Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth faces ‘critical day’ as president-elect mulls other options: Live
President-elect’s pick for defense secretary dogged by allegations of sexual assault, drunkenness, Islamophobia and mismanagement of a non-profit
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, former Fox News weekend anchor Pete Hegseth, continues to be dogged by allegations about his past, potentially making his confirmation less likely and splitting right-wing media on his prospects as his candidacy faces an “absolutely critical day” on Wednesday.
Hegseth is due to take questions from the House Republican Study Committee today as well as appearing on Fox for an interview.
Hegseth’s mother Penelope is also due to appear on the channel, having previously criticized her son’s behavior towards women in a letter, as the Trump transition team reportedly considers alternatives to lead the Pentagon, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
On Tuesday, Trump’s pick to serve as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Sheriff Chad Chronister, withdrew from consideration, posting on X that he would be declining the “honor of a lifetime” after “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in”.
The president-elect’s choice for FBI director, Kash Patel, was also revealed to have been targeted by Iranian hackers while Trump himself pushed for the dismissal of the hush money case against him citing Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden.
Nato chief warns Trump not to push Ukraine deal that would see Putin ‘high-fiving’ Iran
Trump’s DEA nominee backs out after Covid and immigration criticisms
Trump’s conquest: President-elect posts bizarre AI pic of himself with Canadian flag (on a Swiss mountain)
Judge weighs whether to order Fani Willis to comply with lawmakers' subpoenas over Trump case
Construction industry prepares for possible labor shortages with Trump migrant crackdown
Leaders in the construction business, including Republicans, are worried that Donald Trump’s plans to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants will crater their industry, given its reliance on migrant workers.
“We will absolutely have a labor shortage,” developer George Fuller, mayor of McKinney Texas, a Dallas suburb that’s undergone a construction boom in recent years, toldThe Wall Street Journal. “Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, these industries depend on immigrant labor.”
Josh Marcus reports from San Francisco.
Construction industry ‘hoping like hell’ Trump won’t crack down on undocumented labor
Construction industry features large share of undocumented people, especially in post-Covid economic recovery
Trump transition team enters MOU with DOJ on background checks for nominees and staff
The Trump-Vance transition team has entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Justice, and released the following statement:
Today, the Trump-Vance Transition has entered into a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Justice. This is the next step in the ongoing preparation of senior administration officials for the purpose of serving in President Trump’s Administration. This allows the transition team to submit names for background checks and security clearances. Ultimately, this will afford the transition process additional insights, and it facilitates our agency landing teams gaining access to the information they need to prepare for leadership of the federal agencies and departments.
“This agreement with the Department of Justice will ensure President Trump and his team are ready on Day 1 to begin enacting the America First Agenda that an overwhelming majority of our nation supported on Election Day.” - Susie Wiles, President-elect Trump’s Chief of Staff
Zuckerberg seeks ‘active role’ in shaping Trump administration tech policies
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram, has said it “overdid it a bit” when moderating pandemic-related content on its platforms and that chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is now seeking an “active role” in shaping tech policy debates with Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
The company’s president of global affairs, Sir Nick Clegg made the remarks in a briefing with journalists, as reported by The Financial Times.
He said Zuckerberg was keen to play “an active role in the debates that any administration needs to have about maintaining America’s leadership in the technological sphere.”
Clegg added that leadership “is tremendously important given all the geostrategic uncertainties around the world, and particularly the pivotal role that AI will play.”
Zuckerberg recently dined with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago.
California lawmakers launch plan to Trump-proof state laws
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers headed back to the state Capitol Monday to begin steeling themselves for another Donald Trump presidency and to kick off a special session aimed at protecting the state’s progressive policies from his administration.
The Democratic governor, long a Trump foe, is maneuvering to position his huge, powerful state to once again be the center of a resistance effort against Trump’s extremely conservative agenda.
California lawmakers launch plot to Trump-proof state laws
Gavin Newsom is seeking to fund a court challenge warroom to battle Trump’s expected attacks on civil rights, immigrants, reproductive rights and the environment
Giuliani fails to respond to motion for contempt in defamation case
Former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani never ended up filing his response to a motion for contempt in his defamation case that was due yesterday, after he was accused of repeatedly defaming election workers despite a court order that blocks him from doing so.
Now the election workers’ attorneys are reminding the judge that she said his failure to reply will “be treated as conceding that motion.”
The judge should “grant the Motion for Civil Contempt as conceded, should enter an order that Mr. Giuliani is in civil contempt, and the December 12, 2024 hearing should be narrowed to focus on the appropriate civil contempt sanction for Mr. Giuliani’s violation of the consent injunction,” they wrote.
Here’s our latest reporting on the case:
Giuliani rages at judge in defamation case: ‘I don’t have a penny’
Trump’s former attorney can’t dodge his upcoming trial to attend the inauguration, as the disbarred former New York City mayor is reprimanded for blown deadlines and court orders to turn over his property
Fox News and Newsmax takes opposite approaches to Hegseth scandals
Justin Barangoa writes:
With former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s appointment as defense secretary suddenly in doubt amid a bevy of startling stories detailing his alleged sexual misconduct, boorish behavior and financial malfeasance, the right-wing network he called home for nearly a decade is doing what it typically does in these instances.
That is, it’s hushing up.
Meanwhile, another conservative cable channel that has long sought to court favor with MAGA by running to the right of Fox News is openly calling on President-elect Donald Trump to ditch Hegseth’s nomination because the ex-Fox star simply “can’t” lead the Pentagon amid the growing scandals.
Read on...
Right-wing networks can’t agree on how to cover Pete Hegseth’s many scandals
While Fox News employs a familiar tactic when it comes to unflattering stories about the network or MAGA, Newsmax is directly calling on Trump to drop the former Fox News star’s nomination.
Trump’s first 100 days will be ‘nonstop’ on energy and border policies
Jason Miller, one of Donald Trump’s top advisers, continues his media tour today after appearances on CNN and Fox News this morning.
On the right-wing Newsmax network, Miller spoke about plans for aggressive action in the first 100 days of the new Trump administration.
“President Trump is … moving really fast here. I mean, even by Thanksgiving, he had his entire cabinet picked,” Miller said, noting that work was already underway on executive orders and policies that can be implemented as soon as Trump takes office.
These include “day one priorities” such as energy and securing the border.
“This first 100 days is going to be nonstop. There’s so many things that he’s ready to do. Because, again, we’ve never had a second-term president step in that is ready to go,” said Miller.
“In fact, we’ve never had a first-term president, never had president in history who’s so ready to go on day one, who knows exactly what they want to do. So, if you voted for President Trump, [you] should be pretty enthused that we’re gonna have the country back on track.”
Jimmy Kimmel defends Biden’s 180 on Hunter pardon
Jimmy Kimmel has defended President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden joking that there’s a “very good chance” the president “doesn’t remember” previously saying he wouldn’t.
Alarm bells sounded on both sides of the political aisle on Sunday when Biden granted his son clemency for federal crimes committed between January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024 – claiming the 54-year-old was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” by the Department of Justice.
James Liddell reports.
Jimmy Kimmel jokes that Biden ‘doesn’t remember’ his past promises on Hunter pardon
‘The Biden presidency has now entered the “grandpa doesn’t give a damn about you” stage,’ the Jimmy Kimmel Live host quipped
Judge rules in Judicial Watch v Fani Willis records request
Judicial Watch, owned by conservative activist Tom Fitton, filed an open records request in Georgia for “[a]ll documents and communications sent to, received from, or relating to Special Counsel Jack Smith” and “[a]ll documents and communication sent to or received from the United States House January 6th Committee” by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in relation to the sprawling racketeering case brought against Donald Trump and his co-defendants.
The records custodian said that just… doesn’t exist. So he filed a complaint alleging that Willis was violating open records laws. She appears to have never responded to any of it, and a judge just awarded default judgment in favor of Judicial Watch.
Here’s the judge’s order:
By finding Defendant in default, the Court has in effect declared that she has violated the ORA. The Court also hereby ORDERS Defendant to conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days of the entry of this Order. Within that same five-day period, Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure. If Defendant is required or decides to withhold all or part of a requested record, she should follow the procedures set forth in the ORA ... If the records are stored electronically, they may be produced electronically in a commonly used format such as PDF. The Court expects that such production will include the correspondence identified by Plaintiff in its complaint. If it does not, Defendant is further ORDERED to provide an explanation why such correspondence does not exist in Defendant’s records (or why it is being withheld). Beyond that, no other relief, injunctive or otherwise, is necessary at this time (to include striking Defendant’s answer, which is of no effect based on the Court’s finding of default).
This raises the question that if such communications do not exist, how can you show that?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments