Majority Whip Emmer says ‘We’re going to put the Trump agenda in place’
ABC News
House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R- Minn., said that he plans to work to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda despite House Republicans’ very slim majority.
“We’re going to get the Trump agenda put in place,” Emmer told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “Donald Trump got a mandate on November 5. The public expects us to deal with the excessive spending, the debt, the deficit that has driven double-digit inflation at the beginning of the Biden term, they’ve asked Donald Trump to seal the southern border, and they want peace and stability around the globe.”
Trump has pushed to achieve his legislative goals in “one big beautiful bill” that would address many of his priorities, including tax cuts and securing the southern border, but a wide-ranging bill could be difficult to sell to fiscal hawks in the Senate and the House. The opposition to that approach caused Trump to backtrack and say he’d be willing to consider multiple bills. Emmer said that he is open to either approach.
“That’s not a concern to me once we make the decision. Is it going to be one? Is it going to be two? Doesn’t matter. The whip’s job is to make sure that we execute once that decision has been made, and I love people who tell us that we can’t do something,” Emmer said. “I mean, when we didn’t have the White House and we didn’t have the Senate, we did things that Republican majorities had never been able to do in the previous 10 to 15 years.”
Asked if Republicans are engaging with Democrats on trying to get their support on dealing with the debt ceiling, which Trump has pushed to raise or even eliminate, Emmer said some GOP hardliners could be brought around “under the right circumstances.”
“The issue that Republicans have had, and I think that Donald Trump has, is the debt ceiling is a false number. The bottom line is, you got to get your spending under control, and you got to have a plan to pay off the debt. So as long as we’re doing that, don’t underestimate what the House Republicans can do,” Emmer said.
President Joe Biden promised that 100% of initial emergency funding for the wildfires in the Los Angeles area would be covered by the federal government and called for Congress to provide California with whatever it needs to recover. Asked for a sense of what that might take, Emmer said that it’s too early to tell.
“Well, right now we don’t know what’s going to be needed. We know it’s significant. What we do know is that Congress, in December, before we left, the 118th Congress, passed the American Relief Act, which provided billions of dollars to FEMA to not only deal with the pre the hurricanes Milton and Helene, but also for situations such as this, although no one could predict what’s happening right now in LA,” said Emmer.
Asked about his relationship with Trump, who was critical of Emmer last year when he was considered for House speaker as being “totally out of touch” with Republican voters, Emmer said he and the president-elect are on “good terms.”
“The president has been wonderful to me, been wonderful to my wife. Has done everything that he could to campaign in Minnesota. He’s been amazing,” Emmer said. “We’re going to do some good work together, but it’s Donald J. Trump’s agenda. My job is to make sure that we execute.”
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, faces a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday on advancing his nomination.
The vote will occur after lawmakers consider the nomination of John Ratcliffe for CIA director. Ratcliffe is poised to be Trump’s second confirmed Cabinet official.
Hegseth’s test vote could come down to the wire, as he can only afford to lose three Senate Republicans assuming all Democrats oppose him.
If he loses three Republicans, Vice President JD Vance, in his role as president of the Senate, could be called on to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Moments before the showdown, a key Senate Republican had announced her opposition to Hegseth.
“After thorough evaluation, I must conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for Secretary of Defense,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a post on X. “I did not make this decision lightly; I take my constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent with the utmost seriousness.”
Murkowski said she was not confident Hegseth was sufficiently prepared to lead the Pentagon, which is the largest government agency, and took issue with his past statements concerning women in the military.
The Alaska Republican also referenced allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking. Hegseth has largely denied the accusations against him, and told lawmakers he’s a “changed man.”
“The past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces,” she said. “These behaviors starkly contrast the values and discipline expected of servicemembers.”
All eyes will be on GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, who have also expressed varying levels of skepticism about Hegseth’s nomination.
In a floor speech on Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker gave an endorsement of Hegseth, calling him the “right man for the job.”
The committee earlier this week narrowly advanced Hegseth’s nomination in a 14-13 vote along party lines.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Tributes are pouring in for former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100. His life and legacy will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and in Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, over the coming days.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and the work of the Carter Center — which Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter founded after his defeat in the 1980 election — in advancing human rights and alleviating human suffering.
On Monday, ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos spoke to Suggs about the former president’s work, his character and his relationship with the people of Georgia.
ABC NEWS: Now we want to turn to someone who knew Carter well. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and developed a close personal relationship with the former president. Sir, thank you so much for speaking with us as we bid farewell today. What are some of your personal memories that you’re remembering the most?
SUGGS: Well, thank you for having me, for one. Personally, he was the person that I have always looked up to. I always told a story about, in 1976, my mother voted for Jimmy Carter. She campaigned for him in Brooklyn, New York. And we voted in PS 241 in Brooklyn, New York. And I always told him that story.
So one of the last times we talked, I didn’t mention it, you know. For some reason, I just didn’t mention it, I don’t know what we were talking about. And he mentioned it. He said “How’s your mother doing? How’s she doing?” And I said — at the time my mother wasn’t doing too well — “She’s sick.” She had been battling dementia.
And he told me about, you know, he reiterated the work that Rosalynn Carter was doing with mental health. And he asked me if my mother could talk on the phone. And I said, sure, you know, she could talk. And he called my mother and he called my mother out of the blue to talk to her, just to kind of give her some words of encouragement as she was dealing with this illness and an illness that eventually his wife Rosalynn had.
So I think that’s the kind of example of a person who’s compassionate, who loves humanity, who loves people. And I tell that story as if it’s unique, but it’s not because he has done that kind of work and he’s done those kind of things for so many people, for so many, for 100 years. And for that I’m proud.
ABC NEWS: Absolutely. Such a wonderful example of what type of man he was and what type of life he led. You touched on this a bit, that in the decades after he left office, Jimmy Carter continued to carry so much influence around the world and he continued to do so much work.
As you covered him in those years, what else stood out to you from that work that he was able to do over, over really decades?
SUGGS: One of the things that he said he wanted to see before he died was the eradication of the Guinea worm disease. And that disease is down to about four people now. And when he started this, thousands of people were suffering from this horrible disease. Now it’s down to four, about four people. So it’s going to be eradicated in a couple of years. So this is the kind of work that Jimmy Carter did post-presidency.
The first line of his obituary that I wrote says that he was the 39th president of the United States. I’m sure that’s the first line that you wrote in your obituary. But I think that if you ask him, his most enduring legacy is what he did after the presidency and what he continued to do up until his 100th birthday to kind of promote humanity and to promote decency and to give to others.
ABC NEWS: And on that list of achievements, and you’ve written about some of those achievements, you’ve written that Carter grew up or grew into a politician who shaped race relations, but before that, he was shaped by, by then growing up in the Jim Crow South.
So how do you think those early experiences shaped his worldview and his approach to others throughout his life?
SUGGS: I think that had a tremendous effect. He was born in 1924. We have to understand that. So he was born prior to the Great Depression. He was born in the segregated South.
One perfect example was in 1954 when he left the Navy to return to Plains to take over his father’s business. He was the only white businessman in Plains, Georgia, who was not a member of the Citizens’ Council. We know what the Citizens’ Council is — it’s basically the Ku Klux Klan.
They came to his store and said, “Hey, we’re going to boycott you unless you join the Citizens’ Council. We will even pay your $5.” And he said, “I’d rather throw my $5 down the toilet then give you $5 to join this racist organization.”
So even in 1954, even owning a business in that rural, tiny Plains, Georgia, he rebuked the temptation to join basically the klan or the Citizens’ Council because of who he was and how he grew up and the people who was around him when he grew up.
ABC NEWS: And after a hundred years, we’re hearing so many stories, so many new stories in the last 24 hours about his life — that’s a story I hadn’t heard before. So thank you for sharing that. Since news of his passing last night, you’ve been speaking with people in Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy Carter is from and in other parts of Georgia. What are you hearing from them? What are they sharing with you?
SUGGS: People in Plains, Georgia, if you come by this town, they love him. If you go to anyone’s house in Plains, Georgia, they have a story about Jimmy Carter or “Mr. Jimmy,” as they called him.
Everyone’s house you go to has a photograph of Jimmy Carter, and it’s not a photograph of him from the White House or it’s not a standard portrait. It’s a photograph that they’ve taken with their Polaroid cameras or their selfies of him on their porch, eating peanuts and laughing and joking around, shucking corn.
So that’s who he was. He was Mr. Jimmy. He was truly a man of the people, who happened to one day have served as the 39th president of the United States.
ABC NEWS: He really was a man of the people. What a remarkable life and what an impact Jimmy Carter had on this country and those who had the pleasure of meeting him and knowing him. Ernie Suggs, thank you so much for speaking with us today. Thank you so much for your insights.
(WASHINGTON) — Amid a flurry of executive actions President Trump is taking to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government, the Trump administration is also turning its attention to private companies and institutions.
President Trump signed an executive order the day after he was sworn in to his second term that not only rescinded DEI policies in the federal government, but also “[encourages] the private sector to end” what the order calls “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences,” claiming in part that DEI policies “violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws.”
“Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex,” the order said.
Several legal experts who advise companies and institutions regarding their DEI policies told ABC News that while the Trump administration doesn’t have the legal authority to mandate that private businesses abandon their DEI policies, the executive order’s language uses the threat of potential legal action against certain companies with DEI policies to ostensibly force them to do so.
‘It’s a powerful threat’
Part of Trump’s Jan. 21 executive order directs the attorney general, “within 120 days of this order, in consultation with the heads of relevant agencies and in coordination with the Director of [the Office of Management and Budget],” the latter of which oversees the performance of all federal agencies, to “submit a report … containing recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”
The order instructs the federal agencies to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars,” as well as “litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest.”
Those agencies are further directed to identify “key sectors of concern” and “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners” within each agency’s jurisdiction, and to develop “a plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or principles.”
The possibility of a legal battle with the federal government over DEI is already causing concern for many private businesses, experts told ABC News.
“It’s a powerful threat that companies are responding to it by taking another very close look at their programs to make sure that they are comfortable with them,” said labor attorney Jason Schwartz, a partner and co-chair of the Labor and Employment Practice at Gibson Dunn in Washington, D.C., and who leads the firm’s DEI task force.
“Nobody wants to be on that Donald Trump DEI blacklist,” Kenji Yoshino, a professor of constitutional law at NYU and the director of NYU’s Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, and who also advises Fortune 500 companies on DEI matters, told ABC News. “I worry that there’s a very smart move and savvy move on the part of the executive branch to cast a fear through this kind of gesture of ‘we are going to single you out,’ or targeting so that a lot of companies are going to withdraw or pull back more than they needed to pull back, strictly legally.”
“[Companies] just don’t want to be one of those nine,” Yoshino added, referring to the number of the executive order’s “potential civil compliance investigations.”
“Until those nine are announced, it’s going to cause others to be risk-averse,” said Yoshino. “So there’s a kind of, you know, preemptive compliance, you know, or obedience going on.”
How companies are responding
Schwartz told ABC News that since Trump signed his executive order, companies have been scrambling to seek legal counsel regarding their DEI policies and whether they need to be revised.
“The phone is literally ringing off the hook,” he said, referring to the calls his firm is receiving. “Companies are very concerned. They want to make sure, obviously, that they stay on the right side of the law.”
Yoshino said that the phones at NYU’s Center for DEI likewise have been “ringing off the hook” with calls from companies seeking advice on how to proceed with their DEI initiatives. For now, he advises that concerned parties take a measured approach.
“The reflexive response is often to be like, ‘Oh, if we shut it down, we will minimize risk,’ and we regard that to be short sighted, both because there are smart ways to tweak these programs to lower the risk, or even lower to zero, eliminate the risk while still getting the same results,” Yoshino told ABC News.
“And alternatively, if you eliminate all your DEI policies, you’re then going to get sued from the other side,” he cautioned, noting that marginalized groups could argue that rolling back DEI “leads to a less inclusive, more discriminatory environment.”
Several large corporations – including Amazon, Meta, McDonalds, Walmart and Ford – announced before Trump was sworn in for his second term that they were ending, scaling back or otherwise reevaluating some of their DEI-related programs or initiatives.
However, according to Yoshino, whose office has been tracking the impact of Trump’s actions on DEI, even some companies who are stepping away from some DEI initiatives are retaining some policies or programs committed to inclusion, and that the majority of companies on the Fortune 500 list “still have pro-DEI statements on their websites.”
Some companies also are publicly standing by their DEI commitments, with leaders at Goldman Sachs, Costco and JPMorgan Chase & Co recently speaking out in support of their diversity programs amid pressure from anti-DEI activist shareholders to roll back their policies.
“I do think that it’s really important not to overreact,” Yoshino told ABC News.
What comes next?
While it’s unclear what might be “litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits, intervention, or statements of interest” against private companies, as the executive order states, as well as what might be the outcome of any such actions, Yoshino and Schwartz both noted that anti-DEI litigation efforts in the U.S. have been escalating since the Supreme Court’s June 2023 landmark ruling that effectively ended affirmative action in higher education.
Since the Supreme Court decision, conservative legal advocacy groups have been ramping up litigation against private companies over their DEI initiatives, Schwartz said, noting that with Trump’s executive order, those groups have now “moved their operation into the White House.”
“They now have the full force and power of the United States government where they can bring these cases,” Schwartz added.
Yoshino agreed, telling ABC News that the president is now putting the “muscle of the executive branch behind the impact of that decision.”
Yoshino said that while the Supreme Court case addressed the higher education admissions process and was not about diversity and inclusion efforts in the private sector, “it gave us such a clear window into how [the Supreme Court] was thinking about the issue of race discrimination.”
The Supreme Court ruled that “in the same way that you can’t discriminate against a person of color, you also can’t discriminate against a white individual,” according to Yoshino. “That contrasts that with the previous jurisprudence that said you’re allowed to use a [race] classification in narrow circumstances so long as your intent is to lift up a historically subordinated group.”
According to Schwartz, while the Trump administration is “not creating new laws” regarding the legality of DEI through his executive order, the Department of Justice is gearing up to bring cases against private companies by arguing that existing laws “already prohibit many of the DEI programs that exist.”
Schwartz also pointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as a federal agency that is likely to help advance the White House’s anti-DEI efforts. The federal agency, which has the authority to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged employment discrimination, is now led by Trump appointee Andrea Lucas, who said in a statement upon being named EEOC acting chair Jan. 21 that her priorities are “consistent with the President’s Executive Orders,” and include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination.”
“Our employment civil rights laws are a matter of individual rights. We must reject the twin lies of identity politics: that justice is measured by group outcomes and that civil rights exist solely to remedy harms against certain groups,” Lucas’ statement continued. “I am committed to ensuring equal justice under the law and to focusing on equal opportunity, merit, and colorblind equality.”
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca and Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
