Jan. 2, 2025 - Presidential transition news

We’ve wrapped up our live coverage for the day. Read more on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition here.

President-elect Donald Trump has no appetite for the drama of another prolonged speaker fight in the House ahead of his inauguration, multiple sources familiar with his thinking told CNN, and he’s agreed to call potential holdouts ahead of Friday’s election, when House Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose one GOP vote.

Trump — who was irked by the weeks-long battle that ended Kevin McCarthy’s speakership and threw the House GOP into chaos — has been making direct calls to some lawmakers and allies pushing Johnson and has been seeking advice from others on how to ensure the Louisiana Republican, whom he endorsed earlier this week, walks away successful. Among the potential holdouts Trump has agreed to call is Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who has spoken out against Johnson.

Trump told reporters Tuesday night that he would make calls on Johnson’s behalf to fellow Republicans, if necessary, but said he believed Johnson would “get a successful vote.”

The president-elect has privately said he believes Johnson is the only member who can secure enough votes in a fight for the speaker’s gavel and told allies that this needs to be wrapped up quickly so as not to cloud the lead up to his inauguration with party infighting. Trump also lamented during McCarthy’s drawn-out fight that so much attention was on the Hill and not on his 2024 campaign, a scenario he is hoping to avoid in the weeks before he is sworn in as president.

While Trump has been briefed that Johnson might have issues securing the votes, he has publicly displayed confidence in the speaker and encouraged Republicans to rally around him.

Meta’s top policy executive, Nick Clegg, is stepping down from the post just as President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, with his replacement set to be Joel Kaplan, one of the company’s most prominent Republicans.

Clegg — the former UK deputy prime minister who was elevated to president of global affairs in 2022 — will hand the reins Kaplan, his No. 2 who is a longtime policy executive with deep Republican ties. The leadership transition is effective immediately.

Before Kaplan joined Meta in 2011, he held several key roles, including deputy chief of staff for policy in President George W. Bush’s White House. He once also took heat for attending the Senate confirmation hearing of his friend and former colleague Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Kaplan’s rise comes as Zuckerberg has sought to cozy up to Trump before he retakes the White House this month.

Meta has said Zuckerberg wants to take an “active role” in tech policy conversations with the incoming Trump administration. Like other CEOs, Zuckerberg met with Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort following the election. Meta also donated $1 million to his inaugural fund.

Read more here on the policy shake-up at Meta.

President Joe Biden awards the Presidential Citizens Medal to former Rep. Liz Cheney at the White House.

President Joe Biden on Thursday awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people, using the event to deliver a message on democracy and unity as he prepares to leave the White House.

“I think it’s pretty damn simple. Our democracy begins and ends with the duties of citizenship. That’s our work for the ages, and it’s what all of you — I mean this — all of you embody,” he continued, speaking directly to the recipients of one of the highest civilian honors.

“We’re a great nation, we’re a great nation because we’re a good people, a good people,” Biden added.

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson and former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who led the January 6 Select Committee that investigated President-elect Donald Trump’s role in the 2021 US Capitol attack each received awards and were greeted with sustained standing ovations from the room as they were recognized.

This post has been updated with additional details from the ceremony.

CNN’s DJ Judd contributed reporting to this post.

GOP former Rep. Liz Cheney and Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson are among 20 people President Joe Biden will honor Thursday with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the White House announced.

Cheney and Thompson were vice chair and chair of the House Committee on the January 6 attack, and Cheney in particular has been a target of ire for President-elect Donald Trump. In a statement announcing recipients of the award, the White House said Thompson was “at the forefront of defending the rule of law with unwavering integrity and a steadfast commitment to truth” while on the committee.

Biden has used the award — one of the country’s highest civilian honors, given to American citizens deemed to have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens” — to honor individuals associated with the January 6, 2021, insurrection. In 2023, he marked the two-year anniversary of the attack by awarding the medal to 12 people.

Other honorees: The individuals include law enforcement officers who were injured defending the Capitol, a Capitol Police officer who died the day after rioters stormed the building and election workers who rejected efforts Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Other honorees this year include attorney and activist Mary Bonauto first fought to legalize same-sex marriage in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine before arguing before the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage across the country, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement.

Biden will also posthumously honor civil rights advocate Louis Lorenzo Redding and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who filed the lawsuit that ended the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the press at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, after the Republican Conference meeting on December 17, 2024.

House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared confident on Fox Business about his bid for the gavel tomorrow, insisting he will secure it on the first round with just one “no” vote.

The current “no” vote is GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Johnson cannot afford to lose more than one member.

He stressed the urgency of selecting a speaker, framing a speaker-less Congress as “a constitutional crisis.”

Johnson spent the afternoon meeting in his office with a number of holdouts. Leaving the meeting, members said the speaker is listening to their concerns.

President Joe Biden touted a record-breaking 235 judicial confirmations under his administration in remarks from the White House Thursday, issuing a stark warning on the importance of the federal judiciary amidst concerns an incoming Trump administration might attempt to use lawfare to target political opponents.

Biden’s sentiment was echoed by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who introduced the president Thursday, telling the audience gathered in the White House State Dining Room, these judges come just in time.”

In his remarks, the president also pointed to what he called “the most demographically diverse slate of judicial nominees ever in the history of America,” including the nation’s first Black woman Supreme Court Justice, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Members of the news media linger outside of the office of House Speaker Mike Johnson on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on December 19.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is currently meeting with a half-dozen GOP holdouts, one day before he needs their votes on the floor to keep his gavel.

GOP Reps. Chip Roy, Ralph Norman, Andy Harris, Andy Ogles, Michael Cloud and Eli Crane were all seen entering the speaker’s suite.

Norman told reporters he is “undecided” heading into the meeting.

Remember: Johnson can afford to lose only one GOP vote if all members are there and voting.

Johnson already met with another undecided vote, Rep. Victoria Spartz. Leaving the speaker’s office, Spartz told reporters she has yet to make a decision and is pressing Johnson to have a more concrete governing plan for 2025.

“We need to have a plan,” Spartz said. “Newt Gingrich had the contract with America, and I think it’s important for us to have the same.”

Tomorrow both House Speaker Mike Johnson and House minority leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries will be nominated by members from their respective parties, GOP Rep. Lisa McClain will give the speech for Johnson and Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar will for Jeffries, per a source familiar.

Here’s a reminder of how the speaker election works:

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she is en route to Washington, two weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken hip, which will allow her to vote in Friday’s tight-margin speaker’s race.

“I’m on my way to Washington to proudly represent the people of San Francisco in Congress,” Pelosi said in a video posted on X, from a plane.

Remember: Democrats are seeking full attendance in their caucus as Speaker Mike Johnson looks to hang onto his gavel. He can only lose one GOP vote if all lawmakers are there and voting.

The US Capitol building on Friday, December 20, in Washington, DC.

Rep. Mike Johnson’s allies are preparing for the potential that the House speaker’s race on Friday will go into multiple rounds, according to GOP sources — a scenario that could lead to a drawn-out floor fight. Sources say they could be forced to negotiate with GOP holdouts but ultimately, they believe Johnson will prevail at some point on Friday

It’s still possible that Johnson could win on the first ballot if he can limit GOP defections to just one, but the fact that Republicans are preparing for the potential for multiple rounds of voting reflects the uncertainty in the vote count and Johnson’s slim margin for error.

Malliotakis, who is voting for Johnson, said that the speaker has been working the phones as he works to win over potential holdouts.

Current GOP holdouts: GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is so far the only House Republican who has said he will definitely not be voting for Johnson. Other GOP lawmakers, like Rep. Chip Roy, are publicly saying they are not yet ready to commit to supporting Johnson, however, and demanding concessions.

When Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker, it went 15 rounds over multiple days in a protracted floor fight.

While the House speaker has no formal role in certifying the presidential results, the chamber needs to be called into session to count the electoral votes and finalize the win. Traditionally, without a speaker, the House can do nothing besides vote to elect a speaker, vote to recess and vote to adjourn. Lawmakers can’t even be sworn in or set the rules of the House.

And unlike during the House’s last speaker-less debacle in 2023, there will be no temporary leader poised to take over. When former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted, Rep. Patrick McHenry took over as speaker pro tempore – serving as a temporary speaker – because he was McCarthy’s pick when he first took the gavel. But in the 119th Congress, a speaker would first need to be elected before he or she can appoint a pro tempore.

Some experts argue that it’s possible the House could elect a temporary speaker to guide the chamber through the certification process before deciding on a permanent leader.

Some Republicans are privately discussing ways to push the procedural limits so that Congress could certify Trump’s win without a leader. One person described an “emergency break glass option” that would involve allowing the House to vote to go into a special session. But that would be a tough sell for many institutionalist Republicans.

Another option that is being privately floated around Washington: Pushing the date of President-elect Donald Trump’s election certification.

“There is no constitutional mandate that it’s got to be on Jan. 6,” another GOP source said, as long as it happens before January 20, the date of inauguration.

Read more about the House speaker vote here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson walks to the House Chamber at the US Capitol on December 20, 2024, in Washington, DC.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he has been in talks with “every single one” of his House Freedom Caucus detractors and promised those with concerns “process reforms” as he tries to retain the gavel tomorrow. He acknowledged it is a “numbers game” and a historically slim margin.

Johnson said he laid out his argument to the detractors, which is that Republicans are now entering a period of single-party rule, and it is a “a totally different situation” than he dealt with over the last year as speaker of the House in a divided Washington.

“We cannot afford any palace drama here. We have got to get the Congress started,” he added.

President-elect Donald Trump moved swiftly to announce his selections for his next Cabinet and key administration posts.

Cabinet members include the vice president and the heads of the 15 executive departments in the presidential line of succession. A president may also choose to elevate other roles to join the Cabinet. The following list includes roles that were Cabinet-level in Trump’s first Cabinet or that he specified in the announcement will be included this term.

The Cabinet picks must be confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Armed Services Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing for Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, on January 14.

See below which people Trump has named through official statements:

House Republicans are formally proposing to change the procedural power that triggered the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a long-expected move that is a political win for GOP leadership.

In the text of the House rules for the 119th Congress, Republicans would require a minimum of nine GOP lawmakers to back a resolution calling to oust the speaker. This is a change from the one-member threshold that allowed Republicans to oust McCarthy with help from Democrats last year.

This deal had been brokered between a group of ultraconservatives and leadership-aligned Republicans in the House Main Street Caucus in November.

Republicans are expectedly to pass the rules package on the floor on Friday, January 3, shortly after a vote to re-elect House Speaker Mike Johnson for another term – if he can get the votes.

Speaker Mike Johnson will face a major challenge in the new Congress – the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years.

That is, if he can keep the gavel.

Republicans will soon control the House, Senate and White House. But thin margins could imperil President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. And Johnson has little room for error when the House votes on Friday to elect a speaker for the new Congress.

Republicans won 220 House seats in the November elections, while Democrats won 215, the most narrowly divided House majority since the outset of the Great Depression, almost a century ago.

And the margin is set to quickly shrink even further.

When the House convenes, the partisan breakdown is expected to be 219 to 215 since former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has said he’s not returning to Congress.

From there, the majority is on track to drop to 217 to 215 with two GOP lawmakers expected to join the Trump administration.

At that point, House Republicans would not be able to afford a single defection to pass legislation along party lines until the vacancies are filled.

With Republicans in control of Washington, there will be intense pressure on GOP leaders to swiftly enact Trump’s agenda.

But the extraordinarily tight margin gives any rank-and-file lawmaker the ability to exert outsized influence by making demands on the speaker.

Johnson has already had to contend with that – frequently in the form of pressure from his right flank, a dynamic that now set to intensify.

Passing a bill in the House requires a majority of all members present and voting. The magic number is 218 if every member shows up to vote and all 435 seats are filled, but that can change if there are vacancies or absences. A tie vote in the House is a fail.

Read the full story here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s allies are leaning into a key argument in a bid to avoid a chaotic floor fight over the gavel on Friday: A vote against Johnson could delay the finalization of Donald Trump’s White House win.

A day before the speaker’s election, Johnson, who has been endorsed by Trump to keep the top leadership post, is still racing to win over multiple GOP holdouts, a scenario that some Republicans privately fear could lead to another days-long protracted floor fight.

But this time, there’s a huge shadow over the race: Congress has never before tried to certify a presidential election without a House speaker in place. Even senior Republicans say it’s unclear what would happen if there is no speaker on January 6 — when Congress is scheduled to certify Trump’s win — and they’re not eager not to find out.

The House can’t conduct any official business without a speaker, which means there are no clear options to certify Trump’s win without one, according to multiple sources. The message so far from Congress’s own parliamentarians to party leaders has been: Elect a speaker before January 6, according to one of those sources.

Republicans are also acutely aware that they will have a narrow window to push through their agenda once they take control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Trump’s inauguration is set to take place on January 20, but the election results need to be certified by Congress before he can take office.