The Daily Signal - Republicans Choose New Senate Leader, Trump Continues Filling Cabinet, HHS Spends Millions on DEI | Nov. 13

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: For the first time in 18 years, Republicans in the Senate have a new leader. President-elect Donald Trump appoints Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and others to cabinet.  The Department of Health and Human Services spends tens of millions of dollars annually on DEI expenses. The president of the host country of the 2024 U.N. climate change conference defends fossil fuels. A federal judge temporarily halts a Louisiana law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom  Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Senate Republicans picked a new leader. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal's top news in 10 for Wednesday, November 13th. For the first time in 18 years, Republicans in the Senate have a new leader. Senator John Thune of South Dakota will replace outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the conference's frontman. Republicans held a secret ballot election this morning. to determine McConnell's successor. The Daily Signals, Bradley Devlin, covered this in the Capitol today.

The other senators on the ballot were Senator John Cornyn and Senator Rick Scott. What was the voting process like and why do you think Thune ultimately won? Yeah, the voting process is very, very secretive. That's why they call it a secret ballot. They met in the old chamber and decided to have a little tiny candidate forum. They had a larger, longer candidate forum on Tuesday night. They heard speeches from all three of the candidates, Thune, Cornyn and Scott, and the first ballot was not conclusive.

Thune got reportedly, because we don't know. Anyone who says they have the list of who voted for who, they're selling you a false bill of goods because not only is this vote taken in secret, but when the ballots are turned in, they don't have any names on them. So after the first ballot, Thune could not get across the finish line. He only had 23 votes. He needed 27. Corning got 15 and 16.

Scott reportedly got 13. That second ballot, Scott dropped off, and it was a head-to-head matchup versus John Thune and John Cornyn, both of whom have served as the conference's whips in the past, and Thune ended up carrying the day. Now, Thune does come from leadership already. He's kind of been groomed by McConnell for this role over a number of years, but he's been more open to reforms that I think a lot of people would have previously thought if, let's say, this transition happened in 2022 or 2020 or something like that. Tell us about Thune. Should we expect him to be different from McConnell? Well, it really depends on if the Senate conference is going to decide in their rules, right? The Senate GOP conference gets to pass their own rules that govern themselves in their conduct in conducting Senate business.

and if they go forward with a term limit on the leader, i.e. Senator John Thune, congratulations, but in six years we'll be choosing another leader and we're not going to have another 18-year dictatorship from someone like Mitch McConnell. That will be, I think, Senator Thune's first test to see if he's serious about these reforms. By term limiting the leader, you make sure that you don't get entrenched in the type of omnibus spending, double dealing, backroom dealing, dropping massive pieces of legislation on senators hours before they're expected to vote on it. You don't get as much as that because you won't be in power for forever. You were talking to senators shortly after the secret ballot.

What did you hear from them? Yeah, obviously the newly elected Senate GOP leadership, which involves not only Thune, but also has Cotton as the conference chair, Barrasso, who's the new whip, and other members like NRC chairman Tim Scott, who will be fundraising for Republicans keeping the majority in 2026, heard from all of them. Their message was clear. They need to deliver on the Trump Vance agenda that just clearly won a big mandate. Now, this is way different from 2016.

Remember, in 2016, Republicans like Mitch McConnell, like the establishment types, thought that Trump had won kind of with a straight flush on the river. That it was not clear mandate at all. Of course, he loses the popular vote. blah-di-blotty-blot-y-blah, and Republicans in the Senate had control of the Senate, not because of Trump, but in spite of him, that Trump was actually the one pulling them down. Not true this time around. That message has been clearly received over a poor midterm performance in both 2018 and 2022 and over performances when Trump has been on the ballot in 20 and 24. So now you have not only more senators coming in over the past years in the Trump mold like we saw with J.D. Vance, right?

He was a Trump-Mold Senate candidate in 22, and now he's the vice president-elect. You're going to get the same thing with Shihi and Moreno coming in. And so not only is more of the conference kind of been inculcated in this MAGA environment in the Republican Party, but also, you know, the guys who've been there for a while get the message now. They see that the American people and the Republican coalition is growing, and they want to keep it growing because ultimately that makes sure that they keep their jobs. So this time, they seem much more enthusiastic to work with President Trump's second-term agenda. Absolutely.

That message does seem to have been received. That was Bradley Devlin, host of the Daily Signals, The Signal Sitdown podcast. The Signal Sitdown comes out every Thursday. Thanks so much, Bradley. Thank you. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed several more cabinet members. Donald Trump just announced Representative. Matt Gates of Florida will serve as his attorney general. Trump made this announcement on

truth social. Trump also released a statement confirming that Senator Marco Rubio will serve as his Secretary of State. He named former Congresswoman Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Trump said, for over two decades, Tulsi has fought for our country and the freedoms of all Americans. And as a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she has broad support in both parties. She is now a proud Republican. Trump named Pete Hegseth, who is a veteran and a Fox and Friends host as Secretary of Defense. He also named former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe as director of the CIA. Trump said in a statement about Hegseth, Pete is tough, smart, and a true believer in America first. With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are

on notice. Trump has tapped entrepreneur Elon Mudd. and businessman Vivek Ramoswami to head a non-governmental body focused on government efficiency. He said, I am pleased to announce that the great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with the American patriot Vivek Ramoswami, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency. Ramoswamy previewed his future position to the Daily Signals, Tyler O'Neill, at the Republican National Convention over the summer. Would you take a cabinet position in the Trump administration? I'm going to look at whatever has allows me to have the largest population. possible impact. President Trump and I have had some great conversations and what he and I are aligned on

is that we want it to be something of major impact and stay tuned for what that might be. So thank you. Trump named four former campaign staff as White House advisors as well. That includes Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, James Blair, and Taylor Budowitz. William Joseph McGinley will serve as Trump's White House Council. Trump also appointed Stephen C. Whitkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. Stay tuned as Trump continues to fill out his cabinet. According to a new report from the Watchdog Group Open the Books, the Department of Health and Human Services spends tens of millions of dollars every year on diversity, equity, and inclusion-related expenses.

Taxpayers pay roughly $38.7 million every year to employ 297 staffers conducting DEI work at HHS, according to government records analyzed by Open the Books. 247 of those federal employees make more than $100,000 per year. HHS spends $29.4 million per year to keep 209 workers on the payroll for its Office of Minority Health, which exists to improve the health of racial and ethnic minorities. The Office of Minority Health included a vaccine equity program in Atlanta, aimed at getting monkeypox vaccine doses to gay black men to help celebrate diversity and the impact of distinctly black, gay, and queer culture on the community.

The Biden-Harris administration placed an increased emphasis on embedding DEI in the bureaucracy. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in June 2021, which ordered agencies to make DEI a priority in their staffing decisions. In response to the order, HHS promised to hire 313 employees across eight different departments in 2023, according to the agencies' 2022. plan. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to take down DEI bureaucrats at universities in contrast. When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs, and lunatics. We will then accept applications for

new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all. These standards will include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low-cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exam, to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth. Now for today's quick hits, the president of Azerbaijan, which is the host country of the 24 UN Climate Change Conference,

defended fossil fuels in a Tuesday speech. The president said, unfortunately double standards, a habit to lecture other countries and political hypocrisy, became kind of modus operandi for some politicians, state-controlled NGOs and fake news media in some Western countries. Now for our next quick hit, on Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily halted a Louisiana law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom by the start of 2025. The judge called the law unconstitutional on its face. That's it for this episode.

episode of The Daily Signals Top News in 10. Thanks so much for listening and be sure to tune in tomorrow at 5 p.m. where we'll continue filling out Trump's Cabinet and update you on other top news of the day. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Louis and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.