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What to watch in Washington today
- President-elect Donald Trump named multiple people he intends to nominate for Cabinet positions today, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be secretary of state; controversial Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., to be attorney general; and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence. The Gaetz pick in particular stunned many Senate Republicans, who warned his road to confirmation is not likely to be smooth.
- Republicans will maintain control of the House, NBC News projected. The victory gives Republicans all elements of power in Washington and will allow Trump to quickly fill his Cabinet and advance his agenda.
- Trump and President Joe Biden met at the White House this morning — Trump's first time in the building since he left office in 2021. Melania Trump rejected first lady Jill Biden's invitation to meet today.
- Senate Republicans elected John Thune, R-S.D., as their next majority leader. Thune said after the vote that he and Trump had spoken, and the president-elect met with all House Republicans this morning.
Republicans promise to protect the Senate filibuster, even if it hinders Trump’s agenda
The new Senate Republican majority promises to leave the filibuster in place, retaining the 60-vote threshold to pass most legislation — even if it stands in the way of the Trump agenda they hope to advance.
Shortly after he was elected as the next majority leader, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., responded clearly and unequivocally when he was asked today whether the filibuster would remain unchanged on his watch.
“Yes,” he told reporters.
Trump’s pick for defense secretary doesn’t want women serving in combat
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, has said that he believes women should not serve in combat and that he wants to see the military purged of “woke” officials who support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Hegseth, 44, a Fox News host, has an extensive history of eyebrow-raising commentary, especially when it comes to military matters he’d oversee should he be confirmed to join Trump’s second Cabinet and become sixth in line to the presidency.
Kari Lake makes no explicit concession in post-Senate race video
Failed Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake made no explicit mention of her defeat to Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego in a video posted to her X account almost 48 hours after her race was called.
“They threw everything at us — fake news, hundreds of millions of dollars in the most vile attacks — and through it all, you never wavered, and I can’t thank you enough for that. It was a movement of love,” she said.
During her campaign, Lake, a former Arizona newscaster, called Gallego's Mexican American father, who has dealt drugs, “a Colombian drug trafficker,” recounted details of Gallego’s divorce at numerous campaign stops and continually came up with new disparaging nicknames for Gallego, including “swamp rat.”
Her video also included praise for Trump's Cabinet picks.
"As I watch his Cabinet forming, I take great comfort in knowing that America will be made great again, and that's good because, that's what the American people deserve,” she said.
Toward the end of the clip, Lake vowed to "never stop fighting for the state I love."
Tommy Tuberville warns GOP senators who oppose Matt Gaetz for attorney general
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., hit back at Republicans on Capitol Hill who have been skeptical about Trump's intention to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for attorney general.
Tuberville issued a threat to possible defectors, saying, "We're going to try to get you out of the Senate."
"You did not get an elected president. Vote with President Trump. This is the last chance we're going to have at saving this country. And if you want to get in the way, fine, but we're going to try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that," he said in a Fox News interview that aired tonight.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told NBC News earlier that it will be “a significant challenge” for Gaetz to win the support to be confirmed. Concern and skepticism about the nomination were echoed by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is on the Judiciary Committee; Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa; and others.
House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz ends with his resignation, committee chairman says
With Rep. Matt Gaetz’s resignation from the House, the House Ethics Committee investigation into him ends, as well, according to the committee's chairman.
“If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position with the administration as the Attorney General, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point,” Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters tonight before Johnson had announced that Gaetz had resigned. “Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued. That’s not unique to this case.”
Guest had said Trump’s choice of Gaetz would not affect the speed of the Ethics Committee investigation.
“This is not going to cause us to move forward any quicker, to slow things down, and so we’re going to handle this case like we would any other,” he said.
The Ethics Committee has jurisdiction only over current House members.
“Regardless of the potential offense, a Member’s departure from the House ends a case, as the committee does not have jurisdiction over former Members,” a Congressional Research Service report says.
Johnson also pointed that out tonight.
“Well, it is true that former member of Congress, the House Ethics Committee, would have no further jurisdiction over the person, no further authority over them,” he said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz has offered his resignation, Mike Johnson says
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters tonight that Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., offered his resignation from the House today. Trump announced earlier that he wants Gaetz to be attorney general.
"I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress," Johnson said. "That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, 'Well, you can’t have too many absences.'"
Because Gaetz's letter has not yet been announced on the House floor, it has not officially gone into effect. There will eventually be a special election to replace him.
House Republicans announce deal to raise the threshold needed to oust the speaker
Speaker Mike Johnson and two different factions of House Republicans announced a deal tonight to raise the threshold needed to force a vote on ousting the speaker from one member to nine.
As of now, the House rules allow any one member to introduce a resolution declaring the office of the speaker vacant, known informally as the motion to vacate. Johnson, R-La., brought out the leaders of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate Main Street Caucus to announce that the threshold would be raised to require nine members to introduce such a resolution — a frequent request among members upset by the proceedings that led to Speaker Kevin McCarthy's ouster last year.
The change would go into the rules for the 119th Congress, which need to be voted on when the new House is sworn in on Jan. 3.
“We began to negotiate,” Main Street Caucus Chair Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said, standing alongside Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md. “We spent more than an hour together. We made good progress. We understood that we had an opportunity to set the motion to vacate at a higher number than one."
The threshold will be raised in exchange for "getting rid of some amendments that probably would have divided this conference,” the Main Street Caucus chair said.
For most of congressional history, the rules allowed any one member to try to oust a speaker. That changed when Democrats took the majority in 2019 and modified the rules to allow a vacancy resolution to be brought only “if offered by direction of a party caucus or conference” — a much higher bar.
When Republicans took back the chamber last year, they changed the rules to lower the threshold back to one, and McCarthy soon afterward became the first speaker whose position was vacated during a term.
Jill Biden says in Philadelphia that 'sometimes it can be hard to see' how we're connected to our history
At an event in Philadelphia today counting down to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, first lady Jill Biden reflected on how moments in American history relate to the current state of the nation.
"Sometimes it can be hard to see how that history connects to us, right now — how those pieces of the past can be a part of our present and our future," she said after she discussed the impact of childhood trips to historic places in the city.
"That’s why this project is so important," she added, referring to the initiative Philadelphia 250.
The initiative's mission as described on its website is "to ignite the passions of the people of Philadelphia with the revolutionary spirit of the Declaration of Independence—to create a commemoration that is truly by the people, for all people."
Jack Smith asks court to pause appeal in classified documents case
Special counsel Jack Smith today asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hit pause on his appeal of Trump’s classified documents case, which is going through the appeals process at his behest after a federal judge dismissed the case in July.
Smith asked the appeals court to stay a Friday deadline and give his team until Dec. 2 to allow it time to “assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy” in light of Trump’s election last week.
Trump pleaded not guilty to charges in Florida that he willfully retained national defense information after he left office and that he directed the deletion of security video at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Smith's request mirrors one he has already made in the Washington, D.C., election interference case, which a judge granted last week.
NBC News reported today that according to a source familiar with the matter, Smith and his team plan to resign before Trump's second term begins.
The Justice Department’s long-standing position is that it cannot charge a sitting president with a crime, and all cases Smith brought against Trump were brought after he left office.
Top House Democrats acknowledge falling short of taking the chamber's majority
Top Democratic leaders in the House released statements acknowledging that their party fell short of securing the majority. NBC News has projected that Republicans will hold a trifecta: the White House, the Senate majority and the House majority.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., congratulated Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and the Republican conference.
"In the new Congress, House Democrats will continue to seek bipartisan common ground on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, to make life better for the American people, while pushing back against far right extremism whenever necessary," Jeffries said in a statement.
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene of Washington said in a statement that House Democrats "consistently outperformed the top of the ticket, despite the difficult headwinds that faced us."
In a similar statement, Democratic House Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts said her party "will extend the hand of bipartisanship to any Republican willing to improve the lives of everyday Americans, and we will fight any attempt to drain the wages of working people into the pockets of billionaires."