45 Posts Sort By

Latest

Oldest

Our live coverage of the Trump administration’s transition has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina on Tuesday said he supports President Joe Biden’s pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, and that Biden should preemptively pardon others to protect them from President-elect Donald Trump.

Clyburn, a key Biden ally who endorsed him early in the 2020 Democratic primaries, told CNN he is “absolutely OK” with Biden’s pardon for his son, who faced sentencing this month for federal tax and gun convictions, saying Hunter “was targeted” because of his father. Clyburn said he spoke with Biden two weeks ago and said the president seemed reticent to pardon his son, but that he urged Biden to go through with it. Clyburn said he told the president “that we as fathers have obligations to our children.”

Biden’s decision left some other Democrats fuming as the president repeatedly promised to not pardon Hunter before and after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.

Clyburn also listed others he thinks Biden should preemptively pardon.

“Jack Smith’s name is on my list; Liz Cheney’s name is on my list. I think that they all should be preemptively pardoned because I think there are people who Trump may bring into this government who will go after these people in a serious way, and there’s no need to subject them to that,” Clyburn said.

Asked whether he agreed with retiring Sen. Joe Manchin’s call on Monday for Biden to pardon Trump, Clyburn said, “I’m in that category as well.”

Clyburn pointed out, however, that Trump’s only conviction is on the state level, where he was found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records by a Manhattan jury. Since it is a state case, the president does not have the power to pardon the conviction, though the district attorney’s office that brought the case acknowledged in court last month that Trump is not likely to be sentenced until after his presidency is over.

Smith last month dropped both the 2020 election subversion prosecution against Trump and the charges accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents pointing at the Justice Department’s long-held belief that the Constitution prohibits prosecutions against sitting presidents.

“I’m talking about things that could impede our federal government. And so I believe (Manchin) may be onto something there,” Clyburn told CNN.

Embattled defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth is set to meet with four key senators tomorrow: incoming Majority Leader John Thune and incoming chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker, along with committee members Joni Ernst and Kevin Cramer, according to a source.

Times and locations of the meetings have yet to be announced.

President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he will receive the “Fox Patriot of the Year Award” with a ceremony hosted by Fox News’ Sean Hannity set to take place in New York on Thursday.

“I look greatly forward to attending the Fox News Patriot Awards, hosted by Sean Hannity, in New York on Thursday evening. I will be receiving the Fox Patriot of the Year Award — so nice! See you there,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump’s cabinet has plucked two Fox News stars from their airwaves to serve in his cabinet — Sean Duffy for Transportation secretary and Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon — and a number of Fox News contributors to serve elsewhere in his administration.

Donald Trump’s allies involved in the transition process have been compiling a list of alternative candidates for Secretary of Defense in recent days in the event Pete Hegseth’s road to confirmation appears destined to implode, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa is among the names under consideration to replace Hegseth, should that come to pass. Ernst is widely viewed as willing to accept the role and, most importantly, confirmable, the sources said. Ernst recently spent several days at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where she discussed Trump’s Cabinet nominees as well as plans related to DOGE, according to her social media posts.

Two other sources said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ name had been raised.

DeSantis, who served in the US Navy as a JAG officer, was on the initial list of candidates for Secretary of Defense that Trump was shown, according to a person familiar.

Other Trump allies are floating Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee for the role, according to a fourth source familiar with the matter. People close to Trump have long been hoping to find a big administration role for the senator.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Ernst, DeSantis and Hagerty.

People involved in Trump transition planning for the Pentagon started floating other options after the first allegations about Hegseth surfaced, driven in large part by concerns that he could face a similar “math problem” as Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who withdrew his name as Trump’s pick for attorney general after facing headwinds in the Senate.

The nomination of decorated Army veteran and former Fox & Friends weekend co-host Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense is in trouble, a senior Trump transition source told CNN Tuesday evening.

“He has not been forthright with the Transition team staff and the President-elect and Vice President-elect,” the senior Trump transition source said of the reporting about allegations about Hegseth’s behavior involving women and alcohol. “He has hurt a lot of people as a result. He didn’t disclose anything. Tomorrow is going to be absolutely critical.”

“His mom is going to be on Fox & Friends,” the senior Trump Transition source said. Two days ago, The New York Times reported on an email Hegseth’s mom wrote her son sin 2018 saying in part: “On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself.” “There are significant concerns more accusations are going to come out from his time at Fox News, about his behavior there, where he had an affair with his now-wife who was his executive producer,” the source said.

“Then he’s meeting with Sen. Joni Ernst, who is critical,” the senior Trump transition source said, referring to the Republican senator from Iowa and military veteran. “If she isn’t comfortable with Pete and he doesn’t answer her questions about women in the military and about sexual assault — and she’s a survivor — if she doesn’t leave the meeting supporting him, there are about five or six Republican senators who will oppose his nomination.”

“There are significant concerns more accusations are going to come out from his time at Fox News, about his behavior there, where he had an affair with his now-wife who was his executive producer,” the source said.

More context: No Republicans have said they will not support Hegseth, but even some of the GOP senators closest to Trump, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, are now wondering whether Hegseth can survive the tightrope walk to confirmation, sending an ominous signal for the incoming White House. Hegseth will need to limit defections to three GOP senators, assuming all Democrats vote against him, and there are already more than three senators who are uncertain if they’ll back him.

A Georgia judge is ordering Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office to provide a conservative watchdog group with any documents from its 2020 election interference investigation that it shared with special counsel Jack Smith and the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled on Monday that the documents must be submitted to Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, after finding that Willis violated open records law.

McBurney’s order told Willis to “conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days.”

Judicial Watch, which has several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits related to what it calls “prosecutorial abuse targeting Trump,” filed a lawsuit in March after Willis denied having responsive records from their Georgia Open Records Act request filed last year.

“This is the first time in our experience a government official has been found in default for not showing up in court to answer an open records lawsuit,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in part in a statement.

“Judicial Watch looks forward to getting any documents from the Fani Willis operation about collusion with the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress on her unprecedented and compromised ‘get-Trump’ prosecution,” Fitton said.

Willis’ office did not immediately reply to a request for comment on McBurney’s order.

Judicial Watch submitted its initial open records request after President-elect Donald Trump and multiple co-defendants were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023 in connection with their attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump and multiple co-defendants were indicted in Georgia in August 2023 in connection with their attempts to overturn the 2020 election, though the case would almost certainly be imperiled now that he has been reelected.

Pete Hegseth’s mother is expected to be interviewed on Fox and Friends tomorrow, according to two people.

It comes after she was inserted into his confirmation drama when The New York Times published an email she sent him amid his divorce in 2018.

In it, she said he abused and mistreated women and needed to seek help. She later told the Times she sent an “immediate follow-up email at the time apologizing for what she had written.”

Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the FBI, was recently informed by the bureau that he had been targeted as part of an Iranian hack, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Hackers are believed to have accessed at least some of Patel’s communications, according to one of the sources.

Trump Transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer declined to comment specifically on the hack in a statement to CNN.

“Kash Patel was a key part of the first Trump administration’s efforts against the terrorist Iranian regime and will implement President Trump’s policies to protect America from adversaries as the FBI Director,” Pfeiffer said in the statement.

Some background: Members of Trump’s inner circle have been targeted by foreign hackers in recent months. Last month, the FBI informed Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s lead attorneys and now his pick to be deputy attorney general, that his cellphone was tapped by Chinese hackers, three sources familiar with the matter previously told CNN. The Chinese government has denied US allegations that it is behind that hack.

Donald Trump Jr. also has said he was notified by the FBI that he was “one of the top targets” of Iran.

Blanche was the second of two Trump attorneys believed to be targeted by foreign hackers. CNN reported in August that attorney Lindsey Halligan was targeted as part of a separate Iranian hacking effort.

Iran has for several years targeted members of Trump’s first administration and more recently sent information they stole from his presidential campaign to people who were affiliated with President Joe Biden’s campaign this summer.

In June, Iranian hackers breached the email account of longtime Trump ally Roger Stone and used the account to try to break into a senior Trump campaign official’s email, investigators have said.

The Iranian government has denied US allegations that it was trying to meddle in the November election.

Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks spent Tuesday meeting with senators who will soon decide their fate during the confirmation process.

Among those who attended meetings was Department of Defense pick, Pete Hegseth, who faces a tough road to win confirmation due to past allegations of misconduct and questions about whether he can do the job.

Senators who have met with Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, said his confirmation will be difficult and that frank discussions are necessary amid a New Yorker report that he was pushed out as the head of two veterans’ advocacy organizations over misconduct allegations.

In a sign of how seriously the transition team is taking their concerns, Hegseth is expected to sit for an interview with Fox News tomorrow, two people familiar confirmed to CNN. It’s unclear if the interview is scheduled to air tomorrow as well.

Elsewhere, Hillsborough Florida County Sheriff Chad Chronister withdrew his name from consideration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Here’s what you should know:

Republican reactions to Hegseth allegations and reports:

• Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said that the transition team doesn’t have “any concerns” about Hegseth despite the recent reports detailing personal misconduct involving alcohol and inappropriate behavior toward women.
• Republican Sen. Susan Collins said she believes Hegseth, needs to go through the full congressional vetting process, including a FBI background check, before he is confirmed.
• Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy also said the misconduct allegations against Hegseth “have to be addressed,” and emphasized the importance of a thorough vetting process for Trump’s Cabinet picks.
• The defense secretary pick will meet with the Republican Study Committee in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, according to a person familiar.

GOP conference meeting:

• During a closed-door GOP conference meeting on the 2025 agenda, incoming Republican leader John Thune laid out an ambitious portrait of how he sees the first few months of the Trump administration playing out — and President-elect Donald Trump called in.
• President-elect Donald Trump called into the Senate GOP retreat, according to Sen. John Cornyn. House Speaker Mike Johnson attended the meeting, a source familiar told CNN, signaling how House and Senate Republicans are looking to hit the ground running on a number of issues at the start of the new Congress.

More developments in DC:

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will speak to Republican House and Senate members on Thursday afternoon, according to a notice distributed by Speaker Mike Johnson’s office on Tuesday. The meeting — which will center on Trump’s new agency, Department of Government Efficiency — will take place at 3 p.m. ET in the congressional auditorium.
• The Trump-Vance Transition team has formally entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Department of Justice, according to a statement from Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff. This agreement outlines the terms of cooperation between the transition team and the DOJ, marking a significant step in the preparation of the incoming administration.
• Defense lawyers for Trump are using President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter to argue that Trump’s conviction in Manhattan hush money case should be dismissed.

As protests broke out across American cities in June 2020, Pete Hegseth, co-host of the weekend “Fox & Friends” show, joined an on-air panel to discuss the situation in Seattle, where protestors had created a self-declared autonomous zone around a few blocks near downtown.

Hegseth, speaking remotely from his home, suggested the only way to save the city was to send in the military.

As President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the US military as secretary of defense, Hegseth would be in position to execute that kind of order should it come from the White House.

Hegseth’s position on using the military to put down domestic riots is among a number of controversial policies he has supported in the past, including speaking in favor of enhanced interrogation methods such as waterboarding, pardoning US soldiers convicted of war crimes, targeting cultural institutions in drone strikes, and banning women from combat roles.

CNN’s KFile reviewed hundreds of Hegseth’s radio and TV appearances from 2008 through 2024, many of which occurred while he was a Fox News contributor and host. After initially criticizing Trump’s lack of national security experience during the 2016 presidential primaries, Hegseth became one of Trump’s most ardent supporters after he won the election that year.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition touted Hegseth’s record of military service and defended his past comments as a Fox News host.

“Pete has shared points of view in the past as a private citizen and media personality, but as nominee for Secretary of Defense, he’s committed to upholding the Constitution and President Trump’s Make America Strong Again agenda,” the statement read.

Read more on Hegseth’s support of controversial policies involving the military.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said misconduct allegations against defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth “have to be addressed,” and emphasized the importance of a thorough vetting process for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks.

“There are allegations, and they have to be addressed so you don’t believe everything you read or see on the TV,” Cassidy said, adding, “clearly they have to be addressed.”

Asked by CNN what he wants to see from Hegseth in addressing the allegations, Cassidy said he wanted to speak generally and that “many people go through a rough period in their life,” adding “he may dispute the truth. That’s another thing.”

“Believe me, there are a lot of people around here whose character is assassinated and turns out maybe it should have been assassinated after all,” he said.

“I just learned in my years of living that there’s two sides of the story. Now it doesn’t mean that he’s right or wrong. It just means that I need to learn, and I’m in the process of not judging somebody by what I read in the press, but by reading what I read in an FBI report, or learn in a conversation or otherwise have as a first hand bit of knowledge, as opposed to second hand or third hand,” he said.

Cassidy told CNN he thinks it would be good for all nominees to have a full FBI background check, explaining it helps the American people have “faith in the process.”

“If something comes up later, it would be terribly embarrassing to the Trump administration. And don’t want that to happen. So I just think it’s a good way to get things out in the beginning, to protect the person applying to keep the faith of the American people and to protect the future administration,” Cassidy said.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick, will meet with the Republican Study Committee in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, according to a person familiar.

This comes as he holds a flurry of meetings among GOP senators, who will vote on whether to confirm him next year.

House members do not vote on nominees.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sidestepped the politically explosive issue of Biden’s recent presidential pardon issued for his son, Hunter, in a new statement.

Jeffries said in a vague statement that Biden “should exercise the high level of compassion he has consistently demonstrated throughout his life, including toward his son, and pardon on a case-by-case basis the working-class Americans in the federal prison system whose lives have been ruined by unjustly aggressive prosecutions for nonviolent offenses.”

Jeffries’ comments come after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also repeatedly dodged questions about Biden’s pardon at a news conference earlier Tuesday.

Donald Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has been in a series of meetings on Capitol Hill this week with the Republican senators who will decide his fate.

In a sign of how seriously the transition team is taking their concerns, Hegseth is expected to sit for an interview with Fox News tomorrow, two people familiar confirmed to CNN. It’s unclear if the interview is scheduled to air tomorrow as well.

The transition is hoping his answers will alleviate the concerns that several Republican senators have expressed. His interview is notable because most, if not all, of Trump’s Cabinet picks have been told to stay away from media appearances until after their confirmation process.

Pete Hegseth faces a tough road to win confirmation to lead the Pentagon amid Republican concerns about past allegations of misconduct and questions about whether he can do the job, according to multiple GOP senators.

Hegseth will need to limit defections to three GOP senators, assuming all Democrats vote against him. And there are more than three senators who are uncertain if they’ll back him.

It’s still possible that Hegseth could win over GOP senators skeptical about his nomination. But some senators say it could be a lift.

This all comes as the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, told CNN that he expects to see a whistleblower report outlining allegations of misconduct during his time running a veterans group. The New Yorker this week detailed the allegations in the report.

“I’m sure I’ll see it,” Wicker told CNN.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, bumped into Hegseth in the hall on Tuesday.

Kaine shook his hand and said they plan to meet next week or the following week.

Hillsborough Florida County Sheriff Chad Chronister has withdrawn his name from consideration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration under President-elect Donald Trump.

“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. There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling. I sincerely appreciate the nomination, outpouring of support by the American people, and look forward to continuing my service as Sheriff of Hillsborough County,” Chronister posted on X.

Trump announced Chronister as his pick to the lead the DEA on Saturday.

President-elect Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image on social media of him standing next to a Canadian flag in the mountains after it was reported that Trump joked to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada should become a 51st state during their discussion on tariffs last Friday.

“Oh Canada!” the post on Truth Social reads.

Trudeau visited Florida days after Trump promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada starting on the first day of his administration and called for 25% tariff on all products sent to the US.

CNN previously reported that after Trudeau politely pushed back on how such tariffs would hurt the Canadian economy, Trump joked that maybe Canada should join the United States as a 51st state if that were the case, the sources said.

One source emphasized that the comment was meant to be a joke, and that the other dinner guests took it as one.

Defense lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump are using President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter to argue that Trump’s conviction in Manhattan hush money case should be dismissed.

“Yesterday in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly prosecuted’ and ‘treated differently,’” Trump lawyers wrote in a motion filed Monday.

Trump lawyers — Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who he has picked for top Justice Department posts in his new administration — argue these comments amount to a condemnation of Biden’s own Justice Department and then argue that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has engaged in the same kind of “political theater.”

Bragg’s office successfully prosecuted Trump earlier this year for falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Judge Juan Merchan indefinitely postponed Trump’s sentencing in the case after Trump won re-election. Trump’s lawyers also want the conviction dismissed, but the district attorney’s office said it will oppose any effort to toss the case.

Trump’s lawyers have argued Trump is protected by presidential immunity and also argued the case was politically motivated, but the arguments about Hunter Biden are the first time Biden’s decision has been used to boost Trump’s arguments.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she believes President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, needs to go through the full congressional vetting process, including a FBI background check, before he is confirmed.

“As I’ve repeatedly said to you, I believe that we need an FBI background check to evaluate the allegations,” she told CNN on Tuesday, also adding that Hegseth should also complete the usual questionnaire about his background and participate in a public hearing.

CNN has reported that Trump’s transition team is bypassing traditional FBI background checks for at least some of his Cabinet picks.

Hegseth has continued making his rounds on Capitol Hill this week, meeting with several GOP senators and dodging questions from reporters about the multiple misconduct allegations against him.

Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said “of course” the allegations are “concerning,” but he said he’s looking forward to meeting with Hegseth because “I’m interested in who Pete Hegseth is today and who he is going forward.”

Asked if the standards have changed since John Tower was rejected by the Senate to serve as defense secretary in 1989 over similar allegations of womanizing and drunkenness, Cramer said: “I don’t think there’s much question that the tolerance for certain things has changed.”

Cramer said he would like to see an FBI background check or “something similar,” including a review by “private entities,” and also noted that committees have “a lot of the same investigative authorities” to vet nominees.

Pressed if he’s leaning yes on confirming Hegseth, Cramer responded: “Yeah, I am. I give him the benefit of the doubt,” saying he’s talked to Hegseth once and will “spend a good deal of time with him” when they meet in person.

Cramer was asked again later about how he views the allegations against Hegseth, to which he responded: “As long as they’re just allegations, and again, that they remain in the past, but he can … he has to convince me of that, but I’m open to being convinced.”