President-elect Donald Trump nominates former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be Attorney General, and Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz announced he doesn't plan to return to Congress.
Trump nominates former Florida AG Pam Bondi to be attorney general after Gaetz withdraws
President-elect Donald Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be his nominee for U.S. attorney general after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's first pick, dropped out of consideration on Thursday amid allegations he had sex with a minor and paid other women for sex and drugs.
"I am proud to announce former Attorney General of the Great State of Florida, Pam Bondi, as our next Attorney General of the United States. Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families," Trump wrote on social media on Thursday evening. "For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans - Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!"
Trump noted Bondi was Florida's first female attorney general and served on a commission on opioids and drug abuse during his first term. Bondi is a longtime Trump ally and was one of his lawyers during his first impeachment trial, when he was accused — but not convicted — of abusing his power as he tried to condition U.S. military assistance to Ukraine on that country investigating then-former Vice President Joe Biden.
Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. She's been a chair at the America First Policy Institute, a think tank set up by former Trump administration staffers.
Gaetz says he won't return to Congress next year after withdrawing name for attorney general
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz said Friday that he will not be returning to Congress after withdrawing his name from consideration to be attorney general under President-elect Donald Trump amid growing allegations of sexual misconduct.
"I'm still going to be in the fight, but it's going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress," Gaetz told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, adding that he has "some other goals in life that I'm eager to pursue with my wife and my family."
The announcement comes a day after Gaetz, a Florida Republican, stepped aside from the Cabinet nomination process amid growing fallout from federal and House Ethics investigations that cast doubt on his ability to be confirmed as the nation's chief federal law enforcement officer. The 42-year-old has vehemently denied the allegations against him.
Gaetz's nomination as attorney general had stunned many career lawyers inside the Justice Department, but reflected Trump's desire to place a loyalist in a department he has marked for retribution following the criminal cases against him.
It's unclear what's next for Gaetz, who is no longer a member of the House. He surprised colleagues by resigning from Congress the same day that Trump nominated him for attorney general. Some speculated he could still be sworn into office for another two-year term on Jan. 3, given that he had just won reelection earlier this month.
But Gaetz, who has been in state and national politics for 14 years, said he's done with Congress.
"I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress," he said.
NATO, Ukraine to hold emergency talks after Russia's attack with new hypersonic missile
NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.
The conflict is "entering a decisive phase," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and "taking on very dramatic dimensions."
Ukraine's parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.
In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv's use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.
Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up the bellicose tone on Friday, blaming "the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries" in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.
"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.
"These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world's most advanced technology and satellite communications capability," Orbán said on state radio. "There is a strong assumption … that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel."
Orbán cautioned against underestimating Russia's responses, emphasizing that the country's recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a "bluff." "It's not a trick… there will be consequences," he said.
Separately, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský arrived in Kyiv, posting on social media that he wanted to know "how the Ukrainians are coping with the bombings, how Czech projects are working on the ground and how to better target international aid in the coming months."