As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez prepares to jump into the race to be the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, she’s testing how far her colleagues are willing to go as they shake up their leadership structure.

She told reporters Friday that an announcement was coming “soon” and to keep an eye on her social media.

Her official launch would mean challenging Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va), who has already announced he wants to run as the top Democrat of the committee after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who currently occupies the spot, tossed his hat in for House Judiciary ranking member.

“We talked the other day, and [Ocasio-Cortez] indicated she was headed that way,” about running against him, said Connolly. “And I said: ‘Great, we’ll run an honorable race, a civil race and we’ll be friends at the beginning and at the end.’”

The 35-year-old outspoken progressive has long been critical of party leaders and doesn’t always align with the rest of her party. But she’s learned to play the inside track in the Democratic Caucus, working with colleagues and leadership more rather than always using her proverbial megaphone. Raskin named her the vice ranking member of the Oversight Committee earlier this Congress.

Her likely entry into the race is the latest bullet point as Democrats make sweeping changes to the aging leadership of their committees. Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona is stepping aside as the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York ended his bid to continue leading Judiciary Committee Democrats and endorsed Raskin, and Rep. David Scott of Georgia is facing tough challenges to keep his job as the top Agriculture Committee Democrat.

Here’s what we’re watching in transition world today:

 🗓️ What we’re watching

• President-elect Donald Trump is continuing to back Pete Hegseth, his embattled pick for Defense secretary. “His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump said Friday morning on Truth Social. 
• Trump’s defense of Hegseth is notable, given the former Fox News host said on Thursday that he wouldn’t drop out “as long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight.” 

👀 What’s Trump up to?

• No public plans today, but Trump is going to the Army-Navy football game on Dec. 14.

🚨What’s up with the nominees?

• The Heritage Foundation is spending $1 million to pressure senators to back Hegseth, the Associated Press reports. 

📝ICYMI: Here are the latest Trump administration picks

• Former GOP Sen. David Perdue is Trump’s choice for ambassador to China.
• Trump tapped Rodney Scott as his top choice for commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. 
• Caleb Vitello, the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was picked to serve as acting director of ICE. 
• Venture capitalist David Sacks will be a “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.”

President Donald Trump isn’t moving on from embattled pick for Defense secretary Pete Hegseth yet, calling the former Fox News personality’s support “strong and deep” in a post to his social media site Friday morning.

“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He was a great student – Princeton/Harvard educated – with a Military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”

Hegseth has spent the week meeting with GOP senators and trying to shore up support for his nomination as allegations of sexual assault, financial mismanagement and alcohol abuse have sowed doubt about his ability to be confirmed. He’s denied any wrongdoing.

Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, told POLITICO that the secretary designate is looking forward to the FBI’s background check, because it will “actually do a full investigation, look at everything from both sides, and not just take anonymous uncorroborated statements and run with them.”

Allies of Hegseth, including his mother, have gone on a media blitz to defend the former Fox News host. And the Heritage Foundation is spending $1 million to pressure senators to confirm him.

While he’s still backing Hegseth publicly, Trump is also considering other options to lead the Pentagon, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But as long as Trump is still behind him, Hegseth has said he will continue on.

“As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I’m going to be standing right here in this fight,” Hegseth said Thursday.

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday night announced a new round of nominees and appointments to tackle his aggressive immigration and homeland security agenda.

Trump said he was nominating Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. Scott served for almost three decades in the Border Patrol, and as the chief of the agency during the last year of the Trump administration and beginning of the Biden administration. He helped implement Trump’s Remain in Mexico Policy, Title 42 and Safe Third Country agreements.

Trump also announced he was tapping Caleb Vitello, who’s currently the assistant director of the Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to serve as acting director of ICE.

And the president-elect picked Tony Salisbury, who serves as the special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, to serve as the deputy homeland security adviser on the White House Homeland Security Council. Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents more than 17,000 Border Patrol Agents and support staff, was also announced as Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Chile.

Immigration was Trump’s top priority on the campaign trail, and in his first 100 days he plans to begin the process of deporting hundreds of thousands of people and to roll back President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Outside allies expect the administration’s immigration policy, similar to Trump’s first term, to be run out of the White House by incoming Border Czar Tom Homan and Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser.

Donald Trump has selected former Georgia Sen. David Perdue to serve as ambassador to China.

Perdue has significant business experience in Asia, including China, something he ran on during his Senate election in 2014. As the former CEO of Dollar General and a top executive at Sara Lee and Reebok, Perdue was responsible for significant corporate restructuring and global expansion, and has lived in both Singapore and Hong Kong.

In a post on Truth Social late Thursday, Trump highlighted Perdue’s extensive background working in Asia and noted his service on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee while in the Senate.

“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain Peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, in which he also called Perdue a “loyal supporter” and “friend.”

After being elected in 2014, Perdue served one term in the Senate, where he earned a reputation for his fiscal conservatism and backing pro-business policies. He lost his reelection bid in a 2021 runoff against Democrat Jon Osoff.

Trump recruited Perdue to run for Georgia governor in 2022 against incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, who Trump wanted to punish for his decision to certify the 2020 election results. Perdue lost his primary bid in a landslide, a result that was widely regarded as demonstrating the limits of Trump’s political power.

In his business career, Perdue was a strong proponent of moving jobs from the U.S. to Asia to save on manufacturing costs, a practice seemingly at odds with Trump’s America First policy and something that dogged him on the campaign trail.

Trump recently threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods if the country doesn’t do more to stop fentanyl trafficking.

“Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late last month.

A venture capitalist who was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump during the campaign — and a critic of U.S. support for Ukraine — will be joining the new administration.

David Sacks will be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” and lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, the president-elect announced Thursday in a social media post.

Sacks “will focus on making America the clear global leader” in artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling the emerging fields “two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness.”

As part of the role, Trump said, Sacks will work to “safeguard Free Speech online” and “work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for.”

Sacks leads a venture capital firm, hosts a podcast and formerly served as COO of Paypal. He hosted a ritzy San Francisco fundraiser for Trump in June and was part of a cadre of Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs who threw their support behind the president-elect during the campaign.

He is friends with Elon Musk and has frequently criticized U.S. efforts to help Ukraine counter the Russian invasion.

CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama called out divisiveness and polarization as “one of the greatest challenges of our time,” as he avoided any specific political references in his first public remarks since the election.

In a speech Thursday at his foundation’s Democracy Forum, Obama urged his audience to embrace pluralism and celebrate people’s differences – the closest he came to a political message in his remarks.

“It’s about recognizing that in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions… not only for the woke, but also for the waking,” Obama told the crowd of about 650 participants at the Obama Foundation event on Chicago’s South Side, just a few miles from where Obama’s presidential center is under construction.

Obama didn’t utter the names of Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in remarks that ran about 45 minutes, and his nonprofit organization stays away from politics. But Obama’s underlying message about pluralism and building bridges across divides has obvious relevance to the political moment in a divided country.

“Building bridges is not contrary to equality and social justice. In fact, it is our best tool for delivering lasting change,” Obama told the crowd that included Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, who worked in his administration and Penny Pritzker, the Commerce secretary during his administration.

A few folks in the predominantly Democratic crowd of political and policy wonks nodded at Obama’s remarks of extending a hand across the aisle, though most sat stoically as Obama spoke.

The former president said he understands the “skepticism… But to produce free and fair and more just societies, I cannot think of a better time to talk about it,” he said of the post-election malaise.

Obama said there are still lines that can’t be crossed — such as when the other side uses “the judiciary or criminal justice system to go after opponents,” he said, hinting at Trump’s threats to go after his enemies.

“In those circumstances, a line has been crossed,and we have to stand firm and speak out and organize and mobilize as forcefully as we can,” he said.

Obama also invoked Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, saying pluralism or trying to work with the other side isn’t about “holding hands and singing kumbaya” or “abandoning your convictions.”

The former president said, “If you want to create lasting change, you have to find ways to practice addition rather than subtraction.”

The House rejected two Democratic-led efforts to force the release of ethics findings into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, with Republicans arguing that the Florida firebrand’s departure from Congress puts him outside their jurisdiction.

Lawmakers voted along almost entirely party lines to table an effort from Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) to force the immediate release of the Ethics Committee report on Gaetz. Casten cited multiple examples in his resolution where the House released findings on members even after they left Congress.

“If this is a referendum on, are Republicans willing to stand up to sexual assault when committed by Republicans, I have a very low confidence that any Republicans will break on that vote,” Casten said earlier Thursday. “If this is a referendum on: do Republicans like Matt Gaetz, I have a very high degree of confidence. I don’t know how they’re thinking about this.”

Casten vowed after the vote to continue to try to get the report released, saying, “We are going to pursue every option,” he said. “We have to keep this going, including but not limited to bringing the resolution back up. We’re going to figure out next steps.”

Rep. Susan Wild (Pa.), ranking member of the Ethics Committee, declined to comment off the floor.

Separately, House members voted down an effort from Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) requiring the committee to preserve and release records related to its investigation into multiple allegations against Gaetz, including that he had sex with a minor.

The former congressman was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick for attorney general — but he dropped out after it became clear he could not be confirmed by the Senate. Gaetz then said he would not return to the House and has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing.

The votes on the resolutions come on the same day that the House Ethics Committee again met to discuss the findings of its years-long probe into Gaetz — and again punted on whether to release the report. Cumulatively, the actions leave the report without an obvious path to becoming public.

Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is drafting legislation to stymie growth of the federal workforce and move agencies out of the nation’s capital.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to slash government bureaucracy and set up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an outside group that will recommend cuts to spending and regulations.

Blackburn plans to join that effort, led by tech mogul Elon Musk and 2024 Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, with her own bill.

“I will be introducing legislation that coincides with @DOGE’s plan to make the federal government more efficient,” Blackburn said on social media Thursday.

The Tennessee senator added, “My DOGE Act will freeze federal hiring, begin the process to relocate agencies out of the D.C. swamp, and establish a merit-based salary system for the federal workforce.”

Blackburn also discussed cost-cutting plans with Ramaswamy on her podcast.

“One of the low-hanging fruit areas is to look at areas under the executive branch, through executive action, that we can actually put an end to a lot of the money that hasn’t been authorized by Congress, but it’s still being spent,” said Ramaswamy, adding DOGE will want to partner with her and others in Congress to reduce the size of government.

Ramaswamy and Musk were on Capitol Hill on Thursday, meeting with lawmakers to detail plans for their government efficiency commission. Republicans are itching to help them, with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) leading efforts in the Senate and House.

They have already aired grievances about several of their targets, including federal support for high-speed rail and expanded telework for civil servants. Further, Musk told POLITICO’s E&E News on Thursday that he wants to end tax breaks for electric vehicle buyers while dashing between meetings.

Some of these cost-cutting moves are not expected to be well-received by federal employees, especially relocating agencies. Moving EPA headquarters outside of Washington is reportedly under consideration, which union officials warn will lead to staffers leaving the agency. Musk and Ramaswamy have welcomed departures.