Live updates: Trump meets with GOP leaders; Senate delays Ratcliffe confirmation

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) announced their disapproval of President Trump’s decision to pardon nearly 1,500 Capitol insurrectionists within hours of being sworn in.

“The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences,” the two groups wrote in a Tuesday statement.

“Crimes against law enforcement are not just attacks on individuals or public safety they are attacks on society and undermine the rule of law. Allowing those convicted of these crimes to be released early diminishes accountability and devalues the sacrifices made by courageous law enforcement officers and their families,” they added noting that the clemency could embolden others to commit the same act.

The IACP and FOP called on policymakers, judicial authorities, and community leaders to ensure full sentences are enforced, especially in cases involving violence against law enforcement.

GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.) joined the chorus of lawmakers who said President Trump should not have pardoned Capitol insurrectionists who harmed law enforcement.

“Well, I do have an issue with those who assaulted police officers. And I think that those do need to serve the time. That is unacceptable,” Malliotakis said during a Tuesday night CNN appearance.

She also criticized former President Biden for commuting the sentences of inmates who were convicted for violently attacking authorities.

“Certainly, I stand with our Capitol Police and all our law enforcement. I’m very proud to be one of the few individuals here in Congress that actually in the past has received the endorsement of the Capitol Police union, and we have to support our law enforcement,” Malliotakis said later in the interview.

“We need to hold those who injure them and kill them accountable.”

President Trump’s barrage of executive orders on immigration and border security will test his opposition’s strength in the courts of law and public opinion, and also threatens to set boundaries on his administration’s capacity to close the country’s doors.

Litigation came virtually instantly against some parts of Trump’s plans, including a birthright citizenship order that could force all new parents to prove the legitimacy of their U.S. citizenship.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued on Monday night, pushing back against the birthright citizenship order and targeted border enforcement measures like the shutdown of the CBP One app.

“Trump’s barrage of executive orders is calculated to create fear, create chaos, induce anxiety, and drive our elected officials to capitulate and collaborate in a mass deportation agenda,” said Naureen Shah, a deputy director with the ACLU.

READ MORE HERE.

The unprecedented use of pardons by former President Biden on his last day in office coupled with President Trump’s sweeping pardon of violent Jan. 6 offenders on his first has sparked renewed scrutiny of the singular power.

At the stroke of pen, both presidents’ acts of clemency marked a stark departure from the status quo, stretching the already vast limits of the pardon power and raising alarm among critics and allies alike. 

Just hours apart, both Biden and Trump issued a flurry of pardons.

READ MORE HERE.

Senate Democrats are sounding the alarm over a sworn affidavit from the ex-sister-in-law of Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth that accuses him of being abusive toward his second wife.

The document emerged Tuesday, one day after the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced Hegseth’s nomination on a party-line vote and as Senate Republicans push to complete his confirmation in the coming days.

Danielle Hegseth, who was married to Pete Hegseth’s brother, detailed the claims in a six-page statement that said Samantha Hegseth, the second wife of the Defense secretary nominee, once had to hide in a closet out of fear and devised a plan to deploy if she ever needed to get away.

It also mentioned multiple instances of alcohol abuse over many years. 

Samantha Hegseth denied the allegations in an email to NBC News.

But the eleventh-hour revelations caused increasing distress for Democrats already distrustful of Pete Hegseth and doubtful of his ability to lead the massive agency.

READ MORE HERE.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Tuesday said Republican leaders agreed to move President Trump’s legislative agenda in one sweeping bill, a development he shared with reporters after top GOP lawmakers huddled at the White House with the president.

The announcement from Scalise comes after weeks of debate over how to carry out Trump’s legislative wish list, with several senators — including Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) — pushing for two bills to carry Trump’s priorities through the budget reconciliation process instead of one, in hopes of more quickly enacting some of the president’s agenda. House leaders, meanwhile, advocated for a single bill, a preference Trump said he shared.

“We’re moving forward with one bill,” Scalise told reporters after returning to the Capitol from the White House.

Pressed on whether that was the agreement, and whether the Senate was on board, Scalise responded: “Yeah.”

READ MORE HERE.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he plans to oppose the nomination of Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI.

“Kash Patel has neither the experience, the temperament, nor the judgment to lead the FBI,” Durbin said in a statement after a 30-minute meeting with Patel.

“Mr. Patel’s political grievances make him a favorite of the MAGA world, but they have not prepared him to work night and day to keep us safe from violent crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other threats. Mr. Patel is the wrong choice to lead the FBI.” 

Durbin also referenced the FBI’s 30,000 employees, saying they “deserve a leader who understands the gravity of their mission.”

Durbin’s statement comes as the panel has set a Jan. 29 hearing to review Patel’s nomination, the same day it will also hold a business meeting to

The Senate was unable to strike a deal to expedite the confirmation of John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA.

Republicans had been hopeful they could cement him atop the agency by Tuesday. But Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on the floor Tuesday evening that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) nixed a time agreement that would have confirmed Ratcliffe Tuesday or Wednesday.

“I don’t really understand the objection,” Cotton said, pointing to the wide bipartisan vote Ratcliffe received from the panel on Monday and his tenure as Director of National Intelligence in 2020. “Sen. Schumer stood here yesterday and talked about how, ‘We’re going to cooperate on fully qualified, capable nominees with integrity,’ which John Ratcliffe is.”

“Now we’re not going to have a vote today, and apparently we’re not going to have a vote tomorrow,” he continued. “Which means I hope nobody’s making any plans for the weekend, or the evenings, because we’re going to get these nominees confirmed — starting with Mr. Ratcliffe, and then moving on to Mr. Hegseth and moving on to [Mrs.] Noem — the easy way or the hard way.”

Senate Republicans hit their full 53-member majority on Tuesday as Sens. John Husted (R-Ohio) and Ashley Moody (R-Fla.) were sworn into office by Vice President Vance. 

The pair cemented the full majority after weeks of being stuck at 51 or 52 GOP members. 

“Both our new senators bring valuable experience, expertise and perspective to the Senate Republican majority and the whole Senate will benefit from them joining our ranks,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said to open the Senate floor. “I look forward to working with them.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) tapped Husted, the former state lieutenant governor, last week as Vance’s replacement. He resigned his seat on Jan. 10.

Moody fills the seat previously occupied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced her selection on Thursday after months of speculation, which included possibly selecting Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump who served as co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee last year. 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he and President Trump didn’t discuss the 1,600 people who received pardons for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol during their meeting at the White House Tuesday afternoon.

Asked about the pardons, Johnson responded, “I haven’t had an opportunity to review that because I’ve been so busy, so I’ll get back to you on that.”

Johnson had said over the weekend that “violent criminals” should not be pardoned. Asked about the fact that about 600 people Trump pardoned were accused of assaulting law enforcement, the Speaker responded, “It’s case-by-case evaluation, I’ve always said, and I haven’t had a chance to review it… I don’t know the details of it, so stay tuned.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Tuesday said he was visiting the Washington, D.C., jail, one day after President Trump issued pardons for roughly 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Roy — who was on the radio with Guy Benson when he arrived at the facility — said he was visiting because “I wanna know what’s going on.”

“A pardon is a pardon and you’re trying to catch all this up in paperwork or some excuses, I don’t want any of that, right,” Roy said on the radio. “These guys have been in jail now or dealing with all of this nonsense for four years.”

Roy went on to say “we all know that there may be a handful of people who did things they shouldn’t have done,” noting that some rioters received commutations and not pardons. In actuality, however, only 14 Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders charged with sedition had their sentences commuted to time served, while all others received full pardons — including more than 600 people accused of assaulting law enforcement.

“You got a bunch of people here who came down and were, you know, on the mall that day, and, yeah, I think there were some things they did that were deserving of looking at, but not 1,500 people being harassed and, you know, having the FBI knocked their door down, and now they’re sitting here four years later,” Roy said. “This was a politicized prosecution, due process was tossed out the window, and the president issued pardons. He’s got that power and these guys should now honor that.”

President Trump took office on Monday, marking the beginning of a new era in Washington.

The changing of the guard was, perhaps, marked most significantly by sweeping new executive actions that will have far-reaching consequences on swaths of the electorate.

They included:

• 26 executive orders
• 12 memos
• 4 proclamations
• 78 Biden executive actions withdrawn

Read more about them all here.

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the anti-government group the Oath Keepers, said it was a “good day for America” when President Trump pardoned him and other Jan. 6 defendants on Monday.

“I think it’s a good day for America that all the wrongs are being undone,” he told News4. “None of them should have been here in the first place.”

Rhodes stood outside the Washington, D.C. jail waiting for more people to be released.

“We’re here to welcome them,” he said.

READ MORE HERE.

Twenty-two Democrat-led states and two cities challenged President Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, which on Tuesday kicked off the first legal battles between his new Justice Department and Democratic attorneys general. 

The two separate lawsuits, filed in Massachusetts and Washington state, ask federal judges to rule the order contradicts the Constitution, which under the 14th Amendment bestows citizenship on anyone born in the United States. 

“President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle by executive fiat,” one group of states wrote in their complaint. 

“The principle of birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment unambiguously and expressly confers citizenship on ‘[a]ll persons born’ in and ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.”

READ MORE HERE.

President Trump is meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

Johnson and Thune have been plotting how to best pass Trump’s ambitious 100-day agenda, but disagreements have emerged among House and Senate Republicans.

Trump is expected to meet with other GOP leaders later this afternoon.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) on Tuesday criticized President Trump’s decision to pardon or commute the sentences of individuals who were convicted of assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, attach on the Capitol.

“I don’t think that the approach of a blanket pardon that includes those who caused harm, physical harm to our police officers, to others, that resulted in violence — I’m disappointed to see that. And I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women who stood by us,” Murkowski told reporters as she walked into a Republican meeting outside the Senate chamber.

Cassidy offered his own strong statement of disapproval about pardoning people who assaulted police officers four years ago in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

“It’s not right. People who assault police officers, if they do the crime, they should do the time,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy described himself as a “big ‘Back the Blue’ guy,” referring to his record of supporting law enforcement.

“Whether you’re in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Monroe, Lafayette, Alexandria, Lake Charles or Washington, DC, it’s wrong to assault anybody,” he said, referring to various communities in his home state.

Both Murkowski and Cassidy voted to convict Trump of the impeachment charge of inciting insurrection during his 2021 Senate impeachment trial. They were two of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is the only other GOP senator who voted to convict Trump’ who is still in Congress.

Collins said he will encourage VA employees to “come back to work” after Trump signed an executive order Monday directing federal workers to return to office.

“I do believe people need to come to work. The president’s made that very clear,” Collins said, before nothing that there are “certain issues” surrounding the VA’s roughly 470,000-person workforce

About 80 percent of such employees are unionized and on contracts, he said.

Many federal employees have been able to work remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, but Trump and his allies have signaled that requiring them to return to in-person work could be a way to thin out what they see as a bureaucrat-heavy workforce.

“We’re going to encourage them to come back to work, we’re going to follow the president’s directive on that, and we’re going to make sure that we get people in there because at the end of the day, it’s about veterans,” Collins said.

The reverend at the National Cathedral prayer service for the inauguration called on President Trump to have mercy on transgender children and immigrant families in her sermon on Tuesday.

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde said to Trump, who was sitting in the first pew, that millions of Americans have “put their trust in you” before making her plea to the president.

“I ask you, to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, independent families — some who fear for their lives,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Collins told lawmakers that he would defend the Mission Act, a program introduced in Trump’s first term that allows veterans to seek private-sector health services outside the VA system.

“If confirmed, will you make certain that the letter and spirit of the Mission Act is followed by every employee in every VA facility and that the veterans are aware of their rights to advocate for themselves and to receive care when they need it, where they want it?” asked Senate VA Committee Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).

“We’re going to be following the Mission Act. . . . nothing’s going to hold that up,” Collins said.

Passed in June 2018, the Mission Act was an overhaul to the eligibility rules for veterans to get outside care –  including mental health services – if they had to wait too long to receive a service from the Veterans Health Administration or must drive at least 30 minutes to a VA facility. 

But in recent years, conservative groups had accused the Biden administration of seeking to prevent some veterans from finding care outside VA centers using excessive bureaucracy.

The confirmation hearing for Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. ended around 12:30 p.m., after about two and a half hours of questions.

During his confirmation hearing, secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee Doug Collins did not commit to upholding a Biden administration rule allowing the department to provide abortions to veterans for a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or when the life of a pregnant woman is at risk.

“I care deeply about our women veterans and that they have the services they need. So I want to just ask you: Do you believe a veteran who lives is Texas who has been raped and becomes pregnant should be able to get abortion care at her local VA?” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) asked.

“Senator, that is an issue that is very sensitive in this body,” Collins responded. “It is something that has been looked at here as what the law actually says and the original law from 1992 says the VA does not do abortions. Two years ago, that was a decision that was looked at and decided. I will tell you this, we will be looking at that issue when I get in there to confirm that the VA is actually following the law.”

Murray pressed: “So do you plan to modify that law, then?”

“When we get in we’re gonna look and make sure that the law is being followed from the 1992 law where they said they couldn’t and the revision that just happened,” he replied.

Collins, a Navy veteran, Air Force Reserve chaplain, former pastor, and GOP House member representing a Georgia district from 2013 to 2021, was chosen by Trump in December to lead the VA.

As VA secretary, Collins is expected to help roll back abortion access for veterans in states that enforce abortion bans following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Tuesday blasted President Trump’s sweeping pardon of people convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as “un-American.”

“There is no other way to describe President Trump’s pardon of Jan. 6 offenders than un-American. Let’s be clear. President Trump didn’t just pardon protesters. He pardoned some people convicted of assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

“It’s a betrayal of the highest order of our Capitol police officers who risked their lives to keep us safe,” he said.

Trump on Monday pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes, including individuals assaulted of assaulting police officers.

Trump’s sweeping action wiped out the prison sentences of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said she subscribes to the views of far-right Israeli ministers who believe that Israel has a biblical right to the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and disregard Palestinian claims and aspirations for a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Stefanik answered in the affirmative when asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), during her confirmation hearing for ambassador to the U.N., if she agreed with Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s views. Ben Gvir recently resigned from the Israeli government in opposition to the ceasefire and hostage release deal reached between Israel and Hamas.

Stefanik did not address a question from Van Hollen whether she supported the right to Palestinian self-determination. The previous Biden administration had said a pathway to a Palestinian state is key to brokering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“I asked you in my office about whether Palestinians have the right of self determination,” Van Hollen said. “My understanding was you said yes, you have a different answer.”

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said that United Nations agencies and U.S. assistance can replace the work done by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, following a halt in funding by the U.S. over allegations of Hamas influence in the body.

Stefanik named [UN High Commissioner for Refugees], World Food Program, and USAID, as proven organizations that still need reform, but are preferred compared to UNRWA. The Biden administration halted funding for UNRWA following allegations that members of its staff participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel; and President Trump signed an executive order blocking the U.S. from resuming funding.

A United Nations investigation found that nine UNRWA staff were possibly involved in the attack.

Most countries who initially halted funding for UNRWA resumed sponsoring the organization.

Stefanik, Trump’s pick to lead the United Nations, dismissed comparisons of a gesture Elon Musk made during an Inauguration Day speech to a Nazi salute.

“What do you think of Elon Musk, perhaps the president’s most visible adviser, doing two Heil Hitler salutes last night at the president’s televised rally?” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) asked the U.N. envoy hopeful.

“Elon Musk did not do those salutes. I was not at the rally, but I can tell you I’ve been at many rallies with Elon Musk, who loves to cheer when President Trump says we need to send our U.S. space program to Mars. Elon Musk is a visionary,” said Stefanik, who had earlier decried “antisemitic rot” in the United Nations.

Musk has also dismissed criticism of the gesture.

“The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired,” Musk wrote on X.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed its Monday night challenge to Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order in federal court in New Hampshire. It has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, who was nominated to the bench by former President George W. Bush and has been serving since 2007.

Three lawsuits were quickly filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C., against Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) that accuse it of not complying with federal transparency requirements. Two of the cases have been assigned to U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, whom former President Biden nominated in 2021.

Cobb may also ultimately oversee the third lawsuit, which was rejected for technical reasons and will not be assigned to a judge until it is properly refiled.

Senate Majority John Thune (R-S.D.) said on the Senate floor that the chamber will vote Tuesday afternoon on John Ratcliffe’s nomination to lead the CIA, a move that would give Trump his second Senate-confirmed member of his national security team.

Democrats are expected to expedite passage of Ratcliffe’s nomination, as he is expected to win solid bipartisan support. The Senate Intelligence Committee advanced his nomination, 14-3, on Monday evening.

“He will bring valuable knowledge and experience to his new post,” Thune said. “Mr. Ratcliffe brings the right experience and the right approach to the CIA, and I look forward to working with him in his new position.”

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first female uniformed leader of an Armed Forces branch in U.S. history, was ousted by the Trump administration with no explanation late Monday.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman relieved Fagan of her duties as Coast Guard commandant, noting she “served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation,” according to a message sent to all Coast Guard members Tuesday. 

Adm. Kevin Lunday, the former vice commandant of the Coast Guard, will take over as acting commandant, the statement notes, offering no other details of the switch.

An online biography on Fagan was unavailable Tuesday morning, and the Coast Guard’s official website listing the service’s senior leadership showed a blank space under “Commandant.”

Fagan, also the Coast Guard’s first female four-star admiral, had served as the military branch’s 27th commandant since June 1, 2022.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) knocked Stefanik after she said she thinks there are Democratic senators who have supported open borders.

“The notion that Democratic senators are for open borders and allowing illegal aliens to vote is a fantasy,” Kaine said. “Now I have questions about if you’d fall for a fantasy.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) lauded President Trump for the flurry of executive orders he signed Monday night, hours after he was sworn into office, writing in a statement that the moves marked “the beginning hours of America’s Golden Age.”

Trump signed dozens of executive orders after Monday’s inauguration ceremony involving immigration, the border, energy and the federal workforce. He also signed pardons for roughly 1,500 individuals who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

“President Trump has held office for less than 24 hours, but he has already done more to improve the everyday lives of Americans than Joe Biden did in four years,” Johnson said. “President Trump is using the power of the pen and the authority granted to him by Congress to secure our borders, restore American energy dominance, slash unnecessary government bureaucracy, cut regulations, and reverse the disaster wrought by the Biden Administration.”