Democrat Padilla will ‘of course’ attend Trump’s inauguration, willing to work with new administration
ABC News
California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla said he will attend the 47th presidential inauguration on Monday in which President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office for his second term.
“I do plan to be there. Of course,” he told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
When asked about his expectations for the Trump presidency, Padilla chuckled. “Hoping for the best, hoping for some good. But preparing for some bad, if the first administration was any indicator,” he said.
Though Padilla’s Democratic colleague Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said he is rooting for Trump to be a successful president, Padilla’s support “depends on what helps me define success.”
“If we’re going to continue the progress of the last four years for the sake of our national security, for the sake of our economy and working class balance, then absolutely, Donald Trump or anybody else,” Padilla said. However, he added, “I’m not going to root for President Trump simply by his terms.”
Padilla also emphasized his willingness to work with the president-elect.
“Despite all the rhetoric on immigration and immigrants that we’ve heard from him for years and years and years, when he says publicly that he’s supportive of helping Dreamers, hey, I’m all ears,” he said, referring to migrants who were brought into the country without documentation as minors.
Speaking for his Democratic colleagues, Padilla said that the party is “ready to work with the new administration where [they] agree” in order to “build on [their] progress from the last four years.”
In regard to the TikTok ban implemented overnight, Padilla remained tight-lipped about whether he thinks Trump should reinstate the popular social media app.
“Look, we support the creative community and social media platforms, but clearly there have to be guardrails to protect against lots of harms that are increasingly evident,” he said, citing misinformation, disinformation, and addiction as issues that need to be addressed.
Trump announced on Sunday on Truth Social that he will issue an executive order intended to postpone the ban on TikTok “so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.” The incoming president also said he wants the U.S. to have a “50% ownership position in a joint venture.”
Padilla said he “looks forward” to Trump traveling to California to witness the fire damage firsthand and speak with affected families. The senator had invited Trump to do so last week, pointing out that the site of devastation is “just about 30 miles from [Trump’s] golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes.”
Padilla introduced a bipartisan legislative package with three wildfire-related bills on Friday.
(WASHINGTON) — Many of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees to serve in top Cabinet and senior advisory roles are slated to appear on Capitol Hill this week for hearings before Senate committees, a key test for many of them.
The marathon of nomination hearings will color the week leading up to Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Republicans hope that by holding these hearings now, many of the nominees will be ready for consideration on the Senate floor shortly after Trump is sworn into office.
In total, 14 of Trump’s nominees will appear before their respective Senate panels before the week is out. More hearings will come in the following weeks.
There’s expected to be no shortage of fireworks as some of the top nominees face a grilling before their panels, but for some nominees the hearings are largely perfunctory.
Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of State, for example, is expected to fly through his hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday.
Rubio’s experience in the Senate serving as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, which deals closely with a number of classified issues, gives him the bona fides to make even some Democrats comfortable supporting his nomination.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Rubio’s Democratic counterpart on the committee, applauded the Florida senator’s nomination in a statement calling him a “strong voice for American interests around the globe.” Rubio’s expected to pick up the support of a number of Senate Democrats including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida over the weekend.
Fetterman is expected to be a Democratic ally for a number of other nominees as well. He’s expressed support for GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to serve as United Nations ambassador, and Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Transportation. Both of these nomination hearings are also expected to pass with little fanfare this week.
But for other nominees who have not been as warmly received on Capitol Hill, these hearings will be a major test.
During these public panels, nominees will take a public grilling from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including Democrats who have made clear they have no intention to go easy on nominees whose records they feel are lacking.
According to a source familiar with the discussion, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told Senate Democrats behind closed doors last week that confirmation hearings are a good opportunity to hold Trump nominees’ feet to the fire and hold them accountable for Trump’s agenda.
In floor remarks, Schumer has called for a “robust” vetting process of the nominees.
That’s why some Senate Republicans have been especially involved in getting Trump’s nominees ready for the gauntlet, holding practice hearings to help them prepare.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., has been part of mock hearings, which include everything from microphones to name tags, those familiar with the preparations told ABC News. Republican senators have stressed these hearings could be make or break — others have told nominees to watch video clips of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s high-stakes hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an idea of what could be ahead.
Trump’s nominees will benefit from having a Republican majority that is eager to quickly install his team. Still, with Republicans controlling 53 seats in the Senate, some of the more embattled nominees who will not receive any Democratic support can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans.
In a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill last week, Trump urged his conference to stay united behind each of his nominees.
“He asked for strong unity and support to get his team through, and to get them through as soon as possible so they can get to work,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said leaving the Wednesday meeting.
Two sources in the room told ABC News that Trump made a special appeal for Pete Hegseth, his nominee to serve as the secretary of defense.
Ahead of his scheduled Tuesday hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth has been taking part in these practice hearings, ABC News is told.
Hegseth’s hearing will likely be one of the most closely watched of the week.
The former “Fox & Friends” anchor has faced scrutiny from lawmakers over his lack of experience and following reports of both financial and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied all of these allegations, but it has created some uncertainty about whether he will get the 50 votes he needs to be confirmed.
That makes Tuesday a make or break moment for him. He’ll face a number of tough lines of questioning from Democrats.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who serves on the Armed Services Committee, told ABC News she’ll focus her questioning on underscoring Hegseth’s lack of qualifications for the role.
Duckworth, a combat veteran, said she’ll focus on “whether or not he is qualified to do the job, whether or not he has the experience to do the job.”
“From everything that I’ve looked at so far he has never managed more than 40 personnel. I don’t know what the largest budget that he has ever successfully managed,” Duckworth said.
Other nominees to watch this week include Pam Bondi, who Trump nominated to be attorney general. Bondi will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Though she is ultimately expected to be confirmed, Bondi will no doubt face scrutiny from Democrats. So too will Kristi Noem, the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, who comes before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.
Notably, there are a number of high profile nominees whose hearings have not yet been noticed, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump wants as his spy chief.
For some of these nominees, confirmation hearings are apparently being stalled due to issues with receiving some of the necessary documents.
Sen. John Barrasso, the Republican whip, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Gabbard’s nomination was being held up by a “paperwork problem” with the Office of Government Ethics.
“We had hoped to have the hearing later this week. It looks like it’s going to be the following week,” Barrasso said.
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s nominated to become the next health secretary, asked the federal government to revoke its authorization of all COVID-19 vaccines in May 2021, just as vaccinated Americans began returning to a sense of normalcy after pandemic lockdowns.
The request came via a citizen petition filed by Kennedy and Meryl Nass on behalf of Children’s Health Defense, a group founded by Kennedy that advocates against the recommended vaccine schedule for children.
The petition, first reported by the New York Times, asked the Food and Drug Administration to “revoke Emergency Use Authorizations for existing COVID vaccines and refrain from approving and licensing them.”
It came five months after then-President Donald Trump proudly announced the FDA’s green light of the vaccine was imminent.
“They say it’s somewhat of a miracle, and I think that’s true,” Trump told reporters of the vaccine in December 2020.
Since then, the COVID vaccine has been credited with saving millions of lives and alleviating the burden on hospitals that became overwhelmed in the early days of the pandemic.
The FDA denied the petition in its response three months later, saying it found “no basis” in the petition to pull the vaccines from the market.
“FDA is not aware of any information indicating that the known and potential benefits of the authorized COVID-19 Vaccines are outweighed by their known and potential risks, nor has Petitioner provided any such information in the Petition,” the agency wrote at the time.
Kennedy is soon expected to testify publicly before a Senate panel in a bid to shore up support for his nomination. He’s expected to be pressed by Democrats and some Republicans on his past comments questioning the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
In December 2021, Kennedy falsely claimed the COVID-19 vaccine was “the deadliest vaccine ever made.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend the COVID vaccine, saying data shows those who are vaccinated are less likely to die from complications of the virus than those who are unvaccinated.
Days before Kennedy filed his May 2021 petition, the CDC had just announced that fully vaccinated Americans could go without masks because it believed at the time immunization reduced a person’s infectiousness. The agency would later reverse that decision after outbreaks occurred involving vaccinated individuals.
Pressed by an NBC interviewer in November whether he would have blocked the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine had he been in government at the time, Kennedy said, “I wouldn’t have directly blocked it.”
“I would have made sure that we had the best science, and there was no effort to do that at that time,” he said.
Kennedy’s spokesperson on the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Kennedy aide who worked at Children’s Health Defense with him also did not immediately respond.