Cover credit – Matt Meduri
National
Special counsel Jack Smith has moved to close two criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump (R-FL) (pictured in cover), specifically pertaining to his attempts to overturn the 2020 elections and his alleged classified document mishandling. Smith says the decision to dismiss comes off the heels after Trump’s election, which Smith believes will prevent him from federally prosecuting the former and now incoming president.
This result was effectively guaranteed by longstanding policy of the Department of Justice, which dictates that sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, President-elect Trump is close to rounding out his second Cabinet, putting forth more nominees to be confirmed by the Senate once the new administration begins.
We’ve previously covered all of the Cabinet picks thus far, with notable standouts in National Guard Major and Fox News host Pete Hegseth (R-TN) for Defense Secretary, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick for Commerce Secretary, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) for Secretary of State, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for HHS Secretary, former Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) as Administrator of the EPA, and former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (R-HI) as Director of National Intelligence.
Trump has added some other names to the list, leaving just a handful of Cabinet positions without nominees as of press time.
Trump is looking to bring back a familiar face from his previous administration, Russell Vought (pictured below), who, upon confirmation by the Senate, will head his old post as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
To head his Treasury, Trump has selected Key Square Group CEO Scott Bessent of South Carolina. Bessent was previously a Democrat, having hosted a fundraiser for Al Gore (D-TN) at his East Hampton home in 2000, and later donated to Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL). In 2016, he donated $1 million to Trump’s presidential inaugural committee and donated $1 million to his 2024 campaign.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would be the first openly gay Secretary of the Treasury.
Trump’s nomination of Congressman Matt Gaetz (R, FL-01) as Attorney General turned several heads, not only regarding Gaetz’s qualifications for the job, but also his firebrand conservative record in Congress, and an open question about his statutory rape accusations. Upon receiving the nomination just weeks ago, Gaetz resigned his Florida congressional seat, and appears set on not returning to Congress after he withdrew his name from consideration.
In response, Trump nominated Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) as the nation’s top prosecutor.
Trump is also bringing back another member of his first term team, Brooke Rollins, of Texas, to lead his Agriculture Department. Rollins had served as Director of Domestic Policy Council for the last two years of Trump’s first term, and is currently the incumbent President and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank to promote Trump-Era policy agenda.
Trump has also emerged with a Secretary of Labor pick in Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R, OR-05). Chavez-DeRemer was elected in 2022 to an open Oregon seat, defeating Jamie McLeod-Skinner (D), a notable progressive who had ousted then-Congressman Kurt Schrader (D), a well-known blue dog Democrat. This year, however, McLeod-Skinner lost the primary to Janelle Bynum (D), a more mainstream pick, who then unseated Chavez-DeRemer by a slim margin.
Former Texas House member Scott Turner (R) is being tapped to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Turner also served two years in Trump’s first administration as the Executive Director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, a position that was created in 2019 and abolished in 2021. Before politics, Turner was a football cornerback in the NFL for nine seasons.
In the U.S. Senate, Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA) has officially conceded the Senate race to Senator-elect Dave McCormick (R-PA). McCormick defeated the three-term Senator who remained one of the most moderate Democrats of the upper chamber and was seen as virtually unbeatable due to his incumbency and name recognition.
McCormick’s margin of just 0.25% – about 16,000 votes out of over 6.5 million ballots cast – makes the Pennsylvania race not only the closest Senate race of this cycle, but the closest for the Keystone State since the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. The amendment is what transitioned U.S. Senators from being appointed by their respective state legislatures to being popularly elected.
A recount was required by state law as the result was within one-half of a percentage point, which led many to mount calls for Casey to concede the race.
The GOP will now enter the 119th Congress with fifty-three seats in the Senate to the Democrats’ forty-seven.
State
Members of the state legislature convened in Albany on Monday to conduct organizational business. Republican re-elected Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Pulaski) (pictured below) as to continue serving as their leader.
“I am deeply thankful to the members of this Conference for the trust and confidence they’ve shown in me. I work alongside extremely hardworking men and women, which now includes six new members who bring fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to our team. To receive their vote is an honor and a privilege,” said Leader Barclay. “We are eager to begin the 2025 Legislative Session and will use every day as an opportunity to better the lives of the people in our great state. We will continue our efforts to make New York safer, more affordable and a place where every family will choose to build their future.”
Barclay was first elected to the Assembly in 2002 and currently represents the 120th District. The district contains all of Oswego County and small parts of Jefferson and Cayuga counties.
Local
PSE&G Long Island, along with Long Island Cares and the Suffolk County Veterans Services Agency, recently provided free Thanksgiving turkeys and baskets to Veterans at the H. Lee Dennison Building (pictured below) in Hauppauge last Thursday.
Despite the frigid temperatures and bucketing rain, volunteers stuck out the day to distribute an estimated six hundred turkeys for the upcoming holiday.
“Last year, we saw 390 Veterans come through and it was our first year doing this. This year, we’ll probably hit 600,” Justin Berbig, Veteran Outreach Coordinator at Long Island Cares, told The Messenger. Berbig served in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2005 and served a deployment in Afghanistan in 2003.
Berbig assists in coordinating the logistics of the event, including the food, volunteers, and trucks. Food was purchased in pre-made boxes with all the staples: turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, to name a few.
