Day: January 21, 2025

Virginia U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine Says Character Attacks on Pete Hegseth Are Best Way to Reach GOP Senators

Tom Pappert
Tim Kaine and Pete Hegseth

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said on Sunday that he considered his questions regarding the personal character of Pete Hegseth, who President Donald Trump nominated to serve as Secretary of Defense, to be his best shot at persuading Republican senators against confirming the veteran and former Fox News host.

In an appearance on “Face the Nation,” Kaine said that Republicans in the Senate tend to shy away from presidential nominations who may seem unqualified, or who have serious moral failings, and pointing to the example of former Representative Matt Gaetz’s decision to withdraw his acceptance of Trump’s nomination for him to serve as Attorney General, said he decided to use such concerns against Hegseth.

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Biden Issues Pardon for Drug Crimes Committed by Virginia House Speaker Targeted by Trump’s Campaign Manager, VAGOP

Tom Pappert
Don Scott

President Joe Biden on Sunday issued another round of pardons, including to Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), for his 1994 drug conviction, after the Democrat’s criminal past became the target of criticism by both Chris LaCivita, the campaign manager for President-elect Donald Trump in 2024, and the Republican Party of Virginia.

The White House issued a statement on Sunday, in which Biden confirmed, “I am exercising my clemency power to pardon 5 individuals and commute the sentences of 2 individuals who have demonstrated remorse, rehabilitation, and redemption.” The outgoing president told the public that those he selected, “each made significant contributions to improving their communities.”

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Commentary: ‘Liberation Day’: Eight Takeaways from Trump’s Second Inaugural Address

The Daily Signal
Donald Trump

Delivering his second inaugural address indoors because of the frigid weather conditions in Washington, President Donald Trump vowed Monday to restore integrity and efficiency to government.

Having won in November not only the popular vote, but also with a decisive Electoral College victory, Trump struck a mostly unifying tone from inside the Capitol, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. and asserting, “Impossible is what we do best.”

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Appeals Court Skeptical of Challenge to Florida’s Ban on Youth ‘Gender Affirming Care’

Just the News
doctor with patient

Because “approximately seven” Florida lawmakers made anti-transgender statements when voting to ban youth from starting so-called gender affirming care, and state medical boards wrote biased informed-consent forms regarding such treatment, the Sunshine State’s SB 254 is unconstitutional, according to a lawyer for transgender youth and their parents.

That argument was a stretch for Republican presidential nominees at an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing last week, while the three-judge panel’s lone Democratic nominee worried that a ruling in the next few months could be for naught.

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Jury Exonerates Phoenix Police Lieutenant Sued by Two ICE Protesters Over Arrests

Rachel Alexander
Phoenix Police

A jury decided last week that Lieutenant Benjamin Moore of the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) did not violate the First Amendment rights of two demonstrators who refused to disperse from a 2019 “Lights for Liberty” protest against ICE. Activists Phil Martinez and George Soria sued Moore and the City of Phoenix in July 2021, alleging that they were arrested in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights to engage in free speech critical of the police, with Martinez stating that it caused him a panic attack. The pair and others were arrested for obstructing the highway, public thoroughfare, and unlawful assembly.

Moore’s defense attorney, John Masterson of Jones Skelton & Hochuli PLC, explained in his closing argument to the jury that the reason Moore didn’t arrest most of the other protesters is because they left when the police asked them to disperse. He noted that Martinez’s and Soria’s attorney Mart Harris admitted that Martinez and Soria refused to leave, and that there had been over 100 warnings to disperse.

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President Trump to Revoke Security Clearances for 51 Intelligence Officials Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

American Greatness
Donald Trump

As President Donald Trump starts his second term in office, one of the over 200 executive orders he is planning to sign will include a revocation of the security clearances for 51 former and current intelligence officials who claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation.”

According to the New York Post, President Trump’s executive order will name all 51 individuals who signed an open letter in October of 2020 claiming that the revelations of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which included proof of his lucrative foreign business deals in exchange for access to his father Joe Biden, had “the classic earmarks” of “Russian disinformation.” The group has since come to be known as the “Spies Who Lie.”

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Anti-Trump Nonprofit Will Slap DOGE with Immediate Lawsuit

Daily Caller News Foundation
Elon Musk

An organization critical of President Donald Trump will hit the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with a lawsuit on Monday.

National Security Counselors (NSC), a nonprofit public interest law firm, will sue DOGE on Monday afternoon and allege that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting advisory organization violates an existing law that sets rules for things like disclosure and hiring practices at executive branch advisory committees, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed. NSC has been highly critical of Trump and Musk in post-election posts to Bluesky, a social media platform popular among liberals, and even offered to provide “free consultation for all feds facing the prospect of summary dismissal by Trump,” including for people who worked with former Trump investigator Jack Smith.

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