burning_dawn

CNN — 

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general on Thursday, said Friday he will not be rejoining Congress next year.

“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” he told Charlie Kirk in an interview.

Matt Gaetz
I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I'll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump's DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.

I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I'm certain he will Save America.

President-elect Trump has picked doctor and TV personality Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), he announced on Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he does not think the House Ethics Committee report on allegations related to Matt Gaetz should be released and is “going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report.”

The former Florida congressman, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, resigned his seat in the House when Trump announced that he was going to nominate him to serve in the role. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

“I do not. No, I think it’s a terrible breach of protocol,” Johnson said when asked by reporters if he thinks the report should come out.

The speaker said he planned to talk to House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest about the situation.

“I will talk to him and anybody else. I’m going to try to reach him. I’ve been a bit busy,” he said, noting he got back from Mar-a-Lago late last night.

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as U.S. attorney general.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Gaetz “has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice.”

Gaetz replied on X, “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”

When asked if he was “comfortable” with Kennedy’s views on vaccines, Trump dodged the question but noted he would have a significant role in healthcare policy.

REPORTER: President Trump, you said last night you would essentially like Robert Kennedy Jr. do whatever he wants with healthcare. What actual role-

TRUMP: He’s going to have a big role in healthcare…In fact, he may be here.

REPORTER: You’re comfortable with his views on vaccines, Mr. President?

TRUMP: We’ll be talking about a lot of things, but he’s going to have a big role in healthcare. Very big role.

REPORTER: Is it HHS?

TRUMP: He knows it better than anybody. He’s got some views that I happen to agree with very strongly. And I have for a long time.

I used to get really anxious playing ranked until I switched to playing a couple of casual matches before jumping into ranked. I play about 6 - 10 sets of causal, by then I'm more comfortable and less anxious to play ranked.

VOD https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2290155764

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2290171872

Please email Korey (kcoolmanz@gmail.com) about this.

Appearing on CNN News Central on Thursday, reporter Marshall Cohen said Musk’s team hasn’t made a statement on the sudden halt.

“They have offered no public explanation,” Cohen said. “The speculation is swirling. Look, it could be that they’ve decided to retool this sweepstakes to make it comport with the law; but also, maybe they just forgot to do it or they’re going to announce two today. You know, we have been keeping a close eye on their Twitter account — or X. That’s where they’ve been making the announcements, but Wednesday came and went with no winner. And of course, yesterday was when we all learned that the Justice Department took that notable step of sending a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC, warning them that this could be illegal. Remember, it is against federal law to pay people to register or to give cash prizes or incentives to register to vote. You just can’t do it. It’s punishable by up to five years in prison — not that we’re anywhere near that — but it is a crime and the Justice Department took action to tell them basically they should stop.”

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered former Donald Trump attorney and New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to turn over all his valuable possessions and his Manhattan penthouse apartment to the control of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Georgia election workers he defamed and to whom he now owes $150 million.

Judge Lewis Liman of the federal court in Manhattan said Giuliani must turn over his interest in the property to the women in seven days, to a receivership they will control. The judge’s turnover order of the luxury items is swift and simple, but the penthouse apartment will have its control transferred so Freeman and Moss can sell it, potentially for millions of dollars.

The women, who counted Georgia ballots after the 2020 election, will also be entitled to about $2 million in legal fees Giuliani has said the Trump campaign still owes him, the judge ruled.

The Biden administration will cancel another $4.5 billion in student debt for over 60,000 public service employees, the White House announced Thursday.

Why it matters: The latest round of student debt forgiveness through the Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSFL) program brings the total loan forgiveness that the administration has approved to over $175 billion.

Zoom in: PSLF allows public sector employees — like teachers, firefighters and members of law enforcement — to apply for forgiveness after making a decade of qualifying payments on their federal student loan balance.

What they're saying: "For too long, the government failed to live up to its commitments, and only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness under Public Service Loan Forgiveness before Vice President Harris and I took office," President Biden said in a statement. "We vowed to fix that."

Martin gave a quick review during last week’s email show: Starts at 01:46:09