Trump, Vance still back embattled Hegseth; Biden ‘reviewing’ further pardons before White House exit: Live – UK Times

Donald Trump’s aides have suggested that Iowa Senator Joni Ernst may be trying to sink the nomination of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary so that she can get the job instead.

American politicians like to talk about why their country is different from all others, with the clear implication that it is better. And when they talk about the idea of American exceptionalism, they tend to use a biblical phrase – first used by one of the Puritans who came over on the Mayflower – that America is “the shining city on a hill”.

It’s a metaphorical allusion, but in Washington, DC, it is – sort of – literal. The top of Capitol Hill does indeed shine with the magnificent, gleaming marble and white stone of the Congress. And just across the road the equally imposing Supreme Court, itself a neoclassical masterpiece: the pinnacle of the justice system in the United States.

But has the rule of law in America ever looked so battered and tattered? Shining city? You’re having a laugh.

A high-profile Democrat who rose to power during Donald Trump’s first term wants to begin his second as the ranking minority member of the powerful House Oversight Committee, continuing a generational shift among House Democrats in the wake of Trump’s 2024 election victory.

In a letter to the House Democratic Caucus, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she is asking for their support to lead their party’s side of the committee, which is the lower chamber’s principal investigatory arm with the power to look into “any matter,” even those under the jurisdiction of other standing committees.

“We certainly hope” to slash the number of federal agencies from 428 to 99, as Musk has vowed, Johnson said in response to a question from Fox News host Martha McCallum in an interview Wednesday night. “We want to be willing partners in that,” he added.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was inevitably asked about President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter: “I know what I said. I know what the president said. That is where we were at the time. That is where the president was at the time… He wrestled with it and made his decision… Circumstances have changed.”

She added: “This was not easy for the president. It wasn’t, it wasn’t. Because you all read the statements we made over the summer.”

“He laid out his thought process. He talked about the underlying facts of the case…. I don’t have anything beyond that.”

At White House briefing. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre remarked on today’s positive jobs report, showing 227,000 jobs were added in November: “​On Tuesday the president will deliver a speech in DC on his economic record and legacy… Trump will inherit an economy primed for growth.”

…it did not pay off, as Justin Barangoa reports.

“I’m not going to get ahead of the president. But what I can say is that the president is reviewing other pardons and commutations,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says at today’s briefing when asked whether President Joe Biden is considering preemptive pardons for potential targets of the incoming Trump administration.

AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate, found that 26% of North Carolina voters said the hurricane affected their lives by damaging their homes, causing extended power outages or interfering with their ability to cast a ballot. Trump won 53% of those voters.

Vance has largely stayed out of the public eye since the election aside from shepherding Trump’s Cabinet nominees around Capitol Hill.

State lawmakers have already allocated more than $900 million in disaster relief, but North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has sought at least $3.9 billion. The Democratic governor and other state leaders have now asked the federal government for $25 billion in aid.

Hundreds of miles of roads have been reopened and water systems are back online, but the work has been slow-going. More than 100,000 western North Carolina residents were told just two weeks ago that they could once again use water coming out of Asheville’s water system to bathe and to drink from the faucet. A destroyed water system in at least one isolated county could take years to rebuild.

Many Republicans and residents were critical of the initial recovery operations by the federal government and Cooper’s administration. Housing for displaced residents for the winter has become a concern, and some allies of Cooper have blamed GOP lawmakers for failing to provide grants to small businesses at risk of failing and housing renters faced with eviction.