Hegseth on Defense

Plus: Who's on deck for the next round of confirmation hearings, Trump wants to create a second IRS, Cuba is no longer doing terrorism, and more...

Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks kicked off Tuesday with a feisty showdown between Pete Hegseth and Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Hegseth, a veteran and Fox News talking head, is an unorthodox pick to lead the Pentagon. He argued that's exactly what the Defense Department (which I am obliged to remind you has still never passed an audit) needs. "It's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm," Hegseth told the committee in his opening remarks. "A change agent."

Democrats zeroed in on the question of whether Hegseth needed to get his own life in order first. Allegations of marital affairs, heavy drinking, and sexual assault were aired repeatedly by Democrats on the panel. The most firey exchange came from Sen. Tim Kaine (D–Va.), who used those personal issues (breaking oaths, being intoxicated on the job) to ask, effectively, whether Hegseth would be fit for duty.

Toughest moment so far for Pete Hegseth:

Senator Tim Kaine grilling him on his personal conduct. pic.twitter.com/qZOPWb92Fv

— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) January 14, 2025

As in the clip above, Hegseth refused to give a straight answer about whether his personal conduct should be disqualifying for a potential Defense Secretary. The most serious allegation against him—the sexual assault claim, which stems from an incident in 2017—ended with no criminal charges being filed and an undisclosed settlement being paid to the woman involved.

Hegseth seems to have done a good enough job of playing defense. Sen. Joni Ernst (R–Iowa), widely seen as the swing vote on the committee, said after the hearing that she would support his nomination. That ought to get Hegseth's appointment to the Senate floor.

Who's next? Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.), Trump's pick to be secretary of state, and Pam Bondi, Trump's second choice to be attorney general, are both set for confirmation hearings today.

Rubio figures to have a relatively easy path to confirmation—though you can certainly expect Democrats to gleefully pick apart his one-time personal feud with Trump, which culminated with Rubio suggesting that Trump was not well endowed. On the stuff that actually matters, Rubio is likely to face questions about whether he can effectively conduct diplomacy on Trump's behalf, despite having more interventionist impulses than the president-elect.

Bondi is a prosecutor, lobbyist, and former Florida attorney general. Her confirmation hearing will likely focus on Trump's plans for sweeping changes at the Justice Department and whether Bondi would use her position to help Trump target his political opponents.

A second IRS. In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced plans to issue an emergency declaration allowing him to create a new "external revenue service" to administer the collection of tariffs and other duties.

That entity already exists: Tariffs are collected and processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Those taxes are not paid by some external entity but by the American-based importers who bring goods into the country.

Still, Trump's apparent plan to use an emergency declaration to create a new federal entity that will be tasked with extracting more tax dollars from Americans seems notable—in large part because I'm old enough to remember when Trump was promising to abolish federal agencies rather than create new ones.

Cuba's not doing terrorism anymore, so that's nice.

President Joe Biden notified Congress on Tuesday that he planned to remove Cuba from the list of countries that the U.S. regards as state sponsors of terrorism. The announcement was part of a deal—brokered by the Catholic Church, interestingly enough—that will see Cuba release several political prisoners within the next week, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed federal officials familiar with the terms of the deal.

Cuba's pending removal would leave just three countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism: North Korea, Iran, and Syria. The list might soon have a fourth member: Cuba. As the Associated Press notes, the incoming Trump administration is likely to block Biden's action or simply add the island nation back to the exclusive terrorism club.

This is all pretty silly. Cuba isn't any more of a threat to America this week than it was last month—by which I mean it's not a threat at all—and it won't suddenly be a bigger threat two weeks from now.

---

Scenes from Washington, D.C.: Good luck doing much of anything in the nation's capital on Monday (and parts of Sunday and Tuesday), when Donald Trump is scheduled to take the oath of office for the second time.

NEW: DC street closures announced for upcoming Trump inauguration. These closures will run from Sunday, January 19, through January 21 #wmata @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/v03h9F9fQV

— Adam Tuss (@AdamTuss) January 13, 2025

Mayor Muriel Bowser encourages those who need to enter the special inauguration zone—my term, not hers—to use the Metro. But, of course, the Metro stops in the middle of downtown will be closed from Sunday night through Tuesday morning too.

---

QUICK HITS

• The death toll in the Los Angeles wildfires climbed to 25, as firefighters continued battling the blazes. With severe winds expected to hit the region on Wednesday, some experts are warning that "fire tornados" could be spawned—as if all this hasn't been terrifying enough already.
• A few dozen workers are defending the Getty Museum from flames that once got within six feet of the facility and its world-renowned collection of art and antiquities.
• Prices rose 0.4 percent in December, as the annualized inflation rate ticked upward to 2.9 percent.
• Federal aid to California in the wake of the fires might be tied to a debt limit increase, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R–La.) told reporters.
• The House of Representatives passed a bill blocking federal funding to public schools that allow transgender students to play on girls' sports teams. Two Democrats from Texas voted for it.
• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested after police scaled walls and cut through barbed wire to get to him. Yoon was impeached by the country's parliament after declaring martial law and ordering military officials to detain and shoot lawmakers, but he remains in office for now.
• Will Trump follow through on his promise to free Ross Ulbricht on his first day in office?
• The federal bureaucracy creates 23 new rules for every bill Congress passes into law.
• Donald Trump's doppelgänger is a Pakistani pudding vendor:

Pakistan has its own Donald Trump

Locals love taking selfies with Salem Bagga, a singing pudding vendor. They believe the man looks exactly like the future U.S. President Trump.

Bagga has capitalized on this resemblance and turned it into a brand, naming his rice pudding,… pic.twitter.com/t8ICZzeZFu

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 14, 2025