Closing summary
At her confirmation hearing, Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, pledged to end the “weaponization” of the justice department – a key Republican talking point – and said she thought the department “targeted” Trump during Joe Biden’s presidency. She refused to say that her aspiring boss lost the 2020 election, but did say that she would not order prosecutions solely for political reasons. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio, whom Trump has nominated to lead the state department, told senators he expects both Russia and Ukraine to make “concessions” to end their war, and criticized Nato allies for not spending enough on defense. Both Rubio and Trump’s energy secretary nominee, Chris Wright, had their hearings disrupted by protesters, who were removed by police.
Here’s what else has happened today:
A ceasefire deal has been reached to end the fighting in Gaza and see the release of hostages taken in the 7 October attack, prompting Trump to quickly claim credit.
Rubio warned China could use the Panama canal as a “chokepoint” during a conflict, after Trump recently said the corridor should return to US control.
Activists urged senators to reject Wright, an oil executive who has said: “There is no climate crisis.”
Democratic senators pressed Bondi for her views on Kash Patel’s ideas to reform the FBI, which he has been nominated to lead.
Tech billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will reportedly attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
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Joe Biden will at 8pm deliver his farewell address to the nation, as he prepares to hand power back to Donald Trump on Monday. Ahead of his speech, he released a letter to the nation this morning that made a final argument for his administration’s policies. Here’s more on what he had to say, from the Guardian’s Robert Tait:
Joe Biden has said the “soul of America” is still at stake in a valedictory message implicitly admitting that the national divisions that spurred him to run for the White House remain unbridged at end of his four-year presidency.
The acknowledgment came in a farewell letter issued ahead of a televised speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, when he will deliver his final address as president before being replaced by Donald Trump next week.
“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake,” Biden wrote in what is likely to be a theme reprised in his speech. “And, that’s still the case.”
The admission was an oblique recognition that Biden’s legacy – touted in a long catalogue of claimed achievements at the end of the letter – is overshadowed by the impending return of Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday after his election victory over Vice-President Kamala Harris in November.
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