Welcome to the net model of From the Politics Desk, a night publication that brings you the NBC News Politics crew’s newest reporting and evaluation from the White House, Capitol Hill and the marketing campaign path.
It was one other busy day on Capitol Hill with a prolonged slate of affirmation hearings for incoming Trump administration nominees. Jonathan Allen sorted by all of them and gives his takeaways. Plus, Andrea Mitchell appears again on the lengthy highway that led to the ceasefire deal in Gaza — and the roles the outgoing and incoming presidents performed.
— Adam Wollner
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Pam Bondi takes her flip within the scorching seat throughout a jam-packed day of affirmation hearings
Six of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees confronted Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday, previewing a parade of coverage and political fights that may outline his second time period.
The one that was within the hottest seat was former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s decide to be the following U.S. legal professional common. She confronted questions over whether or not she would stand as much as a president who had pushed out the 2 males he beforehand appointed to be legal professional common, as Ben Kamisar and Ryan J. Reilly report in their wrap-up of her day on Capitol Hill.
Courtesy of Jonathan Allen, listed below are the important thing takeaways from Bondi’s listening to, in addition to the parade of hearings for different Cabinet nominees who appeared earlier than senators.
Bondi wouldn’t say Trump misplaced in 2020: Bondi pointedly refused to say Trump misplaced the 2020 election truthful and sq. below questioning from Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., at her listening to earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“President Biden is the president of the United States. He was duly sworn in, and he’s the president of the United States,” Bondi stated. “There was a peaceable transition of energy. President Trump left workplace and was overwhelmingly elected in 2024.”
Durbin, the top-ranking Democrat on the panel, famous that Bondi didn’t give him a yes-or-no reply.
Later, Bondi declined to retract her previous assertion that Trump had received Pennsylvania in 2020, and he or she pushed again towards Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., for interrupting her.
“I’m not going to be bullied by you,” she advised Padilla.
Democrats grill Bondi over Trump’s — and Kash Patel’s — affect: Bondi advised Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., that she wouldn’t use the legal professional common’s energy to focus on political adversaries — though Trump has usually referred to as for investigating and prosecuting his rivals.
“There won’t ever be an enemies listing inside the Department of Justice,” Bondi stated.
Last month, Trump advised “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that choices about whom to analyze and whom to prosecute would fall to Bondi and Kash Patel, his choice to go the FBI.
Patel has said judges, legal professionals and journalists ought to be prosecuted for perceived impropriety in pursuing investigations of Trump after the 2020 election. Bondi defended Patel — to an extent.
“I don’t imagine he has an enemies listing,” Bondi stated, including that “Kash is the fitting individual right now for this job.”
But she advised senators that they must ask Patel instantly about his promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories.
No one ruined their affirmation probabilities: In addition to Bondi, the next nominees additionally sat for hearings: Marco Rubio, for secretary of state; Sean Duffy, for transportation secretary; John Ratcliffe, for CIA director; Chris Wright, for vitality secretary; and Russell Vought, for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The backside line: None of them appeared to say something that will value them help from Republicans, portending a clean highway forward.
Read more takeaways from the day’s hearings →
Biden and Trump each search credit score after an extended highway to a Gaza ceasefire deal
By Andrea Mitchell
After 15 torturous months of fruitless talks, there’s lastly a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, with two American presidents taking credit score — one on his method out, the opposite on his method in.
Even earlier than President Joe Biden introduced the settlement, President-elect Donald Trump proclaimed it on Truth Social earlier than he launched a prolonged assertion that stated, partly, “This EPIC ceasefire settlement might have solely occurred because of our Historic Victory in November” and “We have achieved a lot with out even being within the White House.”
An hour and a half later, Biden stated from the White House: “This deal was developed and negotiated below my administration, however its phrases can be applied, for essentially the most half, by the following administration. And these previous few days we’ve been talking as one crew.”
Asked how a lot credit score he gave the Trump crew, he replied, “I advised my crew to coordinate intently with the incoming crew to ensure we’re all talking with the identical voice, as a result of that’s what American presidents do.”
But collaboration apparently goes solely thus far. As Biden was leaving, a reporter shouted: “Who deserves credit score for this, Mr. President? You or Trump?” Biden stopped in his tracks, turned, and stated, cracking a smile, “Is {that a} joke?” and left.
In truth, Trump did strain Hamas to compromise when he threatened on a number of events that “there can be hell to pay” if Hamas didn’t make a deal earlier than he took workplace.
That warning additionally pressured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to complete the deal. Negotiators additionally credited Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, for resolving last-minute snags in the previous few days.
It was a dramatic end: According to a senior administration official, U.S., Israeli and Qatari negotiators in Doha, Qatar — and the Hamas crew in the identical constructing downstairs — thought they’d lastly sealed the deal at 3 a.m. Wednesday. But a couple of hours later, Hamas made new calls for. After extra haggling, it backed down, and it was achieved.
Talks virtually failed again on July 31, when Israel took out Ismail Haniyah, the Hamas negotiator, whereas he was in Tehran. Then, a month later, the negotiations got here to an entire halt when American hostage Hersh Goldberg and 5 others had been killed in a tunnel in Rafah on Aug. 31.
What adopted modified the steadiness of energy within the area. Israel responded to Iran’s missile assault, destroying its air defenses. Then, Israel killed Hezbollah’s leaders in Lebanon, leading to a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire there. Finally, Iran misplaced its different main ally, Syria, when Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed subsequent door. With Iran severely weakened, Hamas was extra keen to compromise.
None of that will have occurred with out intensive, nonstop negotiations over 15 months by White House envoy Brett McGurk, 19 journeys by CIA Director William Burns and 13 visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, every with stops in a number of international locations. And McGurk now heads to Cairo to implement the deal and ensure the hostages begin coming dwelling. No matter who will get the credit score.
🗞️ Today’s prime tales
- 👋 So lengthy, farewell: Biden will ship a farewell deal with from the Oval Office on Wednesday night. Read more →
- 🏃 He’s working: Bernie Sanders’ former marketing campaign supervisor, Faiz Shakir, is mounting a last-minute bid to guide the Democratic National Committee. Read more →
- ⬅️ On the best way out: Speaker Mike Johnson has knowledgeable Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, he’ll not be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Read more →
- 🔴 Succession: Vivek Ramaswamy is in discussions about filling Vice President-elect JD Vance’s Senate seat in Ohio. The improvement is a reversal for Ramaswamy, who in November stated his work alongside Elon Musk at Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency would take away him from consideration for the Senate job. Read more →
- 📚 Next on the studying listing: As Vice President Kamala Harris considers her subsequent steps, she is writing a e-book. Read more →
- ➡️ Job opening: A key place within the forthcoming Trump administration stays unaddressed: administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Kevin Guthrie, govt director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, is on the prime of the listing of potential nominees. Read more →
- 🇲🇽 Tariff tiff: Trump’s plans to impose steep tariffs on Chinese imports might have an unintended consequence: boosting manufacturing in Mexico. Read more →
- ⚖️ In the courts: The Supreme Court heard a problem to a Texas regulation aimed toward stopping younger individuals from accessing pornographic content material on-line. Read more →
- 👀 ‘If you wish to take it exterior …’: Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, received right into a heated alternate at a House listening to that culminated with Mace difficult Crockett by asking whether or not she needed to “take it exterior.” Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s publication was compiled by Adam Wollner and Ben Kamisar.
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