Hegseth wraps his first week of Capitol Hill meetings with "no noes," senior official says

Pete Hegseth, the military veteran and television anchor tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to run the Pentagon, has concluded a first week of meetings on Capitol Hill with “no noes on the board,” according to a senior transition official.

Hegseth’s selection has been clouded by allegations of excessive drinking, mistreatment of women and embezzlement of money – resulting in conversations with lawmakers that focused more on his character than his plans for the sprawling Defense Department.

While Hegseth’s team acknowledges there are senators who have not yet committed to a “yes,” his advisers also appear more optimistic than earlier this week when Trump sources suggested the nomination was in trouble and floated possible replacements.

Hegseth is expected to face another round of grilling next week, when he plans to meet with Sens. Josh Hawley, Susan Collins and others.

He will be joined by another crop of Trump picks: Kristi Noem, the choice for Department of Homeland Security; Linda McMahon, the choice for the Department of Education; Howard Lutnick, whom Trump wants to oversee the Commerce department; and others chosen to run agencies who have not grabbed the same headlines.

Kash Patel, Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation – which has an independent director whose term is not finished – will also meet with lawmakers.

Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to be Trump’s director of national intelligence, is also finalizing plans for a potential visit to the Hill as well.

Obama suggests Trump's victory showed "democracy is pretty far down on people's priority list"

Former President Barack Obama suggested the results of November’s presidential election, which saw President-elect Donald Trump defeat Vice President Kamala Harris, “proved that democracy is pretty far down on people’s priority list” while speaking at an event Thursday.

Obama began his keynote address at the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum by acknowledging the timing of the conference and its focus on the importance of democracy a month after the presidential election, in which Democrats, including Obama, warned voters against backing Trump by portraying him as a threat to democracy.

Obama also urged attendees at the conference to seek common ground with people they disagree with and avoid sacrificing opportunities for compromise with political opponents due to disagreements with other issues.

GOP Sen. Ernst won’t commit yet to supporting Hegseth. Here's what other senators are saying

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday “we will continue with the vetting process” when it comes to considering President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and would not yet commit to supporting his nomination.

Pressed by Fox host Bill Hemmer that it “doesn’t sound in your answer that you got to a yes” in responding to a previous question about Hegseth, Ernst responded “I think you are right.”

Ernst is a key senator for Hegseth to win over, well-regarded by her colleagues and both a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor. Hegseth has said women should not be in combat roles and been accused of sexual assault, which he has denied.

Meanwhile, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a staunch Trump ally, also downplayed allegations Hegseth has faced for alcohol abuse, saying drinking is “part of our society.”

“I think at times, we’ve all — if we indulge in an alcoholic beverage, you’ve had a problem or two, not whether it’s a habit, it’s just, it’s something that’s in society. I mean, we, we can’t — if you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones, right?”

He added, “I’m not saying Pete’s involved in all that. I’m just saying this part of our our life, and, you know, it’s legal.”

GOP Sen. Mike Rounds told CNN that he does “see a path forward,” for Hegseth to be confirmed after their meeting earlier today.

The South Dakota Republican also told reporters that he’s not ready to commit to backing Hegseth — yet.

Rounds noted that during the meeting, Hegseth was “not running away” from the allegations against him. “He’s hitting stuff head on, which is exactly what you want.”

Republican Sen. Katie Britt said she asked Hegseth about the “allegations that have been reported by the media” during their meeting today on Capitol Hill.

“During our conversation, I asked direct questions about allegations that have been reported by the media, which Pete answered with candor and transparency. Based on our meeting and his answers, he has my support,” Britt posted on X.

This post has been updated with additional reactions.

House Republicans vote to block release of Gaetz ethics report

House Republicans voted on Thursday to block a Democrat-led effort to release a long-awaited Ethics Committee report on allegations against former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

The House took a step to effectively shut down a resolution from Democrats that would have required the public release of the report. House GOP leaders sidelined the effort by Democrats by setting up a vote to refer the resolution to the committee, a move that blocks the report’s release for now. The outcome of the vote raises the question of whether the findings of the panel’s investigation will ever become public.

Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing, withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general last month after it became clear he didn’t have the votes in the Senate to win confirmation. The former congressman had faced headwinds on Capitol Hill in his bid to lock down sufficient support, and some Senate Republicans had called for the release of the ethics report as part of the vetting process.

Read the full story here.

GOP lawmakers leaving meeting with Musk and Ramaswamy: “Everything is on the table”

Republicans emerged from their meeting with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy saying “everything is on the table” when it comes to how to cut federal spending, describing the meeting as a listening session where members asked questions and exchanged ideas.

Those cuts could include cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, some lawmakers said, even though those programs are widely popular on a bipartisan basis.

GOP Rep. Aaron Bean, who is also co-leading the caucus, added that Social Security and Medicare need to be “more efficient.”

After the meeting, Musk ignored a question from CNN’s Manu Raju about whether Medicare and Social Security would be safe from DOGE cuts.

Thursday’s meeting included a broad range of topics, including how to make cuts to the education budget, bring federal workers back to work and eliminate redundancy in the federal government, lawmakers said.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told reporters that Musk and Ramaswamy proposed having a “naughty list” and “nice list” to hold lawmakers accountable on government spending.

GOP Rep. Mary Miller put her finger on the pressure Republicans are feeling to deliver on making massive cuts, telling reporters that Republican voters will be “furious” if Congressional Republicans and DOGE are unsuccessful.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the meeting was “very productive” as he left.

With a Trump-imposed expiration date of July 4, 2026, Republicans said today’s ideas forum helped them start to chart a course forward about what needs to happen between now and then.

Sessions said the DOGE caucus already has 63 members, including some Democrats.

A source told CNN four Democrats are part of the caucus: Reps. Steven Horsford; Greg Landsman; Val Hoyle; and Jared Moskowitz, who has publicly announced his participation.

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

Biden White House considering preemptive pardons for Trump’s perceived enemies

Senior Biden White House aides, administration officials and prominent defense attorneys in Washington, DC, are discussing potential preemptive pardons or legal aid for people who might be targeted for prosecution by President-elect Donald Trump after he retakes power, multiple sources told CNN.

Reports of these conversations have captured the attention of Trump’s legal advisers, who, according to a source familiar with their strategy, believe President Joe Biden would be setting a new precedent in terms of the scope of pardons that they could take advantage of, down the line, to help their own allies.

Biden’s senior aides inside the White House have been deliberating for weeks about the possibility of issuing preemptive pardons, according to the sources familiar with the discussions. The move, which would cover people who haven’t ever been formally accused of any crimes, would be an extraordinary step and shows the grave concerns many Democrats have that Trump will prosecute a range of figures that he considers to be his enemies.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Read the full story here.

Mexico's president "hopes" to reach deportation agreement with Trump to avoid receiving non-Mexican deportees

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her administration “hopes” to reach an agreement with President-elect Donald Trump like the one in place with the Biden administration that sends deportees directly to their country of origin.

Trump made promises to carry out mass deportations a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign.

To address the possibility of mass deportations, Sheinbaum said her administration is setting up meetings with Mexican border states governors — Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas — so “we can agree on how to receive our paisans.”

“We hope (mass deportations) don’t happen, but if they do, we will be ready to receive them.”

Sheinbaum’s immigration comments are the latest after her November 27 call with Trump to address the border and fentanyl crisis. On a post on X, she labeled the call as “excellent” and said migrant caravans were assisted in Mexico were no longer reaching the border.

Trump followed by saying the conversation was “wonderful” and claimed Sheinbaum “agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.” This was later denied by the Mexican president.

That was the first time they talked since Trump promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods from Mexico on the first day of his administration – a move he claims is retaliation for illegal immigration and “crime and drugs” coming across the border.

Mexico has since highlighted their actions to address the fentanyl and border crisis.

House expected to hold vote over Democrat-led effort to release Matt Gaetz ethics report

The House is expected to vote Thursday evening over a Democrat-led push to release a long-awaited Ethics Committee report on allegations against former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who was Donald Trump’s former attorney general pick.

How the vote may unfold: House GOP leadership believes they will successfully block the release of the report during the vote. When Democrats move to force their vote, GOP leaders are expected to dismiss it by referring the matter back to the Ethics Committee.

Republican leadership feels confident they will have the votes on their side to keep the Gaetz report private, though there are some concerns about attendance in their narrow majority, according to multiple sources.

Democrats plan to force the vote at the end of the vote series today, according to a person familiar with the plans, which will be around 6 p.m ET.

Separately, the Ethics Committee is set to meet on the report behind closed-doors shortly, at 2 p.m. ET. It appears unlikely that Republicans on the panel would approve the release of the report during the meeting, but if the panel were to move to release the report this afternoon, then Democrats would not force their vote later this evening.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he does not think the report should be released because Gaetz is no longer a member of the House so the ethics panel no longer has jurisdiction over him. Rep. Michael Guest, the Ethics Committee chairman, has said he agrees.

Democrats are using a procedural move to force GOP leadership to hold a vote on the issue. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

After meeting with Ramaswamy, GOP Sen. Tillis says first focus of DOGE will be rolling back Biden regulations

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said the conversation with one of the leaders of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Vivek Ramaswamy, was about “the art of the possible” in the early stages.

He said one of the first priorities will likely be on regulations and rules recently issued by the Biden administration.

Tillis said acting on the regulations would be an opportunity to “claw back” authority from the White House.

He said they would use any federal funds from scaling back regulations to fund Republican priorities.

Tillis did not say whether they discussed any conflicts of interest that may arise around things like electric vehicles.

Hegseth tells CNN he spoke to Trump this morning and the president-elect supports him "fully"

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, did not respond to questions from CNN on new drinking allegations reported by the Washington Post and the New York Times but said he spoke to the president-elect this morning.

When asked if he will meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, he told CNN: “If he wants a meeting we will have a meeting.”

Hegseth also commented on meeting GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, who did not put her support fully behind him in an interview on Fox News this morning, saying it was “constructive and candid — it was great.”

He said Ernst did bring up women serving in the military but wouldn’t elaborate on what they discussed.

When asked if he would back down at the direction of the president-elect, Hegseth, who has said he will not drop out, told reporters: “I’m here because of Donald Trump. If he didn’t want me to be here then I wouldn’t be.”

Meetings with lawmakers: Hegseth is spending the morning on Capitol Hill, where he continues his efforts to shore up support for his Pentagon bid.

As Hegseth walked from Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s office to a meeting with GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, he again declined to respond to questions about the reports of excessive drinking. He also said his meeting with Ernst was “great” and “productive,” and said Trump is “behind us all the way.”

This post has been updated to reflect Hegseth’s response to another round of questions at the Capitol.

Trump's pick to lead the FBI Kash Patel will head to Capitol Hill next week, source says

President-Elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to be up on Capitol Hill early next week to meet with senators, a source familiar with the plans tells CNN.

Due to the unprecedented nature of Patel’s nomination, there had originally been talks about delaying his appearances on the Hill until closer to Trump’s inauguration, however the president-elect’s team is eager to get him in front of critical senators.

Remember: The job of FBI director is not currently open and installing Patel as head of the FBI would require forcing out current director Christopher Wray — who was appointed by Trump — before his term expires.

Trump is currently standing by his choice for secretary of defense, sources say

As of now, President-Elect Donald Trump is standing by his choice for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. Sources close to both Trump and Hegseth told CNN that Trump has indicated to Hegseth that he wants to see him fight for votes, which is in part why Hegseth appeared more bullish on Capitol Hill yesterday.

These sources added that Trump and those around him still see a pathway for Hegseth to be confirmed and argued that the current situation with Hegseth was not the same what unfolded with Trump’s former attorney general pick Matt Gaetz, who withdrew his name after the president-elect told him he did not have the votes to get confirmed.

Trump’s team has been watching the meetings with senators very closely to gauge whether or not Hegseth can get confirmed. Sources acknowledged that while the current senate math can change on a dime, they are still currently holding out hope. Vice President-elect JD Vance, a supporter of Hegseth, has been talking to senators about the nominee as defense secretary pick has been in and out of meetings on the Hill.

Many of Trump’s advisers and close allies were annoyed over reports that Trump was mulling Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Joni Ernst as potential replacements to Hegseth. They have since lobbied Trump directly on Hegseth, as well as attempted to quash any interest he might have had in other candidates, including reminding him of negative things DeSantis in particular said about Trump earlier this year when the two were in a heated primary.

Blumenthal asks Senate committee to "preserve and produce" records from Hegseth’s former veterans groups

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling on the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to “preserve and produce” records from two veterans groups that Pete Hegseth used to run to — including credit card transactions.

The demand comes as Hegseth reportedly mismanaged the groups during his tenure there, according to a New Yorker investigation. Hegseth has denied the claims.

Hegseth is back on Capitol Hill today to meet with key Republican senators after vowing to “fight like hell’ to win the nomination.

Voters have elected the most closely divided House since the Great Depression and WWI

There’s been a recent effort to brand the White House as “The People’s House,” which seems very wrong since the president is picked by the complicated Electoral College rather than directly by voters.

It’s the House of Representatives that is closest to the American people and most directly represents their will.

With the last House race of the 2024 election decided – by fewer than 200 votes! – we can say definitively that Congress, like the political divide in the US, will change very little.

The same electorate that returned Donald Trump to the White House with a smidge less than 50% of the vote – a decision that could have a great effect on American life when he takes control of the federal bureaucracy – has also delivered the most narrowly divided House since the outset of the Great Depression, with Republicans holding a slim majority.

That means if the president-elect and his GOP allies don’t find a way to work across the aisle, they’ll have to rely on complete agreement among Republicans in the House. In either scenario, they’ll likely have a hard time enacting much permanent change in American law.

That final contested House race will be won by Adam Gray, a pickup for Democrats in California’s Central Valley.

The movement in this year’s House elections looked like this:

Democrats picked up nine seats and lost eight.

Republicans picked up eight seats and lost nine.

Ramaswamy's threat to claw back Rivian loan has sparked criticism of Musk’s conflict of interest

Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk.

Last week, the Department of Energy announced a $6.6 billion conditional loan commitment to Rivian, the electric vehicle startup that is a nascent competitor to Tesla, Musk’s $1 trillion car company.

Ramaswamy says that loan and others like it are “high on the list of items” that he will look to claw back once his cost-cutting commission, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gets going next year.

“Those types of last-minute actions that are taking place in the lame duck merit particularly special scrutiny,” Ramaswamy told CNN.

Since the election, Biden officials have continued to hand out billions of dollars in government-backed loans and other federal funds, much of it to finance clean energy and domestic chip manufacturing projects.

It’s unclear whether Ramaswamy will make good on his promise to claw back that money, or what legal grounds he would use to justify it. Despite its broad mandate of cutting government waste, DOGE has no statutory authority and is essentially a presidential advisory commission that can make recommendations. Only Congress can claw back money it has previously approved.

Still, Ramaswamy’s comments are seen as a warning shot. Not only do they open another front in what promises to be a tense battle over efforts to reduce the size of the federal government, they also highlight the potential conflicts that could arise as spending cuts bump against Musk’s vast business empire, which itself has benefitted from government assistance.

Read the full story here.

Analysis: Hegseth hasn’t yet saved his Pentagon bid

Pete Hegseth’s bid to lead the Pentagon is stuck in limbo, as he fiercely battles allegations of drinking and sexual misconduct and can’t be sure if President-elect Donald Trump really has his back.

A top Trump transition source had described Wednesday as “absolutely critical” for the former Fox News anchor’s confirmation hopes. And Hegseth threw himself into his task, meeting Republican senators, offering to quit alcohol if he’s confirmed, and mounting fiery rearguards on the Megyn Kelly radio show and in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Yet his position seems as tenuous Thursday morning as it was 24 hours earlier.

Hegseth met with Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a combat veteran, campaigner against sexual harassment in the military and possible replacement pick for defense secretary if he falls short. Hegseth failed to emerge from the conversation with a public endorsement.

Hegseth is due to meet two other key Republican senators, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski. Murkowski said she’d “absolutely” ask him about allegations about his conduct and his opposition to women serving in combat roles in the military.

Hegseth said he spoke to Trump and that the president-elect had told him, “’Hey Pete, I got your back. It’s a fight. They’re coming after you, get after it.’” He added that Trump said, “‘You go meet those senators and I’ve got your back.’” Hegseth concluded: “It means a lot to me. It tells you who that guy is.”

Hegseth’s lawyer told CNN that his client “can’t wait” to undergo an FBI background check, which he said “is going to exonerate him of the vast majority of these claims.”

Yet Trump did not endorse Hegseth publicly. A source told CNN that the president-elect and Ron DeSantis have discussed the Florida governor taking the role, suggesting that Trump may already have a Plan B in mind.

Hegseth styled himself with the same “warrior” spirit that he once showed on the battlefield. He characterized his troubles as the result of a “ridiculous” narrative by “legacy media.”

Read the full analysis.