A Cease Fire, A Surrender & Florida’s Victory in D.C. – Top 3 Takeaways

A Cease Fire, A Surrender & Florida’s Victory in D.C. – Top 3 Takeaways – January 16th, 2025  

  1. Hell to pay. On January 7th Donald Trump had this to say when asked what he would do if hostages held by Hamas weren’t released by the time he became president. He said: If those hostages aren't released by the time I get into office, there will be hell to pay. The very next day we heard that talks were underway for a cease fire deal and potential hostage release. I’m sure it was a coincidence. On Sunday, VP-elect JD Vance was asked by Fox News Sunday to elaborate on what “hell to pay” meant. He said: It means enabling the Israelis to knock out the final couple of battalions of Hamas and their leadership. And do you know who picked up those comments disseminating them across the middle east? Al Jazeera and other middle eastern news agencies. Yesterday news broke of a cease-fire and hostage release deal that will release 33 hostages over the course of 42 days with the first phase that’s set to commence on Sunday...the day before Inauguration Day. Now of course this is a case of history repeating itself. Just as Jimmy Carter’s weakness led to Iran’s seizing of the US embassy and the 14 month long Iranian hostage crisis that ended the day that Ronald Reagan took office, because Ronald Reagan was taking office... Yesterday we had the cease-fire announcement about the release of hostages because Donald Trump is about to take office and essentially promised the immediate end of everything associated with Hamas if this didn’t happen by the time he took office. Yet President Biden tried to take credit saying the agreement had “the precise contours” of a discussed plan from last May. Seriously? A plan from last May. Even if hypothetically, it was a plan from last May, what does it say that it didn’t amount to anything until yesterday? What a joke... Which btw, is exactly what President Biden had to say when asked who deserved credit. He was right but not for the inference he was projecting. National Security Communications advisor John Kirby said on Fox News “We’re not focused too much on the credit” but that the Biden White House and Trump transition team worked “as one team” in getting this done and that there was “plenty of credit to go around”. But in reality, as Fox News has reported, President-elect Trump’s words alone weren’t involved in making this happen. Quoting their report: A weekend meeting between Netanyahu and Trump's incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, led to the breakthrough. Witkoff’s assurances reportedly convinced Netanyahu to accept the deal. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. 
  2. Florida shined. President of the United States? Check. Attorney General? Check. Secretary of State? Check. When the Trump administration gets underway next week, we’ll be well on our way to Making America Florida. At least Donald Trump’s version of it. I’ve been doing this for 27 years. I was a political wonk before that. This is to say that I’ve seen a lot of bad, boring, lame, and frustrating senate hearings. Also, there’s the occasionally interesting/and insightful one – the outliers. What’s rare is a truly brilliant performance. While Pete Hegseth effectively navigated the mine field he was placed in during his senate hearing on Tuesday... Pam Bondi disarmed all the mines in the field yesterday. Pam didn’t just nail her day 1 performance to be the next Attorney General (she has a second hearing today) she... 
  3. Turned in what perhaps was the most brilliant performance I’ve seen for a nominee facing a hostile reception. Her opening statement was brief but brilliant highlighted by this: Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end. America must have one tier of justice for all. She was disarming in her charm, her directness and attention to detail within her answers. Take this exchange for example: Question: If you are confirmed as attorney general, will you pledge to fairly and faithfully uphold the law regardless of party? Answer: So help me God. Question: You know, we have some history here with your predecessors. Do you really think that you can avoid the disgrace that they encountered, or the repercussions from the White House if you say no to the president? And so my question to you is – can you say no to the president in the event he asks you to do something unethical or illegal? First, she rejected the premise of the question saying that she’s not been under any pressure to do anything and then added: I sit up here and speak the truth. I'm not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. And that was the theme of her hearing. The best exchange took place with newly elected California Senator Adam Schiff. When Schiff asked Bondi whether she would investigate former Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and former Rep. Liz Cheney, she said she’d not been asked to and that the questions were hypothetical. When Schiff wouldn’t let it go, raised his voice, and essentially began yelling at Bondi she said: You know what we should be worried about, the crime rate in California is through the roof. Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average. When Schiff asked her if she would tell Trump that he lost the 2020 election. She said you’re playing politics and accused him of leaks. When Schiff asked her if she would advise against day 1 pardons by President Trump because she wouldn’t have had time to review every one, she said: You were censured by Congress for comments just like this. So reckless. The old saying be brief, be brilliant, and be gone applied to Bondi’s performance. We’re not just set to have Florida’s former Attorney General as the next U.S. Attorney General... We’re set to potentially have one of the best in our country’s history at a time we desperately need it to properly reform the DOJ and all its agencies. The current version of Bondi is even better than the version I recall as Florida’s former AG. As for Rubio. He brought the hearing room to laughter when Code Pink protestors began yelling at him in Spanish. And perhaps the best way to sum up his hearing yesterday for Secretary of State came from Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine who summed up Rubio’s performance this way: We're used to seeing nominees who know a lot about a couple of things, and sometimes, who know very little about virtually everything. But I think you've seen a hearing with a nominee who, agree or disagree with the points he's made, he's not talking out of a briefing book. He's not having a thumb through a binder to decide how to answer a particular question. I've always been struck by working with Senator Rubio on this committee, since I came to the Senate in January 2013 that he has a very well developed sense of the world and a passion in all corners of it. When your political adversaries have that to say at the end of the day – you know you crushed it. Florida’s nominees shined in a big way on the big stage. 

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