Trump pick for DEA walks away from job as Hegseth scandals threaten defense role: Live
Allegations of sexual assault, drunkenness, Islamophobia, and mismanagement of a non-profit dog president-elect’s pick for defense secretary as Trump ally Lindsey Graham calls them ‘disturbing’
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Your support makes all the difference.Sheriff Chad Chronister, Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration has withdrawn himself from consideration for the role.
He wrote on X: “To have been nominated by President-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is the honor of a lifetime. Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s attorneys are calling on the judge overseeing his hush-money case to dismiss it, pointing to President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, and raising the idea that presidential “immunity” should apply to the president-elect.
Trump’s lead criminal defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove — both of whom were nominated for top roles at the Department of Justice — quoted from President Biden’s own statement claiming that his son was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” and “treated differently.”
Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth continues to be dogged by alleged scandals from his past, potentially making his confirmation less likely and splitting rightwing media on his prospects.
Trump warns there’ll be ‘ALL HELL TO PAY’ if Israeli hostages aren’t released before he takes office
From Hunter Biden to Richard Nixon: Most controversial presidential pardons in history
Trump-pardoned filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza flamed for attacking Biden for pardoning son
Jon Stewart says it’s ‘OK’ Joe Biden pardoned son Hunter – for one reason
Trump appoints billionaire banker as UK ambassador
Ted Cruz launches lewd attack on ‘Morning Joe’ hosts over meeting with Trump
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz hit a bit below the belt as he attacked MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski over their recent visit with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida after bashing Trump for years on the air.
“You have Joe and Mika going to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring and suck up to Donald Trump. You can’t make that story up,” Sean Hannity told Cruz on his Fox News program.
Cruz smirked and suggested where they actually might have been kissing, as Gustaf Kilander reports.
Ted Cruz launches raunchy attack on ‘Morning Joe’ hosts over meeting with Trump
Texas senator says MSNBC hosts are ‘desperate for relevance’ and that they were ‘kissing a little bit lower’ than the ring at the Trump meeting
Watch: Biden ducks questions about pardon of son, Hunter on Angola trip
Small business owners brace for Trump's proposed tariffs
Small businesses are bracing for stiff tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has proposed as one of his first actions when he takes office.
Trump has proposed importers pay a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders. He previously floated a tariff of up to 20% on everything else the United States imports.
This means small businesses may end up paying more for goods and services and that may need to be passed on to consumers.
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Small business owners brace for Trump's proposed tariffs
Small businesses are bracing for stiff tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has proposed as one of his first actions when he takes office
Trump offers deputy defense role to billionaire financier Steve Feinberg, report says
Donald Trump has offered billionaire investor Steve Feinberg the job of deputy secretary of defense, The Washington Post reports, per sources.
That would put the number two job in defense in the hands of a financier with investments in companies that maintain Pentagon contracts.
There is no information yet as to whether Feinberg accepted.
With lawmakers continuing to scrutinize the president-elect’s choice to lead the department, Pete Hegseth, who is mired in controversies, a capable deputy has taken on a heightened significance, the Post notes.
Rachel Maddow defends Hunter Biden pardon because of ‘hit list’ put together by Kash Patel
MSNBC star Rachel Maddow rationalized on Monday night President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter by framing it within the context of President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of far-right extremist Kash Patel to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Specifically, the progressive host noted that the possible FBI director has “literally published a hit list of people he wants to go after once” the incoming president takes power, referencing Patel’s 2023 book Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.
Justin Barangoa has the story.
Rachel Maddow defends Biden's pardon for Hunter because Kash Patel has a 'hit list'
Maddow also dismissed all the “handwringing and gnashing of teeth” over Biden’s pardon of his son, noting that Trump pardoned a number of friends and family members
Scaramucci doesn’t expect Kash Patel confirmation to happen
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci does not believe Kash Patel will be confirmed by the Senate to lead the FBI in the new Trump administration.
He compared the situation to the fate of former Rep Matt Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general, which saw the controversial and scandal-dogged lawmaker withdraw his nomination given the uphill battle he would face in the Senate.
“It‘s the same thing with Matt Gaetz,” Scaramucci said on CNN on Monday. “The president-elect feels he‘s got a slate of people that are MAGA people. He‘s going to put those up if they can get through.”
He also said he believed that these initial picks were there to please his base of supporters but that he likely has alternates in mind — such as the quick announcement of Pam Bondi as Gaetz’s replacement for the role of AG.
“I think it‘s the same thing with Kash Patel,” he added. “I don‘t think the expectation is that he‘s going to get through.”
As the Lincoln Project notes, Patel is not without his detractors.
The anti-Trump conservative group posted on X: “Kash Patel has been a danger to this country for years. John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, compared Kash to a Soviet secret police leader. Bill Barr, Trump’s former Attorney General, said he’d let Trump appoint kash to the number two spot in the FBI ‘over my dead body’ saying he had ‘virtually no experience’ and said the very idea showed a ‘shocking detachment from reality.’ We need to make sure that Patel isn’t running the FBI.”
Trump warns there’ll be ‘ALL HELL TO PAY’ if Israeli hostages aren’t released before he takes office
President-elect Donald Trump is demanding the immediate release of Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, saying that if they are not freed before he is sworn into office for a second term there will be “HELL TO PAY.”
“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
He added that: “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!”
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Trump warns ‘ALL HELL TO PAY’ if hostages aren’t released before he takes office
Trump’s threat came hours after the Israeli government confirmed the death of Omer Neutra, a dual US-Israeli citizen
Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump should give blanket pardon to Republicans
Georgia Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a post on X this morning that Donald Trump should give a blanket pardon to Republicans.
The firebrand member of Congress wrote: “If Democrats are going to play the pardon game then we should do the same thing.”
“Trump can just blanket pardon all of us too,” she added.
This got an enthusiastic response from disgraced former congressman George Santos, who faces sentencing on February 7 after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft.
Far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer had a slightly different take, posting: “JUST IN: MTG admits she has done something that would make her need a pardon.”
Others echoed the sentiment, noting: “Accepting a pardon carries an imputation of guilt. What crimes did you commit Marge?”
Dinesh D’Souza — pardoned by Trump in 2018 — flamed for attacking Biden for pardoning son
Social media users piled on conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza on Monday, accusing the conspiracy theorist of hypocrisy for criticizing Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, as D’Souza received a presidential pardon of his own from Donald Trump in 2018.
The jokes began when D’Souza posted about the pardon on X, writing, “No one is above the law—except my son Hunter!” Elsewhere on his feed, D’Souza called the Bidens a “crime family” and Hunter Biden a “degenerate gangster.”
The comments quickly generated a storm of links and mockery pointing to D’Souza’s own 2018 pardon.
Josh Marcus reports.
Trump-pardoned filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza flamed for attacking Biden for pardoning son
D’Souza was pardoned for campaign finance violations in 2018
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