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Donald Trump has claimed ex-Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble” after a House GOP subcommittee called for her to be investigated by the Justice Department over her stewardship of the panel that examined the Capitol riot of January 6 2021, accusing her of witness tampering by “colluding” with Cassidy Hutchinson on her testimony.
The president-elect posted the taunt on his Truth Social platform, thanking Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who led the subcommittee and produced the interim report, for “a job well done”.
Cheney herself has already rubbished Loudermilk’s report as “a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth”.
She added, witheringly: “No reputable lawyer, legislator, or judge would take this seriously.”
Meanwhile, Trump has announced two more nominees to his incoming administration, naming Florida philanthropist Nicole McGraw as the the next US ambassador to Croatia and, more surprisingly, ex-NFL star and failed Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas.
The Republican further used his social media account to order Senate Republicans against agreeing a deal with Democrats on his nominees to top cabinet positions.
“I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in,” he declared.
Lawmakers introduce trio of bills targeting China’s role in fentanyl crisis
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed three bills aimed at cracking down on China’s role in the American fentanyl crisis, with measures that would set up a US task force to disrupt narcotics trafficking and pave the way for sanctions on Chinese entities.
China is the dominant source of chemical precursors used by the Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl, while Chinese money launderers have become key players in the international drug trade, US authorities say.
The proposed legislation would help hold China’s Communist Party (CCP) accountable for “directly fueling the fentanyl crisis through its state subsidies of precursors,” said the House of Representatives’ select committee on China, on which all of the sponsors of the bills sit.
One bill, the CCP Fentanyl Sanctions Act, introduced by Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss, would codify authorities for the US to cut off Chinese companies from the American banking system, including vessels, ports and online marketplaces that “knowingly or recklessly” facilitate shipment of illicit synthetic narcotics.
“This is state-sponsored poisoning of the American people,” Auchincloss said at an event introducing the legislation.
“The genesis of this is squarely on the mainland of the People’s Republic of China.”
Two other bills would create a task force of US agencies to conduct joint operations to disrupt trafficking networks, and allow for the imposition of civil penalties on Chinese entities that fail to properly manifest or follow formal entry channels when shipping precursors to the US, the committee said.
There is growing consensus in Republican circles close to Donald Trump that Beijing has exploited, even engineered, the synthetic opioid epidemic to harm Americans, an accusation Beijing denies.
China says it has some of the strictest drug laws in the world and that the US needs to curb narcotics demand at home.
China’s anti-drugs authorities have always cracked down on incidents linked to missing drug-making chemicals, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, told a news conference on Wednesday when asked about the bills.
With little time remaining in the current congressional term, the bills would likely need to be reintroduced next year after the new Congress is sworn in on January 3.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the select committee, wrote in an article this month that it was “time to get tough” on Beijing over fentanyl.
Trump warns Senate Republicans against agreeing a deal with Democrats on nominees
Back on Truth Social, the president-elect has warned Senate Republicans against agreeing a deal with Democrats on his nominees to top cabinet positions.
“To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump shouted in all-caps.
“I won the biggest mandate in 129 years. I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in.”
With that in mind, here’s Gustaf Kilander on Trump’s already-embattled nominee for secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, who has been told his Senate confirmation hearing in January will be “a miserable experience” like that endured by Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
Trump formally clinches presidency with Electoral College win
Yesterday, Donald Trump formally won the US presidency after Texas electors handed him the Lone Star State’s 40 Electoral College votes
Following the Republican’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris on November 5, his victory was formalized on Tuesday as presidential electors gathered across the US.
It takes 270 electoral votes to win the Electoral College – Trump won 312 last month to Vice President Harris’s 226.
The votes of each state will be sent on to Congress next month, where Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will be declared the next president and vice president before they take office at noon on January 20.
Speaking of the Electoral College, here’s why three Democratic senators are pushing for its abolition.
Congress unveils funding deal with more than $100bn in disaster aid
House and Senate leaders have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through to March 14 2025 and provide more than $100bn in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.
The measure would prevent a partial government shutdown that is set to begin after midnight on Friday without a deal in place.
It would kick final decisions on this budget year’s spending levels to a new Republican-led Congress and President-elect Trump.
The continuing resolution generally continues current spending levels for agencies.
Passage of the measure is one of the final actions that lawmakers will consider this week before adjourning for the holidays and making way for the next Congress.
It’s the second short-term funding measure the lawmakers have taken up this fall as they struggled to pass the dozen annual appropriations bills before the new fiscal year began October 1, as they typically do.
The bill will provide $100.4bn in disaster relief, with an additional $10bn in economic assistance for farmers.
“We have to be able to help those who are in these dire straits,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.
Here’s more.
Trump names Herschel Walker next US ambassador to Bahamas
The president-elect has announced two more nominees to his incoming administration, naming Florida philanthropist Nicole McGraw as the the next US ambassador to Croatia and, more surprisingly, ex-NFL star and failed 2022 Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas.
This is what Trump had to say about the former athlete:
Here’s Ariana Baio with a throwback to Walker’s last appearance in the public eye on Election Eve, a gaffe-heavy appearance stumping for Trump at a Peach State rally.
Donald Trump claims Liz Cheney ‘could be in a lot of trouble’ over Jan 6 probe
Good morning!
Donald Trump has claimed ex-Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney “could be in a lot of trouble” after a House GOP subcommittee called for her to be investigated by the Justice Department over her stewardship of the panel that examined the Capitol riot of January 6 2021, accusing her of witness tampering by “colluding” with Cassidy Hutchinson on her testimony.
The president-elect posted the taunt on his Truth Social platform, thanking Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who led the subcommittee and produced the interim report, for “a job well done”.
Cheney herself has already rubbished Loudermilk’s report as “a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth”.
Here’s her statement in full:
“Chairman Loudermilk’s ‘Interim Report’ intentionally disregards the truth and the Select Committee’s tremendous weight of evidence, and instead fabricates lies and defamatory allegations in an attempt to cover up what Donald Trump did. Their allegations do not reflect a review of the actual evidence, and are a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth. No reputable lawyer, legislator, or judge would take this seriously.
“January 6th showed Donald Trump for who he really is – a cruel and vindictive man who allowed violent attacks to continue against our Capitol and law enforcement officers while he watched television and refused for hours to instruct his supporters to stand down and leave.
“The January 6th Committee’s hearings and report featured scores of Republican witnesses, including many of the most senior officials from Trump’s own White House, campaign and Administration. All of this testimony was painstakingly set out in thousands of pages of transcripts, made public along with a highly detailed and meticulously sourced 800-page report.”
John Bowden has this report on the subcommittee’s dubious recommendations.
Palestinian families sue Biden administration over ‘failure’ to sanction Israel for human rights abuses
President Joe Biden’s administration is violating U.S. law that blocks aid to foreign militaries credibly accused of committing human rights abuses, according to a federal lawsuit from a group of Palestinians in Gaza and their American families.
A lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday marks the first time that victims are alleging the government’s “calculated failure” to follow the so-called Leahy Law, a decades-old statute that prohibits taxpayer-funded weapons and aid towards foreign militaries implicated in human rights abuses.
Former State Department officials who navigated Leahy Law requirements helped draft the lawsuit.
Read more:
Energy chief Granholm warns against ‘unfettered exports’ of liquefied natural gas
The United States should proceed cautiously as officials consider new natural gas export terminals, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday, warning that “unfettered exports” of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, could raise wholesale domestic prices by more than 30% and increase planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Granholm’s statement came as the Energy Department released a long-awaited study on the environmental and economic impacts of natural gas exports, which have grown exponentially in the past decade. The analysis found that U.S. LNG shipments drive up domestic prices and frequently displace renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
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US border facilities for migrant children are improving but still need work, court monitor says
The U.S. still separates some migrant children from parents while holding them after they cross the border despite broad improvements at detention centers in Texas, according to a court-ordered monitor’s final report.
The heightened scrutiny of the Border Patrol’s Texas holding facilities is part of broader court-appointed oversight, which President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have criticized.
The report, issued Friday under a monitoring agreement that began in 2022, offers a final glimpse into conditions inside the facilities ahead of Trump’s return to office. The report noted improvements to hygiene, food and medical care but found that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents routinely separated children from adult relatives during their time in custody.
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Justin Trudeau and the downsides of being the handsome poster boy for liberal ‘goodness’
When Justin Trudeau became the Canadian prime minister in 2015, people were still using that thing called Facebook. I can remember well the frothing posts by female friends, none of whom could contain their excitement at the election of this hottie PM. Furthermore, they gushed at the notion that what made him hotter still was not only that he was young and handsome, he was a lovely liberal dude too, which made him even more super-duper guy.
(If my male friends had written about an equally attractive female prime minister in such a way, they might well have been cancelled, but let’s park that.) As far as my friends were concerned – and to be fair, Trudeau had plenty of male fanboys – here was the perfect Generation X politician, and all would surely be well in his good hands.
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