It has been another busy week in the nation’s capital, and at Mar-A-Lago, as Donald Trump rapidly builds his cabinet. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden attended his final international summit over the weekend, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the Amazon Rainforest.
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Trump’s cabinet picks
President-elect Donald Trump has continued to announce key nominees for his cabinet in his upcoming administration, with several of his picks bringing their own controversy to the table.
It began Nov. 13 when Trump announced that he would tap now former Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz to be attorney general.
Gaetz, who has faced numerous allegations of engaging in underage sex, accepting bribes and partaking in illicit drug use, immediately resigned from Congress after being nominated. He was also the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation, but that investigation was closed when Gaetz resigned from Congress.
Gaetz was also the subject of a three-year long investigation by the Department of Justice over alleged sex trafficking; However, the investigation was closed without any charges being filed.
Trump is standing by his pick for attorney general, even reportedly working the phones to pressure Republican senators to confirm Gaetz and sending Vice President-elect JD Vance to help in the effort. Several GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Cornyn of Texas, have expressed a desire to see the House Ethics report, but the committee voted not to release the report to the public after a closed-door session on Wednesday.
Additional nominees that have sparked controversy include vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services, cofounder of World Wrestling Entertainment Linda McMahon for secretary of Education and former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for director of National Intelligence.
Gabbard’s nomination has raised particular concern on both sides of the aisle. In the past, she has made statements that critics have labeled as supportive of Russia. Additionally, her visit with Syrian President Bashar al Assad in 2017 caused uproar among her then fellow Democrats, with some saying it legitimized a leader who has been accused of war crimes.
UPDATE: At 11:24 a.m. on Thursday, Gaetz announced that he is withdrawing from consideration to be attorney general under Trump.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work on the Trump/Vance transition,” Gaetz said in a statement posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Concerns over Ukraine escalation
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, shut down Wednesday as concerns grow over escalating rhetoric and tensions between Russia and Ukraine. It comes after Biden announced on Sunday that he is authorizing the Ukrainian military to use U.S. long range weapons to strike inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called it an escalation and responded by lowering the criteria needed for Russia to launch a nuclear weapon. This comes as Biden returns to Washington, D.C., after attending the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend, where world leaders addressed topics such as the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and efforts to mitigate climate change.
This story was written by Sahil Gupta. He can be reached at [email protected].
Washington Weekly is a new initiative by the Marquette Wire that aims to provide students with weekly updates on what is going on in our nation’s capital. The weekly piece is created using information gathered from numerous respected news organizations around the country and the world. All sources of information gathered for Washington Weekly can be found in the hyperlinks featured throughout the story.
