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Blue state attorney general advises state officials on how to resist ‘draconian’ Trump deportations

California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta has joined a growing list of Democratic leaders vowing to resist President-elect Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan’s plans for mass deportations. Last week, Bonta issued new guidance to courthouses, healthcare facilities, universities, schools, labor agencies, public libraries and shelters, requiring state-run agencies to adopt policies to resist Trump’s “draconian” and “inhumane” immigration enforcement actions. “My office will continue to use the full force of the law and every tool at our disposal to protect the rights of California’s immigrants – and we need staff at these critical locations to do the same,” Bonta said. “We cannot let the Trump deportation machine create a culture of fear and mistrust that prevents immigrants from accessing vital public services.”  BLUE STATE FACES SPIKE IN MIGRANT SEX CRIMES AS TOP CITY PLEDGES RESISTANCE TO TRUMP DEPORTATIONS According to California’s AG office, the guidance lays out model policies and recommendations that “guide public institutions in complying with California law limiting state and local participation in immigration enforcement activities.” “In California, we believe our public resources, like libraries, hospitals, courthouses and schools should be available for all without fear of civil immigration enforcement,” Bonta said during a press event announcing the guidance. “The model policies we’re issuing to public facilities … provide policy recommendations that may mitigate disruptions from immigration enforcement actions at public institutions.” The guidance refers state agencies to a 2017 law called the “California Values Act” that the AG office said, “prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement, with limited exceptions.” BLUE STATE GOVERNORS SCORNED AFTER SENDING WARNINGS TO TRUMP: ‘THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE DONE WITH’ THIS Bonta’s guidance includes prohibiting the “unauthorized” collection or disclosure of information that “might indicate an individual’s or family’s citizenship or immigration status,” as well as instituting a policy of always referring federal law enforcement officials to a designated person who will “have the authority to respond to immigration enforcement-related requests.” “I want to emphasize that the California DOJ is here to protect immigrants’ safety, immigrants’ freedoms and immigrants’ rights,” said Bonta. “Let me be clear, President-elect Trump’s immigration agenda is draconian and his rhetoric, xenophobic.” Bonta, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines with his parents at 2 months old, also said that Trump’s deportation plan is “fiscally irresponsible.” He called immigrants “the backbone of our nation.” 1.4 MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN US HAVE BEEN ORDERED DEPORTED, BUT HAVE YET TO BE REMOVED: OFFICIAL Kevin McCarthy, former speaker of the House and congressman from California, told Fox News that California politicians like Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom are costing California taxpayers huge sums by making the state a “magnet” for illegal immigrants. “He’ll give them free healthcare, I mean, he denies California citizens certain things but not to those who come illegally that’s why we attract so many and it’s costing a great deal, we have a huge deficit in California,” said McCarthy. McCarthy said that Bonta’s actions are an attempt to “make a name for himself” in Democratic politics despite concerns over illegal immigration and violent crime by illegal migrants playing a major role in Trump’s retaking of the White House in 2024. “These attorneys general should take a deep breath, listen to what the American public said and understand that immigration was one of the major reasons why Donald Trump won, and it wasn’t a Republican issue, [it was] Republican and Democrat too,” he said. He pointed to the election of Nathan Hochman as Los Angeles County District Attorney, who he said was “overwhelmingly elected because we watched the crime go rampant.” “As attorney general, your job is to protect your citizens. Why wouldn’t you want these gang members, I mean these are ruthless gang members and these have been running the drugs of fentanyl that have been killing your children, why wouldn’t you want them out? I would think that would be your job without having the president do it,” said McCarthy. “People want to see something else happen, especially from this attorney general.”

‘Ridiculous’: Cheney responds to Trump floating jail time for J6 committee members

Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said President-elect Trump floating jail time for her and other members of the Jan. 6 Committee “is a ​​continuation of his assault on the rule of law.”  “Here is the truth: Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election and seize power,” Cheney said in a response statement to Trump, which was provided to Fox Digital. “He mobilized an angry mob and sent them to the United States Capitol, where they attacked police officers, invaded the building and halted the official counting of electoral votes. Trump watched on television as police officers were brutally beaten and the Capitol was assaulted, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave.” Cheney’s response follows Trump joining NBC’s “Meet the Press” for a pre-recorded interview that aired Sunday, where the president-elect railed that Cheney, committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson and others “deleted and destroyed” evidence related to the Jan. 6 investigation and “should go to jail.” “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” he said in the interview. “They deleted and destroyed all evidence.” DONALD TRUMP SAYS HE’LL PARDON JAN. 6 RIOTERS ON DAY ONE: ‘ACTING VERY QUICKLY’ “And Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” he continued. “For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.” Cheney shot back in her statement that Jan. 6, 2021, “was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” HOUSE GOP REPORT ALLEGES JAN 6 COMMITTEE ‘DELETED RECORDS AND HID EVIDENCE’ The Jan. 6 committee was founded in July 2021 to investigate the breach of the U.S. Capitol earlier that year by supporters of Trump ahead of President Biden officially taking office on Jan. 20. The Jan. 6 committee’s investigation was carried out when Democrats held control of the House.  The committee concluded its 18-month investigation last year, when Republicans regained control of the House, and sent referrals to the Justice Department recommending Trump be criminally prosecuted for his involvement in the lead-up to supporters breaching the Capitol.  The committee was composed of seven Democrats and two Republican lawmakers, Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom are no longer in office.  Earlier this year, House Republicans released a report ​​alleging the select committee “deleted” records and hired “Hollywood producers” to promote a political narrative while investigating Jan. 6.  TRUMP CRITICISM OF LIZ CHENEY AS ‘RADICAL WAR HAWK’ FRAMED AS CALL FOR VIOLENCE BY ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ MEDIA “For nearly two years, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6th Select Committee promoted hearsay and cherry-picked information to promote its political goal – to legislatively prosecute former President Donald Trump,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., chairman of the Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, said in a statement regarding the report in March.  Among its key findings, the report claimed that the select committee was designed “to promote a political narrative” and also asserted that it “deleted records and hid evidence” ahead of Republicans taking the House majority during the 2022 election cycle.  “THE SELECT COMMITTEE DELETED RECORDS AND HID EVIDENCE – Reps. Thompson and Cheney failed to turn over video recordings of witness interviews and depositions despite using these recordings in their high-profile, primetime hearings. The Subcommittee recovered over one hundred deleted or password-protected files, including some files that were deleted days before Republicans took the majority. They also hid multiple transcribed interviews of witnesses who had firsthand knowledge of Trump‘s actions on January 6,” the report found.  REP LOUDERMILK BLASTS JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE FOR TARGETING HIM: ‘THERE IS A WAR ON THE TRUTH IN THIS COUNTRY’ Trump had repeatedly claimed that Cheney and others on the committee “deleted” evidence. Cheney slammed Loudermilk’s report at the time as a “cover up” for Trump’s actions on Jan. 6.  “If your response to Trump’s assault on our democracy is to lie & cover up what he did, attack the brave men & women who came forward with the truth, and defend the criminals who violently assaulted the Capitol, you need to rethink whose side you’re on. Hint: It’s not America’s,” she posted to X at the time.  Cheney added in her statement this week that Trump’s claims of the committee destroying evidence are “ridiculous and false.”  BIDEN TEAM REPORTEDLY CONSIDERING PREEMPTIVE PARDONS FOR FAUCI, SCHIFF, OTHER TRUMP ‘TARGETS’ “Donald Trump knows his claims about the select committee are ridiculous and false, as has been detailed extensively, including by Chairman Thompson,” she continued. Cheney cited a July 2023 letter from Thompson to Loudermilk, refuting claims that evidence was destroyed, detailing that the committee had called on the federal government regarding the “proper archiving of such sensitive material to protect witnesses’ safety, national security, and to safeguard law enforcement operations.”   “There is no conceivably appropriate factual or constitutional basis for what Donald Trump is suggesting – a Justice Department investigation of the work of a congressional committee – and any lawyer who attempts to pursue that course would quickly find themselves engaged in sanctionable conduct,” Cheney continued.  Cheney added that materials from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump and the 2020 election should be preserved and made public.  “The Justice Department should ensure that all that material is preserved and cannot be destroyed. As much of that information as possible should be disclosed in the special counsel’s upcoming report.” As Trump surged in popularity ahead of the 2024 election, Cheney joined forces with Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail to rally support for the Democratic ticket.  JAN 6 COMMITTEE ALLEGEDLY SUPPRESSED TESTIMONY SHOWING TRUMP ADMIN PUSHED FOR NATIONAL GUARD PRESENCE: REPORT “I ask you to stand in truth. To reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump,” Cheney told the Harris supporters

White House responds to intraparty criticism about Biden’s final days in Oval Office: ‘Leading by example’

The White House is firing back and defending President Biden and his administration from intra-party criticism that he has not done enough to combat President-elect Donald Trump and help lay a solid foundation for the Democratic Party’s future once he leaves the Oval Office.  White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that Biden “is making every day of his term count,” pointing to his work to boost domestic manufacturing, fight climate change, lower drug costs, protect communities from gun violence, improve infrastructure and get judicial nominees confirmed. “He is leading by example for the sake of American democracy, honoring his campaign promise to respect the will of the voters and provide an orderly transition,” Bates added. BIDEN LEGACY INCLUDES RELENTLESS PUSH FOR TRANSGENDER AGENDA  The complaints against Biden from within his own party have ranged from disappointment over a lack of push back on Trump’s various nominees to disappointment over the president’s failure to implement additional protections for undocumented migrants amid concern Trump will deport them.  “This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration,” said Usamah Andrabi, spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats.  “There is no leadership coming from the White House,” a Democrat close to senior lawmakers also said. “There is a total vacuum.”  TRUMP TRUMPS BIDEN AS PRESIDENT-ELECT OVERSHADOWS WHITE HOUSE INCUMBENT ON WORLD STAGE Another criticism Biden has faced during his lame-duck presidency has suggested a lack of press conferences and interaction with the media. During nearly two weeks worth of time abroad since the election, during which members of the press traveled side-by-side with Biden, the outgoing president spoke just seven words to them, according to Politico. Bates also contested such criticisms that Biden has not engaged with the press.  “He has held multiple gaggles with reporters since the election, during which he has criticized President-elect Trump’s agenda – including across-the-board tariffs that will force American families to pay higher prices for everyday necessities,” Bates said. “He is also actively engaging with a wide range of leaders about the future of the Democratic Party.” AMY KLOBUCHAR ADMITS SHE’S ‘NOT A FAN’ OF BIDEN’S PARDONS: ‘VERY CONCERNED’  While the criticism against Biden has been sharp, some Democratic lawmakers have come to Biden’s defense.  Democrat Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Biden ally, added he thinks that Biden has left his party and the American public with “a lot for us to learn from going forward.” “There’s sort of a tradition of former presidents not getting too involved in it, and he’s transitioning into that,” added Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md. “So I think he has to be careful.”

Pentagon announces new counter-drone strategy as unmanned attacks on US interests skyrocket

The Pentagon unveiled a new counter-drone strategy after a spate of incursions near U.S. bases prompted concerns over a lack of an action plan for the increasing threat of unmanned aerial vehicles.  Though much of the strategy remains classified, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will implement a new counter-drone office within the Pentagon – Joint Counter-Small UAS Office – and a new Warfighter Senior Integration Group, according to a new memo.  The Pentagon will also begin work on a second Replicator initiative, but it will be up to the incoming Trump administration to decide whether to fund this plan. The first Replicator initiative worked to field inexpensive, dispensable drones to thwart drone attacks by adversarial groups across the Middle East and elsewhere.   The memo warned that the increased use of unmanned systems must reshape U.S. tactics, as they make it easier for adversaries to “surveil, disrupt and attack our forces … potentially without attribution.”  US SCRAMBLES AS DRONES SHAPE THE LANDSCAPE OF WAR: ‘THE FUTURE IS HERE’ The plan outlines a five-pronged approach: deepening understanding of enemy drones, launching offensive campaigns to thwart their ability to build such systems, improving “active and passive” defenses to such attacks, rapid increase of production of counter-drone systems and making counter-drone focus a top priority for future force development.  For the past year, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been using small, one-way unmanned aerial systems to strike western shipping routes in the Red Sea.  That has led to perilous waters along a trade route that typically sees some $1 trillion in goods pass through it, as well as shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and the Yemeni people.  Some experts have deemed the U.S. response inadequate in deterring the Houthis from inflicting billions of dollars worth of damage to the global economy.  Additionally, the cost of U.S. response to such attacks is disproportionate. While the Houthi drones are estimated to cost around $2,000 each, the naval missiles the U.S. fires back can run around $2 million a shot.  In September, Houthis took out two U.S. Reaper drones in a week, machinery that costs around $30 million a piece.  Deadly drone strikes have also been launched by both sides in Russia’s war on Ukraine.  “Unmanned systems pose both an urgent and enduring threat to U.S. personnel, facilities, and assets overseas,” the Pentagon said in a statement on Thursday announcing the strategy.  “By producing a singular Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, the Secretary and the Department are orienting around a common understanding of the challenge and a shared approach to addressing it.” Three U.S. service members were killed in a drone strike in January in Jordan. Experts warned the U.S. lacks a clear counter-drone procedure after 17 unmanned vehicles traipsed into restricted airspace over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia last December.  IRAN HIDING MISSILE, DRONE PROGRAMS UNDER GUISE OF COMMERCIAL FRONT TO EVADE SANCTIONS The mystery drones swarmed for more than two weeks. Lack of a standard protocol for such incursions left Langley officials unsure of what to do – other than allow the 20-foot-long drones to hover near their classified facilities.  Langley is home to some of the nation’s most vital top secret facilities and the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters.  Two months prior to Langley, in October 2023, five drones flew over the Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, used for nuclear weapons experiments. U.S. authorities were not sure who was behind those drones either.  A Chinese surveillance balloon traversed over the U.S. for a week last year before the Air Force shot it down off the coast. The Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, home to highly classified aerospace development, has also seen a slew of unidentified drone incursions in 2024, prompting flight restrictions around the facility.

Delhi Pollution: 2.6 lakh vehicles fined for violating norms, Rs 2600000000 collected in just..

Authorities have fined over 2.6 lakh vehicles that do not possess valid Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCC) in just 50 days as part of a concerted effort to control air pollution in Delhi.

Progressive Dems rage at Biden for giving Trump the spotlight during final weeks in office

Progressive Democrats are frustrated with how President Biden is handling his lame duck era, with President-elect Donald Trump dominating the news cycle with Cabinet nominations and meetings with world leaders. Biden has remained relatively quiet in the weeks since Trump won re-election and has allowed Trump to steal the show at several notable events. Biden sent his wife, first lady Jill Biden, to attend the re-opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, giving Trump an opportunity to greet French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of the cameras. “This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration. A massive missed opportunity,” Usamah Andrabi, spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, told the Wall Street Journal. Democrats also feel that Biden and the White House have not been critical enough of Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Trump has already had one nominee withdraw, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary and a former Fox News host, has also drawn criticism. HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED “We should be less hobbled and more spurred. We should be vocal, pushing back against these nominees who are nothing but a disaster in the making,” Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee told the Journal. “Most voters don’t know Kash Patel or even who Matt Gaetz or Tulsi Gabbard are,” Waleed Shahid, a progressive Democratic strategist, told the outlet. “But many more Americans would know if President Biden spoke about them… The only way to win the war of attention is by going to the voters and explaining things to them, which President Biden has consistently avoided doing.” However, the White House pushed back on the criticism, arguing that Biden has been busy on foreign trips. “President Biden is making every day of this term count as he accelerates the implementation of an unprecedented agenda that will benefit hardworking Americans for generations,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the Journal. PROPOSITION 36 OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES IN CALIFORNIA, REVERSING SOME SOROS-BACKED SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES Top Democratic governors have been far more vocal in criticizing the incoming administration. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an effort to “Trump-proof” California last month. Part of that plan includes spending $25 million on potential legal battles with the Trump administration. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also said he is prepared to “fight like hell” against the Trump administration, but he acknowledged the need to have a working relationship with the White House. “If your values are being attacked, or you’ve got communities or people who are being attacked that don’t deserve it, you’ve got to fight like hell,” said Murphy. “And then over here, you’ve got to have a relationship with the guy.”

Top Dem says Congress should ‘abandon’ $895B defense bill over transgender treatment ban for kids

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee suggested Congress should scrap the latest version of its annual defense policy bill over a provision that bans most transgender medical care for minors. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., leads Democrats on the committee that’s intimately involved in crafting the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) each year. Fiscal year (FY) 2025’s edition was released over the weekend. “For the 64th consecutive year, House and Senate Armed Services Committee Democrats and Republicans worked across the aisle to craft a defense bill that invests in the greatest sources of America’s strength: service members and their families, science and technology, modernization, and a commitment to allies and partners,” Smith said in a statement on Sunday night. “However, the final text includes a provision prohibiting medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong.” DOZENS OF PROMINENT VETERANS SIGN ONTO LETTER SUPPORTING ‘OUTSTANDING’ HEGSETH NOMINATION AMID CONTROVERSIES The 1,800-page, $895.2 billion legislation, which lays out U.S. national security and defense priorities for the fiscal year, is the product of bipartisan House and Senate negotiations. It included a measure that said “medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18,” referring to the transgender children of U.S. service members. Smith said, “This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process.” TRUMP FLOATS DESANTIS AS POTENTIAL DEFENSE SECRETARY REPLACEMENT IF HEGSETH FALTERS “I urge the Speaker to abandon this current effort and let the House bring forward a bill – reflective of the traditional bipartisan process – that supports our troops and their families, invests in innovation and modernization, and doesn’t attack the transgender community,” Smith finished. When reached for comment, Johnson’s office pointed Fox News Digital to the speaker’s initial statement lauding the compromise NDAA. “This legislation includes House-passed provisions to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and countering antisemitism,” Johnson said Saturday. GOP TENNESSEE AG REACTS TO ORAL ARGUMENTS IN SUPREME COURT TRANSGENDER RIGHTS CASE: ‘FEEL REALLY GOOD’ Hesitance from defense hawks like Smith could put the passage of the entire NDAA in question.  The legislation normally passes with wide bipartisan approval, with expected opposition from progressives and conservatives who are critical of the military industrial base and U.S. interventionism, among other issues. Its first test will come late on Monday afternoon, when the NDAA is debated before the House Rules Committee – the last barrier before legislation can see a House-wide vote. If it fails to pass in committee, House leaders will likely be forced to send it to the House floor under suspension of the rules. That would forgo the rules panel’s approval in exchange for hiking the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

Donald Trump says this is the reason he won last month’s presidential election

President-elect Trump says his White House victory last month comes down to two things. “I won on the border, and I won on groceries,” the president-elect said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” Trump then drilled down on the high grocery prices that millions of Americans are paying as a key reason for his convincing White House victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. FOX NEWS VOTER ANALYSIS: HERE’S HOW TRUMP WON THE WHITE HOUSE “Very simple word, groceries. Like almost – you know, who uses the word? I started using the word – the groceries. When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that,” Trump emphasized in his interview, which was recorded on Friday and broadcast on Sunday. AMERICANS WANT TO SEE TRUMP BRING DOWN HIGH PRICES While inflation has eased significantly since its peak in 2022, grocery prices remain substantially higher than they did before the COVID pandemic swept the globe nearly five years ago. According to the most recent Consumer Price Index inflation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are dishing out 22% more for groceries in comparison to what they paid when President Biden took office nearly four years ago. And voters’ frustrations over high grocery prices, as well as other impacts from inflation, benefited Trump as he ran to win back the White House. Voters said the economy was far and away the top issue facing the country, followed distantly by immigration and abortion, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis of the 2024 election. And 40% said inflation was the single most important factor in their vote, and they backed Trump by almost two-to-one, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, which was a survey of more than 110,000 voters and 18,000 nonvoters nationwide. An AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 registered voters, had similar findings. On the presidential campaign trail, Trump railed against the Biden/Harris economy and promised to bring down prices.  “Grocery prices have skyrocketed,” Trump said during an August news conference, as he stood by tables stocked with packaged foods. “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one,” he vowed. And in his interview on “Meet the Press,” Trump pledged that “we’re going to bring those prices way down.” But Trump, in the interview, reiterated that he would follow through on his campaign vow to levy large tariffs on imports from the nation’s major trading partners. During the presidential campaign, Harris argued that Trump’s across-the-board tariffs, if implemented, would increase prices on many goods and amounted to a “a sales tax on the American people.” Tariffs are taxes that governments place on goods being imported or exported. They can raise the cost of imported products, making local products more attractive to buy. Asked in his latest interview if he could guarantee that his tariffs wouldn’t force Americans to pay more for items, Trump answered, “I can’t guarantee anything.”

Elon Musk agrees with Ron Paul’s call to ‘ELIMINATE foreign aid’

Billionaire business tycoon Elon Musk, who President-elect Donald Trump tapped to lead the new cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), agreed with former Rep. Ron Paul’s suggestion that the U.S. should end foreign aid. “Here’s an easy one for @DOGE !” Paul declared in a post on X. “ELIMINATE foreign aid!”  “It’s taking money from the poor and middle class in the US and giving it to the rich in poor countries – with a cut to the facilitators in between! Americans don’t want their government to borrow more money to spend on foreign aid. Besides, it is the immoral transfer of wealth and is unconstitutional,” Paul asserted. “@DOGE will address this with full transparency for the American people,” Musk replied. ELON MUSK AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY AGREE ON ‘NEED TO SCRUTINIZE’ US FUNDING FOR NGOS Responding to someone else who posted about Paul’s call to eliminate foreign aid, Musk declared, “Ron is not wrong.” Vivek Ramaswamy, another DOGE leader, responded to Paul’s post, writing, “Much of U.S. foreign aid *isn’t even authorized* by Congress.” DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER OPEN TO ‘BIPARTISAN COOPERATION’ IN ELON MUSK’S DOGE PLANS Musk and Ramaswamy were both tapped by Trump to work together on DOGE, which the president-elect said in a statement last month “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” Musk and Ramaswamy have indicated that they believe funding for non-governmental organizations should be examined. GOP SENATOR ANNOUNCES ‘DOGE ACTS’ TO BACK MUSK, RAMASWAMY GOVERNMENT COST-CUTTING OBJECTIVES “We need to scrutinize U.S. government funding of ‘non-government organizations,’” Ramaswamy noted in a post on X. “It’s an oxymoron that represents a waste of taxpayer dollars, but the real problem runs deeper: Americans deserve transparency on opaque foreign aid & nonprofit groups abetting our own border crisis.” “Absolutely,” Musk agreed.

New Jersey’s Andy Kim appointed to Senate three weeks early after election win

Democratic Senator-elect Andy Kim was appointed to the upper chamber of Congress early on Sunday following his election win last month. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, announced on Sunday that he appointed Kim to the U.S. Senate following the official certification of the 2024 election results by the state board of canvassers and Sen. George Helmy’s resignation on Thursday. Helmy, a former chief of staff to Murphy, was sworn into the Senate in September after Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was convicted in a federal corruption trial and resigned from the Senate a month prior. Kim defeated GOP businessman Curtis Bashaw by nearly 10 percentage points in November’s election.  “Today, I am appointing Senator-elect Andy Kim to the United States Senate so he can begin his term in office before the new year begins,” Murphy said in a statement. “Taking this step will allow Senator Kim to embark on the smoothest possible transition into his new role so he can hit the ground running serving the people of New Jersey.” INCOMING GOP SENATE MAJORITY LEADER UNVEILS LEGISLATIVE AGENDA FOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S 1ST 30 DAYS Murphy congratulated Kim “for making history as the first Asian American Senator from New Jersey and as the first Korean American Senator in the nation.”  “His election represents a proud milestone –  not just for our great state, but for our entire country,” Murphy said. “I look forward to working with Senator Kim to continue lowering costs for New Jerseyans, defending our fundamental freedoms, and building a stronger and fairer state for every family.” Kim, who will be sworn in on Monday, said it is an honor “to get to represent the state that gave my family a chance at the American Dream in the U.S. Senate.”  “It’s a dream that remains out of reach for too many of our neighbors, and one that I’m ready on day one to fight for,” Kim, who represented New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District in the House, said. “I want to thank Governor Murphy and Senator Helmy for ensuring that New Jersey was well represented during this transition, and look forward to getting to work for the people.” LARA TRUMP ANNOUNCES SHE IS STEPPING DOWN AS RNC CO-CHAIR AMIDST TALK SHE MAY BE UP FOR FLORIDA SENATE SEAT In a statement announcing his resignation Thursday, Helmy said he and Kim “have worked closely since his being elected to ensure a seamless transition and I have made myself readily available over the coming weeks to support this process.”  “It has been the honor of a lifetime representing the people of New Jersey in the Senate, and I am eternally grateful to Governor Murphy for entrusting me with this responsibility,” Helmy said. “The voters of New Jersey made the right decision in November to elect Andy Kim to serve as their United States Senator. Having known him for nearly a decade now, I can attest to Senator Kim’s great dedication, character, and empathy towards the people of New Jersey.”  In his brief 85 days in office, Helmy touted how he introduced and co-sponsored over 30 bills, including five resolutions that passed the Senate Chamber, maintained a perfect voting record, including the confirmation of 20 federal judicial nominees, “advocated for youth mental health and supplying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon,” and successfully nominated 48 New Jersey candidates to the four United States Military Academies. Menendez was convicted in July on all 16 counts he faced in a federal corruption trial. Prosecutors alleged he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes, including gold, cash, and a Mercedes-Benz, in exchange for using his influence to meddle in state and federal investigations regarding three businessmen. The now-former senator is alleged to have also helped one friend obtain a multi-million-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund and another retain a contract to provide halal meat to Egypt. Menendez asked for a new trial and for his conviction to be dismissed last week, citing what he argued was improper evidence viewed by jurors during deliberations.