RFK Jr says he would hire ‘pro-life’ people in his office
Tim Scott, the Republican senator from South Carolina, said that he and Robert F Kennedy Jr had some “serious conversations about the importance of life”.
“You assured me that your deputies were going to be pro life. Is that still the case?” Scott asked Kennedy. Kennedy replied:
I will implement President Trump’s policies. I serve at his pleasure, but I share President Trump’s [belief] that every abortion is a tragedy.
Pressed on whether he will hire deputies within his Department of Health and Human Services who will be pro-life, Kennedy said: “I am.”
Key events
Alexandra Villarreal
Mass deportation – at least in theory – is apparently popular among the American people.
So over and over again, Trump and his allies have loudly touted their plans to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, initially focusing on those with criminal records. In doing so, they’ve redirected the US public’s attention toward their “shock and awe” tactics that led to thousands of arrests across the country in less than a week.
But as all eyes turn to these high-profile enforcement efforts, the new administration from its very first moments has also been relentlessly, if more quietly, targeting people trying to come to the US legally, systematically dismantling safety nets meant to protect the world’s most vulnerable individuals and families, who are already suffering because of it.
Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump is still historically unpopular compared with other new US presidents, a new poll showed.
“At 47%, President Donald Trump’s initial job approval rating for his second term is similar to the inaugural 45% reading during his first term, again placing him below all other elected presidents dating back to 1953,” wrote Megan Brenan, a senior editor for Gallup, which carried out the poll.
“Trump remains the only elected president with sub-50% initial approval ratings, and his latest disapproval rating (48%) is three percentage points higher than in 2017.”
John F Kennedy remains the most popular modern president at the start of his term, according to Gallup polling. In the first month of his presidency, in 1961, the Democrat enjoyed 72% approval and just 6% disapproval.
Dwight Eisenhower (1953) and Barack Obama (2009) enjoyed the next-highest approval ratings, at 68%. Jimmy Carter, who died last month aged 100, scored 66% approval in February 1977, at the start of his single term in office.
Robert F Kennedy Jr was asked if he would rescind a Biden administration rule requiring physicians who receive federal funding to perform gender-affirming care.
“Yes, I will,” Kennedy said in response to a question by Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri. “That rule is anti-science.”
Kennedy added:
Do you really want somebody performing surgery on you who is morally opposed to that surgery? It doesn’t make any sense.
Kennedy said that “we need to embrace diversity in this country” and not “force people to do things that are against their conscience”.
Trump, without evidence, appears to blame DEI for plane crash
David Smith
Donald Trump continued to turn what might have been a sombre briefing into a baseless rant against DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs despite no evidence of a link with Wednesday night’s plane crash.
The president was backed to the hilt by his transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said “we can only accept the best and the brightest” in positions affecting passenger safety, and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who echoed: “The era of DEI is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest.”
Then came Vice-President JD Vance, who claimed “we want to hire the best people” who are “actually competent enough to do the job”.
Trump returned to the lectern to claim that “very powerful tests” for competence in air traffic control were “terminated” by Joe Biden.
CNN’s Kaitlin Collins asked: “Aren’t you getting ahead of the investigation?” Trump replied: “No, I don’t think so at all … I don’t think that’s a smart question. I’m surprised, coming from you.”
Another reporter asked why Trump believes DEI is responsible. He said: “Because I have common sense and unfortunately a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level.”
RFK Jr says he would hire ‘pro-life’ people in his office
Tim Scott, the Republican senator from South Carolina, said that he and Robert F Kennedy Jr had some “serious conversations about the importance of life”.
“You assured me that your deputies were going to be pro life. Is that still the case?” Scott asked Kennedy. Kennedy replied:
I will implement President Trump’s policies. I serve at his pleasure, but I share President Trump’s [belief] that every abortion is a tragedy.
Pressed on whether he will hire deputies within his Department of Health and Human Services who will be pro-life, Kennedy said: “I am.”
Andrew Roth
Tulsi Gabbard is avoiding answering a question on whether or not Edward Snowden should be considered a traitor to the United States.
“Is Edward Snowden a traitor: yes or no?” she is asked by successive senators.
Edward Snowden broke the law. He released information about the United States. If I may just finish my thought, senator … In this role that I’ve been nominated for, confirmed as director of national intelligence, I will be responsible for protecting our nation’s secrets, and I have more immediate steps that I would take to prevent another Snowden.
That has not satisfied senator Michael Bennet from Colorado, a Democrat. “This is when the rubber hits the road,” he said.
This is not a moment for social media. It’s not a moment to propagate conspiracy theories … This is when you need to answer questions of the people whose votes you’re asking for.
He continues:
Obviously we didn’t select this nominee. But can’t we do better than somebody who doesn’t believe in [Fisa law] 702? Can we believe that somebody who can’t answer whether Snowden was a traitor five times today, who made excuses for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? The first time that I’m aware of any American official has done that, I’m questioning her judgment. That’s the issue that’s at stake here.
Hugo Lowell
Kash Patel, the nominee to be the FBI director, evades a hypothetical from Senator Chris Coons about whether he would open an investigation into a political opponent if requested by Donald Trump, or would stop a legitimate investigation into a Trump ally.
Patel says he will simply obey the law.
The questions touch on issues that came up during Trump’s first term: when the president asked then FBI director Jim Comey to end the investigation into his national security adviser. Comey declined – and was later fired by Trump.
But Patel also told Coons that the FBI would not engage in retribution against Trump’s political opponents, backpedaling from his past claims that even former FBI director Chris Wray should be prosecuted in part for his role in allowing the criminal investigation of Trump for his mishandling of classified documents. Patel said the FBI ‘will not go backwards”.
Hugo Lowell
Kash Patel, the nominee to be the FBI director, attempts to distance himself from verbatim quotes being read back at him by Senator Amy Klobuchar that don’t portray Patel as a nonpartisan official.
Klobuchar ticks through various remarks he has made on a number of podcasts, including that he would shut down the FBI headquarters and turn it into a museum of the so-called “deep state’.
Patel said her quotations were a “grotesque” mischaracterization, and at other times claimed not to remember the remarks being read back to him.
“I am quoting his own words,” Klobuchar said.
Patel says the FBI works for the justice department, and adds that the justice department reports to the White House.
Democratic senator Chris Coons notes that Trump’s attorney general nominee, Pam Bondi, gave a different response in her hearing: that the justice department reports to the constitution and the American people. It’s a notable difference.
David Smith
Wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie, Donald Trump entered the White House briefing room at 11.21am, accompanied by his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, both new to their jobs.
“I’d like to request a moment of silence for the victims and their families, please,” Trump said.
After the pause, and in softer, graver tones than usual, he resumed: “I speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish for our nation.”
Trump provided a description of the incident, noting: “Sadly, there are no survivors.” He described it as “a tragedy of terrible proportions” that has “really shaken a lot of people”.
The president added: “We are all heartbroken, we are all searching for answers. That icy, icy Potomac … cold water.”
Trump said “we have very strong opinions and ideas” about how the accident happened then reverted to taking political swipes at Barack Obama and Joe Biden over air traffic controller standards. “The word “talented”. You have to be naturally talented geniuses.”
In a harsher tone than before, he then complained about diversity and inclusion in FAA programs and described former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg as a “disaster” who has a “good line in bullshit”.
Hugo Lowell
Kash Patel, the nominee to be the FBI director, is indignant at Democrats raising the list of deep-state actors that he considered to be Donald Trump’s political opponents.
Democrats have referred to the list, which appears as an appendix in his book Government Gangsters, as an enemies list.
“It’s not an enemies list,” Patel said. “It’s a total mischaracterization.”
But the list does effectively name anyone and everyone who Patel has viewed as disloyal to Trump’s agenda.
It includes people like the FBI agents who led the Russia investigation, and former attorney generals, FBI directors and CIA directors – but only those Trump has personally clashed with and has mused at various times about wanting to investigate.
Maya Yang
Donald Trump is delivering remarks from the White House briefing room on last night’s midair collision at Reagan National airport near Washington DC.
“The work has now shifted to a recovery mission. Sadly, there are no survivors,” Trump said.
This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions.
He said authorities have “some pretty good ideas” about what led to the crash.
RFK Jr won’t commit to keeping abortion pill mifepristone on market
Robert F Kennedy Jr was pressed to answer whether he would keep the abortion pill mifepristone on the market.
Tammy Baldwin, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, noted that more than 100 peer-reviewed studies for the medication have confirmed that 99% of patients who took the pill had no complications.
Kennedy refused to commit to keeping mifepristone on the market and available to women, and said he would not get ahead of Donald Trump on the issue.
“President Trump has not chosen a policy,” Kennedy said. “I will implement his policy.”
Andrew Roth
Tulsi Gabbard has said that if she is nominated she won’t advocate for a pardon for Edward Snowden.
In response to a question by Senator Susan Collins, Gabbard said:
If confirmed as the director of national intelligence, my responsibility would be to ensure the security of our nation’s secrets, and would not take actions to advocate for any actions related to Snowden. So the answer is no.
”I would work to make sure that we don’t have any disclosures or vigilantes taking it upon themselves [to disclose intelligence],” she continued, pointing to “legal routes” for whistleblowers to raise complaints.
She also denied reports in the New York Times that she had met with a senior member of Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon, calling it an “absurd accusation”.
RFK Jr avoids saying Covid vaccines were successful as Bernie Sanders grills him
Bernie Sanders, the independent senator of Vermont, asked Robert F Kennedy Jr if he agreed that Covid-19 vaccines were successful in saving millions of lives.
Kennedy refused to be pinned down, saying there is no good surveillance system.
“If you show me science that shows that,” Kennedy said. Sanders replied:
You’re applying for the job – clearly you should know this. And the scientific community has established that Covid vaccines saved millions of lives and you’re casting doubt.
Tulsi Gabbard: ‘no love for Assad, Gaddafi, or any dictator’
Andrew Roth
Tulsi Gabbard, in her opening remarks at her confirmation hearing for national intelligence chief, said that she has “no love for Assad, Gaddafi, or any dictator, I just hate al-Qaida”.
Gabbard was pushing back against criticism for her 2017 meeting with the then Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad during a visit to Damascus, Syria, that will become a focal point of questioning during the hearing.
”I hate that we have leaders who cozy up to Islamist extremists, minimizing them to so called rebels,” she said, indicating the former national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Gabbard has come under attack for her public remarks saying that Syria did not use chemical weapons against civilians and that Russia was provoked into invading Ukraine, and for her defense of Edward Snowden.
If confirmed, Gabbard has said that she will “check my own personal views at the door”.
In her opening remarks, she attacked Biden-era intelligence officials for leading to a crisis of confidence in the US intelligence community. Gabbard said she was “committed to delivering intelligence that is collected, analyzed and reported without bias, prejudice or political influence”.
Gabbard said her military service and work in Congress on the homeland security, foreign affairs and armed services committee means that “I know first-hand how essential accurate, unbiased, timely intelligence is to the president, to Congress, to our war fighters. I also know the heavy costs of intelligence failures and abuses.”
Gabbard also attacked those who raised concerns about her ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, which some critics have said is a cult.
“Unfortunately, they’re once again using the religious bigotry card, but this time, trying to foment religious bigotry against Hindus and Hinduism,” she said.
If anyone is sincerely interested in knowing more about my own personal spiritual path, Hinduism, I welcome you to go to my account on X, where I’ll share more on this topic.
