to be back on Capitol Hill Wednesday for meetings with more senators.
(WASHINGTON) — A growing number of senators have privately signaled that they are not inclined to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as President-elect Donald Trump’s next defense secretary, leading Trump’s advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Sources tell ABC News that at least six senators have privately indicated that they don’t intend to vote for Hegseth amid the growing allegations about his mistreatment of women.
While Trump and his advisers have privately said the president-elect backs Hegseth and wants him to “keep fighting,” sources familiar with private discussions tell ABC News that a growing list of replacements is emerging to replace him. Those include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, whom Trump has already tapped to be national security adviser.
Sources close to DeSantis say he has expressed interest in the role. He was seen today with Trump attending a memorial service for three Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies in West Palm Beach, who were killed in a crash last month.
Reached by ABC News, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team declined to comment.
Hegseth was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday looking to shore up support as he fends off the allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety.
The visit came after a report in The New Yorker that Hegseth was forced to step down from two veteran nonprofit groups — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — amid accusations of financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and other disqualifying behavior.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s account. Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, told The New Yorker the claims were “outlandish.”
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump has shown no qualms about making or sticking by picks for his Cabinet no matter the baggage they carry — even some accused of sexual assault.
It’s a far cry from the days when much smaller-scale scandals, such as marijuana use or hiring an undocumented worker as a nanny, sunk candidates put forward by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, experts said.
“We’re in untested waters,” Jonathan Hanson, a political scientist and lecturer in statistics at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, told ABC News.
Hanson and other experts said the public has become less concerned about some indiscretions, such as minor and one-time drug and alcohol arrests. Ronald Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Douglas Ginsburg admitting to smoking pot when he was younger would never have gotten much negative blowback today, Hanson said.
Two of Bill Clinton’s picks for attorney general — Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood — both withdrew amid questions over their hiring immigrants in the country illegally as babysitters. Former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle — Clinton’s choice for health and human services secretary — had to bow out after it was revealed he didn’t pay taxes for the use of a car and driver.
“It’s true that people’s standards have shifted, but the question is, when does it really cross a line?” Hanson said.
Trump’s picks bring the debate to a new level, he argued.
Trump himself campaigned in the shadow of his hush money felony criminal conviction and after a Manhattan civil jury found him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations in both cases.
Matt Gaetz was already a controversial figure before his nomination while under a House Ethics Committee investigation for alleged sexual abuse and illicit drug use.
The former Florida congressman has denied all the allegations and the investigations by the Justice Department ended with no charges being brought and the House Ethics Committee ended when Gaetz resigned from his seat.
Trump’s pick to head the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, paid a woman who alleged he had sexually assaulted her in 2017, an accusation he denied and for which he was not charged.
The New York Times published an email Friday that Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth, sent him in 2018 in the context of his divorce from his second wife, saying he had routinely mistreated women for years.
“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote in the message, according to the Times.
She said she later apologized and told the paper that she sent the e-mail in anger, adding “I know my son. He is a good father, husband.”
The New Yorker reported Hegseth was allegedly forced to step down from two non-profits veterans’ groups that he ran due to “serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.” The magazine cited “a trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues.”
ABC News has not independently confirmed The New Yorker or The New York Times reporting.
Tim Parlatore, a lawyer for Hegseth, called the New Yorker piece, “outlandish claims laundered …by a petty and jealous disgruntled former associate,” in a response to the magazine.
Jason Miller, a senior Trump adviser, told CNN on Tuesday that the allegations in The New Yorker about Hegseth are “innuendo and gossip,” and said the Trump transition has no concerns about his pick to lead the Department of Defense.
Hegseth has said the sex assault allegation from 2017 was “fully investigated” and that he was “completely cleared” although a police report did not say that. He has avoided talking about the allegations while he met with Republican lawmakers over the last couple of weeks to garner support.
Hanson notes Trump named Gaetz and Hegseth after a majority of voters sent him back to the White House despite his own criminal indictments, including attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The sentencing for Trump’s New York conviction has been postponed indefinitely while the federal cases have been dismissed.
That, along with the Republicans taking control of Congress, Hanson said, might have motivated Trump to push forward with his controversial picks.
“It does raise the question if we are holding people to different standards than we used to,” he said. “There has been this notion to shrug it all off, thinking, ‘Everyone is corrupt. At least he’s open about it.'”
Edward Queen, a faculty member at Emory University Center for Ethics, said this thinking has been linked to what he said is growing distrust in the American political system.
“One of the consequences of the decline of trust is that everyone has done ‘it’ therefore ‘it’ doesn’t matter. And that’s disturbing,” he told ABC News.
At the same time, Hanson said, history shows the public traditionally has been against corruption, cronyism and other questionable behavior by public officials.
“There are voters in the middle who voted for Trump that would be unhappy for a vote for these troubling nominees,” Hanson said. “That will come back to hurt Republicans who may have ridden on his momentum.”
Jeff Spinner-Halev, the Kenan Eminent Professor of Political Ethics at the University of North Carolina, however, told ABC News that the general public has not kept up with the ins and outs of the confirmation process on Capitol Hill, and the outcry may not be that loud.
“It will have limited influence,” he said of the public reaction. “What will matter if a few senators are concerned about the controversies or competency of the candidate verses how much they care about the wrath of President Trump.”
The Senate must confirm each Cabinet choice, and while the GOP will have the majority, some Senate Republicans who back Trump also question whether his picks’ ethical issues make them impossible to approve, according to Hanson.
“Putting my shoes in a senator’s for a moment, they don’t want to walk the plank for a vote,” Hanson added. “If they feel that a nominee is too unpopular, they don’t want to stick their hand in the air and say ‘yes’ — but if they do, he said, they would need to weigh the consequences of looking the other way.”
He sees the fact that some GOP senators signaled Gaetz wasn’t acceptable as proof some standards still exist. For example, Gaetz withdrew his name from the nomination eight days after Trump announced it due to the increased scrutiny and more details about his scandals came to light.
Gaetz said in a social media post that his nomination process would have been “a distraction.”
“No one was really looking to defend this guy, and the message got sent to the president-elect’s team that this isn’t going to work,” Hanson said.
“I do think it is a positive sign because, at some point, lines were crossed. Some candidates are just a bridge too far, and it may be the case with some of the other appointees,” he added.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s choice for White House communications director and campaign spokesman, reiterated his claim that “voters gave President Trump a mandate to choose Cabinet nominees that reflect the will of the American people and he will continue to do so.”
“President Trump appreciates the advice and consent of Senators on Capitol Hill, but ultimately this is his administration,” he said in a statement after Gaetz withdrew.
Hanson predicted there will continue to be increased scrutiny of Trump’s Cabinet picks as Senate confirmation hearings get closer, but he warned that the opposition might have limits.
“It depends on how much fight will come from Democrats and interest groups that engage with politics. It will be interesting to see what happens because there is plenty of opportunity here for Democrats in the Senate to make a lot of noise,” he said.
“We will also be in a situation where there may be only enough clout and power to fight only the most controversial of nominees and let others pass,” he said.
Spinner-Halev said that Republican senators, in particular, may not want to cross Trump too many times and may just limit their opposition to his picks with the most baggage.
“One of the worries the Republicans will have is if a person [who is nominated] is incompetent,” he said. “The danger for the Trump administration and Republicans general is if these people are incompetent and mess up and then the public notices. This is what happened with George W. Bush and [Hurricane] Katrina where he said [FEMA Director Michael Brown] was doing a ‘heck of a job.’ That hurt him badly.”
Queen said there is a possibility that some Republican senators may put ethics before partisanship when all is said and done.
“It’s not unreasonable to assume that there are a number of senators who realize there will be consequences of their choices and their decisions that it will be bad for the country as a whole,” he said.
In the long term, Hanson said it is unclear if Trump’s selections will usher in a new norm of presidential picks who buck ethics and experience standards.
He noted that American history has shown several cycles of reform brought on by demand of a public frustrated with dysfunction and improper behavior, such as in the aftermath of the Nixon administration in the 1970s.
“Now that they see what is happening, they may be reminded what the Trump presidency was like the first time around,” he said of Americans who supported him. “There may be a bunch of people who say this is not what I voted for, and that could affect things tremendously.”
Spinner-Halev said the future will depend on how informed the public is over the next four years.
“There is a lot that happens in Washington that’s not in the public eye, and I think it’s important that the public keeps an eye on the bureaucratic ongoings,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday looking to shore up support as he fends off new allegations of misconduct and sexual impropriety.
The allegations were top of mind for Republican senators, one of whom called recent reports “very disturbing.” Several GOP lawmakers suggested Hegseth needed to come forward and address them.
But Hegseth, holding hands with his wife as he walked the halls, continued to ignore questions about the New Yorker report that he was forced to step down from two veteran nonprofit groups — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — amid accusations of financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and other disqualifying behavior.
The magazine cited what it called a detailed seven-page whistleblower report — compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees — stating that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, the magazine said.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the magazine’s account. Hegseth’s attorney, Tim Parlatore, told The New Yorker the claims were “outlandish.”
“We’re going to meet with every senator that wants to meet with us, across the board, and we welcome their advice as we go through the advice and consent process,” Hegseth told reporters as he arrived for a second day of sitdowns with senators.
Hegseth was asked dozens of questions by reporters, including what he would say to those troubled by the allegations, whether the women who’ve spoken out are lying, whether he had a drinking problem and if the Trump transition team had been aware of the allegations.
He did not respond, including when asked by ABC’s Elizabeth Schulze about GOP Sen. Joni Ernst saying she thinks he should have agreed to a background check.
Trump’s team came out in defense of Hegseth earlier Tuesday. Senior adviser Jason Miller, in an interview on CNN, attempted to brush off the allegations as “innuendo and gossip.”
“So, when it comes to Pete Hegseth, there aren’t any concerns, and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the Senate,” Miller said. “Now we have to take the process very seriously.”
Republican senators, peppered with questions on Hegseth and other recent Trump picks as they returned to Washington this week, also say they want a “normal” confirmation process to play — which would routinely include FBI background checks.
But some of their statements, so far, stopped short of glowing endorsements.
“I think some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is — it’s going to be difficult. Time will tell,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Leadership comes from the top, and I want to make sure that every young woman who joins the military space is respected,” Graham said, seemingly referencing Hegseth’s comments against women serving in combat roles.
Sen. Josh Hawley, another member of the key panel, argued Hegseth would have the opportunity to answer all questions during the confirmation process though notably indicated some of his Republican colleagues are “very worried.”
“I would just urge my Republican colleagues, who are very worried, I know a number of them are expressing public concern — it’s fine, but I would just urge them, before they make up their minds, right before they make up their minds, let them have this hearing and listen to let’s go through the process here and give them a shot to answer this and more and to lay out this vision for you,” Hawley said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who stood by Hegseth as a “great” pick on Monday, had similarly suggested Hegseth could face headwinds.
“Obviously, if it’s to a certain degree, people are not going to vote to confirm it,” Tuberville said when asked about the allegations after their meeting. “But what I know when I talk to him about what I’ve read, what I’ve studied and been around him, I’ll vote for him.”
Many suggesting that he needs to come forward and address it.
“Well, these allegations that have come up just in the last 12 to 14 hours are a surprise to all of us, and so yes, he does need to address those because this was not something of which we were aware, nor was President Trump aware of them,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who met with Hegseth on Monday night with a group of senators.
Asked about his ability to make it through the nomination process, Lummis said she hopes to meet with him one-on-one and deferred to how he addresses the new allegations.
“It depends on how he addresses the issues that have been raised,” Lummis said. “Some of the earlier issues that were raised about an incident in California I think were satisfactorily addressed and would not have interfered with his nomination, but some new things that have come to light in the last 12 to 14 hours are things he needs to address.”
“I have read all the articles, I have seen all the allegations. And Mr. Hegseth is going to have to address it,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said.
“I want to know if they’re true, and I want to hear his side of the story. And he’s going to have to address them,” Kennedy added.
Hegseth met Tuesday with Sen. Deb Fischer, one of two Republican women on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty in their respective offices.
He was also scheduled to meet with Republican Sens. Ted Budd, Shelley Moore Capito, Jim Risch and Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt said he was “definitely going to ask questions” about the allegations.
(LUANDA, Angola) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday, during his diplomatic trip to Angola, acknowledged America’s “original sin” of slavery and the slave trade that once connected the United States and the African nation.
“I’ve learned that while history can be hidden, it cannot and should not be erased,” Biden said. “It should be faced. It’s our duty to face our history. The good, the bad and the ugly. The whole truth. That’s what great nations do.”
The remarks were delivered at the National Museum of Slavery, where millions of African slaves were baptized before being chained in ships to travel across the Atlantic Ocean.
“We’re gathering in a solemn location because to fully consider how far our two countries have come in our friendship, we have to remember how we began,” Biden said outside the museum on a rainy afternoon.
“We hear them in the wind and the waves: young women, young men born free in the highlands in Angola, only to be captured, bound and forced in a death march along this very coast to this spot by slave traders in the year 1619,” Biden said.
The White House announced earlier this week, as Biden arrived in Angola, that it was giving a $229,000 grant to help with a restoration of the museum and its conservation.
The diplomatic trip is aimed at deepening the relationship between the two countries, and marks the first-ever visit to Angola by a sitting U.S. president and the first sub-Saharan trip by an American leader since President Barack Obama in 2015.
Biden kicked off the visit with a bilateral meeting earlier Tuesday with President João Lourenco in Luanda.
The two men talked about trade and economic opportunities, protecting democracy and the growth of the U.S.-Angola relationship, according to the White House.
Biden celebrated the partnership further in his remarks, saying it’s as “strong as it’s ever been” and that the “United States is all in on Africa’s future.”
“The story of Angola and the United States holds a lesson for the world: two nations with a shared history in evil of human bondage, two nations on opposite sides of the Cold War defining struggle in the late part of the 20th century,” Biden said. “And now two nations standing shoulder to shoulder, working together every day for the mutual benefit of our people.”
“It’s a reminder that no nation need be permanently the adversary of another testament to the human capacity for reconciliation and proof that from every — from the horrors of slavery and war, there is a way forward,” Biden added.
On Wednesday, Biden will tour part of the Lobito rail corridor, which is being partially financed by the U.S., that will help transport goods and materials across Africa — a development seen as a way to counter China’s influence in the region.
White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby touted the project in an interview with ABC News’ Alex Presha.
Kirby said the administration was “very confident that the Lobito corridor is going to be a success,” noting it’s a multilateral effort with support from U.S. allies and benefits American companies that will build part of the railway at home before it’s transported to Africa.
Looming over Biden’s historic visit, though, was the decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden. Biden has not answered reporters’ shouted questions on the pardon while he’s been in Angola.
Asked if the pardon has diverted attention away from Biden’s trip, Kirby said Biden is focused on “how important this is, again, not just to the people of Angola and the continent, but to the American people.”
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As President-elect Donald Trump fills out his Cabinet and chooses his closet advisers ahead of Inauguration Day, many African American leaders are asking why more Black people haven’t been appointed to key positions.
ABC News spoke to more than a half dozen longtime and new African American conservatives and Republicans within Trumpworld, in and outside of Washington.
Last month, the president-elect appointed Scott Turner, who was executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term, to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
One area of frustration for many Black Republicans was speculation that if Trump did nominate an African American to his administration, it would be at HUD, the department that has had the most Black secretary appointments of any.
One Black Southern Republican told ABC News, “Why is every Black person given HUD?” adding that it was “the literal Black job of the administration.”
ABC News reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment on his selections but did not get a reply.
Six African Americans have served as HUD secretaries, including Robert Weaver, the first. His appointment in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson also made him the first African American appointed to a Cabinet-level position.
The first African American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet was Patricia Roberts Harris, who was the first African American Health and Human Services director and later HUD secretary. She served under President Jimmy Carter.
Former HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce was the only Black Cabinet official in the Ronald Reagan administration. Dr. Ben Carson at HUD was Trump’s sole Black cabinet member in his first term.
In mid-November, Carson posted that he was “excited to speak with President Trump about how I will continue to advance the America First agenda, and I am meeting with him in the near future.”
“However, contrary to reports, I will not be serving as the Surgeon General,” he said.
The departments of Treasury and Interior remain the only departments that have never had a Black secretary.
Another key position Black conservatives believe needs to be filled by an African American is assistant to the president, a senior-level role within the White House. Trump previously appointed Omarosa Manigault Newman, a contestant on his “The Apprentice” TV series, as the sole Black assistant to the president.
“I do think if you’re really talking about Black influence inside the White House, does Trump want his only legacy of having the only AP for two terms be Omarosa” one Black Republican strategist asked.
After Newman’s departure, Ja’Ron Smith served as a special assistant on legislative affairs before rising to deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. Ashley Bell, a prominent Black Republican, served as a White House adviser on entrepreneurship and a regional administrator for the Small Business Administration. Bell’s former boss is former SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, who Trump announced as his pick for the Department of Education. McMahon also is co-chair of the Trump-Vance transition team.
Some of the former president’s most ardent defenders have grown restless with the lack of Black appointees, as Trump selected several others who would be firsts in those positions. If confirmed, Sen. Marco Rubio would be the first Hispanic secretary of state; Scott Bessent would be the first openly gay Treasury secretary; and Tulsi Gabbard will be the first Asian American and youngest-ever director of national intelligence.
“I can’t tweet that we need more Black conservatives because the left will attack me saying it’s a DEI hire,” the southern Republican said.
However, one Black Republican operative told ABC News it is still very early when it comes to appointments.
“The Republican Party has never really fallen into the category of ‘representation matters.’ Our strength comes from diversity, but that is not our bumper sticker slogan. We’re not going to nominate Black folks for the sake of nominating Black people,” the Republican operative said.
The operative noted that Black Republicans have made strides in leadership across the country. Sen. Tim Scott will chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee; Rep. Byron Donald is speculated as possibly running for governor or U.S. Senate in Florida; and Winsome Sears is seeking to become the first Black female governor in the country in Virginia.
Donalds on CNN last month took aim at President Joe Biden’s focus on diversity within his administration when asked about the lack of diversity among Trump’s nominees, saying “if you look at how the Democrats filled Joe Biden’s cabinet, they wanted to have a piece of every identity. But did they get the job done? Did they actually serve the interest of the American people?”
“What Donald Trump’s election is about, is bringing competency and reality back to D.C. in the White House, regardless of their race, regardless of their religion, regardless of their creed.” the Florida congressman added.
Although some Black leaders inside and out of politics are highly qualified, another barrier that Black conservatives face is added scrutiny because of their dual identity.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-partisan organization that studies diversity in government and congressional staff, said that the Trump administration differs vastly from past Republican administrations.
“Trump isn’t a traditional Republican, he doesn’t use traditional Republican institutions in the same way that past presidential candidates have, so there isn’t a kind of pipeline, long-term relations,” Asante-Muhammad said.
“Being a part of Trumpworld isn’t easy. It is almost a personal blacklist thing in the outside world. So it is risky, in my opinion, to be a part of this organization for Black people that may want to be a part of the cause, but it’s not worth their bottom dollar,” one Black Republican strategist added.
“When Black people are put underneath this microscope of being Trump-affiliated, they look past your color and you are public enemy number one,” a Black Republican operative said.
The Republican strategist said Black Republicans face a different set of expectations — they don’t necessarily thrive in spaces that are massively disruptive, such as the second Trump term.
“I don’t think disruption really leans into our skillset the way things are currently set up, we have to play things a little bit differently. There’s no Black Republican version of Matt Gatez. They don’t last,” the strategist added.
“Those of us who have survived and been there for years and made it work have done so by being steady, consistent, reliable, and trustworthy, ” the strategist said.
The majority of Black Republicans who spoke to ABC News acknowledged that while the optics of Trump being surrounded by mostly white people aren’t ideal, they believe if Trump delivers on a better economy, securing the border, Second Step Act, and judicial reform it could be transformative for the Black community, but they do want the former president to hire more Black conservatives.
(WASHINGTON) — Congress’s December to-do list includes an unusual item this year: a bill that could determine the home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders.
Since 1997, the team has played home games in nearby Maryland, and the former home of the team, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadum, has fallen into disrepair.
But there is new momentum behind a bipartisan bill to grant the District of Columbia a 99-year lease on the federal land that could allow the city to make a deal with the team to return to Washington after 28 years.
The House approved the bill in February. A key Senate committee did the same last month — after the team and league promised Republican Sen. Steve Daines it would honor the team’s old Redskins logo that depicts a chief of Montana’s Blackfeet tribe.
“We’ve had good discussions with the NFL and with the Commanders,” Daines told Fox News last month. “There’s good faith negotiations going forward that’s gonna allow this logo to be used again,” he added, citing this as the reason why he changed his mind to favor the bill.
Now, advocates are blitzing the halls of Congress, trying to get Senate leaders to add the measure to a year-end spending bill.
On Monday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Commanders Managing Partner Josh Harris met with Hill leaders on the stadium proposal and among other matters, a league source and Commanders team source confirmed to ABC News.
If the Senate doesn’t approve the deal by the end of the month, the bill dies, and both chambers would need to start from scratch in 2025.
That could also leave the fate of the project in the hands of President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump has feuded with the NFL and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and has slammed D.C. as “filthy”, and crime ridden. But the developer-turned-president has also promised to redevelop the city – and once aspired to own an NFL franchise.
(WASHINGTON) — As Republicans senators returned to Washington after Thanksgiving recess to a renewed peppering of questions about President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, a familiar refrain emerged: trust the confirmation process.
“That’s why we’re going to take the normal process, vet all the nominees, and give everybody a chance to ask those questions during a hearing,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said when asked about new allegations concerning Pete Hegseth, Trump’s choice for defense secretary.
“That is why our process is so important,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said when asked about the controversial reports surrounding Hegseth.
“The president is allowed to have his appointees who we will have to see,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said when asked about Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI. “I don’t know Kash Patel, we have to have him go through the process.”
“Like all the other nominees, he’ll get a process and a confirmation hearing and vetting and everything else. They’ll all have to through it, and we’ll see where the process takes us,” incoming Senate Republican Leader John Thune said about Patel.
The responses fell short of glowing endorsements for some of Trump’s nominees. And even as many Republicans call for regular processes to be followed as these nominations are considered, there remains at least one discrepancy on what a normal order process would look like.
Senators torn over FBI background checks
Though vetting of nominations has traditionally included an FBI background check, Republican senators are torn on whether one is 100% necessary for confirmation.
Thune told ABC News the issue over background checks will hopefully be “resolved.” While noting that there are “other alternatives” for getting information, Thune said that FBI background checks are “historically” the best way.
“I think, hopefully at some point they’ll get this background check issue resolved. At this point I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to be resolved but I think they will. I think the administration understands there’s got to be a thorough vetting of all of these noms,” Thune said. “And that, you know, historically, the best place to get that done has been through the FBI. They have other alternatives, you know, obviously, I assume our committee chairman will just want to make sure that they’ve got the background that they need to carefully evaluate these noms.”
Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will be responsible for managing Hegseth’s nomination, told ABC News the panel is “looking at the way its been done traditionally and getting information about that as to who actually orders the FBI background check.”
But when pushed on whether he would want to see an FBI background check, he said he would.
“I would prefer a full background check, yes,” Wicker said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he believes there will be background checks and he’d like to see them.
“My preference would be an FBI background check, and I’m not, I don’t know that we won’t have FBI background checks. I know that we have really good staffs and really good investigators, and they work closely with the FBI, so I’m not worried at all about — about not having background checks done on — not just these nominees, but any nominees by a president. I think that’s a false issue,” Kennedy said.
Some senators kept their cards close on this issue.
Cornyn ignored questions on whether he’d want to see a FBI background check for nominees like Patel.
But others are prepared to follow Trump’s lead.
“My position is what President Trump decides to do is what I will support,” Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said.
Lawmakers react to Kash Patel’s nomination
No Republican senator flatly rejected Patel as Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Justice, though many said they’ll wait for Patel to move through the Senate Judiciary Committee before making a decision on him.
But ultimately, for Patel to be installed, current FBI Director Chris Wray would need to be fired or step down.
There appears to be a general sense among Republicans that they would be okay with Wray being forced out.
“I am, I am,” Capito said when asked if she would be comfortable with Trump removing Wray to install Patel.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she likes Patel, and added that the FBI needs someone new to “go in and clean it up.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said it is reasonable for Trump to want to put in place someone he is comfortable with after his experiences during his first administration and in the years that followed.
“Think about what this guy has gone through, he’s had his house raided, he’s been indicted, so I think he’s probably in a position that you know, and then think about it in his first term, he had a special prosecutor, so I think he probably wants somebody that he knows is going to be loyal,” Scott said.
Chair of the Democratic National Committee Jaime Harrison bangs the gavel on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Aug. 19, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee is hoping to highlight down-ballot successes last month as it hosts a key post-election meeting and looks to turn the page from its stinging White House loss.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a grassroots memo obtained first by ABC News that while Democrats fell short in the presidential race, beefy and historic investments in down-ballot contests offer a roadmap to success. The party was able to salvage four Senate races in states President-elect Donald Trump won and gain House seats despite headwinds at the top of the ticket.
“As we reflect on the cycle and take stock of where we fell short, it’s equally important to assess what worked. Data shows that the work of the DNC and our partners was effective in beating back what could have been a larger red wave,” Harrison wrote.
“In 2024, the DNC made strategic campaign grants in every state party for the first time in history, and delivered record-breaking investments directly to coordinated campaigns in every state — totaling over $264 million,” he added. “These investments yielded results and underscore the importance of continued state party investment…”
The memo marks the first public, thorough dissection by the DNC of the election results, in which Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump and Republicans flipped the Senate and kept the House of Representatives.
The document paints a rosy portrait of a party that failed to keep the White House but won Senate races in Trump-won states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, key House races in California and New York, and won a gubernatorial race in North Carolina, a state that has been a white whale for Democrats at the federal level.
Harrison specifically writes that despite the disappointments, Trump was kept below 50% in the popular vote (he still won it), Democrats held Senate seats in states Trump won and cut into Republicans’ House margin, and the party was successful in breaking some GOP state legislative majorities and holding on in certain chambers, including its one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania state House.
The memo highlights DNC efforts in all those cases, including voter registration efforts, investments in key demographic groups in Senate races, efforts in New York and California to boost prospects in key House races there and money sent to traditionally noncompetitive states like Alaska and Arkansas to make state legislative gains.
“Notable down-ballot wins in 2024 provide us with a roadmap on what works and where investments mattered most,” Harrison wrote.
The memo is being released at the start of a meeting of the Association of State Democratic Committees, where state party leaders will gather to discuss what went right and wrong in November.
The election is sparking a crowded race to lead the DNC, with Harrison not running for reelection as chair, and a broader party reckoning over its identity and whether it should be more centrist, populist, progressive or some combination of the three.
In an interview, Harrison conceded the election was a “mixed bag.”
“Of course, we lost the most important election on that ticket, the presidential election, and I’m heartbroken over that,” he said.
“But then when we start to look underneath that race and look into the battleground states, and what happened in other races, it’s, again, a mixed bag. Donald Trump didn’t have the coattails. It was not this landslide vote that many people wanted to say that it was on Election Day because Democrats still won in many of those battleground states.”
Harrison cited several reasons behind the “mixed” results.
On the one hand, Harris faced a historically short runway after President Joe Biden left the race in July, combined with economic headwinds and a liberal media ecosystem that still struggles to match Republican heavyweights like Fox News. Trump, Harrison said, had emerged as a “cultural” figure over the course of nine years who was able to put together an expansive coalition.
“I think time definitely was a part of it,” Harrison said. “I thought that she was going to be become sort of a cultural figure. Just seeing the early energy, I need to tell you, man, just that convention alone, I felt like there was something turning. But it didn’t go full circle. And that’s something that we got to figure out. Why not? Did we change the message? What did we do in order not to have it go full circle?”
“I don’t know if we need to find our own Joe Rogan [the influential podcaster who interviewed then endorsed Trump days before the election], and I’ve heard that from a number of folks, but I think we need to make sure that we’re in in all those spaces,” he added of whether Democrats need to expand their media strategy in traditional and non-traditional outlets.
Still, Harrison found positive signs in a state party infrastructure that Democrats had worked hard to revive after years of atrophy in recent years.
“We got to continue those investments. We can’t go back to the post-Obama years in which we minimized the amount of resources that the DNC sent to state parties,” he said. “We are still trying to work our way back from that point in time. So, now, it’s about focusing on continuing moving forward.”
Still, the meeting isn’t taking place in a vacuum, and the present could get in the way of discussions about the future.
Biden dropped a bombshell Sunday night when he announced that he was pardoning his son, Hunter, leading to a flood of Democratic criticism Monday over his intervention in Justice Department proceedings.
However, Harrison said he believed that the ASDC meeting would stay on track.
“The president is a good man, he’s a decent man, he’s a just person, and he always tries to do the best thing, and this is, I believe, the best thing at this point in time,” Harrison said. “Almost to a person, the Democrats that I’ve talked to, grassroots activists, Democrats, are leading. This won’t consume that.”
(WASHINGTON) — Ever since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he has been vocal about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy has vowed to crack down on dyes in the food industry and to reduce pesticides in the farm and agriculture industry.
He has called for restrictions on ultra-processed foods as part of an initiative to address the high rates of chronic disease in the United States, and he’s said more research needs to be conducted on vaccines.
Those plans could require him to override regulations set in place by the Food and Drug Administration or Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and/or perhaps see new regulations put in place.
Political science experts say this may put him at odds with members of his own party, because Republicans typically advocate for fewer regulations and limited government oversight.
“I think where you would see the challenges would be on allocation of money,” Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York, told ABC News.
“If all of a sudden HHS is now in the business of passing more regulations on the food industry, on agriculture, we might see that a Republican Senate majority and a Republican House is less interested in allocating a budget to HHS that then would be under a different leadership,” she continued.
Praise from other Republicans
Despite Republican criticism of previous Democratic initiatives to tackle disease and childhood obesity, Kennedy has received praise from some Republicans.
“RFK Jr. has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, said in a statement earlier this month. “I look forward to learning more about his other policy positions and how they will support a conservative, pro-American agenda.”
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called Kennedy a “brilliant, courageous truth-teller whose unwavering commitment to transparency will make America a healthier nation,” and Sen. Josh Hawley called Trump’s decision to name him to head the HHS a “Bad day for Big Pharma!”
However, Gadarian said the support from some Republicans in the Senate may not translate to support among Republican constituents.
“We may want to separate what average people think about and know about [what Kennedy wants] and what elites in the party might have a vested interest in,” Gadarian said.
For farmers and others whose bottom lines might be negatively impacted by some of Kennedy’s proposed top-down policies, she said, “Those ideas of, like, removing pesticides from agriculture may actually be quite unpopular.”
Republicans’ distaste for regulation
Historically, the Republican party has been ideologically associated with a smaller, limited federal government.
During his January 1981 inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan stated, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” espousing the belief that the government should not intervene in American lives.
If Kennedy is confirmed, there may be some culling of regulations, such as the CDC decision on vaccines health insurers are required to cover, according to Gadarian.
But his confirmation may also lead to new regulations; for example, he might weigh in on which food dyes companies are allowed to use or the use of pesticides on farms.
While it isn’t yet fully clear how Kennedy could make all of his proposed changes directly through his leadership at HHS, as opposed to the Environmental Protection Agency or Department of Agriculture, he has called for restrictions on food additives, dyes and ultra-processed foods — which he could have direct influence over through the FDA.
Gadarian said this is not in line with the typical conservative view on regulations, which is to generally loosen them.
“I do think that increasing regulation on businesses like agriculture and others who use pesticides — or on the food industry — is, in fact, against a kind of idea of limited government, of loosening regulation so businesses can do business and not be encumbered by the federal government,” she said.
Robert Ravens-Seager, a professor of history and political science at American International College in Massachusetts, said he thinks the idea of Republicans being for “small” or “limited government” is a myth.
He said both Republicans and Democrats want government regulation, but they have different views on how it should be implemented.
“Once you are in the government, your dislike for government tends to diminish somewhat,” he told ABC News. “I think that in a very short amount of time, you’ve seen a change in the Republican party. They’ve changed from being a party of small government [and] I think that the government that’s going to be coming will be very heavy-handed.”
He added that he believes Kennedy could have an impact on the messaging around food and/or agriculture by advocating for consumers to buy what he says is safe and healthy. However, Ravens-Seager is not sure to what degree the impact will be.
“I definitely believe that he will have an impact on things like food additives, food safety, and the like,” Ravens-Seager said. “The food side, especially, goes against Republican orthodoxy and could make for some interesting debates, but the degree to which, on this issue in particular, he will find much support within the party seems doubtful.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said last month he wanted to meet with Kennedy before a confirmation hearing and “educate” him about agriculture, indicating concerns about views Kennedy has expressed.
“I’m willing to have a discussion with him and find out where he’s coming from,” Grassley told reporters, according to Politico. “But I may have to spend a lot of time educating him about agriculture, and I’m willing to do that.”
Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said it’s important to remember that many steps need to occur before new regulations are put in place, including Kennedy being confirmed by the Senate, new regulations being proposed and approved, potential discussion in Congress and enforcement of those regulations.
“This is all maybes, but I think that the signaling happening with putting RFK in HHS is showing some sense of priorities, and I think those priorities are not favoring, necessarily, the interest of business and protecting them from regulation,” he told ABC News.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
