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09-04-2025
- Business
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Legal Challenges Brew for Trump's Tariffs
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Wednesday! Attention Dispatch Premium members: We're hosting our Dispatch Premium Town Hall tonight at 8 p.m. ET to preview our forthcoming staff editorial. If you'd like to attend this special live town hall, be sure to join Dispatch Premium before tonight's event! Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Monday that Ukrainian troops were fighting in the Belgorod region of Russia, which borders Ukraine. 'We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory,' he said, adding that the operations were aimed at easing pressure on other parts of the front line. Zelensky's statement marked his first public acknowledgment of the limited offensive, which began in late March. Russian state sources had previously claimed that attempted Ukrainian advances in the region had been repelled. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had captured two Chinese nationals fighting on behalf of Russia in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. Stocks continued to fall Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.8 percent, the S&P 5oo declining by 1.6 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropping 2.2 percent. Short-lived gains in the morning were dashed as the administration doubled down on its tariff rollout. Appearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the duties would take effect Wednesday despite ongoing negotiations with trading partners. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed plans to impose 104 percent levies on all Chinese goods effective today. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders aimed at reviving coal production in the United States. The orders directed the federal government to allow coal leasing on public land, keep some coal plants that had been set for retirement open, and order agencies to assess how coal could be used to meet rising energy demands from artificial intelligence data centers. As a percentage of U.S. power generation, coal—the most polluting fossil fuel—has declined from nearly 50 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2024. The Trump administration froze $1 billion in federal funding to Cornell University and $790 million to Northwestern University on Tuesday, a month after launching civil rights investigations into both schools. Speaking to the New York Times, two unnamed U.S. officials said the pause comes mostly from grants and contracts with the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, and Agriculture. The Justice Department is investigating both universities—along with several other schools, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Brown—over allegations of widespread antisemitism on campus. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled Tuesday that the White House must fully reinstate the Associated Press to its press pool. The Trump administration began barring AP reporters from press events in February, after the news agency refused to change its style guide to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the 'Gulf of America.' In a 41-page decision, McFadden wrote that the AP's ban constituted a 'brazen' violation of the First Amendment: 'Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.' The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted an order from U.S. District Judge William Alsup that would have required the White House to reinstate 16,000 probationary workers fired across multiple federal agencies. In an unsigned order, seven justices said that the environmental groups and nonprofits that brought the lawsuit lacked the legal standing to sue. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor declined to join in the order, which did not address the broader legal questions surrounding the Trump administration's sweeping layoffs. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced plans to launch a primary challenge against Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who has served in the upper chamber since 2002. Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023 but later acquitted by the state Senate. A securities fraud case against him was dismissed in 2024 after he agreed to pay restitution and perform community service. 'I'm announcing that I'm running for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn, who apparently is running again for his fifth term, which would put him there three decades,' he told Fox News Tuesday. 'It's definitely time for a change in Texas.' The markets have continued to sour on President Donald Trump's tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States. Major stock indices have been on successive roller coasters of daily trading, reacting positively to indications the president might relent but then quickly falling after Trump signals he plans to stay his course. Wall Street CEOs have begun publicly voicing criticisms. Even Elon Musk reportedly urged Trump over the weekend to reverse the duties, and he's begun using Peter Navarro—the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to the president—as an online punching bag. But the president has forged ahead with a tariff regime that, if continued, could constitute the largest tax increase in more than 40 years. Trump threatened Monday to bring tariffs on imports from China up to a whopping 104 percent, a threat the White House followed through on as of 12:01 this morning. During a speech at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner last night, the president also said he would soon levy additional tariffs on pharmaceuticals. Now, court challenges backed by some conservative legal groups are gaining steam. On Thursday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonprofit legal advocacy group supported by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Florida-based stationary company, Simplified, that relies on materials imported from China. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration's earlier batch of tariffs in February—which imposed a 10 percent duty on all Chinese imports and 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports—were unconstitutional. For that first round of tariffs, as well as last week's 'Liberation Day' measures, Trump relied on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—a 1977 law empowering the president to scrutinize foreign entities and financial transactions, including by imposing sanctions, when dealing with a national emergency. The president cited the synthetic opioid supply chain from China as the national emergency justifying across-the-board tariffs on Chinese imports. But the NCLA argues that IEEPA does not delegate any tariff power to the executive. 'That is a statute that authorizes presidents to order sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies,' the group noted in its filing. 'It does not allow a president to impose tariffs on the American people.' The lawsuit may have a point: Nowhere in IEEPA is tariff or taxation power mentioned, though presidents have used the law to impose sanctions on countries or freeze financial assets. Former President Joe Biden used IEEPA authority to institute a sweeping sanctions regime on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. And during his first term, Trump used IEEPA to freeze the assets of a Venezuelan state-owned oil company providing funds to the Maduro regime. Before February, however, no president had ever used the act to impose tariffs. According to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress holds the tariff power, which it has partially delegated to the president in a handful of laws. Trump took advantage of this delegated authority to implement tariffs on things like steel, aluminum, solar panels, and washing machines during his first term. But those laws circumscribe the president's exercise of tariff power, limiting the scope and criteria of allowable duties imposed by the executive branch. For example, the Trade Act of 1974 allows the executive to impose tariffs on imports that threaten national security, while the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 allows for tariffs in response to other countries' violation of trade agreements. 'In each of these instances, the Congress has required that various procedures be followed, that investigations into the specific products, practices or countries be conducted, and that certain factual findings be made before tariffs can be imposed,' Jennifer Hillman, a Georgetown law professor who focuses on international trade, explained in a February brief on Trump's tariffs. Under these laws, duties can't be imposed in a day simply at the whim of the president—it took the better part of the year to follow the statutorily designated processes and fact-finding required for the first Trump administration's tariffs. The Simplified lawsuit argues that Trump's novel interpretation of IEEPA threatens all of Congress' tariff authority: 'If the president is permitted to use the IEEPA to bypass the statutory scheme for tariffs, the president will have nearly unlimited authority to commandeer Congress's power over tariffs.' NCLA also argues that even if IEEPA authorizes some tariffs, Trump's measures would still exceed the restrictions of the law since it limits presidential actions to those 'necessary' to address the emergency. 'The means of an across-the-board tariff does not fit the end of stopping an influx of opioids, and is in no sense 'necessary' to that stated purpose,' NCLA stated, noting that Trump has said publicly the tariffs' purposes involve unrelated policy goals like generating revenue for the federal government. Legal observers see the administration's interpretation of IEEPA as such a stretch that it could run afoul of the Supreme Court's major questions doctrine. The doctrine holds that if the executive is seeking to use congressionally delegated power on an issue of major national significance, then that power must be clearly specified in the authorizing statute. And if tariffs on the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual U.S. imports from China are an issue of national significance, Trump's subsequent tariffs on nearly all imports are exponentially so. 'Here, there is no question that this is a major question,' Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University, told TMD. 'It's more of a massive thing than any of the other measures the Supreme Court has struck down because they're major questions, like Biden's student loan forgiveness program. That was pretty big, but this is even bigger.' Somin is working with the Justice Liberty Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm, to recruit plaintiffs to file a challenge to Trump's 'Liberation Day' bevy of tariffs. 'We are still in the stage of recruiting plaintiffs and making agreements with them, but it is likely we will be done with that soon,' he said, 'and at that point, we will bring our case.' While Somin said he believes the China tariffs at issue in the Simplified suit are also illegal, he argued the broader tariffs that he plans to challenge are even more glaringly unconstitutional. 'The 'Liberation Day' declaration is not about fentanyl,' Somin said. 'Rather, it's about the idea that bilateral trade deficits are somehow a national emergency.' 'We say there's no actual emergency because bilateral trade deficits are not some kind of unexpected crisis,' he added. 'There's no extraordinary or unusual threat.' Beyond the legal arguments, Somin also emphasized the practical significance of the president's use of IEEPA going unchallenged: 'If he can tariff any country to any degree he wants for any reason, any time he wants, then effectively, the word of the United States and a trade agreement is no good.' John McCormack When Gavin Newsom was waging his primary bid to be California's governor, he promised voters on the campaign trail in December 2017: 'You're going to have the opportunity to elect the next head of the resistance.' After steamrolling his Democratic and Republican opponents in 2018, Newsom governed with exactly that vision in mind. Politics April 8, 2025 Nick Catoggio Chris Sununu and 2028. World Events April 9, 2025 Cliff Smith USAID cuts hinder Ukrainian efforts to facilitate media coverage and counter propaganda. Politics April 9, 2025 Jonah Goldberg The markets don't lie. Podcast April 9, 2025 Jonah Goldberg That Scott Lincicome is so hot right now! Podcast April 8, 2025 Sarah Isgur and David French Plus: Can the president fire federal probationary employees? Writing for The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait took Democrats to task for their reluctance to attack President Donald Trump's tariff policies head-on. 'At some point, Trump might backtrack on his trade war or pivot to a completely different set of policy obsessions. Perhaps by 2028, Democratic voters will be focused on bringing back Social Security or ending the war in Greenland. But to the extent that the tariffs define Trump's economic mismanagement, a modulated stance on tariffs is going to become awkward for Democrats,' he wrote. 'Not long ago, the political logic of rejecting free trade made a certain degree of sense for Democrats. But events have a way of changing political logic. A trade-skeptical message that worked perfectly well five or 10 years ago is going to sound awfully out of touch after Trump is done turning tariffs into a synonym for catastrophic ineptitude.' The Economist examined the emerging face-off between Israel and Turkey in Syria, as the two powers seek to expand their influence in the war-shattered country: 'Israel is worried by the scale of Turkey's involvement in Syria, including its plans to set up military bases and supply the new government's fledgling army with weapons. Turkey fears that Israel wants to see Syria implode, or break apart. Each accuses the other of preparing to wage war by proxy. … Israel and Turkey also disagree about governance. Israeli officials have openly suggested a federal model for Syria, whereby different minorities, including the Kurds and the Alawites (a Muslim sect from which the Assads hail), would enjoy extensive autonomy. The recent massacres of hundreds of Alawite civilians by armed groups loyal to Syria's new rulers, they argue, show that [Ahmed al-Sharaa] cannot be trusted. Mr Sharaa and his Turkish allies have had a wholly different system in mind: a strong central government headed by a president with sweeping executive powers.' New York Times: Chinese Intelligence May Be Trying to Recruit Fired U.S. Officials The National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned on Tuesday that China's intelligence services were using deceptive efforts to recruit current and former U.S. government employees. … The American government has long said that China uses social networks to secretly recruit people. But former U.S. officials say China now sees an opportunity as the Trump administration shuts down agencies, fires probationary employees and pushes out people who had worked on diversity issues. NewsNation: Stephen A. Smith Considering 2028 Presidential Run Florida beat Houston in the NCAA Championship Monday night in an instant classic, ending with the heartbreaking conclusion we've come to expect from March Madness. Gators fans went to bed happy. Cougars fans? Well, you can probably guess from that last possession. Do you think the groups challenging the Trump administration's tariffs have a strong case?
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Cabinet Picks Face Roadblocks Ahead
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Friday! Attention Dispatch Premium members: we're hosting the next Dispatch Premium Town Hall with Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg on Tuesday, February 4, at 8 p.m. ET, where members can interact directly with our co-founders in a Zoom discussion on the first few weeks of the Trump administration. How are the confirmation hearings going for Trump's nominees? What is in all of those executive orders? How has Washington, D.C. changed since Trump's inauguration? And most importantly, how does all of this impact your life? If you'd like to attend this special live town hall, be sure to join Dispatch Premium before next Tuesday! Officials announced Thursday that there were no survivors from the collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet approaching D.C.'s Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night. A total of 67 people were killed, making it the deadliest crash in America since 2001. The D.C. fire and EMS chief said Thursday morning that rescue operations were switching to a recovery effort to retrieve the victims, and, as of 5:30 p.m. ET, first responders had pulled 40 bodies from the Potomac River. An investigation into the crash remains ongoing and there are no confirmed details as to the causes of the incident. Multiple outlets obtained copies of a preliminary internal Federal Aviation Administration report on the accident that said staffing at the airport's air traffic control tower during the time of the collision was 'not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.' One air traffic controller was working both with helicopters and planes, a job typically split between two people. Eight more hostages returned to Israel on Thursday after 482 days in Hamas captivity. The individuals released included three Israelis—Agam Berger, Arbel Yehoud, and Gadi Mozes—and five Thai nationals—Thenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakham, Sriaoun Watchara, Seathao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak—who were abducted by the terrorist group on October 7, 2023. Before Yehoud and Mozes were handed over to the Red Cross, Hamas gunmen paraded them through swarming and chaotic crowds in the southern city of Khan Younis, leading the Israeli government to delay the latest release of Palestinian prisoners. Israel later freed 110 prisoners on Thursday after the two sides reached an agreement to ensure the safe passage of Israeli abductees in future exchanges. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise's planned $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Enterprises, a wireless local area network (WLAN) products and services company. The department said the tie-up would bring 70 percent of the WLAN suppliers market under the control of just two companies, the Hewlett and Juniper umbrella and the market leader, Cisco Systems. 'This proposed merger would significantly reduce competition and weaken innovation, resulting in large segments of the American economy paying more for less from wireless technology providers,' said Omeed Assefi, the acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he intends to follow through on his threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico beginning on Saturday, February 1st. But the president told reporters that the tariffs could include exemptions on oil imports, in keeping with his promises to reduce energy costs for Americans. Trump has also indicated possible plans to impose a 10 percent duty on Chinese-made goods as soon as Saturday—a move, like the tariffs on Canada and Mexico, ostensibly aimed at curbing the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—President Trump's picks to lead the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively—all appeared before Senate committees for confirmation hearings on Thursday. The trio faced grillings from Democratic and some Republican lawmakers on their past statements, and, in some instances, endeavored to distance themselves from views and policies they've endorsed in the past. While Patel appeared to have garnered unified Republican support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gabbard and Kennedy still face uphill battles in advancing beyond their respective committee votes. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 3.1 percent growth in the third quarter and slightly below economists' expectations. For all of 2024, GDP growth was 2.8 percent. The bulk of fourth-quarter growth came from consumer spending, with spending on goods and services growing 6.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively, both up from the third quarter. 'Bobby! Bobby!' Supporters decked out in MAHA ('Make America Healthy Again') pins and hats chanted this as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's nominee for health secretary, entered a packed room for his Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday. But the enthusiasm of his cheerleaders belied the uphill battle Kennedy now faces in advancing beyond a committee vote and, if he gets there, winning enough support in the full Senate. Senators also grilled Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel—Trump's nominees for director of national intelligence and FBI director, respectively—this week, signaling the first serious congressional pushback against the president's picks after his first batch of Cabinet nominees sailed through the Senate with relative ease. As expected, Democrats questioned Kennedy—who appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health Committee on Thursday—on his previous advocacy against vaccinations, stance on abortion, and qualifications to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Republicans, meanwhile, appeared eager to get through the hearing as quickly as possible. Of the three M.D.s on the Senate Finance Committee, all Republicans, only one seemed to be particularly skeptical of Kennedy: Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who practiced as a gastroenterologist for more than two decades and has been a public critic of the nominee. 'Some of the things he said were just not true. For example, for hepatitis B vaccines there's no safety trials. I have actually performed hepatitis B vaccination safety trials many years ago,' he told reporters Tuesday, after meeting with Kennedy privately. Cassidy's lines of questioning generated perhaps the most damaging moment of Kennedy's first day of testimony. When the Republican senator probed the nominee on his knowledge of public healthcare financing, Kennedy failed to demonstrate an understanding of important differences between Medicare and Medicaid, and incorrectly stated that the federal government was Medicaid's sole funder. And Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, was even clearer about his concerns during the nominee's next hearing on Thursday, as John McCormack reports on the site today: At the end of Thursday's hearing, Cassidy recounted the story of an 18-year-old woman he treated who had to be flown by helicopter for an emergency liver transplant due to a case of Hepatitis B, a disease easily prevented by a vaccine. Cassidy said if someone dies because she was 'not vaccinated because of policies or attitudes you bring to the department,' the 'greatest tragedy will be her death.' An 'associated tragedy,' Cassidy continued, is that it 'will cast a shadow over President Trump's legacy, which I want to be the absolute best legacy it can be. So that's my dilemma, man, and you may be hearing from me over the weekend.' Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democrat, narrowed in on Kennedy's financial interests. As part of his anti-vaccine campaigning, Kennedy has received fees from law firms suing drug manufacturers. Warren noted that as HHS Secretary, he would have many tools to influence future drug-related lawsuits and asked to commit to not suing drug companies 'while you are secretary and for four years after.' Kennedy refused: 'You're asking me to not sue drug companies, and I am not going to agree to that,' he said, to cheers from many in the audience. With Democrats uniform in their opposition, a 'no' vote from Cassidy would block Kennedy from advancing out of the finance committee and make it extremely unlikely that he would get a vote on the Senate floor. But at least three more GOP senators would need to flip to doom his nomination in a full Senate vote. Moderate Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also expressed skepticism about Kennedy's views on Thursday. And Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, himself a polio survivor (the vaccine for which Kennedy has criticized), could be the final 'no' vote. 'I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress, and I will not today,' the former majority leader said last month. The audience for Gabbard's hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee was notably more subdued than Kennedy's, mostly filled with reporters, Congressional staffers, and family members and friends of the nominee. Gabbard, however, was at least as defiant and almost as controversial as the health secretary pick. Lawmakers entered the hearing with serious questions about Gabbard's views and qualifications. An eight-year Democratic congresswoman and a National Guard member for more than two decades, the Hawaiian-born Gabbard has no intelligence experience beyond a one-year stint on the House Committee on Homeland Security and two years on the House Armed Services Committee on Intelligence and Readiness. She's also demonstrated some questionable political judgment, to say the least. Gabbard has praised whistleblower Edward Snowden and requested his pardon, made comments suggesting that the U.S. is to blame for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and cast doubt on whether recently ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people during the country's civil war—evidence of which is well-documented. In 2017, while serving as a member of Congress, Gabbard visited Syria on a diplomatic trip paid for by two Arab-American activists with ties to a Syrian nationalist party. Unbeknownst to her staffers, she also used the trip to set up and attend a three-hour meeting with Assad, only admitting to the sit-down after she returned to the U.S. Given Republicans' narrow 9-8 majority in the committee, any one of these issues could sink Gabbard's candidacy. By TMD's count, the nominee was asked ten times—by Republicans and Democrats—if Edward Snowden was a traitor. She declined to answer yes or no, stating simply, 'I believe Edward Snowden broke the law.' The topic is particularly resonant given Gabbard's access to highly sensitive information if confirmed, potentially creating Republican holdouts ahead of a narrow committee vote. 'It would befit you and be helpful to the way you are perceived by members of the intelligence community if you would at least acknowledge that the greatest whistleblower in American history, so-called, harmed American security,' GOP Sen. Todd Young of Indiana said during the hearing, visibly grimacing. 'I think there are a lot of questions after. Yeah,' GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma told reporters when asked about Gabbard's answers on Snowden after the hearing. Senators also pressed Gabbard on her recent flip-flop on section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a program that allows the FBI to query some Americans' emails. A vocal opponent of the program during her time in the House, Gabbard introduced a bill to repeal it in 2020. But on Thursday, she appeared to change her tune. 'My actions and legislation in Congress were done to draw attention to the egregious civil liberties violations that were occurring at that time,' she said, adding that later reforms had assuaged her concerns. 'Ms. Gabbard, what are the reforms that have led you to now support 702?,' Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, asked Thursday. After Gabbard mentioned reforms passed last April, Warner noted that she had criticized them as making an 'already bad' problem 'many times worse' on Joe Rogan's podcast. 'I just don't believe, on your judgment and credibility issues, that this is the appropriate role you should take going forward,' he said. Patel's hearing rounded out the contentious trio, but Democrats' fixation on highlighting their previous criticisms about the candidate may have undermined their efforts to derail his confirmation. Despite his extensive resume—Patel has served as a former public defender and Justice Department attorney, a staffer for the House Intelligence Committee, a National Security Council official, and chief of staff to the defense secretary—the nominee is less known for his professional career than for his enthusiastic embrace of conspiracy theories about the 'deep state.' Widely described as the most loyal hanger-on in Trump's orbit, Patel has even authored a children's book about the plot against 'King Donald.' If confirmed, lawmakers worry this conspiratorial mindset would cloud Patel's judgment as head of the FBI—an agency he seems to believe is complicit in alleged Democratic efforts to commandeer the federal government. The nominee has advocated for restricting the FBI's intelligence-gathering activities and threatened to 'come after' Trump's purported enemies within the media. Democrats were, predictably, alarmed by Patel's nomination. But, as The Dispatch's Charles Hilu reported from the hearing, their rage was often channeled into scoring partisan points rather than eliciting truly damaging testimony from Patel: Rather than putting Patel on the defensive, Democrats used much of their time during the five-hour hearing reciting incendiary comments Patel has made in the past and asking him to justify certain actions from Trump. They inflicted little damage, if any, on his confirmation prospects, likely missing the opportunity to deter enough Republicans from voting for him once his nomination reaches the full Senate. At one point Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island lobbed several questions at Patel regarding social media posts and podcast appearances he had made. A Whitehouse staff member held up a poster that depicted Patel saying it was 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that members of federal law enforcement were involved in starting the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Patel called that characterization 'completely incorrect' and was about to respond to the charge, but Whitehouse would not let him. 'I'll give you the opportunity in writing, but this is my time now,' Whitehouse replied, sparing Patel from needing to defend the remark. For now, it appears that Republican senators are more likely to expend political capital on opposing Kennedy and Gabbard than on putting up a fight over Patel's bid. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, both senior members of the Judiciary Committee, signaled their support for Patel as early as last month. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina also backed Patel's confirmation in an introduction before the committee. 'In my 10 years in the Senate, I hope I have established a reputation for being fair, doing my homework, and taking tough positions that have been met with harsh criticism,' he said. 'Heck, I've been censured by my party for taking tough positions, and I stand by those positions today and my position to support Kash Patel.' Patel, somewhat surprisingly, appears to be the exception in a week where Trump's top nominees at times struggled. Heading into committee votes, it appears quite possible that Gabbard and Kennedy will not receive committee recommendations—or at the very least face a tight vote on the Senate floor. Writing for the New York Times, Alex Vadukul revisited the Luddite Club—a group of Brooklyn high schoolers he profiled in 2022 who formed a club dedicated to engaging with one another free from technology. With the original group now in college, Vadukul wanted to see how their Luddism has fared. 'Two years later, I'm still asked about them. People want to know: Did they stay on the Luddite path? Or were they dragged back into the tech abyss?' he wrote. 'I put those questions to three of the original members—Ms. Watling, Jameson Butler and Logan Lane, the club's founder–when they took some time from their winter school breaks to gather at one of their old hangouts, Central Library in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. They said they still had disdain for social media platforms and the way they ensnare young people, pushing them to create picture-perfect online identities that have little [to] do with their authentic selves. They said they still relied on flip phones and laptops, rather than smartphones, as their main concessions to an increasingly digital world. And they reported that their movement was growing, with offshoots at high schools and colleges in Seattle, West Palm Beach, Fla., Richmond, Va., South Bend, Ind., and Washington, D.C.' President Donald Trump had the following exchange with a reporter during a briefing yesterday on the D.C. airport crash. Reporter: Today, you have blamed the diversity element, but then told us you weren't sure the controllers made any mistake. You then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones that made the mistake. Trump: Yeah, it's all under investigation. Reporter: I understand that, that's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion, right now, that diversity had something to do with this crash. Trump: Because I have common sense. Bloomberg: Romania's Far-Right Candidate [Calin Georgescu] Dismisses Ukraine as 'Invented' Romania's far-right presidential frontrunner called Ukraine an 'invented state' that will be dismembered after losing the war with Russia–and proceeded to make territorial claims of his own. … Georgescu said Romania should seek to benefit from a peace settlement ending the war—and reclaim territories that were once part of Romania. He mentioned several traditional regions—northern Bukovina and Maramures, as well as Budjak—that are currently part of Ukraine. 'Everybody is interested' in border changes, Georgescu said. 'We are interested.' New York Times: U.S. Funding Freeze Threatens Security at ISIS Camps in Syria After a 34-year run involving more than 82,000 gallons of paint, the Blue Man Group will hold its final Off-Broadway performance on Sunday. In the newsletters: Will Rinehart explored how AI development is moving faster than regulators and Nick Catoggio unpacked (🔒) the woes of trying to cover the second Trump term. On the site: Mike Warren details the Trump administration's rift with Catholics, John McCormack reports on RFK Jr.'s tough road ahead, Charles Hilu considers Kash Patel's confirmation odds, and Kevin Williamson argues that you can't run government like a Silicon Valley startup. Do you think any of the three nominees before the Senate this week are suited to the Cabinet positions?
