Trump says he helps polio vaccine, regardless of indicators of RFK Jr’s opposition
Final week, the New York Instances reported {that a} lawyer who had filed petitions in search of to revoke the approval of vaccines for polio and different preventable ailments has been by Robert F Kennedy Jr’s aspect in interviews to rent prime officers for the well being and human providers division.
A reporter requested Donald Trump immediately if he supported taking the polio vaccine out of circulation.
“You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine. That’s not going to occur,” Trump stated. “I noticed what occurred with the polio, I’ve mates that had been very a lot affected by that. I’ve mates from a few years in the past, and … they’re nonetheless in not such good condition due to it.”
The polio vaccine has been credited with suppressing, almost entirely, a illness that may trigger lifelong paralysis in individuals who get it. Mitch McConnell, the highest Senate Republican who survived the illness, condemned the news that Trump’s incoming administration might be hostile to the much-used vaccine.
Nonetheless, Trump did sign some skepticism to the vaccine mandates enacted by some states and college districts. “I don’t like mandates. I’m not a giant mandate particular person,” Trump stated.
He additionally stated that there is likely to be a hyperlink between vaccines and pesticides and autism. “You check out autism immediately versus 20, 25 years in the past, it’s like, not even plausible. So we’re going to have experiences,” Trump stated.
However he downplayed fears that Kennedy, if confirmed to guide the nation’s well being division, would make radical adjustments. “Nothing’s going to occur in a short time. I feel you’re going to search out that Bobby is far is a really rational man,” Trump stated.
Key occasions
Immediately’s recap
Donald Trump’s transition to the White Home continues apace. Trump’s nominee to guide the Division of Well being and Human Providers, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has been assembly with senators to make the case for his appointment.
At a wide-ranging press convention from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump tried to downplay considerations that his administration (below Kennedy’s affect) to take away the polio vaccine from circulation.
Right here’s what else occurred immediately:
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Trump instructed he might pardon New York mayor Eric Adams.
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He announced that Japanese agency SoftBank would make investments $100bn in America and create 100,000 jobs, although prior to now, related guarantees have not panned out.
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TikTok requested the supreme court docket to dam a regulation that goals to ban the favored social media app within the US. The corporate requested the Supreme Court docket to behave by 6 January.
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Democrats float a plan for Kamala Harris to run for president once more in 2028. Harris has reportedly not dominated out a second run, however can be stated to be contemplating a bid for the governor of California.
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Democrats are making a last-minute push to persuade Joe Biden to place the Equal Rights Modification into the structure, which might defend in opposition to intercourse discrimination and certain spark a court docket battle.
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Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who has met with Pete Hegseth, said the protection secretary nominee instructed him that he’ll permit a lady who he paid in relation to a sexual assault allegation to talk about it publicly.
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Biden defended his financial file with an essay within the progressive American Prospect journal.
Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, is backing Robert F Kennedy Jr for secretary of well being and human providers. The senator stated he met with Kennedy on Monday and so they had a “nice assembly”. This comes as Kennedy is courting votes from lawmakers for his affirmation.
“I actually respect his message,” Scott stated throughout a press convention following the assembly. He talked about that he himself used to work within the hospital enterprise.
“Lastly, we’re going to have a HHS secretary that wakes up every single day and says, ‘How can we hold everyone wholesome on this nation?’” Scott stated.
Scott stated he believes in vaccines and that Kennedy stated what he needs with vaccines is “transparency”. Scott added that they didn’t focus on polio vaccines or abortion. Kennedy has proven help for abortion rights.
Democrats eye Harris 2028 presidential run as they devise political comeback
Edward Helmore
Democratic get together aides have begun to drift concepts for a Kamala Harris political comeback, reportedly eyeing one other run on the US’s highest workplace even because the get together continues to grapple with the electoral messages contained within the vice-president’s decisive defeat in November’s White Home race in opposition to Donald Trump.
Harris, who has reportedly not dominated out a second run for the presidency, is now reported to be contemplating a run for the California governorship, at present held till 2027 by Gavin Newsom. Newsom was a rumoured presidential contender in the course of the chaotic summer season that noticed Joe Biden step down from a rematch with Trump – whom he defeated within the 2020 election – after which endorse Harris as his alternative.
In accordance with the Washington Post on Monday, some Democratic get together aides imagine Trump – who, amongst different issues, overcame a felony conviction and different such expenses to win – has sufficiently overturned the norms of shedding White Home candidates’ not making an attempt a second chunk on the proverbial apple to present Harris the chance of a repeat bid in 2028, this time for the total cycle.
“Since Donald Trump has rewritten the foundations – the norms – I don’t imagine Kamala Harris or anybody ought to attempt to go together with precedent, ever,” stated Donna Brazile, a Harris ally, Al Gore 2000 presidential marketing campaign supervisor and political commentator. “There aren’t any rule books.”
Learn extra:
Trump’s stance on TikTok has softened since his first time period in workplace. Initially he advocated to ban the app, however throughout his run for re-election he posted on his Fact Social account that he would “save TikTok in America”.
Trump launched his personal TikTok account in June, which now has almost 15 million followers.
On Monday, Trump stated in a press convention at Mar-a-Lago that he has a “heat spot in my coronary heart for TikTok”. He’s reportedly slated to satisfy with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his property on Monday, in accordance with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
TikTok requested the supreme court docket to dam a regulation that goals to ban the favored social media app within the US. Until the court docket intervenes, the ban is ready to enter impact on 19 January, at some point earlier than Donald Trump is sworn into workplace.
The regulation to ban TikTok handed Congress final spring and was signed by Joe Biden. The US authorities says TikTok is a nationwide safety risk as a result of its dad or mum firm, ByteDance, is Chinese language-owned. They are saying China may use the app to entry private information from tens of millions of People and in addition unfold propaganda. The federal government has not disclosed proof that Beijing or ByteDance has completed so.
TikTok argues the regulation is unconstitutional, unfairly singles it out and violates the suitable to free speech of its tens of millions of customers.
“The Act will shutter one among America’s hottest speech platforms the day earlier than a presidential inauguration,” reads the court docket submitting. “This, in flip, will silence the speech of Candidates and the various People who use the platform to speak about politics, commerce, arts, and different issues of public concern,” they added.
TikTok requested the supreme court docket to behave by 6 January.
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump’s allies have change into more and more emboldened to drift their most audacious concepts as Trump prepares to return to workplace, suggesting he run for an unconstitutional third time period in 2028 and accusing the information media of getting engaged in a felony conspiracy with prosecutors in opposition to him.
These recommendations, by Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, got here at a self-congratulatory gala dinner for conservatives in New York on Sunday. At occasions the remarks appeared just like the product of the euphoria that permeated attendees.
The underlying message was clear: with Trump again within the White Home and with Bannon renewing his affect with the president-elect, probably the most excessive and polarizing proposals on the very least had been up for consideration.
“The viceroy Mike Davis tells me, because it doesn’t truly say consecutive, that possibly we do it once more in ’28?” Bannon stated of Trump probably operating once more in his remarks on the New York Younger Republican Membership gala dinner that additionally noticed a Trump adviser keel over the lectern and fall off the stage.
Using the wave of self-congratulatory sentiment within the room, Bannon, who ignored the black-tie costume code with a wax jacket and black collared shirt, doubled down on pursuing a marketing campaign of retribution in opposition to Trump’s perceived enemies within the information media and on the justice division.
“We would like retribution and we’re going to get retribution. You need to. It’s not private, it’s not private,” Bannon stated to the raucous room. “They should study what populist, nationalist energy is on the receiving finish.
“I want investigations, trials after which incarceration. And I’m simply speaking concerning the media. Ought to the media be included within the huge felony conspiracy in opposition to President Trump? Ought to Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow and all of them?”
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Robert F Kennedy Jr arrives on Capitol Hill to satisfy with senators
Anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr is on Capitol Hill to satisfy Republican senators who will resolve if he must be confirmed as secretary of well being and human providers:
Kennedy has attracted a lot scrutiny for his embrace of varied conspiracy theories, and advocacy in opposition to vaccines. However as conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on X, Kennedy’s attraction to Trump supporters is that he would downsize the large federal division he’s being tapped to guide:
The annual price range for HHS is over $1.8 trillion, together with $130 billion in discretionary spending. A behemoth of bloat and forms.
That stated, there’s one factor about Kennedy that may not sit nicely with some Republicans: his earlier statements of help for abortion. We’ll see what lawmakers should say about that.
Federal worker union responds to Trump risk to drive employees again in workplace
It’s a considerably obscure problem, however one factor Trump has made very clear he plans to do is take steps to require federal staff to work from places of work that they might have stopped going to when Covid-19 broke out.
He repeated the promise at his Mar-a-Lago press convention immediately, saying:
If folks don’t come again to work, come again into the workplace, they’re going to be dismissed.
In an announcement, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Authorities Workers, the most important union of federal authorities staff, stated the difficulty was not so simple as Trump makes it sound:
Rumors of widespread federal telework and distant work are merely unfaithful. Greater than half of federal staff can not telework in any respect due to the character of their jobs, solely ten p.c of federal employees are distant, and people who have a hybrid association spend over sixty p.c of working hours within the workplace.
Kelley additionally threatened a battle over any steps Trump might take that run afoul of union contracts, saying: “Collective bargaining agreements entered into by the federal authorities are binding and enforceable below the regulation. We belief the incoming administration will abide by their obligations to honor lawful union contracts. In the event that they fail to take action, we shall be ready to implement our rights.”
Right here’s extra about Trump’s plans to return authorities employees to their places of work:
Donald Trump is contemplating appointing Democratic congressman Jared Moskowitz to guide the Federal Emergency Administration Company (Fema), CNN reports.
Moskowitz, the previous director of Florida’s division of emergency administration, could be a uncommon registered Democrat to wind up in Trump’s administration. The congressman earlier this month introduced he would be a part of the congressional caucus supporting the “Division of Authorities Effectivity”, the quasi-governmental effort co-chaired by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to downsize the federal authorities.
Trump has nominated some former Democrats to cupboard posts, together with ex-Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of nationwide intelligence, and anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr as well being and human providers secretary.
Elon Musk is commonly by Donald Trump’s aspect today, however the Guardian’s Edward Helmore experiences that the federal government doesn’t essentially think about him reliable:
House entrepreneur Elon Musk is unlikely to obtain authorities safety clearances if he so utilized, whilst his SpaceX launch firm blasts navy and spy company payloads into orbit, in accordance with a report on Monday.
The billionaire, an in depth ally of Donald Trump, who is ready to hitch the incoming administration as an effectivity knowledgeable and just lately turned the primary particular person to exceed $400bn in self-made private wealth, is reported by the Wall Street Journal to have been suggested by SpaceX attorneys to not search highest-level safety clearances owing to private drug use and contacts with international nationals.
Musk at present holds a “top-secret” clearance that took years to acquire after he mentioned use of marijuana on a 2018 podcast with Joe Rogan, in accordance with the outlet. However that might not be sufficient to have entry to details about US authorities payloads in his rockets.
Sometimes, candidates present process federal safety screenings by the division of protection might not obtain clearance if the company expresses considerations about drug or alcohol use, felony conduct, psychological circumstances, sexual conduct or allegiance to the US.
In accordance with the Journal, Musk’s attorneys outlined situations by which he may inadvertently disclose secrets and techniques to international officers with whom he repeatedly speaks, together with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, with whom he’s reported to have been in common contact since 2022.
Musk’s use of one other semi-legal drug, ketamine, in pursuit of what mates name “pure creativity”, together with reports of LSD, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, may be a problem.
Biden briefed on Wisconsin faculty capturing
Joe Biden has been briefed on a college capturing in Madison, Wisconsin, which the native police chief says has left 5 folks useless and a number of other different injured.
“The president has been briefed on the varsity capturing in Madison, Wisconsin. Senior White Home officers are in contact with native counterparts in Madison to offer help as wanted,” the White Home stated.
Right here’s extra on this creating story:
Concerning Israel’s assault on Gaza and the chance for a ceasefire, Miller stated:
We’re pushing as exhausting as we all know the way to do at this level. We imagine we are able to get to the deal, however once more it stays incumbent on Hamas and Israel agreeing to these last phrases and getting it over the road. I can not in good conscience stand right here and inform you that that’s going to occur. But it surely ought to occur.
US officers and different nations try to dealer a deal between Israel and Hamas that might name for a ceasfire and the discharge of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees.
Greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since Hamas’s 7 October assaults on Israel, greater than half of whom are ladies and youngsters.
US needs Syrian folks to succeed, says state division spokesperson
The US state division is holding a briefing proper now, a lot of it devoted to the aftermath of the fast toppling of Syria’s authorities, previously led by authoritarian chief Bashar al-Assad – and what which means for the US.
Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated the US’s “message to the Syrian folks is that this: We would like them to succeed and we’re ready to assist them accomplish that.”
Miller spoke to the significance of finding and discovering US journalist Austin Tice, who has been lacking since 2012 however is reportedly alive, to his household. Tice’s mom, Debra, went on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and stated she has met with the state division and the White Home.
She added: “We’re simply actually enthusiastic about being a reunited household.”
No group from the US authorities has been on the bottom but in Syria in reference to the seek for Tice or different diplomatic points since insurgent forces took down the regime, the state division confirmed.
The day to this point
Donald Trump held a wide-ranging press convention from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, weighing in on every thing from pardoning New York mayor Eric Adams (he might do it) to eliminating the polio vaccine (he’s not in favor). The president-elect additionally tried to tamp down considerations that his nominee to guide the well being and human providers division, Robert F Kennedy Jr, would make huge adjustments, saying as a substitute that “he’s going to be a lot much less radical than you’d assume”. Lastly, Trump announced that Japanese agency SoftBank would make investments $100bn in America and create 100,000 jobs, although prior to now, related guarantees have not panned out.
Right here’s what else has occurred immediately to this point:
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Democrats are making a final minute-push to persuade Joe Biden to place the Equal Rights Modification into the structure, which might defend in opposition to intercourse discrimination and certain spark a court docket battle.
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Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who has met with Pete Hegseth, said the protection secretary nominee instructed him that he’ll permit a lady who he paid in relation to a sexual assault allegation to talk about it publicly.
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Biden defended his financial file with an essay within the progressive American Prospect journal.
Donald Trump has a historical past of saying huge investments that don’t end up as marketed, and one of many prime examples from his first time period was a sprawling plant in Wisconsin that electronics manufacturing large Foxconn was to construct. It by no means truly materialized, however regardless of that unmet promise, the Badger state this 12 months voted to ship Trump again to the White Home. Writing earlier than the election, the Guardian’s Callum Jones took a take a look at what went mistaken with the much-ballyhooed funding:
Lower than 30 miles south of the Fiserv Discussion board, the Wisconsin conference heart the place Republicans confirmed Donald Trump as their nominee for president for the third time, lies the positioning of a challenge Trump predicted would change into “the Eighth Surprise of the World”.
Whereas nonetheless in workplace, the then president traveled to Mount Nice in Racine county to interrupt floor on a sprawling facility that the electronics manufacturing large Foxconn had agreed to construct – in change for billions of dollars’ price of subsidies.
Flanked by native allies and executives from the corporate, Trump planted a golden shovel within the floor. “America is open for enterprise greater than it has ever been open for enterprise,” he proclaimed in June 2018, as FoxConn promised to speculate $10bn and rent 13,000 native employees.
Highways had been constructed and expanded. Homes were razed. The realm – a former manufacturing powerhouse – was primed for revitalization in a deal that appeared to underline the manager prowess of America’s most well-known businessman, a picture that has helped keep many citizens’ confidence that he may steer the US economic system extra competently than his rival, Kamala Harris, and will win him the White Home once more come November.
Trump says he would think about pardoning indicted New York mayor Eric Adams
At his just-concluded press convention in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump was requested if he would think about pardoning New York mayor Eric Adams, who’s facing corruption charges.
“Yeah, I feel that he was handled fairly unfairly,” Trump replied.
Adams has been indicted on 5 federal expenses associated to accepting items in change for favors reminiscent of serving to Turkey open a brand new diplomatic tower in Manhattan regardless of considerations about its hearth security system.
