Democratic Pennsylvania election official apologizes for controversial comments as Senate recount begins
A Democratic Pennsylvania election official apologized on Wednesday for controversially claiming that court precedent “doesn’t matter in this country,” as the recount in the U.S. Senate race begins in the state. In a meeting last week, Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, a Democrat, voted to count provisional ballots that were missing one of two required voter signatures. She did so after being told by a county attorney that the state Supreme Court had already ruled that such ballots cannot be counted. “We all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country and people violate laws any time they want,” Ellis-Marseglia said in a clip that has since gone viral on social media. “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it. There is nothing more important than counting votes.” Facing a packed meeting before an outraged public, Ellis-Marseglia read out her apology on Wednesday – in between jeering and calls for her to resign. “Last Thursday, when I spoke at the meeting that you’re all here about, the passion in my heart got the best of me, and I apologize again for that,” she said. “That was a hearing, and we were talking about provisional ballots. We were specifically talking about the fact that there were certain provisional ballots where a judge of elections did not sign and did not make sure that a voter signed on the outside envelope. To me, it was frustrating and unconscionable that we would have to take away somebody’s vote not because they made a mistake, but because an employee, one of our members … one of the judges of elections didn’t know what to do or forgot or made a mistake. That issue that I spoke on has now gone viral from my comments. It was genuinely not the best words. I would do it all again. I feel terrible about it. I should have been more clear, please, I will be more clear in the future.” DEMS SUE PA ELECTION BOARD OVER UNCOUNTED PROVISIONAL BALLOTS AMID SENATE RECOUNT IN CASEY LOSS Ellis-Marseglia claimed her reference to court precedent related to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade – an assertion that drew loud groans from the crowd. “I remind you all that we all say things that are out of turn, we all made mistakes. I made a mistake! And because I am an election official, I am held to a far higher standard than everybody else,” she said. “When I inartfully spoke and used the word precedent when I was talking about provisional ballots, I was referring to the United States Supreme Court, and the precedent that has been lost on many issues including Roe v. Wade.” The audience erupted in boos and groans, as Ellis-Marseglia pounded her gavel and responded, “If you would just bear with me for one more minute!” REPUBLICANS FILE 12 PENNSYLVANIA LAWSUITS IN ‘AGGRESSIVE’ PUSH TO END RECOUNT “Unfortunately, I took my frustration out on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, many of whom are friends of mine who I respect, and whose decisions are complicated and difficult and important,” she said. “We are all going to learn lessons from this new media landscape. And most of all, I am. I am a small fish in this big pond. I do not have a megaphone on Twitter or CNN, or I am not a secretary of state, I don’t run a presidential campaign. This is the only opportunity that I have had to set the record straight.” Ellis-Marseglia said she received messages from hundreds of people, and “all of them involved horrible, horrible expletives,” and many of them included death threats against her and her family. The initial clip of the comment by Ellis-Marseglia garnered widespread condemnation by conservatives on social media. “This is a BLATANT violation of the law and we intend to fight it every step of the way,” Lara Trump, President-elect Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, wrote in a post on X that received 1.2 million views. Pennsylvania’s state Supreme Court on Monday weighed in on a flashpoint amid ongoing vote counting in the U.S. Senate election between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican David McCormick, ordering counties not to count mail-in ballots that lack a correct handwritten date on the return envelope. Casey has refused to concede the race, which The Associated Press called in favor of McCormick earlier this month. In a statement, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said a lack of legal clarity had surrounded the ballots, putting county officials in a position where they were “damned if they did and damned if they didn’t — likely facing legal action no matter which decision they made on counting.” McCormick currently leads by .24% as of Thursday morning, according to Pennsylvania’s election results website. A recount is triggered under state law by a margin of .5% or lower. The statewide recount began Wednesday morning. It must conclude by Nov. 26. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump’s incoming White House chief of staff’s lobbying interest come under scrutiny
In his first term, President-elect Donald Trump burned through four White House chiefs of staff who tried in vain to police who had access to the president. Now, incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, the “ice maiden,” will be tasked with guarding the president from special interests who seek to abuse the White House for their own personal gain. But progressives are calling out Wiles for her own history as a former corporate lobbyist and are raising concerns that her hire signals Trump does not intend to keep his promise to “drain the Swamp.” “By putting a corporate lobbyist in charge of his administration with his first act as president-elect, Trump is hanging a ‘For Sale’ sign on the front door of the White House,” said Jon Golinger, the democracy advocate for Public Citizen, a non-profit, progressive consumer advocacy group. Public Citizen released a report authored by Golinger on Friday that details WIles’ lobbying disclosures and highlights her work on behalf of various special interests. The report found that Wiles was a registered lobbyist for 42 different clients between November 2017 and April 2024. Some of her more controversial clients, according to Public Citizen, include Republic Services, a waste management company that has yet to clean radioactive nuclear waste from its dump; The Pebble Partnership, a Canadian copper and gold mining company that wants to build a mine opponents say would harm the environment in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska; and Swisher International, a tobacco company that opposed federal regulations of candy-flavored cigars. TRUMP NAMES SUSIE WILES AS FIRST FEMALE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF IN HISTORY “A lobbyist with this record of controversial representation and a minefield of potential conflicts of interest should not go near the Oval Office, much less be White House Chief of Staff,” Golinger said. In a statement to the Associated Press, Trump transition spokesman Brian Hughes defended Wiles from claims that her past work as a lobbyist would impact how Trump runs the White House. “Susie Wiles has an undeniable reputation of the highest integrity and steadfast commitment to service both inside and outside government,” Hughes said. “She will bring this same integrity and commitment as she serves President Trump in the White House, and that is exactly why she was selected.” Wiles, a longtime GOP operative and advisor to Trump, will be the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff in American history. She is the daughter of the late legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall. The 67-year-old veteran political strategist co-led the president-elect’s 2024 campaign and is widely credited with running a far more disciplined operation than his two previous efforts. Trump has praised her as “tough, smart, innovative and universally admired and respected.” A longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020, Wiles’ decades-long political career stretches back to working as former President Reagan’s campaign scheduler for his 1980 presidential bid. Wiles also ran Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as the manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign. WHO IS SUSIE WILES, TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF? 5 THINGS TO KNOW After Trump’s 2016 victory, Wiles became a partner at Ballard Partners, a Florida-based lobbying firm founded by Brian Ballard. The firm opened an office in Washington, D.C. and quickly became successful, earning more than $70 million in lobbying fees during Trump’s first term in office by representing various corporate clients, federal disclosures show. Some of Wiles’ anodyne clients included General Motors, a trade group for children’s hospitals, home builders, and the City of Jacksonville, Florida. However, she also represented foreign clients, including Globovisión, a Venezuelan TV network owned by Raúl Gorrín, a businessman charged in Miami with money laundering. Gorrín bought the broadcast company in 2013 and immediately softened its anti-government coverage. He hired Ballard to advise on “general government policies and regulations,” lobbying disclosures show. But according to the Associated Press, Gorrín sought to influence the White House to ease ties between the U.S. and the socialist government of Venezuela. While Gorrín was Wiles’ client, he sought to curry Trump’s favor towards Nicolás Maduro’s government. “He was a fraud and as soon as we learned he was a fraud, we fired him,” Ballard told the Associated Press in an interview. “He would ask us to set up a lot of things, in LA and D.C., and then nothing would happen. It was all a fantasy. He just wanted to use our firm.” A few days after Ballard dropped Gorrín in 2018, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against the businessman for allegedly using the U.S. finance system to supply Venezuelan officials with private jets, a yacht and champion show-jumping horses as part of a fake loan scheme perpetrated by insiders to pilfer the state’s coffers. Last month, he was charged a second time, also based in Miami, in another scheme to siphon $1 billion from the state oil company, PDVSA. TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF SUSIE WILES ONCE HELPED NFL BROADCAST LEGEND FATHER PAT SUMMERALL BEAT ALCOHOLISM Ballard told the AP that Wiles did not manage the firm’s relationship with Gorrín and called her a highly organized “straight shooter” who is “tough as nails.” “She’s the type of person who you want in a foxhole,” he said. “She will serve the president well.” Any effort by Venezuela to win over the Trump administration proved unsuccessful. In 2019, Trump ordered crushing oil sanctions against the OPEC Nation, closed the U.S. embassy in Caracas and recognized the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly as the country’s legitimate head of government. Maduro was then indicted in 2020 by the U.S. Justice Department on federal drug trafficking charges out of New York. Wiles lobbied for other foreign clients. In 2019, she registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent working for one of Nigeria’s main political parties for two months. She also lobbied for an auto dealership owned by international businessman Shafik Gabr, who the
New Republican Governors Association chair says ‘focus’ is on helping Trump get ‘off to a strong start’
MARCO ISLAND, FL – EXCLUSIVE – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the new chair of the Republican Governors Association, says a top mission for GOP governors going forward will be helping President-elect Trump. Kemp highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview that Republican governors spent the past four years “pushing back” on President Biden’s administration. And speaking to the media for the first time after being elected RGA chair at the group’s annual winter meeting – held this year at a waterfront resort in southwest Florida – the popular conservative two-term governor said on Wednesday that “we need to focus on making sure that we’re getting the Trump administration off to a strong start.” KEMP SAYS JUSTICE WAS ‘SWIFT AND SEVERE’ FOR MAN CONVICTED OF KILLING LAKEN RILEY For two years following his 2020 election loss to President Biden, Trump heavily criticized Kemp for refusing to help overturn his razor-thin defeat in Georgia. Trump urged, and then supported, a 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary challenge against Kemp by former Sen. David Perdue. But the former president toned down his criticism of the governor after Kemp crushed Perdue to easily win renomination on his way to re-election. REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS SAY WITH TRUMP ELECTION, ‘WE’VE GOT A FRIEND IN THE WHITE HOUSE’ But Trump, at a rally in Atlanta in August, unexpectedly went on a tirade against the Georgia governor – only to publicly praise Kemp just a few weeks later in a major about-face for the former president. And the two politicians teamed up in October – for the first time in four years – to survey hurricane damage in Georgia. Kemp, looking forward to working again with a Republican White House administration, said that “from the governors’ perspective, we’ve got two years to make them successful and help them be successful up there, and to undo what the Biden-Harris administration has done.” Republicans held onto the 27-23 gubernatorial advantage in this month’s elections, thanks in part to the efforts of the RGA. “We’re ready to keep working as we move into what will be a tough cycle for us in Virginia, in New Jersey [the only two states to hold elections for governor in 2025] and then having 36 races in 2026.” Kemp emphasized that “my goal is for us to continue to raise enough money to be competitive. The Democrats are out spending us because they have big check writers, but we have a lot of really dedicated donors. We’ll try to continue to build the tent, make sure that we have good candidates and win because our policies are better.” Kemp said his comfortable re-election in 2022 and Trump’s victory in Georgia earlier this month in the presidential election “gives us a lot of confidence, a lot of hope, but we also know that the ’26 midterm is going to be tough.” Kemp is term-limited and can’t seek another term in office in 2026. The contest to succeed him will be a top gubernatorial election in two years. “I’m gonna be very engaged, you can rest assured, to making sure that my [successors] are Republican. I have a vested interest in doing that,” Kemp said. “We’ll be working with the Trump administration and a lot of other people to make sure that that’s happening not only in Georgia, but in other states around the country, in places like Kansas, where we have a Democratic governor right now, in places like Arizona, where we have a really good shot at winning the governor’s races. So we’re going to be on offense.” Georgia will also have a high-profile Senate showdown, as Republicans aim to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026. Asked if he’ll be courted by national Republicans to take on Ossoff, Kemp responded “well, I may.” But he quickly pivoted, stressing that “my focus right now, being just elected the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is on raising money for us to be competitive in 2025 and 2026. I’ve made the commitment to do that, and I’m gonna fulfill that commitment. We’ll see what happens down the road with anything else.” Asked if he’s not ruling out a possible 2026 Senate bid or even a 2028 White House run, the governor diplomatically said “I try to keep all doors open in politics.”
Harris campaign officials explain what went wrong – and what Trump did right: report
Top Democrats in Vice President Harris’ campaign say their efforts to sway voters simply weren’t enough in the face of a general dissatisfaction with the direction of the country among the electorate. Officials who worked on the campaign offered a post-mortem to the Washington Post on Thursday, saying that former President Trump also took advantage of new media opportunities that Harris left mostly untouched. “There are certain things we’re looking at to understand if we made the right call,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told the Post. “But fundamentally, there wasn’t just one audience of voters that would have impacted this, or one program. The headwinds were just too great for us to overcome, especially in 107 days. But we came very close to what we anticipated, both in terms of turnout and in terms of support.” Campaign officials said their own internal models going into Election Day had Harris with slim leads in Wisconsin and Michigan, and virtually tied in Pennsylvania, according to the Post. Their models had Trump leading in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. PRESIDENT BIDEN ADMITS PRESSURE FROM DEMOCRATS CONTRIBUTED TO DECISION TO DROP OUT “We are very focused on understanding what happened,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We were laser-focused on the battleground states. We knew it would be a margin-of-error race, but with the organization we had and the movement we saw, we thought it was possible.” DEMOCRATS’ FUROR OVER ‘UNQUALIFIED’ TRUMP NOMINEES PUTS BIDEN’S STAFFING DECISIONS BACK IN SPOTLIGHT Campaign officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, also credited the Trump campaign and GOP in general for increasing their outreach to young men across the U.S. “I think what we have seen is that the folks on the other side, on Team Red, have been doing a lot of this work for years,” the official told the Post. “And there’s just, like, a lot of ground for us to make up in … where young men in particular are going to receive their information, particularly young men who are explicitly not looking for political content.” During the campaign, Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, made regular appearances on wide-reaching podcasts with major personalities, many of them comedians like Theo Von and Tim Dillon. That culminated with Trump and Vance having near back-to-back appearances on the largest podcast in the world, the Joe Rogan Experience, just before Election Day. Harris made an attempt at similar forms of media with her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast, which appeals far more to young women. “We are not here to tell you everything was perfect,” O’Malley Dillon said. “We lost. But some of the ascribing the loss to singular things, like if we had just done [an interview with] Joe Rogan, then that would have solved the problem with young men. That is too simplistic and doesn’t solve anything and certainly doesn’t solve the path forward.”
Caravan of 1,500 migrants forms in Mexico
Around 1,500 migrants have formed a caravan in southern Mexico and hope to make it to the U.S. before President-elect Trump takes office in January, when he is expected to clamp down heavily on illegal crossings which have soared under the Biden-Harris administration. The caravan, made up of men, women and young children mostly from Central and South America, on Wednesday traveled through the city of Tapachula, located in southern Mexico, just over the border from Guatemala where thousands of migrants are stranded because they do not have permission to cross further into Mexico. The most southern point of the U.S. border is at the crossing at Matamoros, near Brownsville, Texas, and it would take a desperate adult migrant about 16 days of non-stop walking to get there. It is unclear exactly where members of this particular caravan they intend to cross. TRUMP LIKELY TO MAKE SEVERAL BORDER SECURITY MOVES ON FIRST DAY, SAYS EXPERT Migrants for caravans because they believe there is safety in numbers as it is hard or impossible for immigration agents to detain large groups of hundreds of migrants. Some are hoping to catch rides to help them on their journey, while others will make the arduous trip to the southern border by foot in the searing heat. “It is going to be more difficult, that’s why we are going in hopes of getting an appointment quicker so we are able to cross before he (Trump) takes office,” Yotzeli Peña, 23, a migrant from Venezuela tells the Associated Press. “That would be easier.” Trump has promised to seal the southern border due to the unprecedented flow of migrants into the U.S. over the last three and a half years. He has also vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in the history of the U.S. and has appointed hardliner South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) while Tom Homan will be the new “Border Czar.” Additionally, he has also pledged to end the use of parole programs by the Biden administration that allow migrants to enter in via the expanded “lawful pathways.” MORE MIGRANTS LIKELY TO RUSH BORDER DESPITE REPORTS OF SPLINTERING CARAVAN: EXPERTS Numbers have been dropping sharply at the border since June, when President Biden signed a presidential proclamation drastically limiting the number of arrivals who can come into the U.S. In September, there were 101,790 encounters at the border, the lowest number since February 2021, and there have been no major signs of a significant increase in numbers since then. However, while numbers remain lower than in previous months, there have been concerns that the change in administrations may lead to a surge at the border as migrants attempt to enter the U.S. before a perceived tougher administration enters office. This year, in a bid to stop people from gathering at the U.S. southern border to claim asylum, the federal government expanded areas where migrants can apply via the CBP One cellphone app for appointments to enter the United States. Initially, the app was only available to migrants in northern and central Mexico, but officials changed it to include those at the southern border. By extending the app south to Tapachula, officials hoped it would stem the rush north. But some migrants still want to be close to the border so that if they do get one of the cherished appointments, they can get to it quickly and not risk missing it. “They’re determined to make it into the U.S., one way or the other, because they’ve sold everything, they have nothing to go back to,” independent journalist Auden Cabello, who extensively covered the border crisis, told Fox News Digital last week. Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Michael Lee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump administration picks’ families have 1 thing in common
As President-elect Donald Trump has aggressively set to work on building his new administration, some have noticed that many of those being selected as his closest advisors are parents with families well above the national average. The current national average for a family in the U.S. is 1.94, which is below the minimum 2.1 required to replace the population. Meanwhile, some of Trump’s Cabinet members and advisers are well above the replacement level. Trump is a father of five adult children. Though he has divorced two times, he is said to be a devoted grandfather to his 10 grandchildren, even reportedly spending the morning after election night golfing with his granddaughter, Kai Trump. TRUMP’S GRANDAUGHTER KAI SHARES VLOG OF FAMILY CELEBRATION ON ELECTION NIGHT: ‘EXTREMELY PROUD’ Secretary of the Interior nominee Doug Burgum and Deputy Chief of Policy Stephen Miller each have three children. Trump’s picks for the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio have four kids each. Though from several marriages, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth both have seven kids. The grand prize goes to Sean Duffy, Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, who with wife Rachel Campos-Duffy has nine children. In 2019, Duffy stepped down from his role as a Wisconsin congressperson ahead of his ninth child’s birth to spend more time with his family. “Raising a family is hard work,” he said in a social media post explaining his decision. “I have always been open to signs from God when it comes to balancing my desire to serve both my family and my country.” RACHEL CAMPOS DUFFY: I FOUND TRUE LOVE AND A HAPPY MARRIAGE USING THIS 90S-STYLE BLUEPRINT. IT WILL FOR FOR YOU, TOO By comparison, with four children, President Biden is more of an exception in his administration, which is mainly staffed by people with two or fewer children. During the campaign, Vice President-elect JD Vance voiced his belief that the government needs to place a greater emphasis on being “pro-family” and make it easier for Americans to have larger families and more kids. At 40 years old, Vance and his wife, Usha, have three children, and he has voiced his desire to have more. In his first big speech on the national stage at the Republican National Convention, Vance said “the American Dream that always counted most [to me] was not starting a business or becoming a senator or even being here with you fine people, it was becoming a good husband and a good dad and of giving my family the things I never had as a kid. And that’s the accomplishment I’m proudest of.” He was hit repeatedly by the Kamala Harris campaign and the media over his 2021 criticism of the country being run by who he called “childless cat ladies.” But the underlying problem of low birth rates in the U.S. poses an increasingly big worry to those paying attention. Catherine Pakaluk, a social researcher and author, told Fox News Digital that the country’s low birth rate has gotten to a point where it is presenting real problems and dangers for the future. “We Americans are not having enough children to replace the population,” she said. “What we’re seeing is an inversion of the normal population pyramid where we would think about the normal population pyramid would be a greater number of younger workers supporting a smaller number of older, retired workers.” Though not yet at the level of countries like Japan and China, which are now facing shrinking populations, Pakaluk said the result is that there are “fewer and fewer workers,” fewer people paying into the tax base, and government programs such as social security and Medicare are becoming increasingly unviable. Because of this reality, Pakaluk said she appreciates people like Vance pushing for larger families. “I really value that Vice President-elect Vance is speaking positively about families and talking a lot about how much he would like to have a larger family. … I think a lot of what is very helpful to us today is to have role models talking about how having kids isn’t really all that bad and, in fact, might be better than you expected.” Most crucial to Pakaluk, however, is advancing values that lead to people choosing to have bigger families. She recently published a book called “Hannah’s Children” in which she did extensive interviews with mothers who decided to have five or more kids. The common denominator among these women, who came from a wide array of faith backgrounds, was a strong religious belief in children as blessings from God. This led Pakaluk to believe that the solution to what she calls the “birth dearth” is a return to religious convictions on the individual and societal level. She pointed to Duffy, who is a practicing Catholic, as an example. “What I like to say is, I don’t know that you can get more children out of being pro-child. … But I think you can get more children if you’re pro-church or pro-religious community,” she said. “If people encounter strong religious communities on a more regular basis, this can change in a generation.”
Comer to create DOGE subcommittee chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene to work with Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy
EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is expected to establish a subcommittee that will work with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to eliminate government waste, Fox News Digital has learned. A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will chair the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, which will focus on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. The subcommittee is expected to investigate wasteful spending, examine ways to reorganize federal agencies to improve efficiency and identify solutions to eliminate bureaucratic red tape. A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Comer had a meeting with Ramaswamy and his incoming DOGE team. And Ramaswamy confirmed the meeting with Comer and Greene to Fox News Digital. “A key state to driving greater efficiency in government is exposing the problem to the public to the public—we are grateful that the House Oversight Committee has created a subcommittee to focus on this work,” a spokesperson for Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “We look forward to working together.” UFC STAR HOPES DOGE WILL ‘CLEAN THINGS UP AT THE STATE LEVEL,’ WANTS JUSTICE FOR PEANUT THE SQUIRREL The source said Ramaswamy is “supportive of the Oversight Committee’s endeavor and are already working together.” Comer told Fox News Digital that President Trump’s “landslide victory reflects a clear mandate to address inflationary spending that’s driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans.” ELON MUSK AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY APPROVE THE ‘VERY REASONABLE PROPOSAL’ TO ABOLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION “Wasteful government spending must end, and taxpayers deserve to see their money used effectively and efficiently,” he said. Comer told Fox News Digital that the new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency “will align with the Trump administration’s priorities to eliminate government waste, streamline the federal government’s operations and cut red tape that’s stifling jobs and increasing costs for the American people.” “I look forward to working with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to deliver on these goals to Make America Great Again,” Comer said. Greene told Fox News Digital that the House Oversight Committee “is the perfect place to support the DOGE mission.” “I’m excited to chair this new subcommittee designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and the entire DOGE team,” Greene said. “We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption and absolutely useless parts of our federal government.” Greene said the subcommittee will provide “transparency and truth to the American people through hearings.” ELON MUSK SAYS ‘ALL ACTIONS’ TAKEN BY DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY WILL BE ONLINE: ‘TRANSPARENCY’ “No topic will be off the table,” she said. “The goal of DOGE is to bring accountability and GUT useless government agencies.” Greene said she expects the subcommittee’s work “will expose people who need to be fired.” “The bureaucrats who don’t do their job, fail audits like in the Pentagon and don’t know where billions of dollars are going, will be getting a pink slip,” Greene said. “Chairman Comer and I are focused on delivering the mandate voters sent on Nov. 5th, and I can’t wait to get to work.” Trump this month tapped Musk and Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, which Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, has widely touted. DOGE has already started soliciting civilian help in the agency. Trump said last week he hopes DOGE will become the “Manhattan Project of our time,” in reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s secretive atom bomb endeavor during World War II. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of DOGE for a very long time,” Trump said.
Democrat Tammy Baldwin details recipe for running in a swing state after victory in Trump-won Wisconsin
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., successfully won re-election in Wisconsin all while President-elect Donald Trump simultaneously flipped the state back to red in the presidential election. As to how she did it, the Democrat attributes much of her win to her “72-county strategy.” Baldwin made sure during her campaign to traverse the entire state, venturing far from the two large blue enclaves of Milwaukee and Dane counties. “I think showing up matters, listening matters,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “And so I go, and I really listen and get to know the challenges and aspirations of people all over the state, rural areas, suburban areas, urban areas.” Baldwin won by a few tens of thousands of votes in the state, clinching victory by roughly the same margin as Trump. RFK JR’S ABORTION ‘ISSUE’: SENATE GOP PLANS TO SCRUTINIZE TRUMP HHS PICK’S POSITION According to her campaign, she did more than 250 events in Wisconsin in 2024 alone. She also hosted several targeted tours during her campaign, including her Dairyland Tour and her Rural Leaders for Tammy Tour. Further, Baldwin’s campaign microtargeted rural communities to deliver content regarding her agricultural work. But her rigorous travel is not the only thing that sealed the deal for her. The senator acknowledged that people can go everywhere, but they also need to effectively engage voters in each place they travel to. One thing she noted is that she’s “had years to earn the trust of Wisconsin voters,” referencing the short few months that the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris had to turn out voters for her in the state. Baldwin also said she convenes roundtables and forums on relevant issues while she travels in Wisconsin. “So I’ve done that on, say, the fentanyl and opioid epidemic, bringing together first responders, public health officials, concerned community members to talk about what does the epidemic look like in this community, in this area of the state? What resources do you need? What are your biggest worries?” INCOMING SENATE DEM ELISSA SLOTKIN TORCHES IDENTITY POLITICS IN 2024 AUTOPSY: ‘GO THE WAY OF THE DODO’ She also held events geared toward agricultural issues, she noted. Baldwin notably credits, in part, her work on agricultural issues with her re-election win. In early October, Baldwin earned the endorsement of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors, which was a significant achievement for a Democrat in a statewide election. “They cited a number of different measures that I either championed or actually got into law,” she said. The senator pointed to her Dairy Business Innovation Act, which provides small grants to various dairy producers and processors. “I went this past spring to a particular farm that had received one of these grants, and they had also invited several other farmers and processors who had received grants to show me what they were able to do with these grants in order to grow their business and improve their bottom line,” she said. RICK SCOTT OUTLINES CONSENSUS FOR ‘DRAMATIC CHANGE’ TO SENATE OPERATION IN POST-MCCONNELL ERA The Wisconsin Democrat also pointed to the large manufacturing sector in her state and attributed her push for “buy America” rules in pieces of legislation as helping her win some of those voters. On whether her campaign is a model for other Democrats, specifically those in swing states, she said, “I think it is something that would be helpful to many public officials.” Baldwin added that she realized the need to travel Wisconsin to this extent during her first Senate campaign: “I had been in the House of Representatives representing, as you know, seven counties in [the] south-central part of the state. I had to learn Wisconsin as I was running.” MATT GAETZ ‘WORKING THE PHONES,’ SPEAKING TO GOP SENATORS DESPITE DIFFICULT CONFIRMATION ODDS “And so traveling to do that learning was extremely important, being exposed to, you know, the timber industry and the north woods. We didn’t have a big timber industry in the south-central part of the state.” The Midwestern senator also said this was the first time she heard from Wisconsinites that elected officials hadn’t been spending much time in certain parts of the state. “One thing I will say that I hear from constituents when I show up is just like, ‘I don’t remember the last time we had a U.S. senator visit our community, and especially not a Democrat,’” she said. “It’s like, you know, the timber industry folks saying, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had a senator pay so much attention to us,’” she added.
Trump team ‘confident’ Senate Republicans will approve cabinet selections
President-elect Trump’s team is confident that Senate Republicans will approve his cabinet selection – despite some of the picks raising eyebrows from Republicans and Democrats alike. A Trump transition official confirmed to Fox News that the president-elect is “confident that Senate Republicans will hold the line.” “President Trump is confident that Senate Republicans will hold the line and respect the will of the American people by approving his cabinet nominees,” the official said. The official said that Trump is “very happy” with the vice president-elect, saying that Vance is “laser focused on already getting the ball rolling on his highly-qualified nominees.” TRUMP PICKING CABINET AT BREAKNECK SPEED COMPARED TO 2016 Trump’s nominees and administration picks during his second administration are being publicly announced at a much faster pace than during his first administration in 2016, which the transition team attributed to Trump’s commitment to putting “America first.” “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First. President Trump will continue to appoint highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt previously told Fox News Digital when asked about Trump’s speedy rollout of Cabinet picks. WATCH: Trump’s most contentious choice so far has been Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., for attorney general. The pick came as a surprise to many since the firebrand does not have any prior law enforcement experience and faces misconduct allegations. Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which subpoenaed him as recently as September for an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct with a minor. LOYALTY MATTERS: TRUMP PICKS ALLIES AND SUPPORTERS TO FILL OUT HIS ADMINISTRATION Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and had told the panel he would “no longer voluntarily participate” in its probe. Gaetz resigned from Congress shortly after Trump made the announcement. On Wednesday, Vance and Gaetz were spotted leaving the Capitol. A source familiar previously told Fox News Digital that Gaetz is “working the phones” to address concerns from GOP senators ahead of his confirmation hearings next year. He is also making the rounds with Vance on Capitol Hill to meet with senators directly. “The meetings have been productive with AG nominee Gaetz listening to senators’ thoughts on the role of the DOJ and the confirmation process. Gaetz is looking forward to meeting with more senators throughout this process on the Hill,” a Trump transition official told Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ effort to block weapons sales to Israel
An effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to block certain U.S. weapons sales to Israel was overwhelmingly rejected by the U.S. Senate Wednesday evening. Sanders’ joint resolution of disapproval, which was supported by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., intended to stop the White House’s latest arms sales to the Israeli military. An effort to block the sales of tank rounds to Israel was voted down 79-18, and a measure intending to block mortar round shipments was rejected 78-19. Speaking on the Senate floor, Sanders claimed the Israeli government is controlled “not only by right-wing extremists, but by religious zealots.” “It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law and our moral values despite receiving $18 billion from U.S. taxpayers in the last year,” Sanders said. ‘CHEERLEADING FOR TERRORISM’: TWITCH STAR CALLED FOR NEW 9/11, DISMISSED HORROR OF OCT 7 “And being the largest historical recipient of U.S. foreign aid, the Netanyahu government has completely ignored the repeated requests of President Biden and the U.S. government.” The 83-year-old politician also decried living conditions in Gaza during his speech. “Right now, there is raw sewage running through the streets of Gaza, and it is very difficult for the people there to obtain clean drinking water,” Sanders said. “Every one of Gaza’s 12 universities has been bombed … as have many hundreds of schools. For 13 months, there has been no electricity in Gaza. ISRAELI OFFICIAL PRAISES STEFANIK AS UN PICK, SAYS HER ‘MORAL CLARITY’ WILL COMBAT BODY’S ‘HATE AND LIES’ “As I have said many, many times, Israel had the absolute right to respond to that horrific Hamas attack as any other country would,” Sanders concluded. “I don’t think anybody here in the United States Senate disagrees with that. But Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government has not simply waged war against Hamas. It has waged an all-out war against the Palestinian people.” Despite the vote, Sanders’ effort was not wholly unpopular. Earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., signaled support for the Vermont Independent’s proposal. “The failure by the Biden administration to follow U.S. law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide,” Warren said in a statement to The Guardian. “If this administration will not act, Congress must step up to enforce U.S. law and hold the Netanyahu government accountable through a joint resolution of disapproval.” Fox News Digital’s Jessica Sonkin and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.