Allies of President-elect Donald Trump have taken steps to scan government workers' emails and text messages in the first step of a mass purge that has political spectators admittedly scared .
The conservative think tank behind Project 2025 — the political agenda Trump denied any knowledge of as a candidate — has already begun hunting for liberals within the federal government's rank-and-file on his behalf, CNN reported Monday.
"The Heritage Foundation has sent tens of thousands of records requests to federal agencies asking for information that they believe will help them find liberals and people who might be disloyal for Donald Trump," said reporter Steve Contorno.
"That includes asking for information about programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion that has been vilified by the right, but also asking for the text messages and emails sent by employees looking for terms such as Elon Musk or climate change."
Anchor Dana Bash professed she was stunned by the report that the Heritage Foundation was pursuing a key tenet of Project 2025 despite Trump's repeated disavowals of its contents.
"The Trump campaign repeated over and over, it had nothing to do with them," she said. "Going through their texts and emails? This is intense stuff."
"It's chilling stuff," political reporter and CNN panelist Astead Herndon replied. "I find it kind of, frankly, frightening."
Herndon raised specific concerns about Republicans' targeting the "dog whistle" of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies that protect inclusivity within the federal government.
Congressional correspondent Manu Raju said he was disturbed that the Heritage Foundation and fellow conservative groups were targeting policy experts politicians rely upon to pass sound legislation.
"You need those people because they can implement very technical, complicated policies," Raju said. "[A purge] could have a real negative impact on actually implementing critical programs for the American people."
Panelist Vivian Salama, a political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, then delved into Trump's own plans to trigger a purge of disloyal generals via executive order.
It's an idea that prompted Bash to say, "Wow."
"Trump has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to remove what he calls the 'woke' generals and others," Salama replied. "They have been very vague about it, and this is what is so scary."
A Donald Trump plan to court-martial top military brass for their part in the withdrawal from Afghanistan was slammed as 'utter nonsense" by a retired general Monday.
The Trump transition team is reportedly crafting a list of current and former military brass involved with the withdrawal, with the proposal that they be charged with treason, NBC News reported over the weekend.
The plan claims that retired military officials would be recalled and forced back into active duty, where they would be court-martialed.
According to retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, it's never going to happen — and even if it did, he said it would make Trump look terrible for his own mistakes.
"What is not utter nonsense is this is a political attack of utmost hypocrisy. Trump ran for office saying get out of Afghanistan. He reduced the troop presence to 2,500. He negotiated directly with the Taliban."
When Biden came into office, McCaffrey said that only 2,500 troops on the ground made things difficult when they were forced to give up the U.S. Air Force base.
"The evacuation, from a tactical military viewpoint, was a brilliant success," he continued.
"... We got out of there with 100,000 Afghan civilians fleeing with us. It is just the world turned upside down.
"I think it is going nowhere, but it is a disaster signal to the armed forces. They are also talking about review boards, vetting the three and four-star officers [in the] Army, Navy, and Air Force. Firing the chairman of [Joint Chiefs of Staff]. This is a terrible beginning to a new administration."
That said, he believes "it will go nowhere" because "there is no precedent."
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published an independent report in 2022 where it blamed both Trump and President Joe Biden's administration for the chaotic withdrawal.
MAGA supporters were forced to cut short a celebration Monday after right-wing host Steve Bannon falsely reported that President-elect Donald Trump had named Kash Patel as the next director of the FBI.
On his daily War Room broadcast, Bannon shared what he called "blockbuster" news.
"Our own Kash Patel, just named the director of the FBI," Bannon claimed. "Think of the touchdown twins, [Matt] Gaetz at main justice at DOJ and Kash Patel at FBI."
Conservative attorney Mike Davis immediately began celebrating.
"Kash Patel is another grand slam pick by President Trump to lead the FBI, the most broken and corrupt institution in Washington, D.C.," Davis said. "He will go in there and make the necessary reforms to fix the FBI that has been so badly politicized and weaponized against Trump."
"Kash is the perfect pick," he continued. "He has the experience. He has the confidence. He has the loyalty to go clean house at the FBI."
Former Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Clark claimed Patel had an "excellent background" to be FBI director despite his involvement with the "Stop the Steal" movement that led to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Hang on," Bannon interrupted. "I'm just, I think, did we misread that? He's not nominated."
"They're saying that if he's nominated, he's going to destroy the FBI," the right-wing host noted. "Daggone it... I'm not saying it's false news. He's not yet nominated."
At least one former FBI official has warned that naming Patel as FBI director would undermine the department's mission.
"Putting someone like Kash Patel in the position of director of the FBI is, I believe, extremely, extremely dangerous because … his resume isn't traditional," former FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner told CNN on Sunday.
CNN's Pamela Brown clashed with Oklahoma's school superintendent Ryan Walters over religion in the classroom.
Walters announced last week that the state had purchased more than 500 Donald Trump-endorsed Bibles to put into classrooms, and he angered many parents and teachers by directing them to play videos of him praying for the president-elect.
"The Constitution is crystal clear on religious liberty," Walters said on CNN Monday.
"I know the left doesn't want our kids to know anything about the role the Bible played in American history. They don't want any of our kids to know about the Constitution. Our religious liberties are protected, and the left has driven the Bible out of schools, driven prayer out of schools and everything in education has gotten worse since before we had a federal Department of Education and we had the Bible and prayer in school.
"Guess what? We were leading the free world, this was the greatest country in the world, and we have seen every statistic has gotten worse since the creation of the federal Department of Education and the Supreme Court pulled the Bible and prayer out of schools."
But Brown wasn't having it, and launched into a long and detailed put down of what he was saying — full of examples and historic context.
"All right first of all, the Constitution is not crystal clear on that," Brown said. "It doesn't have God in it, there is this Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, which the Supreme Court has routinely said it requires the separation of church and state and public schools. There are many cases."
Walters attempted to interrupt the anchor, but Brown cut him off.
"Hold on, I am speaking," she said.
"There are many cases where the Supreme Court has routinely ruled on that. You went after 'woke' teachers and the radical left in your announcement for attacking religious liberty, but your critics are saying that by requiring Bibles in every classroom and requiring this prayer video, you're trying to impose your religion on students in violation of the Establishment Clause.
"Constitutional scholars say the Constitution is crystal clear on freedom of religion, not enforcing one religion, your religion on students."
Jeff Mordock of conservative newspaper The Washington Times defended President-elect Donald Trump's decision to appoint an all-white cabinet Monday.
During the Washington Journal program on C-SPAN, Mordock was confronted by a Democratic caller from California.
"Why is he only selecting white people to be in his cabinet?" the caller named Jared asked. "Why do we have to have all these sexual assault people being heads of cabinets, you know?"
"And it's just wrong to have those people with those type of records running the country," he noted.
Mordock downplayed the importance of ethnic diversity in government.
"It's true, but the president's argument is that these people have diverse experience," Mordock insisted. "That he's bringing people from outside, business executives, a talk show host, governors, and he's trying to argue that the diversity is not under race or gender, but under experience, is what the president is arguing."
"But yes, they're all white," he admitted. "There's not, in terms of what we traditionally think of diversity, there's not a lot."
Mordock also addressed the sexual assault allegations against some members of Trump's potential cabinet.
"We've got three nominees, and I don't recall any period in this town where we've ever had three nominees for level positions with very serious sexual misconduct allegations lodged against them," he said. "Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, and RFK Jr."
"And I think some of this is, is he trying to test the loyalty and how compliant his Senate is going to be before he moves forward with other things?" the reporter added. "He's built a lot of political capital. I'm somewhat surprised he's going to try to use up a lot of that on Matt Gaetz."
Donald Trump kicked off the week by taking the focus off his highly criticized Cabinet nominees and moving it to his highly controversial deportation plan. The President-elect acknowledged early Monday he is prepared to declare a national emergency and use "military assets" in his mass deportation program.
“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and it gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made,” Leavitt had said. “Which include, on Day 1, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed into this country.”
Leavitt also said that the “mass deportation operation” would include “millions of undocumented immigrants.”
Back in 2018, Trump "complained about 'having all these people from shithole countries come here' — and singled out Haiti, El Salvador and Africa as examples — he also added that, 'we should have more people from Norway'," NPR reported at the time.
Just past 4 AM ET on Monday, Trump on his Truth Social website reposted a statement from right-wing anti-immigrant activist Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch and a senior member of the secretive organization the Council for National Policy. (CNP has been called the "scariest Christian nationalist group you've never heard of," and "probably the most dangerous," by Americans United.)
Fitton had written on November 8: "GOOD NEWS: Reports are the incoming @RealDonaldTrump administration prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program."
"I want to again emphasize caution here. Fitton mashed together two different things (the border and mass deportations). There is no National Emergency Act authority to use the military for deportations, while we know Trump used the [NEA] in the past for border wall construction."
Leavitt's claim that Trump had been given a mandate has been deemed false by political experts, with one pundit calling it a "lie."
According to the Cook Political Report, while winning the popular vote, Trump did not win a majority. He beat Vice President Harris by just over 1.6 million votes, or just 1.7%, with nearly 800,000 more votes in California alone still to be counted.
CNN's Harry Enten on Monday confirmed Trump's margin over Haris ranks just 44th out of 51, and called it "weak, weak, weak."
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz could be a "sacrificial lamb" as President-elect Donald Trump pushes controversial Cabinet nominations that are raising eyebrows nationwide, a laughing bipartisan CNN panel said Monday.
Gaetz' nomination for attorney general could face insurmountable trouble in the form a brewing scandal over an Ethics committee probe — which prompted Republican strategist Lee Carter to argue his selection was a strategic chess move from Trump.
"This could be the sacrificial lamb," Carter said. "I think this is a very smart move by Donald Trump, if that's what this is, because, you know what? He's out of the House, he's out of his hair, and he could be out of the spotlight for a while."
Democratic strategist Christine Quinn quickly chimed in to agree with Carter — and when CNN anchor John Berman expressed shock — Carter laughed out loud.
Quinn also urged Democrats to ensure Gaetz' ouster by whatever legal means necessary — but not to forget other controversial picks.
"I think Democrats absolutely need to focus on derailing this appointment, because if Matt Gaetz is appointed, it will be terrible for the country and terrible for the most important law position in our country," said Quinn.
"But they need to be careful that they don't only focus on Gaetz, and they look at the other appointments and pick out the other ones that are critical to our country's stability and oppose those as well."
News that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hopes to block the release of the House Ethics Committee report into allegations against Gaetz of sex trafficking, drug use, and accepting improper gifts spurred questions from Quinn.
"Why not just put it out? Why did he resign?" she asked. "It's one of those situations where if there is smoke, there is probably fire, and that report should be released for the good of the office and the good of the country."
Carter agreed Gaetz was a controversial choice.
"He has been a thorn in many of the Republican side," she said. "We know that he openly had a big fight with the former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. He is a big issue, and I think that Donald Trump knows that."
President-elect Donald Trump and his attorney general nominee would be foolish to believe House Speaker Mike Johnson can keep the Gaetz report from being leaked to the Senate, at least, CNN political analyst Scott Jennings said Monday.
"Your life and everything you've done and all the actions you've undertaken are fair game," said Jennings. "That's what the process is for."
Jennings also argued Trump he'll likely lose his push to have Gaetz hired as attorney general.
The CNN commentator said it was unlikely the Senate would confirm Gaetz's nomination to lead the Department of Justice due to the intense opposition he's predicted to face from people Trump will find difficult to bully.
"Some of these senators are simply not tenable or as susceptible to Trump's influence as the others," Jennings said. "Some of them are retiring, some of them, you know, have an image of fighting with Trump publicly that serves them well back in their home states."
"Some of them have had some long-standing problems with him," Jennings said. "So there's a group of senators here obviously, that would be more than the required number to defeat a nomination on the floor."
But he argued, as confirmation hearings approached, Johnson's efforts would likely prove futile.
"It strikes me that it's likely to come out either the report itself or the information contained," he said. "If I were Mr. Gaetz, I don't think I would count on that remaining a secret."
Donald Trump's choice for defense secretary could face a "rocky ride" to confirmation over reports that he paid to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, according to reports.
The Fox News broadcaster and National Guard veteran paid the woman an undisclosed amount last year as part of a civil confidential settlement agreement, and Hegseth's attorney insisted the 2017 encounter was consensual and not sexual assault. But MSNBC's Joe Scarborough predicted some of Trump's nominees would face opposition from Senate Republicans.
"The fact is Donald Trump won the presidency, [and] Donald Trump can put the people in that he thinks will help him out the most," Scarborough said. "Again, Susie Wiles as chief of staff had a lot of people on the Hill going, 'Okay, not perfect that he is going to be the president, but this is somebody that brought order to the campaign structure at least, even if the campaign itself at times was far from orderly.'
"Again, the same thing with Marco Rubio, a lot of people in Washington, D.C., again, had a lot of different policy issues and debates with Marco Rubio but, at the same time, that was his selection and the people said, 'All right, well he is going to be the president and that is his prerogative.'"
However, Scarborough said Hegseth, attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, and intelligence chief nominee Tulsi Gabbard might not be given a pass by GOP senators, although Trump wants Congress to go into recess so he can push through his appointees as acting secretaries to avoid confirmation hearings.
"Let's face it, just three picks right now that I think Senate Republicans are going to have real trouble with and, of course, you know, we have talked about one, but also Tulsi Gabbard and also the selection for [Department of Defense] which, of course, people on the inside and the Trump transition team know that the DOD selection is going to be a rocky ride."
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough mocked Donald Trump's new buddy and seeming "co-president" Elon Musk for wearing out his welcome less than two weeks after Election Day.
The billionaire tech mogul reportedly spent about $200 million helping to elect the former president, and Musk has reportedly been influencing his choices for Cabinet secretaries and enjoying a high profile in the Trump orbit.
But the "Morning Joe" host wondered how long that dynamic would last.
"You know, people keep talking about Elon Musk as a co-president," Scarborough said. "I don't know that is helping Elon Musk's standing. Also, I was very surprised that he tweeted out, basically weighing in publicly on who he supported for treasury secretary and also the issue of tariffs, which was sort of the centerpiece of Donald Trump's economic campaign and basically agreeing that he thought tariffs were not good for economies worldwide.
"I don't know if that ends well for Elon Musk or anybody that is doing that publicly."
Co-presenter Jonathan Lemire agreed, saying that Trump usually fell out with staffers and advisers who wanted to share the spotlight.
"There is only room for one star in Donald Trump's sky and it has to be Donald Trump," Lemire said. "We know this is a man who would fire advisers if they got on a magazine cover. He does not like sharing the spotlight with anyone, and he has in recent days, he has couched them as jokes, but flashed irritation that Elon Musk is always around.
"He said that a couple times now at Mar-a-Lago, and he won't leave. I've been talking to some people in the Trump circle who say that's real. Trump is certainly flattered that the world's richest man seems to like him so much. We know that Trump is impressed by wealth, he likes to hang out with people even richer than he, and Musk certainly qualifies for that."
"But at a certain point, Musk, one Trump adviser was telling me, Musk didn't win a single vote. Donald Trump did, and Musk is going to have to restrain himself, this person said, if he wants to stay in Trump's orbit," Lemire added. "Otherwise, odds are there will be, if past is prologue, a rapid falling out in the weeks or months ahead."
"What do they say about visitors?" Scarborough said. "Like, after three days, they're like fish, they start to smell."
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet in person with Donald Trump for the first time in years.
The pair had previously been friends with the former star of NBC's "The Apprentice," but their relationship soured after they repeatedly criticized Trump during his first presidency and afterward. They said they visited his private resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in an attempt to bury the hatchet.
"Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people from political leaders to regular citizens deeply dismayed by several of president-elect Trump's Cabinet selections and they are scared," Brzezinski said. "Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the president-elect himself.
"On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to Mar-a-Lago to meet personally with President-elect Trump. It was the first time we have seen him in seven years."
Since the last time they met, the former president accused Scarborough of murdering a congressional staffer decades ago, a conspiracy theory he heard from his attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, and the "Morning Joe" host claims that Trump allies had threatened to arrest his producers if he was re-elected.
"We talked about a lot of issues, including abortion, mass deportation, threats of political retribution against political opponents and media outlets," Scarborough said. "We talked about that a good bit. It will come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues and we told him so."
"What we did agree on was to restart communications," Brzezinski said. "My father [former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski] often spoke with world leaders with whom he and the United States profoundly disagreed. That is a task shared by reporters and commentators alike. We had not spoken to Trump since March of 2020 other than a personal call that Joe made, a call after the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania. In this meeting, President Trump was cheerful and upbeat and he seemed interested in finding common ground with Democrats on some of the most divisive issues. And for those asking why we would go speak to the president-elect during such fraught times, especially between us, I guess I would ask back, why wouldn't we? Five years of political warfare has deeply divided Washington and the country."
"We have been as clear as we know how in expressing our deep concerns about President Trump's actions and words in the coarsening of public debate for nearly 80 million Americans," Brzezinski added. "Election denialism, public trials, Jan. 6 were not as important as the issues that moved them to send Donald Trump back to the White House with their vote. Joe and I realized it's time to do something different and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with him."
A source close to the former president told Scarborough that Trump might approach his second term differently because he was prohibited from running again.
"Somebody close to Donald Trump told me this past weekend, this is a president who is not seeking re-election, so maybe, just maybe now could be time for both parties to get to work," Scarborough said. "I know, given the jarring headlines that we read every day, that may seem like a stretch but think about this. Of the 150 million votes cast, Donald Trump got 50 percent, Kamala Harris got about 49 percent, so I don't know. It seems to make sense for leaders of both parties to seek common ground, if it's possible at all. I will tell you a lot of Democratic leaders we have talked to this past week since the election have told Mika and me, it's time for a new approach. When I say top Democrats, I mean top Democrats. They said we are open — this is before we talked to Donald Trump — they said, listen. We are open to working with the incoming president if the incoming president is open to working with us."
Brzezinski acknowledged that seemed unlikely, give the current political climate, but she argued that both parties should at least try to co-exist peacefully.
"The question is, though, how do we get there?" she said. "Hyperbole and personal attacks will not work. My hair on fire doesn't work, we have all seen that! What also does not work is threatening political opponents with arrest, harassment and even jail. That is a failed path. Recent history has proven that impeachments and trials turn those on trial into political martyrs and only make them more popular with the American people. Just ask Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. We know this will be a consequential presidency, the question is whether it will be constructive. It will take a new approach from all sides, from both parties, and a leader who can bring them together and only time will tell if Donald Trump can be that leader. As for us, we also let him know that we will continue to speak truth to power and push back hard when called for, as we have with all presidents."
Scarborough seemed to anticipate criticism of their visit to Mar-a-Lago and insisted they would still cover him as a potential threat to democracy.
"Don't be mistaken, we are not here to defend or normalize Donald Trump," Scarborough said. "We are here to report on him and to hopefully provide you insights that are going to better equip all of us in understanding these deeply unsettling times, and I am reminded of what Marty Baron, legendary editor told his Washington Post editors back in the first term: 'We are not going to war, we are going to work.' So let's go to work now."
According to a former Republican colleague of Rep. Matt Gaetz who also represented Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives, the embattled lawmaker may find there are some GOP senators who are more concerned with their legacies than they are with Donald Trump getting his attorney general nominee approved.
Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt, Dave Jolly singled out three GOP senators who have not previously been the focus of political observers who could join so-called "moderate" GOP Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) who may shoot down the nominee if he lasts long enough to appear at a Senate hearing.
"This is somebody who is wholly inexperienced and unqualified, empirically unqualified to run the Department of Justice" Jolly suggested. "And so are there four Republican senators that just won't go along? Those legacies, I'm thinking of former House members, Bill Cassidy (R-LA), James Lankford from Oklahoma, Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, and a few others. Are they willing to support a Matt Gaetz as the attorney general?"
"And the curveball is, would Donald Trump consider a recess appointment?" he proposed. "This is what he told them they would do, though and, if you supported Donald Trump, you're just as responsible for this as the president-elect is."
A Republican man from Indiana told C-SPAN on Sunday that "colored people" would not have basketball if former President Abraham Lincoln had not abolished slavery.
During Sunday's episode of Washington Journal, an Indiana Republican named Rick told host Kimberly Adams that the Bible said "that man is supposed to rule the house" and a woman should "just do the cleaning."
"But anyway, on the sidebar, you know, ever since Abraham Lincoln got shot and killed, boy, chaos went to heck, went right along with the Democrats," the caller opined. "And what gets me is, Kimberly, is these colored people is always saying that Trump's so bad."
"Can't they think back in their ancestors' times when British and stuff was coming over to them?" he asked. "What I don't understand is why the colored people, the Republicans, heck, they were the ones that set them free. Democrats had them in there for slavery. I just don't understand it."
"If it wasn't for Abraham Lincoln, them guys wouldn't have a basketball game and football game."
Rick ended his call by insisting that Democrats should repent.
"And seriously, on the weather, it's going to get bad in the South," he said. "So all the people, Democrats in the South, better repent now because the storm's coming your way."
