Key senator declines to say if she will back Pete Hegseth, calling for ‘very thorough vetting process’ – US politics live | Trump administration

Elon Musk has arrived at the Capitol for a meeting with lawmakers to promote the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his Donald Trump-sanctioned effort to downsize the US government:

The Tesla CEO arrived with his son:

Biotech entrepreneur and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who co-chairs DOGE along with Musk, is also expected to be around.

From the Associated Press, here’s more on what the new department, which is not really a department and not actually in the government, may do:

Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are expected on Capitol Hill on Thursday, meeting with legislators behind closed doors about President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to “dismantle” the federal government.

Trump tapped the two business titans to head his Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with firing federal workers, cutting government programs and slashing federal regulations — all part of what he calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House.

“I think that’ll be a great start to the whole process,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who will chair a House Oversight subcommittee in the new year as part of “building the bridge between Congress and DOGE.”

Washington has seen this before, with ambitious efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government that historically have run into resistance when the public is confronted with cuts to trusted programs that millions of Americans depend on for jobs, health care, military security and everyday needs.

But this time Trump is staffing his administration with battle-tested architects of sweeping proposals, some outlined in Project 2025, to severely reduce and reshape the government. Musk and Ramaswamy said they plan to work alongside the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Trump’s nominee Russ Vought, a mastermind of past cuts.

Acting secret service director acknowledges ‘abject failure’ in first Trump assassination attempt

Joan E Greve

The acting director of the US Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, criticized the events surrounding the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump as an “abject failure”.

“July 13 was a failure of the Secret Service to adequately secure the Butler Farm Shows site and protect President-elect Trump,” Rowe told the House taskforce examining the assassination attempt.

“That abject failure underscored critical gaps in Secret Service operations, and I recognize that we did not meet the expectations of the American public.”

Rowe took over as acting director of the Secret Service after his predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned amid bipartisan criticism of her agency’s handling of security at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which left the president-elect wounded and one attendee dead.

Since its formation shortly after the Butler rally, the House taskforce has conducted 46 transcribed interviews and reviewed roughly 20,000 pages of documents, chair Mike Kelly said.

Republican senator Joni Ernst, a sexual assault survivor and combat veteran whose views on Pete Hegseth are seen as crucial to his chances of being confirmed as defense secretary, declined to say how she would vote on his nomination.

Ernst met with Hegseth yesterday, and told Fox News this morning that she was not yet ready to say yes to confirming him.

“I think for a number of our senators, they want to make sure that any allegations have been cleared, and that’s why we have to have a very thorough vetting process, and that’s why I was happy to sit down with Pete and have that conversation with him yesterday,” Ernst said.

“So, again, all I will say at this time is that we did have a very thorough discussion over a number of those issues. And the vetting will continue. I am certain, through the next month or so, until we approach that hearing date.”

As the defense secretary pick arrived on Capitol Hill this morning for more meetings with Republican senators who will decide his fate, Pete Hegseth told reporters he has Donald Trump’s full backing.

“I spoke to Trump this morning, just a few minutes ago. He supports us fully,” Hegseth said.

Asked about his meeting yesterday with senator Joni Ernst, Hegseth said it was “constructive” and “candid”, but did not elaborate. The Iowa lawmaker and combat veteran’s support is seen as vital to Hegseth’s prospects of confirmation, but Ernst has said little about their meeting yesterday.

Fox News human resources investigated Pete Hegseth after the husband of a woman he was having an affair with attended an employees-only Christmas party held by the network eight years ago, the New York Times reported.

Hegseth would go on to marry the woman, Jennifer Rauchet, who at the time of the incident was a producer on the show Fox & Friends. The episode threatens to be yet another troubling incident that could sour Republican senators on his candidacy for defense secretary.

Here’s more about what happened, from the Times:

The “Fox & Friends” Christmas party at a New York bowling arcade in 2016 was a low point. Mr. Hegseth, who was married to his second wife, with whom he had three children, was having an affair with Ms. Rauchet, a producer on the show.

Her husband, suspecting an affair, showed up at the party even though the event was limited to Fox News employees, and Mr. Hegseth, who had been drinking, was upset to see him, according to people with knowledge of the incident.

Employees reported that Mr. Hegseth caused a disturbance, a complaint that the human resources department addressed directly with him, according to one of the people with knowledge of the situation. After Mr. Hegseth and Ms. Rauchet disclosed their relationship to Fox News in late 2016, Ms. Rauchet was transferred to a comparable job within Fox News.

The Times also reported on an incident where Hegseth was so intoxicated at a Fox News colleague’s wedding that his friends had to get him a ride home so he could make it to work on time:

The following December, Mr. Hegseth got so drunk at a wedding of a Fox News producer that he struggled to stand upright in a men’s bathroom, according to two people with direct knowledge of the episode who declined to be named for fear of retribution. Friends asked a producer who was there to get Mr. Hegseth a ride home so he could make it to the set by 6 a.m., they said.

Timothy Parlatore, Mr. Hegseth’s lawyer, said that “neither of these allegations are true.”

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, will be back once again on Capitol Hill today to try to convince Republican senators that he’s the right man to lead the Pentagon. Reports of excessive drinking, financial mismanagement and poor treatment of women, as well as a sexual assault allegation, have dogged his nomination over the past days, with several conservative lawmakers expressing doubts over approving him for the job. But the most important voice in determining his fate has not piped up yet: Iowa’s Republican senator Joni Ernst. The army veteran and sexual assault survivor met with Hegseth yesterday but said little publicly about their talk. Her views on him will be pivotal in determining whether the former Fox News host’s nomination advances, or goes the way of Matt Gaetz.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has uncovered more details of incidents Hegseth was involved in while employed by the conservative network. These include another story of him drinking to excess, as well as an incident at a Christmas party eight years ago that led to an investigation from Fox News’s human resources department. We’ll see what Republican senators have to say about that throughout today.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be together in public again at 6pm ET to light the national Christmas tree outside the White House. The pair have not been seen together much since Harris lost last month’s presidential election to Trump.

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are heading to the Capitol today to promote the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”, their unorthodox, Trump-sanctioned idea to cut spending and downsize Washington’s federal organs.

• The House committee investigating the attempted assassination of Trump will hear testimony from acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe Jr, and will also mark up its final report.