Tillerson Defends State Dept. Cuts, Says America Is ‘leaning In’

Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth is out with a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal: “I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations.”

“President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday picked conservative lawyer Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, choosing a regulatory skeptic who will be expected to cut red tape and rein in the agency’s enforcement division,” the Wall Street Journal reports. CNBC: “If confirmed, Atkins would succeed Gary Gensler, a widely reviled figure in the digital currency community for his many efforts to clamp down on the $3.5 trillion crypto market.

“Podcaster Joe Rogan said he publicly endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election because he strongly opposed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, branding the Democratic vice presidential nominee a ‘liar,'” The Independent reports. “Rogan said he had no intention of weighing in on politics because ‘it’s gross,’ but felt compelled to after news reports emerged revealing Walz had lied about spending time in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square Protests and made confusing statements about his military record.”

“Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed ready on Wednesday to uphold a Tennessee law denying transition care to transgender youth, with some of them saying that judgments about contested scientific evidence should be made by legislatures rather than judges,” the New York Times reports.

“President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who led two private missions to orbit on SpaceX rockets, as the next NASA administrator,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Isaacman, the chief executive of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, is a close associate of Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, and, if confirmed to the post by the Senate, would bring the perspective of an outsider to the space agency and its $25 billion budget.”

Jonathan Last: “Let me propose a norm that should absolutely be broken: Sonia Sotomayor should retire today and her replacement should be confirmed by the Senate immediately.” “Would that be irregular? Yes. Would it be difficult to execute? Yes. Would it carry a political cost for Democrats? Possibly.” “But is such a maneuver permitted by the law?