November 22, 2024 - Presidential transition news

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has set the dates for the special election to fill former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s seat in the US House of Representatives. The primary will be held on January 28, and the general election will be held on April 1.

Why is this special election happening: Gaetz had resigned from the House earlier this month after Trump selected him to lead the Department of Justice and before the House Ethics Committee could release a report about its investigation into him, including alleged sexual misconduct, which he has denied. But after Gaetz withdrew from consideration on Thursday, congressional leaders in both parties had been scrambling to determine if Gaetz could return to the House next year after winning reelection this fall. However, Gaetz said Friday he will not be returning to Congress next year.

What this means for the GOP majority in the House: This is a huge blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson who had hoped this seat would be filled in time for the start of the next Congress in January. Johnson’s majority gets even smaller with the seat remaining vacant until April and could greatly impact President-elect Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for his first 100 days in office.

Senate Judiciary Chair Sick Durbin issued a statement Friday insisting on an FBI background check into President-elect Donald Trump’s new pick for attorney general Pam Bondi.

He said that the committee “uphold its constitutional responsibility of advice and consent on this critical position.”

Sen. Kelly Loeffler

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the job of secretary of the Department of Agriculture, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

Here’s a look at Loeffler’s background:

Loeffler, who briefly represented Georgia in the Senate, had fundraised for Trump during the 2024 race and raised several million dollars for his campaign over the summer when she hosted a debate watch party with Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley. Several of Trump’s other Cabinet picks — including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Elise Stefanik — were at that party.

Loeffler is also co-chairing Trump’s inauguration, as CNN previously reported.

Loeffler, appointed to the Senate by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp over the wishes of Trump, lost her seat in a 2021 runoff to Democratic now-Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Loeffler was a staunch Trump ally in Congress, saying prior to the violence on January 6, 2021, that she planned to vote against certifying her state’s electoral results in support of Trump’s broader effort to upend Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

After the US Capitol attack, Loeffler backed off her objection, saying on the Senate floor: “When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes. However, the events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors.”

In the same speech, Loeffler condemned the violence at the Capitol, calling it “abhorrent.”

Loeffler was among the witnesses who appeared before the grand jury as part of Trump’s 2020 election subversion criminal case in Georgia.

CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed reporting.

Several Senate Judiciary Republicans have praised President-elect Donald Trump’s new pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Sen. John Cornyn: The senior member of the committee, who had expressed concerns over Matt Gaetz’s viability for the role, called this an “excellent nomination,” and said in a post on X that he looked “forward for working with her.”

Sen. Josh Hawley: He also sits on the committee and said in a post that Bondi will “make a fabulous AG.” He congratulated her and called her a “friend.”

Other GOP senators have also weighed in:

Sen-elect Bernie Moreno: “Congratulations to my friend @PamBondi, who will be a fantastic Attorney General! Pam is a true fighter who will dismantle the Trump-hating deep state at DOJ, root out the corrupt career prosecutors, and make our country great again,” he wrote on X.

Outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney: The Utah senator, who had refused to comment on Gaetz’s nomination, said that Bondi “served with excellence as Florida’s Attorney General and will be a highly capable leader at DOJ.”

Melania Trump arrives on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

First lady Melania Trump has announced her first hire for her second term at the East Wing, appointing Hayley Harrison, a longtime aide, as chief of staff.

Trump, as CNN has reported, is unlikely to move to Washington, DC, full time as first lady, but will maintain a platform and key priorities.

In her first term, she employed a skeletal East Wing team compared with her modern predecessors, with about a dozen staffers.

“I’m not anxious because this time is different. I have much more experience and much more knowledge. I was in the White House before. When you go in, you know exactly what to expect,” Trump said in a recent interview with Fox News. “You know what kind of people to get – that they are on your team, that they have the same vision as me and to serve me because they serve the country.”

Former US Sen. Kelly Loeffler speaks at Erick Erickson's conservative political conference "The Gathering" in Atlanta, on August 18, 2023.

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the role of the secretary of Agriculture, two people familiar with the matter tell CNN. He is set to meet with her at his Mar-a-Lago Club this afternoon.

Remember: As is always the case, nothing is final until Trump announces it.

Loeffler, who briefly represented Georgia in the Senate, has fundraised for Trump during the 2024 campaign and raised several million dollars for his campaign over the summer when she hosted a debate watch party with the Republican chair Michael Whatley. Several people joining the cabinet were at that party, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Loeffler is also co-chairing Trump’s inauguration, as CNN previously reported.

The agriculture job will likely be an important one — especially as Trump’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has promised to assert his influence over the agriculture industry.

“Corporate interests have hijacked the USDA dietary guidelines to make natural unprocessed foods merely an afterthought. That’s one reason why 70% of the American diet now consists of ultra-processed food. We’re going to change that,” Kennedy said in the weeks leading up to the election. “When Donald Trump gets me inside the building I’m standing outside of right now, it won’t be this way anymore. American agriculture will come roaring back, and so will American health.”

Arizona rancher Jim Chilton says there may be lawsuits that may postpone President-elect Donald Trump from finishing his border wall, but Chilton, whose ranch runs to the edge of Mexico, guarantees Trump will “finish it and secure the border.”

CNN’s David Culver interviewed the Arizona rancher. Watch below:

After embracing President-elect Donald Trump, the Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive said in an interview this week he won’t help future presidential campaigns, stating he “want[s] nothing to do with politics.”

“I’m never f***ing doing this again,” White told The New Yorker. “I want nothing to do with this s***. It’s gross. It’s disgusting.”

White played a key role in Trump’s second ascension to the White House, helping him reach millions of young male voters. A longtime friend of the president-elect, White stumped for Trump on the campaign trail, praised him at the Republican National Convention and walked alongside him at Saturday’s UFC match at Madison Square Garden.

White also used his connections to leverage appearances for Trump on friendly, right-leaning podcasts with millions of young listeners. White was upfront about his motivation in connecting Trump with so-called manosphere or bro-casters, saying the move was intended to tap into young voters.

“You’re getting conversations in these podcasts, and you yourself, as a young kid, get to really see who Donald Trump is,” White told The New Yorker. “Not the bulls*** you hear from the far-left media.”

In interviews with UFC fans outside Madison Square Garden, young voters told CNN they decided to support Trump after listening to podcasts helmed by Joe Rogan and others influential figures.

Read more on White and Trump here.

Sen. Chuck Grassley speaks at a news conference on the Supreme Court at the US Capitol Building on July 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Incoming Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley called President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi “well regarded” and “experienced” in a post on X dictated in his trademark social media shorthand.

Former GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz will not return to Congress next year after withdrawing his name as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, he said in an interview Friday.

Gaetz told conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk he would serve Trump in a different capacity, which he did not specify.

“I’m going to be fighting for President Trump. I’m going to be doing whatever he asks of me, as I always have. But I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress.”

Some context: Gaetz abruptly announced he was leaving his Florida seat in the House of Representatives after Trump tapped him for the attorney general role, throwing the fate into question of a House Ethics Committee report on allegations of sexual misconduct against the lawmaker.

When Gaetz announced Thursday that he was withdrawing his name from consideration for attorney general, it set off a scramble among congressional leaders in both parties on whether he could still return to the House next year. Lawmakers and senior aides believed Gaetz could ultimately return in January if he wanted to, according to more than a dozen sources, though it was a complicated question.

Former GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz downplayed the allegations in the House Ethics Committee report as part of a “smear campaign” during an interview Friday.

He went on to blame former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who Gaetz effectively ousted from his position, for his demise.

“I was dealing with a politically motivated body. They didn’t like me because of what I did to Kevin McCarthy. All of them were handpicked by Kevin McCarthy, and they had an axe to grind. So that was going to serve as at least enough of a basis to delay my confirmation as attorney general,” Gaetz said.

More on the report: The woman who says she had sex when she was a minor with Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee she had two sexual encounters with him at one party in 2017, sources familiar with her testimony tell CNN.

The woman, who was 17 years old at the time, testified that the second sexual encounter, which has not previously been reported, included another adult woman. She also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, sources said.

After being asked for comment for this story, Gaetz announced he was backing out as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied having sex with a minor and was not charged after the Justice Department investigated these alleged encounters.

CNN’s Paula Reid and Sarah Ferris contributed reporting to this post.

Former GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz responded on camera to withdrawing his name from attorney general consideration during an interview with Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder.

Gaetz said he supported Pam Bondi and said that she would make a “phenomenal attorney general for Donald Trump.”

He continued, “My good friend Pam Bondi is going to be a phenomenal attorney general for Donald Trump. She has the legal acumen. She hates criminals. She is a bright legal mind and a fellow Floridian. So I think that even though the path will take me to a different station in life and a different place to fight for our agenda, and President Trump, we’ve got a great person in place.”

Gaetz also claimed he had momentum with senators but that the conversations were effectively a distraction as part of an explanation as to why he withdrew his name.

Separately, Gaetz said he would continue to be a part of staffing out the administration. Gaetz has sat in on a number transition meetings and given input to the team.

“I might not lead the league in scoring in the upcoming few months, but I want to lead the league assist. I want to help you find those great folks get them in great position and see the President Trump is a historically successful president,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court May 16 before his trial in New York.

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial has adjourned his sentencing, which was set for next week.

Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the case – ordering them to submit their papers by December 2. Prosecutors are ordered to respond by December 9. Trump’s team wanted to have until December 20 to file their paperwork.

The judge also agreed to hold off on issuing his decision on presidential immunity until after he reviews the parties’ filings.

The judge did not set a new sentencing date or make any further statements about the delay.

Trump’s spokesperson called the sentencing delay “a decisive win.”

More on the case: Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush money payment to an adult film star in 2016. On May 30, he was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree by 12 jurors. Prosecutors alleged during the trial that Trump was part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they alleged he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. Trump pleaded not guilty.

On Nov. 19, 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told Judge Juan Merchan they would agree to delay Trump’s sentencing, set for Nov. 26, to allow time for the anticipated litigation around the president-elect’s expected motion to dismiss the case.

This post has been updated with Trump’s reaction and more background on the case.

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris listen as she is seen in a screen delivering remarks, conceding the 2024 US presidential election to President-elect Donald Trump, at Howard University in Washington, DC, on November 6.

In the aftermath of the 2024 elections, Democrats are less optimistic about their party’s future than they’ve been at any point in the past eight years, according to new Pew Research Center polling released Friday.

The poll, which was conducted November 12-17, also finds that views of President-elect Donald Trump continue a pattern seen pre-election: Americans largely express confidence in his plans for the economy, while continuing to rate him negatively on many personal characteristics.

Roughly half (51%) of Democrats and independents who lean toward the party say they’re optimistic, while 49% say that they’re pessimistic about its future. Democratic pessimism is up compared with both 2016, when 38% said they were feeling that way in the wake of Trump’s first presidential victory, and in 2020, when 17% of Democratic-aligned adults described themselves as pessimistic after Joe Biden’s win in 2020. They also didn’t feel this pessimistic in the wake of the 2018 and 2022 midterms.

By contrast, 86% of Republican-aligned adults now call themselves optimistic about the GOP’s future, up from 65% who said the same two years ago. Roughly 8 in 10 said they were optimistic following Trump’s 2016 election and the 2018 midterms, with 74% calling themselves optimistic after Biden’s 2020 victory.

Read more about the polling here.

Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who Donald Trump has selected as his attorney general pick, was at the vanguard of the 2012 Supreme Court challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care law and could now be positioned to work to undercut the Affordable Care Act again.

Back in February 2011, when Republican state officials across the country were racing to be the first to test Obamacare at the high court, Bondi and other Florida state attorneys flew to Washington, DC, to screen powerhouse appellate lawyers to represent the state.

As Bondi recounted at the time, she borrowed a conference room at the Washington law firm where her brother was a partner to quickly interview leading candidates. The Florida team selected Paul Clement, a former US solicitor general to President George W. Bush, and they were able to position their case at the forefront of nationwide litigation.

In the end, Florida and the other GOP-led states narrowly lost their case at the Supreme Court in June 2012. The 5-4 decision to uphold the ACA almost went the opposite way. Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote late in the private negotiations, giving the administration the win.

Though repealing the Affordable Care Act was a top priority of Trump in his first term, the president-elect moved away from vowing to dismantle the landmark health reform law in his 2024 campaign. However, he did repeatedly promise to improve Obamacare — though when asked for details in a September debate, he said he had “concepts of a plan.”

CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed reporting to this post.

Marc Rowan, a contender for what is arguably the most important economic job in the US government, is the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a behemoth in private equity, an industry notorious for its cutthroat, profit-at-all-costs standards.

The 62-year-old executive’s ascent to Donald Trump’s Cabinet could, if he were nominated and confirmed, represent a major win for one of the most powerful (and often despised) sectors of finance.

As Treasury secretary, Rowan would directly oversee the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which is nominally responsible for policing the “nonbank” financial system, including the private equity industry in which he is currently a major player. The Treasury also houses the IRS and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, which regulates banks.

More to the point, Rowan, as Treasury secretary, would be able to ensure that those regulatory bodies continue to treat private equity the way they always have, under administrations of both Democrats and Republicans. That is to say, largely left alone.

“The regulation is really not there,” Bill Lazonick, president of the nonprofit Academic-Industry Research Network, said. “You don’t even know what private equity owns —everything is shielded by various types of transactions and corporate structures.”

It’s impossible to know what kind of Treasury secretary Rowan would be, if he’s picked. It’s hardly uncommon for industry leaders to join the government bodies that regulate the companies they previously worked for, and their reputations are, let’s say, mixed.

Read more on Rowan here.

President-elect Donald Trump is swiftly shaping his Cabinet for his second term, announcing loyalists to top roles that will need to be confirmed by the Senate.

There are still a handful of key roles he has not selected.

Trump announced that his new pick for attorney general in former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi after former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the job on Thursday.

Here’s a look at where things stand:

Former Florida Secretary of State Pam Bondi speaks during the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention on August 25, 2020.

Hours after his first pick to run the nation’s top law enforcement agency Rep. Matt Gaetz dropped out, President-elect Donald Trump named former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his new choice to run the Justice Department.

Here’s a look at her legal history:

Mike Rogers speaks at the Ryder Center at Saginaw Valley State University on October 3 in Michigan.

Former GOP Michigan congressman Mike Rogers, who is being eyed by President-elect Donald Trump as a potential option to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director, bluntly declared on Friday that “someone like me” could restore public confidence in the agency.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported last night that while Trump has planned to fire Wray for months if elected, he has struggled in recent days to find a replacement who can both carry out his agenda and be confirmed by the Senate. One potential option would be naming Rogers, a former FBI special agent, as the FBI director, while putting Kash Patel, a controversial MAGA loyalist, in as the deputy FBI director, according to several familiar with Trump’s thinking.

Rogers said that “the culture of the FBI on the seventh floor needs to be changed” and “you can cure the cancer without killing the patient and that’s exactly what needs to happen at the FBI,” after previously stating that the bureau “should not be engaged in politics.”

He criticized Wray for not appearing at a congressional hearing on global threats yesterday.

“I know how to challenge it and I know how to refocus them. That cultural rot has got to go,” he said. He was careful to note during the interview that the president-elect “hasn’t said he’s going to do that yet,” referring to potentially firing Wray.

Trump appointed Wray to lead the FBI in 2017, after firing James Comey three years short of his 10-year term expiring. The 10-year term is designed to keep the FBI director position insulated from political whims.

When we asked CNN readers for their questions about the incoming Trump 2.0 administration, we got a lot of nervous and scared feedback.

People have legitimate worries about President-elect Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportation, how his pledges to cut taxes will affect Social Security benefits and even whether he will leave office in 2029 when his term ends.

Here are the best answers from our reporters based on what we know right now for some of the many questions that poured in. Note: We’ve edited some questions for style or to focus them on a single issue. We included first names and state of residence based on the submissions.

Presidents have wide authority to declare a national emergency. Trump declared a national emergency when he was president the first time in order to unlock border wall funding that Congress refused to give him. Plus, President Joe Biden also deployed military personnel to the border to help border officials when a Covid-era policy that allowed the government to quickly turn away certain migrants expired.

How exactly Trump might use the military remains unclear. He has previously said that when he refers to the military, he would focus on National Guard troops and that local law enforcement would be key in his plans. Some states with Republican governors have already deployed National Guard troops to the border.

Trump has also said he could invoke a law from 1798, the Alien Enemies Act — meant to be invoked if the US is at war or if a foreign power threatens to invade or has done so — to help in his deportation plan.

Read more answered questions on Trump here.

For Donald Trump, every defeat is just the catalyst for his next battle.

No sooner had the president-elect suffered his first big reversal since winning reelection – when his scandal-tainted pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew Thursday after days of steadily worsening scrutiny over alleged sexual misconduct – Trump doubled down.

In Gaetz’s place, Trump chose Florida’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, another ultra-loyal MAGA warrior who is one of the most outspoken proponents of his theory that US justice was weaponized against him.

Gaetz – who denies wrongdoing – may be gone, but Trump’s craving for the Department of Justice to act like his personal team of lawyers rather than an independent guardian of the law is showing all signs of remaining intact.

In picking Bondi, Trump has selected another person who will alarm DC’s establishment and will be equally dedicated to doing the boss’ work in defenestrating the DOJ. Bondi has had her own controversies – she once denied that a $25,000 charitable donation Trump sent her was in any way connected to her decision not to pursue action against Trump University.

But she’s got one thing that Gaetz lacked – she’s likely to be far more confirmable in next year’s Republican-led Senate.

Read the full analysis.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration yesterday.

Trump called Gaetz Thursday morning and told him he did not have the votes in the Senate to get confirmed based on conversations Trump had with senators, according to a source with direct knowledge of the call.

Here’s what we know about what happened: