Closing summary
This blog is closing now, but you can read all our coverage of US politics here . Here’s a roundup of the key developments:
Donald Trump said he would nominate far-right Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to be the US attorney general on Wednesday. Gaetz’s nomination is one of the most significant to date. As attorney general, he would be the country’s chief law enforcement officer and oversee the legal positions that the government takes on key issues, including abortion, civil rights laws, and first amendment issues.
The pick proved extremely controversial even among Republicans, with many critics pointing to a House ethics committee that is investigating him for allegations of sex trafficking and corruption among other things, which he denies. Gaetz resigned from Congress after news of his nomination broke, meaning that the investigation will come to an end.
Trump named the former Democratic congresswoman and Trump campaign surrogate Tulsi Gabbard as his nominee for director of national intelligence. That choice also raised eyebrows given Gabbard’s choice to meet Syrian president Bashar al-Assad her skepticism about well-documented atrocities during the country’s civil war.
The president-elect officially named Florida senator Marco Rubio as his nominee for secretary of state. The son of Cuban immigrants is a hawk on China and Iran and a firm supporter of Israel.
Joe Biden met Trump at the White House, extending a courtesy to the president-elect and avowed political adversary that the Republican did not reciprocate in 2020, when he refused to acknowledge Biden’s election victory. Melania Trump declined an invitation to meet with Jill Biden.
Before heading to the White House, the president-elect stopped by a meeting of House Republicans, who appear on course to preserve their majority, where he joked about seeking a third term. The constitution prohibits that, since he already served one term in the White House.
House Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries acknowledged that “we will not regain control of the Congress in January”. In a statement, he said Democrats would “continue to seek bipartisan common ground on any issue … while pushing back on far right extremism whenever necessary.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson won the House Republican nomination to stay on the job, on track to keep the gavel after a morning endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump ahead of a full House vote in the new year.
Republican senators chose South Dakota’s John Thune as their new leader, replacing long-serving Mitch McConnell, who opted not to stand again for the job.
Jack Smith will reportedly wind down his two prosecutions of Trump, one concerning the 2020 election and the other the classified documents found at his properties, and resign before the inauguration. The president-elect has vowed to fire Smith upon taking office, and justice department policy also prohibits the prosecution of sitting presidents.
The unofficial results in the race for the US Senate seat in Pennsylvania triggered a legally required statewide recount, commonwealth secretary Al Schmidt said. Democratic Senator Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick have vote totals within the one-half of 1% margin that triggers a mandatory recount under state law, Schmidt said in a statement.
US government employees have been injured by UFOs and the US government has conducted a secret UFO retrieval program, a former department of defense official told a congressional committee on Wednesday. The hearing lacked any direct evidence to back up the startling claims.
Updated
Indivisible, a leftwing political umbrella movement founded in response to Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016, has responded to Trump’s choice of Matt Gaetz as attorney general with a strongly worded press release titled “For Fuck’s Sake”. Among other things, it says:
Putting Matt Gaetz in charge of the Department of Justice is like handing a matchbook to an arsonist and asking him to protect the forest. This is a man who’s been investigated for sex trafficking a minor, attended drug-fueled parties with underage girls and is still under House Ethics investigation for sexual misconduct.
This isn’t just a reckless choice; it’s a calculated move to dismantle the DOJ and turn it into Trump’s personal revenge squad.
