Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur breaks down everything you need to know from a trio of key Senate confirmation hearings. Plus, Matt Dixon examines how President Donald Trump’s response to the tragic plane crash in D.C. quickly took a political turn.
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— Adam Wollner
Takeaways from a big day of confirmation hearings
By Sahil Kapur
In a crucial day for President Donald Trump’s nominees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel descended on Capitol Hill for confirmation hearings.
The nominees for health and human services secretary, director of national intelligence and FBI director have all generated controversy for a similar reason: Each has launched searing criticisms of the entities they’ve been chosen to lead.
And they all sought to clarify or downplay past stances or remarks that have landed them in hot water to senators who will decide whether to confirm them.
Here are the key takeaways:
Kennedy faces skepticism from a key GOP senator: After he repeatedly challenged Kennedy’s views on vaccines, Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which held Thursday’s hearing, said he was “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination.
The Louisiana Republican made clear he hasn’t made up his mind about his vote and has more questions for Kennedy — a rarity for a Republican chair when dealing with a Trump nominee. Cassidy, a doctor, also sits on the Senate Finance Committee, which held a hearing for Kennedy on Wednesday and will vote on whether to report his nomination to the full Senate.
Patel breaks with Trump on Jan. 6 pardons: Under pointed questioning, Patel made a break with Trump on his decision to issue pardons or commutations for 1,500 Jan. 6 criminal defendants, including those who confessed to assaulting police officers. Patel argued that certain violent offenders didn’t deserve leniency.
“I have always rejected any violence against law enforcement, and I have, including in that group, specifically addressed any violence against law enforcement on Jan. 6,” he said. “And I do not agree with the commutation of any sentence of any individual who committed violence against law enforcement.”
Gabbard grilled about Edward Snowden: The former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii was peppered with questions from multiple Republican senators about her past praise of Edward Snowden — the former intelligence contractor who leaked a trove of classified information before he fled to Russia — as a “brave whistleblower.”
Gabbard stopped short of disowning her previous remarks or calling him a “traitor” as multiple members of the committee have, saying only that he “broke the law” and revealed important information in doing so.
Of all the nominees who faced hearings Thursday, Gabbard likely has the toughest task in preventing GOP defections.
Read more takeaways from the day’s hearings →
Trump turns a moment of national mourning into a push for his political agenda
By Matt Dixon
Just 11 days into his presidency, Donald Trump has been confronted with a national tragedy that claimed dozens of lives after a passenger jet carrying 64 people collided midair with an Army helicopter in the Washington, D.C., region Wednesday night.
His response bypassed the usual playbook that presidents typically follow after a tragedy, just as his campaign broke from political norms time and again.
Without waiting for a full investigation — or a list of the victims — the president began pointing fingers and going on the attack. Rather than using it as a moment to forgo political combat and focus on the victims, he took the opportunity to push his agenda against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
His approach moved attention away from recovery efforts, victims and the investigation into the crash to a debate over one of his biggest political targets. And while Trump faced criticism for his handling of the moment, it was in line with how he has eschewed the way traditional politicians operate.
Trump quickly put out a social media post casting blame for the accident Wednesday night, before many facts were known.
At a White House press briefing Thursday, he read through a more traditional speech expressing condolences, but then launched into remarks that felt more like something from a campaign rally, calling a Democratic official “a disaster,” castigating his predecessors and going after DEI — despite any evidence so far that these policies contributed to the midair collision.
“I’ve been an investigator for 35 years, investigating aircraft accidents, and when you talk about standards, what we just saw does not meet the published international standards of providing information in the wake of an accident,” Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, told MSNBC.
New hire: During the press conference, Trump also appointed Christopher Rocheleau as acting FAA commissioner, a position that had been vacant.
More crash fallout: Members of Congress are expressing concern about the crowded and “very complex” airspace around D.C. after the midair collision, the first U.S. commercial plane crash since 2009. Read more →
🗞️ Today’s top stories
- ☑️ Hire at will: Vice President JD Vance has earned a unique privilege inside the White House — free rein to hire whom he wants, with no interference from Trump or his top aides. Read more →
- 🔵 ‘A small victory’: After struggling to respond to Trump’s whirlwind first week in office, Democrats have started to find their footing in the fight over the White House’s attempt to impose a sweeping freeze on federal aid. Read more →
- 🚫 Absent: Democrats boycotted the Senate Budget Committee’s vote to advance Russell Vought’s nomination to be White House budget director to the full Senate. Read more →
- 😨 Whiplash: Fear, anger and confusion have swept across federal agencies as workers grapple with a deluge of orders from Trump that they see as an effort to “scare” them out of their jobs. Read more →
- 📝 Executive order fallout: Trans service members who could be affected by Trump’s recent executive order say they will continue doing their jobs and plan to fight the move. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Faith Wardwell.
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