The New York Post editorial board slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, calling the secretary-designate “nuts on a lot of fronts.”

The Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is reliably conservative and endorsed Trump for president this year. But Trump’s selection of the anti-vaccine activist Kennedy to lead HHS, the tabloid’s editorial board argued, would violate the first rule of medicine, “do no harm.”

Recalling a 2023 meeting with Kennedy, the Post’s editorial board called his views “a head-scratching spaghetti of what we can only call warped conspiracy theories, and not just on vaccines.”

Kennedy is well known for touting debunked claims that vaccines cause autism and questioning other issues widely seen as settled by the scientific community. The sprawling vision laid out by his Make America Healthy Again movement includes bans on pesticides and genetically modified organisms, curbing additives and chemicals in foods and a decoupling of corporate influence from regulation.

Kennedy’s appointment to run the federal agency tasked with drug approvals, food safety and disease surveillance amounts to a promise kept by Trump, who during the presidential campaign said he would allow Kennedy to “go wild” on health policy. “He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it,” Trump said in his Election Night victory speech. “Go have a good time, Bobby.”

But allowing Kennedy to run HHS, the Post said, will put Trump in the position of answering for positions that many see as fringe or conspiratorial.

“Donald Trump won on promises to fix the economy, the border and soaring global disorder; his team needs to focus on delivering change on those fronts — not spend energy either having to defend crackpot theories or trying to control RFK Jr.’s mouth,” the editorial board wrote.

This is not the first appointment that the Post’s board has criticized. When Trump nominated former Rep. Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney general, the editorial board called it “not a good look,” putting the paper at odds with Trump despite praising his victory last week.

Chair of the House Ethics Committee Michael Guest said Friday morning the group has only postponed, not canceled, a meeting to discuss the panel’s report about Matt Gaetz.

Guest (R-Miss.) declined to say whether the panel is open to sharing it with the Senate Judiciary Committee, as some senators say they want to see the report as they vet him as Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee. Guest noted Ethics members need to meet first.

“We’ve not met as a committee, and so at this point, there’s nothing that I’m sure I can’t comment about,” he said, noting the meeting will be rescheduled.

Guest also dismissed suggestions that he was worried about potential retribution from Trump world if the committee released the report. And he said leadership has not lobbied him in one direction or another.

“I’ve had no conversations” with leadership about it, he said.

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Interior secretary, he announced at a gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Thursday night.

“I won’t tell you his name, might be something like Burgum, Burgum, … he’s gonna be announced tomorrow for a very big position,” Trump said Thursday evening. “he’s going to head the Department of Interior, and he’s gonna be fantastic. Good Doug.”

A two-term governor of a Western oil-rich state with five tribal nations, Burgum is already receiving a warm reception from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who for four years have slammed President Joe Biden’s energy policies. Democrats will be unhappy with his promises to ramp up fossil fuel production but could be less critical of him because of his experience.

Republicans who sit on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee were quick to praise the nomination.

Current ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said of Burgum: “He recognizes how important our federal lands are for energy and mineral production, grazing and recreation. As North Dakota’s governor, he’s shown he can balance environmental stewardship with record energy development.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said Burgum “has been a great partner as we’ve worked to build North Dakota’s energy leadership, and in this role, [he] can help to not only restore American energy security, but make America energy-dominant.”

The nomination will likely come as welcome news to many other senators, like Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who hoped Trump would pick a Westerner.

“Guys who know the issues,” Sullivan said earlier this week. “You gotta have a Westerner.”

Both of Trump’s Interior secretaries in his first term also heaped praise on Burgum. One of them, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who now serves in the House, said Burgum was an ally.

“When I was secretary he was a trusted partner advancing the president’s priorities on energy dominance, rolling back the regulatory overreach of the Obama Administration, and ensuring we strike the right balance regarding the multiple uses of our federal lands,” in a post to X.

If he’s confirmed, Burgum, a businessman who became North Dakota governor in 2016 and had a short-lived campaign for the presidency in 2024, will control the country’s public lands and wildlife conservation and have broad authority over oil and gas drilling leases.

As a presidential candidate and Trump surrogate who was once considered for vice president, Burgum has called for expanded energy and mineral production on public lands and has been a chief messenger against Democratic energy and public lands policies.

Democrats are likely to pounce on Burgum’s calls for increased energy production during the confirmation process. But at least one top Democrats is taking a wait-and-see approach with Burgum.

“Could be worse for sure,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee. “I look forward to trying to work productively with him.”

Environmental advocacy groups, however, are already coming out against Burgum’s nomination, claiming he will sacrifice public lands and wildlife for the fossil fuel industry.

“Burgum will be a disastrous Secretary of the Interior who’ll sacrifice our public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“Like Musk, Burgum is an oligarch completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans who cherish our natural heritage and don’t want our parks, wildlife refuges and other special places carved up and destroyed.”

Suckling said, “We’re ready to fight Burgum and Trump’s extreme agenda every step of the way.”

Andres Picon contributed to this report.

The House Ethics Committee won’t be meeting after all on Friday as pressure builds to release the findings of its report on Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Anticipation was high for the closed-door meeting after Donald Trump announced he was picking the Florida member of Congress to be attorney general.

But the meeting was abruptly canceled Thursday, according to a person familiar with the schedule granted anonymity to discuss non-public information.

It is unclear why the committee canceled a meeting that was scheduled before Gaetz resigned from Congress this week, three people familiar told POLITICO earlier. An Ethics Committee spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday night about the cancellation.

The committee, which operates privately, doesn’t disclose its agenda. The private powwow would have let them discuss what to do with the probe now that Gaetz is technically outside of its jurisdiction.

The news comes after lawmakers – including senators who take part in hearings on his eventual nomination and some House Republicans— said they want to see the findings of the report.

Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters this week that the panel would end its investigation into Gaetz once he was no longer a House member. But Guest sidestepped when asked if he would release the report.

Before he can become Donald Trump’s attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) will need to face off with some potentially less-than-friendly faces to receive confirmation: Republican senators he’s previously antagonized.

With a 53-seat majority, the Senate GOP can only lose up to three votes and still clear a nominee if Democrats unanimously oppose them. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), for one, said Wednesday that Gaetz has “his work cut out for him to get a good, strong vote,” adding that “it’ll make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing.”

Gaetz has a history of speaking his mind when it comes to letting Senate Republicans know when he disagrees with them. Last year, he told Steve Bannon “the road to hell is paved by Republican sellout members of the United States Senate.”

Here’s a look at his previous clashes:

Mitch McConnell
: Gaetz hit the GOP Senate leader on social media Sunday for “depriving” Trump of recess appointments to his Cabinet during his first administration, calling it an “open act of hostility.”

John Cornyn
: In the same post in which he attacked McConnell, Gaetz asked the Texas senator who had been angling for majority leader if he would “continue the McConnell posture” toward recess appointments if he got the role. 

Markwayne Mullin
: Gaetz accused Mullin last year of “cashing in on public office” from stock purchases in a social media post. Mullin later hit back that Gaetz, whose father is a Florida state senator and multi-millionaire businessperson, was “living off of [his] daddy’s money.” But the Oklahoma senator said Thursday that though he and Gaetz have “had our differences,” he believes Trump has “done a really good job assembling the Cabinet together.” He added, “I’m going to treat Matt just I am every other nomination, they’ve got to go through the process” and “earn every vote.”

Thom Tillis: In an episode of his podcast FIREBRAND in February, Gaetz came after Tillis for his support for the $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, calling the North Carolina senator “foolish.”
More broadly, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in 2022, Gaetz said any Republican senator who would support red flag laws, which allow judges to remove a firearm from a person they deem dangerous, would “betray” their voters and is “a traitor to the Constitution.” The GOP senators who voted for the bipartisan bill to address gun violence and will remain in the Senate to vote for Gaetz’s confirmation are
Shelley Moore Capito
,
Bill Cassidy
,
Susan Collins
, Cornyn,
Joni Ernst
,
Lindsey Graham
, McConnell,
Lisa Murkowski
, Tillis and
Todd Young
.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday tapped the lawyers who represented him in the New York hush money criminal trial for the No. 2 and No. 3 spots at the Department of Justice.

Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who defended Trump in his Manhattan criminal trial, which ended in Trump’s conviction on 34 counts, and his two federal criminal cases, will be deputy attorney general, the second-highest ranking post at DOJ and the person who runs its day-to-day operations, if confirmed. Emil Bove, who also represented the president-elect in the hush money trial and his two federal criminal cases, will serve as principal associate deputy attorney general.

Blanche is known as a mild-mannered and by-the-books lawyer, in sharp contrast with Trump’s attorney general nominee, the firebrand former Rep. Matt Gaetz.

“Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for too long,” Trump said in a statement.

Trump described Bove, another former federal prosecutor, as “a tough and strong attorney.”

Blanche and Bove are both alumni of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, where Blanche was co-chief of the violent crimes unit and of the office’s White Plains division. Bove was co-chief of the office’s national security unit.

Blanche propelled himself to the most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office in the country by attending night classes at Brooklyn Law School while working during the day as a paralegal.

In 2023, Blanche stunned many at the white-shoe law firm where he was a partner, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, and within the broader legal community when he abruptly quit his position at one of the oldest and most prestigious firms in the country to represent Trump. Blanche then formed his own law firm and hired Bove.

Despite his representation of Trump, Blanche remains well-liked by his former colleagues in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office. Many of them had hoped that Trump might select Blanche to head that office, believing he would be the best-qualified and least overtly political of Trump’s options.

Dean John Sauer, the lawyer whose arguments led to a Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity that waylaid Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election, is Trump’s pick to be solicitor general in his second term.

The solicitor general represents the federal government at the high court.

“John is a deeply accomplished, masterful appellate attorney,” Trump said in a statement Thursday. The president-elect credited Sauer for “winning a historic victory on presidential immunity which was key to defeating the unconstitutional campaign of lawfare against me and the entire MAGA movement.”

Sauer also argued for Trump in a New York appeals court in September, seeking to overturn a $454 million judgment New York Attorney General Letitia James obtained against Trump in a case alleging pervasive fraud in his business empire. That appeal appeared to enjoy some traction with the appeals judges, although they have yet to rule on it.

Sauer spent six years as the solicitor general of Missouri, acting as the top appellate lawyer for that state. He got his undergraduate degree from Duke University, a master’s in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and his law degree from Harvard Law School. He also served as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia.

If confirmed by the Senate, Sauer would represent the United States in key arguments at the Supreme Court and lead a staff of elite lawyers at the Justice Department that handles all high-court litigation involving the federal government and makes decisions about when to file appeals of lower-court decisions.

Members of a secretive panel overseeing a long-running investigation into Matt Gaetz are set to privately meet on Friday, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The House Ethics Committee meeting was scheduled before Gaetz (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress this week, the people said. The committee doesn’t disclose its agenda — but the highly anticipated closed-door powwow would let them discuss what to do with the probe now that Gaetz is technically outside of their jurisdiction.

Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Gaetz had resigned Wednesday night, hours after President-elect Trump nominated the Florida firebrand to become attorney general. Johnson attributed the resignation to Gaetz wanting to allow his seat to be filled quickly, but House Republicans have speculated that he did so in order to avoid an Ethics Committee report that they believe was poised to be released in a matter of days.

The panel has been investigating several allegations, including that Gaetz engaged in sex with a minor. Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

Multiple members of the notoriously tight-lipped panel, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, declined to comment to POLITICO on the investigation or the report. And leadership on both sides largely refused to weigh in on whether the committee should release the report.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries punted a question from POLITICO about the report to its top Democrat, Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild.

“That’s a question that would be best directed to Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the Ethics committee,” he said.

And Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) also dodged similar questions about the report’s release: “I’m not aware of any report. I know there are a lot of people talking about what may have happened, but the Ethics Committee doesn’t share with the rest of us what they’re working on.”

But some lawmakers, including those responsible for ultimately voting on Gaetz’s forthcoming nomination as attorney general, are making it clear that they want to see the findings.

“I want to see everything,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which will first consider and hold confirmation hearings on Gaetz’s nomination.

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee on Thursday asking them to hand over documents related to the investigation, including the report.

Some House Republicans agree they want to see the report if Gaetz is going to continue pursuing the attorney general position. Though they don’t hold any power over his confirmation or over the Ethics Committee, Gaetz had a lot of enemies among his former House colleagues.

Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) told reporters after Gaetz’s nomination that there were “better choices” than Gaetz and if he pursues the nomination that the report “needs to come out.”

But the chair of the House Ethics Committee, Michael Guest (R-Miss.), told reporters Wednesday before Gaetz’s resignation had been announced that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House.

“Once the investigation is complete, the Ethics Committee will meet as a committee. We will then return our findings. If Matt Gaetz is still a member of Congress, then that will occur. If Matt has resigned, then this ethics investigation, like many others in the past, will end again,” Guest said.

Asked Thursday if he would release the report, Guest sidestepped the question and pointed to his Wednesday remarks.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Jay Clayton, a longtime corporate lawyer and former Wall Street regulator, to be the U.S. attorney overseeing Manhattan.

Clayton served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term but has no experience as a criminal prosecutor. If confirmed by the Senate, Clayton would head the nation’s most prestigious federal prosecutor’s office: the Southern District of New York, which has jurisdiction over the largest financial institutions and brings many high-profile white-collar and public-corruption cases.

During his first term, Trump attempted to install Clayton as the U.S. attorney for SDNY in an effort to oust Geoffrey Berman, who held the post from 2018 to 2020. But Trump’s effort was met with fierce resistance in the office, including by Berman himself, who refused to leave until he was allowed to hand the reins to his deputy.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan office balked at Clayton’s lack of experience in criminal law and worried he would simply do Trump’s bidding.

In 2020, Berman told the House Judiciary Committee: “I told the attorney general that I knew and liked Jay Clayton, but he was an unqualified choice for U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York because he was never an AUSA and had no criminal experience.” An AUSA is an assistant U.S. attorney.

Clayton, 58, was a Wall Street lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell, representing major financial institutions, before being named to the SEC in 2017. He was confirmed to the SEC on a 61-37 vote, winning over nine Democrats. But he was sharply criticized by progressives for his ties to Wall Street.