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News Not Noise Letter: Will Republicans Say No?
Trump pushes the limits of loyalty with his cabinet picks. Plus some News That Doesn't Suck (because we need it).
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The week the news out of Washington packed a punch. I know a lot of you are feeling stressed out, so I’ll remind you that among Trump’s picks for his new administration are some individuals with big egos. We’ve learned that doesn’t wear well in Trump world. Keep in mind that we don’t yet know who will get confirmed or how long his more controversial picks might last.
Because many of you are asking for more community, this weekend I’ll send a newsletter extra featuring an interview with Andrea Bendewald of the Art of Circling. Andrea offers tools for creating in-person gatherings for connection and sharing.
Today we cover the latest from Congress and what you need to know about some of president-elect Trump’s new staffing choices. (He made big announcements after we sent our extra on Wednesday!) And then we end with some News That Doesn’t Suck — because we all need it.
Here are your headlines:
Tradition Over Trump? Senate Republicans have selected John Thune, a four-term senator from South Dakota and close ally of outgoing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as their Senate Majority Leader. The senators rejected Trump favorite Rick Scott, in a minor show of defiance by Republicans. In his victory statement, Thune assured that he was “united behind President Trump’s agenda.” Trump has urged Senate Republicans to call a recess, which would let him bypass the confirmation process for his cabinet picks. Thune initially sounded open to this, but after being elected leader cooled to the idea, suggesting the “old-fashioned way” would be preferable.
Majority Report: Republicans retained control of the House, but only just. As of today, the GOP has 218 seats — the exact number needed for a majority — while Democrats have 209. Eight races are still too close to call, but the GOP is expected to end up with between 220 and 222 seats. That’s about the same tiny majority as Republicans have had over the last two years. With Trump’s backing, House Republicans also voted to let Mike Johnson continue as Speaker. The full House will vote in the new year. Johnson has asked Trump to stop selecting House Republicans for positions in his administration, as their absence further narrows the already slender majority.
Trump Gaetz Justice: President-elect Trump wants just-retired Florida Representative and ethically challenged GOP flamethrower Matt Gaetz to lead his charge against “enemies within” as attorney general. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Gaetz was not a “serious nomination.” Rep. Max Miller said that Gaetz would not be confirmed by the Senate. The Federalist’s co-founder denounced him as a “vile sex pest.” But Trump loyalist Rep. Thomas Massie told reporters that Republicans will recess appoint Gaetz, adding, “Suck it up.” Gaetz has been eager to weaponize the DOJ. He told a crowd at CPAC, “We either get this government back on side or we defund and get rid of … the FBI, CDC, ATF, DOJ … if they do not come to heel.” Gaetz shares Trump’s loathing of the “deep state,” disdain for establishment Republicans, and general disinterest in good manners. He also was investigated by the Justice Department for allegedly trafficking and sleeping with a 17-year-old girl. The DOJ never filed charges and Gaetz denied all allegations, but the House Ethics Committee launched its own investigation, and ABC News reports that the woman in question testified that she had sex with Gaetz when she was just 17 years old. A note on timing: Punchbowl News learned that the Ethics Committee was set to release a “highly damaging” report about Gaetz today — but that’s been scotched because he resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement. Speaker Johnson said he prefers the Ethics committee withhold the report. GOP Sen. John Cornyn said the Senate Judiciary Committee would like to see the report when considering Gaetz’ nomination.
It Gaetz Worse: Gaetz is also accused of showing nude photos of women to his House colleagues and using illegal drugs (including at sex parties with minors present). Sen. Markwayne Mulline said Republicans “had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls he had slept with.” And when he served in the Florida House, Gaetz allegedly created a “game where members of the FL House got ‘points’ for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists, and married legislators.” In 2019, Gaetz tweeted that Florida should change its welcome signs to the following: “There’s no age that you can’t be sexy.” Note that in 2017 Gaetz was the lone dissenting vote against an anti-human trafficking bill.
Make America Healthy Again? Trump recently said he’d let RFK “go wild on health,” which he could do if the Senate confirms him as Trump’s new Health and Human Services Secretary. RFK has said that he wants to remove fluoride from tap water, which Republican dentists warned would rot children’s teeth; create “wellness farms” where people could farm organic produce to recover from their supposed addiction to antidepressants (which he’s baselessly blamed for causing mass shootings); and bring an end to research on drug development and infectious diseases. You read that right. He’d also have a platform to promote the many conspiracies he believes in, from the idea that COVID “is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” to his belief that vaccines are toxic. Then again, it’s hard to know exactly what he believes, because he changes claims and lies so often even he can’t keep track; earlier this year, he said on CNN that he “never said” that “there’s no vaccine [that’s] safe and effective,” prompting the network to play a clip of him saying exactly that. His lies have already proven deadly. In 2018, misinformation spread by an anti-vaccination nonprofit led by RFK halved the measles vaccination rate in Samoa; the following year, a massive measles outbreak killed 83 people, most of them kids.
Look What the Cat Dragged In: We can’t report on RFK without mentioning his strange fascination with roadkill (which includes him leaving a dead bear in Central Park and decapitating a whale then attaching its head to the roof of his car) — and the fact that he says a worm ate part of his brain.
Aloha, Tulsi: Another controversial pick is former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard’s confirmation could be complicated by her ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, a far-right religious sect that has been criticized for its negative attitudes toward LGTQ people, women, and muslims, and which encourages its members to view the leader as a deity. She will also face opposition for her conspiratorial thinking and support for foreign dictators and war criminals, including Syria’s Assad and Russia’s Putin. Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard called for all parties to “embrace the spirit of aloha” and stop fighting and repeated false claims about Ukrainian biolabs. “Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda,” Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted at the time. “Her treasonous lies may well cost lives.” Rep. Jared Moskowitz said the nomination was “incredibly reckless” because of her “known sympathies for foreign adversaries.”
Personal Takeover: Trump nominated his personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, as deputy attorney general. It would place Blanche, who represented Trump in his New York hush money case, in the second-highest position in the Justice Department, responsible for supervising the department’s 110,000-plus employees and investigative agencies. Trump also picked Emil Bove, another of his attorneys, to the third-highest position in the Justice Department. And he’s picked Dean John Sauer, yet another of his lawyers, to serve as solicitor general — sometimes called the “tenth justice of the Supreme Court” due to its importance. Sauer successfully argued to the Supreme Court that a president should have immunity from criminal prosecution — even for ordering SEAL Team Six to kill a political rival — unless they had been impeached and convicted by the Senate.
Numbers Game: Pennsylvania’s Senate seat is still in doubt, despite AP calling the race last week. Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey trailed challenger David McCormick by about 28,000 votes, enough for AP to determine he’d won, but under the 0.5% margin to trigger an automatic recount of all ballots — which must be completed before midday on November 26. While this probably won’t change the outcome, Casey has not conceded.
Failed Gamble: On Wednesday, FBI agents raided the NYC home of election-betting site Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan. They seized his electronics. We don’t yet know what they were investigating. Over $3.6 billion was wagered on the presidential election on Polymarket, which played a large role in creating the election-betting market itself — and correctly predicted a Trump victory even as most polls sat on the fence.
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Here’s a Little News That Doesn’t Suck
Second Time as Farce: InfoWars, the infamous site created by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has been purchased at auction by satirical site The Onion. Jones declared bankruptcy after losing a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit launched by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting; Jones repeatedly accused them of faking the tragedy. The CEO of The Onion’s parent company said that he decided to buy InfoWars because it would be “very funny,” and said he was supported by the families of Sandy Hook. The Onion plans on turning InfoWars into a parody of the very far-right content it used to produce.
Magic is Real: For over 80 years, MLB players have religiously rubbed their baseballs in mud. Not just any mud, mind — only dirt from a secret spot along the banks of a tributary to the Delaware River will do. Superstition? It seems not. A study has found that the specific combination of clay and sand in this particular mud really does make balls easier to grip. “It has this magical ability,” one author of the study told NBC. The authors also concluded that the MLB’s attempts to recreate the magic mud synthetically were in vain.
New Heights: This Saturday, spare a thought for the bird population of Orlando, who’ll find their skies unusually crowded. The Orlando Science Center is hoping to gather hundreds of people to break the Guinness World Record for the most people flying paper planes simultaneously.
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An excellent source of information about vaccines is available on YouTube on a Podcast called Beyond the Noise with Dr. Paul Offit. It is hosted by Microbe TV, which deals with all things viral (the real ones not the social media ones!). There are a number of episodes that directly address the misinformation about vaccines spread by RFK, Jr. (see #7, #10, #11, #13, #31, #32).
Thank you for your due diligence in bringing us the truth!