Trump transition live updates: Ethics Committee expected to meet on Gaetz: Sources

(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, are continuing to try to shore up support with senators ahead of confirmation hearings next month.

Gabbard will meet with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Thursday. She is also expected to meet with GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty, a member of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees.

This is Gabbard’s first week making the rounds on Capitol Hill since being tapped by Trump to oversee a sprawling network of 18 agencies in his new administration, despite her inexperience in the intelligence field.

A former Democratic congresswoman and member of the National Guard, Gabbard has face scrutiny for 2017 meetings with Syria’s authoritarian leader Bashar Assad (whose regime was toppled this week) and for controversial views on Russia.

Trump remarked on Gabbard, and his other Cabinet picks, during his interview with Time for the magazine’s “Person of the Year” honor. The interview was conducted on Nov. 25.

Trump said he was surprised by the criticism of Gabbard.

“I mean, I think she’s a great American,” he said. “I think she’s a person with tremendous common sense. I’ve watched her for years, and she has nothing to do with Russia. This is another, you know, a mini Russia, Russia, Russia scam.”

When asked if he’d rethink her possible appointment if foreign allies began withholding intelligence, Trump said, “I think probably, if that’s what’s happening. No, I don’t see it. Certainly, if something can be shown to me.”

Hegseth, another embattled Trump pick, is also back on Thursday to meet with senators, including Kentucky Republican Rand Paul. Notably, he’s also expected to meet with Democrat Sen. John Fetterman, the first to meet with him.

Hegseth’s faced pushback amid allegations of sexual impropriety, public drunkenness and other misconduct — which he’s largely denied. But this week, it appeared he was gaining some Republican support.

Trump’s doubled down on support for Hegseth, and pressure from his MAGA allies on potential GOP skeptics has shown early signs of paying off.

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, was also spotted back in the Senate hallways on Thursday.

Trump, in the Time interview, was pressed on if he was still considering recess appointments to install his Cabinet picks. Recess appointments would bypass the Senate’s constitutionally-mandated “advice and consent” role regarding Cabinet officials. Trump made a demand that whoever leads the Senate Republican Conference in the new Congress be open to them.

“I really don’t care how they get them approved, as long as they get them approved,” Trump said.

“But I think I have a very good relationship with Senator Thune and the others, all of them. I think almost, almost everybody, many of them I was very instrumental in getting, if not this season, last season, the season before that, I would say more than half,” Trump added.

So far, one of Trump’s pick faced insurmountable opposition.

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, also accused of sexual misconduct, was Trump’s first pick for attorney general. Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration as opposition mounted to his selection.

Trump was asked by Time what he’d do if the Senate balked at any more of his choices.

“Well, I don’t think they will,” he said. He said he told Gaetz, “You know, Matt, I don’t think this is worth the fight.”

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(NEW YORK) — Billionaire entrepreneur and television personality Mark Cuban said former President Donald Trump “absolutely” has “fascist tendencies.”

“Do I think that Donald Trump has fascist tendencies? Absolutely. Positively,” Cuban said. “I do believe Donald Trump poses a threat.”

“I mean, just look at January 6th,” Cuban added. “To have somebody who’s second in command and they’re chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ and you don’t care, there’s nothing you won’t do.”

Cuban, an independent supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, sat down with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in between his campaign stops across the country making the case for Harris.

Despite his warnings about a second Trump term, Cuban called himself an “American first” and said he’d do whatever he can do to help the country regardless of who is president.

“You hear the stories about people saying, ‘I’ll leave the country’ and all that,” Cuban said. “If Trump wins, I mean, I’m not going anywhere, but I’m an American first. I’ll do whatever I can to help this country wherever I can. And it doesn’t matter to me who’s president.”

After Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly told the New York Times that Trump fits the definition of a fascist, Harris said on CNN that she does consider him a fascist, too. Trump has called Harris a fascist in the past. Asked for his reaction, Cuban said this is not a “normal” campaign.

“In a normal world, the two parties would get together and say, ‘Let’s just stop this name calling, right? Let’s just focus on the issues.’ But this is not a normal world. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate,” Cuban said. “And I think it’s not a stretch to call Donald Trump a fascist.”

Cuban said it’s “unnerving” that half of the country continues to support Trump and he thinks it’s because people want a change from President Joe Biden, who he said is not a leader.

“If you don’t have strong leadership and, you know, Joe Biden did a lot of great things, I think, you know, the economy and many other things can, that, you know, the CHIPS Act, there’s so many great things he’s done. But a leader he’s not,” Cuban said. “I think Kamala is a leader.”

Cuban supported Nikki Haley during the Republican primaries. Had she won the nomination, he said he may have voted for her over Biden — but not over Harris, who he said “knows how to be a CEO.”

As an entrepreneur, Cuban has been making the case on the campaign trail that Harris would be better for the economy than Trump.

“The economy’s in great shape. That does not mean every single individual in this country is experiencing all the goodness of the economy. But that was the same under the Trump administration as well. You know, the stock market’s at record high. The GDP is at record high. Real wages are greater than inflation now. Inflation is back down,” Cuban said. “Donald Trump is saying this stuff that’s not true. And you know the old saying, you repeat a lie, enough people start believing.”

In 2015, Cuban supported Trump’s first presidential run in its early stages, once calling him “the best thing to happen to politics” in recent history. But he reversed course before the election, opting to endorse Hillary Clinton.

“I didn’t think he had a chance to win. But I’m like, ‘This is great. You know, he’s not a traditional politician,’ and I thought that would be a net positive. I was wrong,” Cuban recalled.

Cuban has publicly weighed his own presidential bids in the past, but told Karl it’s no longer in the cards.

“No chance,” Cuban said. “I have no interest — no interest in being a politician of any type. I have no interest in serving in the cabinet for Kamala Harris or anybody,” Cuban said. “I like being a disruptor as an entrepreneur. So that’s where my focus is.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The House Judiciary Committee will see a changing of the guard in the 119th Congress with a new Democratic leader.

Rep. Jerry Nadler announced Wednesday that he would not run to be the top Democrat on the committee, which he has been for the last seven years.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D- Md., announced plans Monday to challenge Nadler for the leadership spot. Nadler, 77, endorsed Raskin, 61, in a letter to his colleagues.

“As our country faces the return of Donald Trump, and the renewed threats to our democracy and our way of life that he represents, I am very confident that Jamie would ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we confront this growing danger,” he wrote.

Raskin did not immediately comment on Nadler’s decision.

The Maryland congressman’s challenge came as Democrats worried that Nadler was not vigorous enough to match the Republican committee chair, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan.

Raskin is the former chair of the House Oversight Committee, a constitutional scholar and also sat on the Jan. 6th Committee. He was also the lead manager for Trump’s second impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Raskin said in a letter to colleagues that the Judiciary Committee “will be the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism and MAGA’s campaign to dismantle our Constitutional system and the rule of law as we know it.”

Raskin was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010 and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 2022 and underwent chemotherapy for both diagnoses and surgery for the former. Last year, Raskin said the cancer was in remission.

The congressman noted his cancer survival in his letter to colleagues.

“I hope to be at the center of this fight and — as someone who has battled cancer and chemotherapy — I can tell you that I will never, never surrender,” he wrote.

Nadler, who plans on staying on the committee, also praised Raskin.

“I am also proud that, under my leadership, some of our caucus’s most talented rising stars have been given a platform to demonstrate their leadership and their abilities,” he wrote. “That includes Jamie Raskin, who in just a few terms in Congress has already proven himself to be an exceptional leader and spokesperson for our party’s values.

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