The Headlines - A Republican Trifecta, and Trump’s Latest Pick Creates Shock Waves

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Plus, a Chinese government cover-up.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Republicans Win Control of House, Cementing a G.O.P. Trifecta Under Trump, by Catie EdmondsonMatt Gaetz Is Trump’s Pick for Attorney General, by Glenn Thrush and Devlin BarrettTrump and Biden Make Nice at the White House, at Least for 29 Seconds, by Michael D. ShearInflation Ticks Up, as the Fed’s Victory Remains Incomplete, by Jeanna SmialekAfter Deadly Car Rampage, Chinese Officials Try to Erase Any Hint of It, by Vivian Wang2,100 Fakes Rounded Up in Art Forgeries Bust, by Elisabetta Povoledo

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, November 14th. Here's what we're covering. It's official. Republicans cemented their control of the House of Representatives late last night, giving the GOP the trifecta, full control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate, it's true, it was a decisive win

across the nation. The American people want us to implement and deliver that America First agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke on the steps of the Capitol earlier this week about what a full Republican sweep will mean. Party leaders have said they intend to move quickly to cut taxes, loosen regulations on oil production, and tighten border security. When President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, we all look back and recognize that the Republican Party was not fully prepared for that moment and precious time was wasted in the beginning of that Congress. We are not

going to make those mistakes again. We will be ready on day one. We are prepared this time. And as we wind down the 118th Congress, — Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans voted for their new majority leader and picked John Thune of South Dakota, who has clashed with Donald Trump in the past, but said he's now eager to enact Trump's agenda.

One of his first tasks will likely be trying to push Trump's nominees through One of his first tasks will likely be trying to push Trump's nominees through the confirmation process. There have been an avalanche of picks this week, but the president-elect made his most stunning one yet yesterday. He tapped Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida for Attorney General. Gaetz is one of Trump's fiercest defenders and an avowed enemy of virtually every other top Republican. He was behind the successful ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the House Speaker Post, and

he was previously investigated by the Justice Department for child sex trafficking, but not charged. The House has also been investigating him on allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and whether he used campaign funds for personal use. One of Gates's fellow Republican representatives, Max Miller of Ohio, said he and his colleagues were happy about the pick only because it meant Gates would be leaving the House, saying, quote, most people in there are giddy about it. Get him out of here. Gates resigned from the House almost immediately after being nominated, effectively ending the House ethics investigation into him.

They were going to vote tomorrow on whether to release a highly critical report on Gates, and it's not clear if they will still release their findings. If Gates does become attorney general, it will put him in a position to carry out Trump's promise to exact revenge on federal officials who prosecuted him. One of the open questions I think that come out of this process as far as it's unfolded so far is what the Trump and American voter appetite will be for an administration that is so geared toward revenge and retribution when you have voters who have elected you on issues like the economy and immigration and crime.

Times reporter Katie Rogers is covering Trump's latest staff pick. You know, disappointing somebody like Matt Gaetz to the DOJ to dismantle checks on power, is that going to be something the average voter is going to look at and say, yes, this is what I voted for? I think the tension between voters wanting the Trump administration to accomplish things for them is going to butt up against a very different objective for Trump, which is taking out revenge on perceived enemies within the institutions that are checks on the presidency. At the White House yesterday... President Biden hosted President-elect Trump for a meeting,

part of the traditional handoff from one president to the next, a tradition that Trump himself skipped when he refused to concede in 2020. In the Oval Office, Trump thanked Biden and the two shook hands. Politics is tough and it's in many cases not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today and I appreciate it very much. A transition that's so smooth, it'll today and I appreciate it very much. A transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth as it can get. Cameras were escorted out of the room after about 30 seconds, and the two then met for

two hours behind closed doors with their chiefs of staff. The White House said Trump came with a detailed list of questions for Biden, and that the conversation had been cordial and substantive. Trump later called the New York Post and said the two had talked about the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. Trump said, quote, I wanted to know his views on where we are and what he thinks, and he gave them to me. It could have been better. It could have been worse.

That's how one economist described the latest inflation numbers released yesterday by the federal government. The consumer price index climbed 2.6% from a year ago, the latest reassurance that inflation has been brought way down from its peak of over 9% in 2022. But it's still slightly higher than last month's numbers. and it means prices on everything from food to rent are still climbing and are much higher for Americans than they were a few years ago. Efforts to keep fighting inflation could be complicated by the transition to a new administration. Trump has promised big increases in tariffs

that most economists think would drive inflation back up. Earlier this week in China, a man plowed his SUV into a crowd of people exercising outside of a sports complex in the city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring dozens more. It appeared to be the deadliest attack in the country in a decade. But almost immediately, the Chinese government began to censor any details about it. By the time that I was able to get to Zhuhai on basically the first flight out, the police and the government officials were already working super hard to make it seem like nothing had ever happened.

Vivian Wong covers China for the Times. Our first stop, we went to two different hospitals where we had heard that victims had been taken. We wanted to see if we could find any victims or their relatives, but that was quickly quashed because in all of the different ICU wards that we checked, there were government officials standing guard, making sure that we could not reach the family members, even though in one hospital, actually, we could see the family members standing just a short distance away.

Then we went to the sports center where the attack actually happened. And there was also a steady stream of local residents who were coming by to drop off flowers as a sort of makeshift memorial. And basically the minute they would drop them off, someone, a worker, would come and pick them up and carry them out of sight. Vivian says the government's efforts to brush the attack under the rug also played out online.

Censors quickly took down eyewitness accounts and newspaper articles and only left up the official government statement about the incident, saying the attacker had been unhappy about his divorce. This is straight out of the Chinese government's playbook after any sort of mass incident or tragedy. Basically, the goal is to ensure that the government narrative is the only voice out there so that people can't mobilize around grief, they can't ask questions about the government's response.

And a big part of that is that the Chinese government has really made a sort of unspoken contract with its people, which is that it's going to surveil them, it's going to really limit their rights, but in return, they're going to get a really safe society. And so the government just really doesn't want there to ever be any sign that that safety is not maybe as perfect or as complete as they would want their people to believe. And finally, there's a big art show in Pisa, Italy this week with big names – Salvador

Dali, Andy Warhol, Gustav Klimt. But there's a catch. All of the art is fake. The paintings were seized as part of an ongoing investigation into a network of art forgers and dealers operating across Europe, and officials are displaying the fakes to show what they've been able to find. In all, Italy's specialized art theft squad has seized over 2,000 pieces of fake art in the last year, one of the biggest counterfeit busts in over a decade, according to the leader

of the squad. The market value of what they've seized is estimated to be over $260 million. So far, 38 people have been placed under investigation for either creating or selling the forgeries, including suspects in Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain. A lot of what the squad scooped up have been fake Banksy pieces claiming to be from the reclusive artist. They shut down an entire Banksy exhibition in the town of Cortana, Italy, after they determined nothing in it was real. One tip for spotting forgeries, which comes from the website of the company

that represents the real Banksy, is just good advice in general. Quote, always remain skeptical. Those are the headlines today on The Daily. More on the rush of Trump appointments with Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Peter Baker, and Julie Davis. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.