What we’re watching: Hegseth back on the Hill
????️ What we're watching
- An impasse over FBI background checks for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees will likely be resolved “in the next few days,” Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi told reporters Monday.
- By giving his son Hunter a “full and unconditional” pardon, President Joe Biden has given Trump new rationale for even more expansive pardons than those he issued in his first term.
- Immigration Hub, a pro-immigration group that was born in 2017 in response to Trump’s first term, announced the launch of a new political arm to combat the administration’s agenda and help Democrats proactively message on an issue that has long challenged the party.
???? What’s Trump up to?
- Trump says he will attend the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris on Saturday. The visit will be his first major outing since winning the election.
????What’s up with the nominees?
- Defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth will be on the Hill today meeting with more senators on the Armed Forces Committee, including Republican Sens. Tedd Budd (N.C.), Jim Risch (Idaho) and Eric Schmitt (Mo.).
- Few GOP senators are raising early opposition to Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel. Patel has promised to purge the FBI of people he sees as unloyal to Trump and has indicated he would seek a near-total revamp of the agency.
- Trump’s health care picks speak to a larger sentiment among many Americans that health officials got some of the pandemic response wrong — particularly on school closures and lockdowns. Some experts say creating a binary of who got the pandemic right and wrong is unhelpful.
????ICYMI: Here are the latest Cabinet picks
- Trump plans to nominate investment banker Warren Stephens to be his ambassador to the United Kingdom.