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Matt Gaetz Withdraws From Attorney General Consideration

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Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday, former Congressman Matt Gaetz (Fla.) announced he is withdrawing from consideration to be the next U.S. Attorney General.

On Wednesday, Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance traveled to the Capitol to meet with Republican senators who could potentially make or break Gaetz’s nomination to serve as the nation’s next attorney general.

He wrote on X, “I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

Trump responded to Gaetz’s withdrawal with a message on Truth Social.

I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Tapped To Serve Alongside Elon Musk, Ramaswamy On DOGE Subcommittee

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Marjorie Taylor Greene -Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is expected to establish a subcommittee that will work with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and will select Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene as its director.

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. Ramaswamy confirmed the meeting with Comer and Greene to Fox News Digital. 

“A key step to driving greater efficiency in government is exposing the problem 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.” 

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.”

“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.”

Earlier this month, Trump tapped Musk and Ramaswamy to lead DOGE.

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.

Republicans Elect New Senate Leadership

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Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

On Wednesday, Republicans voted to elect Sen. John Thune to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader.

Sources told Fox News Digital that no candidate reached a majority on the first secret ballot. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) received the least amount of votes and was knocked out of the race. The second secret ballot was between only Thune and Cornyn. 

The senator received at least 27 votes from the 53-member conference during a secret ballot in the old Senate chamber on Wednesday morning. 

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) won the election to become Senate majority whip on Wednesday, cementing him as the No. 2 leader in the Republican conference for the foreseeable future.

Barrasso was uncontested for the post, having served for six years as Senate GOP conference chairman and in control of the Republican message. He won the role by acclamation, according to a source with knowledge.

He can serve upwards of six years in the role. 

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Democrat Senator Throws Support Behind Trump Secretary Of State Pick

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Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman (D) announced on Tuesday he plans to vote to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State.

Trump has tapped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) to be the next Secretary of State.

“Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own,” Fetterman wrote in a post on X. “That being said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.”

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) has called Rubio “an outstanding choice.”

“Senator Rubio has a proven record of promoting freedom, defending American interests on the global stage, and standing firm against threats from the CCP. His leadership will be invaluable in advancing our nation’s values and priorities abroad,” Steube said in a tweet.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) said in a statement that, “President Trump has made a truly historic and brilliant choice in selecting Senator Marco Rubio as our nation’s Secretary of State.”

Rubio has served in the Senate since 2011.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Report: Top Democrats Hesitant To Commit To Certifying Potential Trump Victory

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Several top Democrats, including House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), have indicated that they may not commit to certifying the 2024 presidential election results if former President Donald Trump secures a victory. This reluctance was revealed during discussions with Axios, raising questions about the party’s stance on the upcoming election certification process.

Per Breitbart:

Raskin denied Trump won the 2016 election when he objected to Trump’s electors in 2017.

If Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it,” Raskin said, assuming the election was free, fair and honest. “I definitely don’t assume that,” he added. “Democrats don’t engage in election fraud and election fabrication.”

A video surfaced in September of a panel discussion in February 2024 in which Raskin speculated that Congress would invalidate a Trump election victory, even though it could be at the risk of “civil war.”

“It is not clear whether Raskin was actually outlining a plan of action, or rather using a hypothetical to argue that the U.S. Supreme Court was placing what he considered an undue burden on Congress to keep Trump out of office,” Breitbart News’s Joel Pollak reported.

House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) echoed Raskin’s concerns, telling Axios that Democrats would certify a Trump victory “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to … We have to see how it all happens.”

McGovern also objected to Trump’s electors in 2017.

The uncertainty among Democrats comes amid heightened political tension with 24 days until the presidential election. Raskin, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, previously called the former president’s legacy “American carnage.”

In response to Thursday’s development, former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark criticized the Democrats’ position. Taking to X, Clark expressed frustration with what he sees as a double standard in how objections to election certifications are perceived:

Do you see how this works? If you’re a Republican in Congress and you object to certifying a President, you’re called an insurrectionist. But if you’re a Democrat like Jamie Raskin, you can object all you want, and it’s “protecting our democracy.”

Election certification has been a contentious issue since the unfounded claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential race, with Democrats consistently emphasizing the need to safeguard democracy. However, their reluctance to fully commit to certifying a potential Trump win could deepen mistrust on both sides of the political aisle.

Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.