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🏛️ Pete Hearing Top Moments
Citizen Frank
January 14, 2025
Good morning. It’s Tuesday, January 14.
Important note: cf.org is rebranding to thefrank.com. Soon you’ll find us under our new name.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, faced a Senate grilling on Tuesday as lawmakers determine whether they will vote in support of the nominee.
Hegseth faced intense questioning from Democrats in his Armed Services Committee hearing, including his previous comments related to women serving in military combat roles, and was also interrupted by protesters who disturbed the hearing at some points.
Trump nominated Hegseth in November, just days after his decisive election win over Vice President Harris, lauding him “as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country.”
On Tuesday, the GOP-led House once again passed legislation that aims to protect women’s sports leagues by trying to keep male athletes who identify as females from competing.
Two Democrats — Reps. Henry Cueller (D-TX) and Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) — joined with 206 Republicans in voting for the Protection of Women and Girls Act. Another 206 Democrats, some of whom argued the bill would have invasive consequences and is supported by “bigoted folks,” voted against the legislation.
“Only 2 members on the Left voted to protect women’s sports,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said in a post to X, responding to former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines celebrating passage of the legislation. “The Left really hates women don’t they?”
Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday.
Mediators the United States and Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were at the closest point yet to sealing a deal to bring them a step closer to ending 15 months of war.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, and an Egyptian official and a Hamas official confirmed its authenticity.
MSNBC boss Rashida Jones announced she is stepping down as president of the embattled left-leaning network — days before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Jones, who was in charge of the NBC Universal-owned cable network for four years, broke the news that she is relinquishing her position, effective immediately, in a memo to staffers.
“After four incredible years at the helm of MSNBC and 11 years at NBCU, I have made the decision to pursue new opportunities,” Jones wrote.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has been removed from the House Rules Committee after being the lone vote against Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) reelection.
Massie’s departure from the influential panel could make it easier for Johnson to get legislation to the House floor.
He has been replaced with Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a low-key member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus who rarely joins his colleagues’ rebellions against leadership.
During a press conference on Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed the H-1B program that has facilitated companies bringing in foreign laborers to the US. Disney, and others have been documented as replacing American workers with foreign hires. H-1B work visas have been part of a national conversation surrounding legal immigration policy.
DeSantis brought up his issues with some of the legal immigration programs, including the H-1B visa program, when he announced a special legislative session to address illegal immigration in Florida at Trump takes office.
“We’ve got some big problems with some of of the legal immigration programs that we have. We’ve seen this H-1B program, how companies will bring in H-1B [workers], the Americans train the H-1B, and then they fire the Americans and hire the H-1B. How would that even remotely be acceptable?”
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to an official involved with the planning of the event.
They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials.
The three tech titans have all made attempts to earn favor with Trump in the past year, led by Musk donating more than a quarter-billion dollars in campaign funds to help elect Trump.
The Biden administration on Tuesday is notifying Congress of its intent to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the White House announced, as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.
Senior U.S. administration officials, who previewed the announcement on the condition of anonymity, said ”many dozens” of political prisoners and others considered by the U.S. to be unjustly detained would be released by the end of the Biden administration at noon on Jan. 20.
The U.S. would also ease some economic pressure on Cuba, as well as a 2017 memorandum issued by then-President Donald Trump toughening U.S. posture toward Cuba.
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