Trump Nominees Vow to Shake Up Washington but Face Opposition
The Trump team named more cabinet nominees over the weekend. President-elect Donald Trump's choice for FCC commissioner has warned big tech over censorship, and his pick for energy secretary is a climate change skeptic.
The announcements come as outgoing President Biden made a major commitment of his own on climate funding. Biden, in Brazil for the G20 Summit, made a historic visit to the Amazon Rainforest. It's the first time a sitting president has visited the region
Biden said the U.S. will increase international climate funding to over $11 billion a year. "The fight to protect our planet is literally the fight to save humanity," he said.
The incoming Trump Administration appears to be taking a different approach. Over the weekend, the President-elect nominated Chris Wright as Energy Secretary. Wright is a fracking executive who claims the effects of climate change are overblown, saying, "There is no climate crisis, and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either."
Meanwhile, last night Trump also named FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr as the next FCC chairman.
Carr recently posted a letter he sent to the heads of big tech saying, "Americans have lived through an unprecedented surge in censorship. Your companies played significant roles in this improper conduct. The censorship cartel must be dismantled."
Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 15, 2024
The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with “fact checking” groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives.
The censorship cartel must be dismantled. pic.twitter.com/Xf0sEYOUfv
With controversy swirling around another nominee, some Republicans want to see a report by the House Ethics Committee about Trump's pick for Attorney General, former Congressman Matt Gaetz.
The committee investigated allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use, which Gaetz has denied.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says he's still very hopeful Gaetz will be approved. "He knows everything about how the Department of Justice has been weaponized and misused, and he will be a reformer, and I think that is why the establishment in Washington is so shaken up about this pick," Johnson told Fox News Sunday.
Another nomination facing some potential Republican Senate opposition is Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who reportedly faced a past accusation of sexual assault. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) called Hegseth the right choice for defense but also sounded cautious.
"I think he's a good pick, but again, as allegations come out, we'll figure out as the Senate moves forward with advise and consent to the president of the United States and doing our constitutional duties, we'll figure out if he can get confirmed or not," Mullin told NBC's Meet The Press.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) questioned the caliber of Trump's picks. "The question that has to be asked, is this the best we can do?" Jeffries said.
Polling by the Washington Post shows most of the nominees with low favorability ratings, in part because most respondents said they knew little or nothing about them.
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