The Daily Signal - Trump Cabinet Hearings, Israel-Hamas Deal, LA Wildfire Update| Jan. 10

Starting point is 00:00:02 Trump cabinet member appointees face Senate scrutiny. I'm Elizabeth Mitchell. This is the Daily Signals Top News in 10 for Wednesday, January 15th. Today, the Senate had confirmation hearings for Pam Bondi, Chris Wright, Marco Rubio, Sean Deffey, John Ratcliffe, and Russ Vote. Bondi is the appointee for Attorney General. In her hearing today, Bondi vowed to get politics out of the Department of Justice after four years of weaponization against political adversaries.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Bondi promised to enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entries Act or Face Act to protect pro-life pregnancy centers in addition to abortion centers. The Biden DOJ has brought only a handful of cases against pro-abortion vandals who targeted pregnancy centers, but far more cases against peaceful pro-lifers protesting at abortion centers. Since the 1990s, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act has protected patients, providers, and facilities that provide reproductive health service. Will you commit to continuing to enforce the FACE Act to address violence and threats against those providing reproductive health care services? Senator, the FACE Act not only protects abortion clinics, but it also protects pregnancy centers and people going for counseling. The law should be applied even-handedly. Yes, Senator.

Starting point is 00:01:30 So you'll uphold the enforcement of that law? I'll uphold the enforcement of the law, Senator. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pressed her on the phenomenon of coming up with a name before a crime. She brought up the weaponization of the DOJ against President-elect Donald Trump. And it would not be appropriate for a prosecutor to start with a name and look for a crime. It's a prosecutor's job to start with a crime and look for a name, correct? Senator, I think that is the whole problem with the weaponization that we have seen the last four years and what's been happening to Donald Trump.

Starting point is 00:02:14 They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him. Actually, starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations. Secretary of State nominee, Florida Senator Marco Rubio also had his hearing this morning. Rubio laid out an America-first approach to foreign policy. Rubio said that a Secretary of State will be tasked with only doing things for America

Starting point is 00:02:37 that produce an answer of yes to does it make America safer, does it make America stronger, and does it make America more prosperous? But ultimately under President Trump, the top priority of the United States Department of State will be the United States. The direction he has given

Starting point is 00:02:54 for the conduct of our foreign policy is clear. Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, every policy we pursue, must be justified by the answer to one of three questions. Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Or does it make America more prosperous?

Starting point is 00:03:14 He warned that if America doesn't change course, we will rely on China for everything. If we stay on the road we're on right now in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not. Everything from the blood pressure medicine we take to what movies we get to watch.

Starting point is 00:03:32 and everything in between, we will depend on China for it. They have come to dominate the critical mineral supplies throughout the world. Everywhere in the world, they've now established critical mineral rights. Even those who want to see more electric cars, no matter where you make them, those batteries are almost entirely dependent

Starting point is 00:03:48 on the ability of the Chinese and the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to produce it and export it to you. So if we don't change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis from our security to our health, our health will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not.

Starting point is 00:04:06 That's an unacceptable outcome. Former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe had his confirmation hearing to head the CIA. Ratcliffe discussed his role in defending the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop. He said he believed such instances qualify him for the position. In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then candidate Biden's son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation and 51 former intelligence officials used the imprimatur of IC authority to go along with that.

Starting point is 00:04:48 I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth about that. So I think my record in terms of speaking truth to power and defending the intelligence community and its good work is very clear. And what I can assure you is those types of instances, if I'm in that position as CIA director and have to do that again, as uncomfortable as that can be to be accused,

Starting point is 00:05:17 you know, the truth will ultimately defend itself, and I think that intelligence will as well. Office of Management and Budget nominee Russ Vote said the Constitution envisions that the bureaucracy would work for the president, but that is not the case currently. Where in the United States Constitution does the bureaucracy stand in terms of power versus the president?

Starting point is 00:05:41 Senator, it's great question. Thanks for the kind words. The Constitution visions that the bureaucracy would work for the President of the United States in Article 2. So now I come from the private sector where I ran companies with thousands of employees.

Starting point is 00:05:55 I suspect it should work, but correct me if I'm wrong, where if you're the chief executive, that means that all of the people that work for you actually work for you. Is that true in government also? It is not the case currently, but it is something that as a policy objective, I think our founders would have envisioned it that way. So meaning that the president, not Congress, not the judicial branch, has total and complete discretion over who serves at his or her pleasure? Again, those are not the laws that are on the books as of that we, We know today the president has many laws that and paradigms have been put in place to

Starting point is 00:06:37 ensure that the American peoples will, when they select a president, are not what prevails in the agenda setting process. Because I would suspect that most voters, somebody like me who wasn't into politics a few years ago, would suspect that the president is actually the one making these decisions, not some unnamed bureaucrat, whether they're a good person or a bad person, or been here for five years or 25 years, that it's the president's agenda that should be implemented. Is that correct? I hope that would be their suspicion. A climate protester interrupted the nomination hearing for Energy Secretary nominee Chris Wright. Nonetheless, Wright presented his vision for the Energy Department under Trump.

Starting point is 00:07:20 Israel and Hamas reached a deal, including a release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza. President-elect Trump posted on Truth Social of the deal, this epic ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our historic victory in November, as it signals to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and our allies. I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be united with their families and loved ones. Heritage Foundation National Security expert Victoria Coates joins us to discuss. Could you walk us through this deal?

Starting point is 00:07:56 Well, what we know so far is this is going to be a phased deal, which will involve the immediate release of the so-called humanitarian Israeli and international hostages, which are women and children, men over 50 and the terminally ill. It sounds like that's a list of about 33 people out of the 98 that Hamas claims to have control over at this point and that some of them are dead, up to 10 of them, So there'll be 10 bodies, 20-some living hostages coming out. Hopefully on Sunday, Israel will withdraw from the more populated areas of Gaza, but not from Gaza altogether, and release some number of Palestinian prisoners it has in its jails. So that would be phase one. You know, phase two, if this deal holds, will be ongoing negotiations for, you know, a broader peace deal. But I think we need to be very cautious about that right now.

Starting point is 00:08:56 because Hamas has gone back and violated every such deal so far. So I think the chances are that this is a very temporary deal. I mean, we will all thank God on Sunday when those poor people come out of that hellish situation. It had to happen. But I'm not confident right now that this is going to get us to a lasting peace deal. What role did President-elect Trump playing this deal and what role did the Biden administration play? Well, President-elect Trump played a critical role. The Biden administration has since the last hostage deal, which was in November of 2023, sort of gone back and forth. They stopped talking about the hostages. They kind of dropped out of the headlines. We lost an American in September, Hirsch-Goldberg-Pyllen, who was on the verge of being rescued. You know, President Biden today claimed credit for this deal saying it was identical to his May 27th offer. Well, the fact of the matter is that he couldn't get anywhere on that May 27th offer.

Starting point is 00:09:58 The movement on the hostages only came once President-elect Trump, after his victory in November, started making very strong, unequivocal statements about the hostages that they should come out now or there would be hell to pay. Okay, thanks so much. My pleasure. We'll be back with our newsflash for the day right after this. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the fire department failed to pre-referral. position about 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of fire engines ahead of the Palisades fire on January 7th as high winds picked up. At least 24 people have now died in the wildfires.

Starting point is 00:10:37 Earlier today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Free Speech Coalition versus Paxton, which will decide whether a Texas law requiring age verification for online pornography violates free speech rights. Victims of pornography joined other child protection advocates at a rally outside the Supreme Court. Republican senators highlighted a growing deep state opposition to President-elect Donald Trump. The poll, which the firm, RMG Research, released Monday on behalf of the Napolitan Institute, revealed that 42% of federal employees who live in the national capital region around Washington and earn at least $75,000 annually planned to politically oppose the incoming administration.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Three senators weighed in on the poll, with one calling the bureaucracy, the real thing. threat to democracy. That's all for this episode of Top News in 10. Thank you so much for listening on this Wednesday. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on our new episodes or our weekend deep dive interview edition. Please help us reach more listeners by leaving us a review and rating. We enjoy reading all of your feedback.

Starting point is 00:11:41 Today's episode was edited by Tyler O'Neill and produced by John Pop. Thank you for listening again. Have a wonderful evening and we'll back with you tomorrow afternoon.

The Daily Signal - Trump Cabinet Hearings, Israel-Hamas Deal, LA Wildfire Update| Jan. 10

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