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Political Appointments and Reactions 0:05 Good afternoon. I'm Victoria Marshall with the latest news from the Washington Watch news desk. President-elect Donald Trump made headlines yesterday when he announced he would be nominating congressman Matt Gaetz of0:17 Florida to be attorney general of the United States. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, Matt will root out the systemic corruption at DOJ and return the department to its true mission of fighting crime and0:29 upholding our democracy and constitution. We must have honesty, integrity, and transparency at the DOJ, end quote. Gates has made a reputation of himself as a Republican firebrand critical of0:41 corruption within within the DOJ. After Trump announced he would be pointing Gates yesterday, the Florida congressman resigned his seat. Here was house speaker Mike Johnson's reaction to the resignation yesterday.0:53 Everyone who served with him will tell you he's 1 of the most intelligent, members of Congress. He's a an accomplished attorney. He's very concerned about the lawfare that has been, occurring in the Department of Justice1:04 under the Biden administration and the fact that the American people have lost their faith in our institutions of justice because of everything that he's seen. He issued his resignation letter effective immediately of1:16 congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what what the reasoning was and he said, well, you can't have too many absences. So under Florida state law, there's about an 8 week period to,1:28 select and fill in a a vacancy. If we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as January third when we take the new oath of office for the new congress. So, Matt would have done1:39 us a great service, by making that decision as he did on on the fly, and so we're grateful for that.1:45 Several Republican senators have expressed shock at Trump's appointment of Gates as AG and said he has no chance of being confirmed by the senate. Yet, Alabama senator Tommy Tupperville has threatened to boot party1:56 members from the upper chamber if they oppose the nomination. Trump himself has also floated the idea of confirming his nominees via recess appointments, which would allow the president to make appointments without a2:07 vote in the senate while the upper chamber is in recess. Yesterday, Trump also announced that former congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, would serve as his director of national intelligence. Gabbard is a military veteran and2:19 used to be a democrat before switching to the Republican party this election cycle. And in other domestic news, Florida attorney general Ashley Moody is taking legal action against FEMA officials forControversies and Legal Actions 2:31 a conspiracy to discriminate against Florida hurricane victims who are Trump supporters. This is after a daily wire report found that FEMA workers in Lake Placid, Florida were directed to ignore2:43 storm victims in houses that displayed Trump signs last month. This report led to FEMA administrator, Deanne Criswell, firing the supervisor, directing FEMA workers to avoid the Trump supporters.2:55 But the fired supervisor, Marnie Washington, is claiming that this was the official guidance from her supervisors because of safety threats and occurred in other places around the country as well. Here's what she3:07 said on Fox News last night.3:09 So you're telling me these orders came from somebody above?3:13 Correct. When I first reported to Florida, I was already on another team. I was there as a specialist. This was the culture. They were already avoiding these homes based on community3:24 trends from hostile political encounters. It has nothing to do with the campaign sign. It just so happened to be part of the community trend. What's reprehensible is they're not being transparent.3:37 Why is this coming down on me? I am the person that jotted down the notes from my superiors, and my notation in Teams chat was exposed from their surge capacity team.3:48 Florida attorney general Moody's legal action against FEMA is intended to investigate how far the political discrimination against hurricane victims went and how many homes were affected. And finally, a new4:00 report from government watchdog Open Books found that the Department of Health and Human Services has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI initiatives.Government Funding and Legislative Priorities 4:12 The report states HHS currently employs 294 DEI employees costing taxpayers 38700000.0 dollars a year. An additional 207 HHS employees4:24 oversee Biden's health equity efforts in the offices of minority health at a cost of 29400000.0 for salaries each year. And those are today's headlines. I'm Victoria4:36 Marshall. Up next is Washington Watch with Tony Perkins. We'll see you tomorrow4:57 interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony5:08 Perkins starts now.5:12 We expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats to work with us to get these folks installed. And, obviously, we're gonna look at, explore all options to make sure that they get moved and that they get moved5:23 quickly.5:24 Welcome to Washington Watch, and thanks for tuning in. That was senator John Thune of South Dakota who was elected yesterday as the next GOP leader in the senate. He was addressing a question on president Trump's call5:35 for recess appointments. We'll discuss it with Andy McCarthy, a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a former chief assistant US attorney. 1 of the first orders of business will be5:46 government funding.5:48 Government funding is scheduled to run out on December the twentieth. Both sides must work together to prevent a shutdown before then. Nobody wants to hear the words Christmas time shutdown a few weeks from6:00 now. I can't think of something the American people would want less during the holidays.6:05 That was a not so happy. Democrat senate leader Chuck Schumer, we're gonna be speaking with congressman Blake Moore, the new vice chair of the House Republican Conference, about this and much more. What's to come in the6:17 lame duck session of Congress and the 100 and nineteenth Congress? Yesterday, we discussed with senator James Lankford of Oklahoma how the Biden administration is refusing to contract with faith based6:28 groups working to reduce recidivism in the federal prison system. Now this may be due in part to a focus on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI.6:40 A newly released report from Open the Books reveals that within the within just the Department of Health and Human Services, that's just 1 department, the Biden administration has spent hundreds of millions of6:52 tax dollars advancing DEI, hiring hundreds of fellow federal workers to implement this agenda. John Hart, the CEO of Open the Books, will join us to discuss the details.7:04 And finally, doctor Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, will join me to discuss this week's news and how bible believing Christians should approach government engagement in the days7:16 ahead. You know, 1 thing I often hear from people, they ask me, Tony, what can I do to help? Well, you know what my answer is? Pray, vote, stand. Alright. We voted. Now we need to continue to stand for biblical values,7:28 and we need to pray, especially now. Join us for Operation Prayer Shield as we ask god to protect our nation and Israel during this time of transition. We're also praying for the incoming7:40 administration that there will be godly men and women filling key roles. If you'd like to join with thousands of other believers in praying, text shield to 6 7 praying, text shield to 6 7 7 4 2. That's h7:52 that's s h I e l d, shield to 6 7 7 4 2. You'll receive weekly alerts, daily prayer points, and more. Again, tech shield to 6 7 7 48:04 2. Republicans in the House of Representatives yesterday locked in their selections for their conference's leadership for the 100 and nineteenth congress. House speaker Mike Johnson won the GOP nomination to retain the8:16 gavel, doing so by unanimous voice vote. Others on the House GOP leadership team will be, my good friend, congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana also, house majority whip8:28 Tom Emmer, and conference chair Lisa McClain, NRCC chair Richard Hudson and conference policy chair Kevin Hearn, formerly with the Republican Study Committee, and conference vice chair Blake8:40 Moore of Utah, and conference secretary, Aaron Hochin of, Indiana. So what might we expect to see in the house coming in January, and what can we expect in8:51 this lame duck session of congress? Joining me now to discuss this and Moore's congressman Blake Moore, who serves on the House Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. He represents the first congressional9:01 district of Utah. Congressman Moore, welcome to Washington Watch, and congratulations on your election as conference vice chair.The Role of Christians in Politics 9:09 Thank you, Tony. I appreciate it.9:11 That's the post that, that, Mike had, Mike, Johnson before being elevated speaker.9:16 Yeah. That's my team always reminds me. Hopefully, I don't have the same fate as him, and I can, stay doing my job there, and he continues on in, in in foreseeable. He's done an amazing job.9:28 He's been able to to keep this conference moving in the right direction. We're really excited about the election results. Thanks for highlighting the the the leadership elections. But last week and just seeing the9:40 mandate across the country that we want conservative leadership to to move things in a different direction in our country.9:46 Blake, there are some housekeeping things that has to be that have to be taken care of, obviously, to organize for the next congress coming in, and, that was taking place today in part. There were conversations about the9:57 rules, and, there'll be a rule package voted on, in January. I was talking with the, the majority leader earlier today. Give us a sense of the the mood, inside10:09 there as members are talking?10:11 We just had a unanimous vote, unanimous voice vote for our speaker. A lot of still hard questions for him to make sure we're still moving in the in in the direction that we wanna go.10:23 Today's rules package will be a lot of debate, and we'll ultimately put it to a vote. And we'll see, you know, kinda where things land. But this process that we did 2 years ago, I remember, speaker McCarthy10:35 former speaker McCarthy, he did a masterful job of of getting the conference together. We have disagreements on how we think some of these these these procedural procedures should go, and we're gonna debate it out and10:47 move on to the next piece. And and then, you know, then we have the rest of the lame duck and getting then a speaker elected and and and moving forward.10:55 Also yesterday, president Trump president-elect Trump came and, and visited with you and spoke to the the Republican conference. What what can you tell us about11:06 that gathering?11:08 Yeah. I guess maybe his title could actually be officially president-elect president Trump. He is still president Trump because he's been a yeah. That's a I've never thought of that. He had a great message. He was just11:18 like, look. We had a big strong win across the country. Work together. Let's get the agenda moving in the right direction, and, it was neat to see Elon Musk. He's a larger than life. And, you11:30 know, this is what we've needed. Right? We weren't it in in turn on president Trump's first term, we created 1 of the strongest economic engines, which is what the tax cuts and jobs act was. Congressional11:42 Republicans have been working on that for a decade. President Trump came. It was the right moment. We had the house, the White House, and senate, and we moved on it. And our our our country had a strong economic growth11:52 period, and we're still benefiting from that that bill. Next year and this candidly should have been the only thing that was discussed on the campaign trail for for, the last year could have been we12:04 have a tax tax bill that expires next year, and we need to make sure that we're moving forward. So he was talking a mixture of policy and galvanizing all of the new voters that we have in our party, and moving this12:16 to, you know, what we wanna accomplish. And this is gonna be this is gonna be a a neat time. Senate, the house of representatives, we are a separate body than the executive branch. We have a12:28 separation of power. But when we align on policy, there's no telling, you know, what we can accomplish, and I think there's a lot that we that that we can do that with with, with the new administration.12:38 And congressman, again, they were very much aligned even with 1 another as, it looks like top number, the house the Republicans could come in with 221 seats maybe at the at the12:50 top.12:50 1 of my closest friend 1 of my closest friends is on the fringe of that. I'm still gonna say 2 22 and manifest that this continues to happen. Well Yeah. It'll be very tight.12:59 That that will be great if that happens, but we already have seen the president kind of plucking some members out. We have, Elise Stefanik, who will be at the United Nations. We have13:11 Mike Waltz, who will be in the White House. And then, yesterday, we we've already had the resignation of Matt Gaetz as he's been tapped for attorney general. So you're not gonna have much of a margin to work with.13:24 No. The and the you can see the trepidation on speaker Johnson's face, and he's like, we have a lot of great people over here, president. Please don't take any more right now. So, yeah, we'll have to get some of these13:34 special elections done as soon as possible, and we're not gonna be haphazard or irresponsible with with this really tight window to navigate. At13:46 least Stefanik needs to be over in that position. So I'm thrilled, and that was a that was a that was a very sensation. And and and Mike Waltz, like, couldn't be a better national security adviser. His is different13:56 because he does not need senate approval. So we can try to make sure that we're we stay in the majority. They'll be very tight and, you know, sicknesses or illnesses or people missing votes, we gotta we gotta recognize14:07 that. So we'll we'll be responsible with it.14:09 You've been dealing with that for the last year, and so going into a very aggressive agenda. Let's talk a little bit about that agenda. You mentioned this. I think top of order is going to be the, the tax14:21 package. Tackles?14:25 So legislatively, think of what we did last term. Our HR 1 was about energy and unleashing American potential. Our HR r 2 was about border security and making sure that we secure our border to14:37 be able to safeguard our nation and our homeland. And then that's the only time you have a chance to then embrace a a broader, immigration reform that also needs to take place, but we've gotta secure the border. So those14:49 will be things that those are legislative items that we've already done. We wanna get those redone as soon as possible, but president Trump can also take some action on the executive front to undo some of the the harmful15:01 policies that that president, Biden it's put in place. So that'll be like first order, then you have a very, very important tax reform bill extension of what we have15:12 done in 20 17, making permanent where we can. That will be a very, very tough bill to get done, and it's gonna take us some time, but we're gonna15:24 be primarily working on that. That's my role on wage means committee. And, you can see just a clear need. If we don't if we don't get this done, it will be a 4300000000000.0 dollar tax increase on15:36 American workers and families. And we as a member of the ways and means committee, we're committed to not let that happen. So that will be first major priority that we haven't already done in this term.15:47 Right.15:48 We didn't we didn't have a senate. Chuck Schumer, he we we gave him some of the some really strong legislation. He didn't even take it up. He didn't even try to, like, you know, take a few pieces from it, maybe try to15:59 work on that and say, okay. We can agree on this part of this bill. Let's at least try to he didn't do any of that. He just was dead on arrival. He's not serious about governing. He's not serious about actually creating,16:09 the things that ultimately led to a big loss for Democrats. Reached they didn't respect people's voice on border. They they they created 5 5000000000000 net new dollars of spending that created inflation,16:21 and we've got the solutions for that. And now we've got a senate that can actually move on some of the good legislation done in the house.16:27 So congressman Moore, just so our our folks, viewers and listeners know, when when legislation passes the house and you go into a new congress, you have to redo it. But this is ground you've already plowed, so it16:37 shouldn't be that difficult to get the energy bill through, to get the border bill through because you've debated it, you've looked at it, you've vetted it, and it's just a matter of pushing pushing it back through again16:45 and now having a senate that will work with you.16:47 The key on this piece with the senate is this bill would still have to pass with bipartisan support, but it's not Chuck Schumer that gets to drive with bipartisan support, but it's not Chuck Schumer that gets to drive it16:57 and leverage it. It would be John Thune, and he is going to do a a a the yeoman's work of making sure people we're gonna send him a bill, and he's gonna go get it done and find a way to get it over17:09 the finish line and send it back to us. It won't be the exact same bill, but it'll be a significant improvement in the process to have someone like him over a, a senator Schumer17:19 that Right.17:20 Is not serious about doing this important work.17:22 Just less than a minute left, congressman Moore. What do we expect to see in the next few weeks in this lame duck session?17:30 Right. So we've got a lot of really good bipartisan legislation that we did on, defense, health care, than in the appropriations bills. So,17:42 I can't predict what will get taken up necessarily. You're gonna have an administration that is calculus has completely changed. President Biden, to what extent he's wanting to get something accomplished before17:55 lose the senate and the White House, he might be motivated to do some of these good bills that we've actually built up and we've got done. So I hope we can get a health care bill passed. There's some tax fixes that we18:04 have to do. You need an end of year sort of bill to get that done. Appropriations, that's gonna be that's gonna be a tricky 1 that I don't exactly have the read on how we're gonna we're gonna play that, but we wanna find18:16 as many savings as possible. But also we don't wanna burden president Trump with all of this by, you know, handing it to him on his desk on day 1. Let's get done what we can and get it off the plate so he can focus on18:27 on, all the key things that we need to to to focus on.18:30 Well, looks like you guys are gonna be busy for a a while. Congressman Blake18:35 And we welcome it. We we hate we hate sometimes the opposition when when senator Schumer wouldn't take up any of our stuff. He, you know, we wanna be busy.Show more In this video 0:05 Political Appointments and Reactions2:24 Controversies and Legal Actions4:12 Government Funding and Legislative Priorities9:03 The Role of Christians in Politics18:41 Constitutional Principles and Political Engagement
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