Daily Hawk: January 4, 2025

The new Congress convened today with some classic Republican drama around Mike Johnson's Speaker election. Despite having nine holdouts initially (exactly the number needed for a motion to vacate), Johnson managed to squeak by on the first ballot after some last-minute phone calls from Trump convinced the holdouts to flip their votes. The final tally was 219-215, but with Matt Gaetz's vacant seat and two more Republicans potentially heading to Trump's cabinet, the GOP's working majority is about to get razor-thin.

Speaking of Trump, he's been busy staffing his upcoming administration with some eyebrow-raising picks: RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz for health (just in time for a potential bird flu pandemic), Tulsi Gabbard for DNI, and Kash Patel for FBI Director. Someone described these nominations as "acts of vandalism against the institutions," which feels pretty on point. Meanwhile, the Senate split is 53-47 Republican, giving Trump a bit more breathing room there.

The big news drop today was that Trump's getting sentenced next Friday (January 10th) for those 34 felony convictions from his Manhattan trial last May. Judge Juan Merchan, who's been bending over backwards to be fair throughout this whole process, is letting Trump appear either in person or virtually. While prison time isn't expected, it's worth noting that in 17 days we're about to inaugurate a newly-sentenced felon as president – and that's not even counting the January 6th, Georgia, or classified documents cases, which aren't going to wrap up in time to matter.

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