Congress Returns, Trump's Justice Department , Biden's Global Bind

0:02Congress is back in session and President-elect Donald Trump is already trying to influence who will lead the Republican majority. Will the GOP rally around familiar faces, or will Trump loyalists allow him to bypass congressional confirmations? I'm Michelle Martin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Justice Department will be in for a shakeup when Trump and his vice president take office. The most important job after President of the United States and the next administration, it's not me. It's who we select as attorney general. Republicans criticized the FBI and DOJ on the campaign trail.

0:37So what changes are they planning to make? And President Joe Biden will travel to South America this week to meet with world leaders, where Trump's return is already reshaping the conversation. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start today.

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2:24That's L-E-E-S-A.com, promo code NPR. Congress is back this week with a busy agenda. First on the list, selecting the person who will lead each chamber. President-elect Donald Trump has made it known that he wants to influence these choices and his allies are pushing hard to accommodate him. So who will get these top jobs? Here to talk us through this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. So, Barbara, first up the Senate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepping down from leadership. Who are the top contenders to replace him now that Republicans will be in charge in January?

2:57Well, Senators John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota are seen as the front runners going into this. They're both well-liked by their peers. They both have leadership experience. Cornyn previously served in leadership, and Thune is currently the second-highest-ranking Senate Republican. That said, there is a pressure campaign from Trump world for Florida Senator Rick Scott to get this top leadership gig. He's a Trump loyalist, previously ran against McConnell two years ago, got less than a dozen votes then, but he now has the vocal support of a lot of Trump allies, including Elon Musk, RFK Jr., conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, and Matt Schlapp of the Conservative Political Action Conference.

3:40They see Cornyn and Thune as to establishment, and Scott has never publicly been in conflict with Trump. How much, though, does that Trump pressure change the dynamics? Well, the odds that this campaign changes the hearts and minds of most GOP senators is slim. Most of them aren't running for another four years or more. Most of them don't like this kind of online campaign trying to change their potential votes. And most importantly, perhaps, this is a secret vote. But it is an open question as to whether Trump himself decides to publicly put his finger on the scale and what kind of consequences that might have.

4:18So speaking of that, Trump made a demand over the weekend on social media saying any GOP senator wanting the leadership job has to agree to recess appointments. He said that's key to getting his nominees confirmed in a timely manner. Walk us through, Barbara, what that means. So basically, if the Senate is in a recess, the president can appoint and mostly get around a longer Senate confirmation, which makes it easier to fill vacancies or usher in temporary, perhaps controversial picks. Senate leaders in both parties have tried to prevent this in order to retain their full power of checking the president's nominees.

4:51And they do that by having what's called pro forma sessions during a scheduled recess, kind of a shorthand way to block these recess appointments. Now, Scott came out strongly in support of Trump's post, tweeting, quote, I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible. Foon and Cornyn also signaled some openness there. Now, recess appointments are only allowed when Congress is out of session for at least 10 days. And a recess appointment expires at the end of a Senate session. So it's an inefficient way to fill out a cabinet, for example. But it can be an easier way to get judges approved.

5:28OK, now let's shift to the House. Republicans currently hold a thin majority in that chamber, but not all the races have been called yet. So what does that path look like? Well, the GOP appears to be on track to retain a narrow majority in the House. New member orientation is starting this morning, and there will be leadership elections for the speaker tomorrow afternoon. Mike Johnson is expected to keep the gavel, and Democrats will hold their own leadership elections in the House next week. All right, that's NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Barbara, thanks. Thank you.

6:06President-elect Donald Trump is making some big decisions. Yeah, one of them is who will lead the Justice Department. On the campaign trail, Trump has blasted the DOJ and the FBI. Soon he will have a chance to do something about his resentment. NPR's Kerry Johnson has covered the Justice Department for nearly two decades, and she's here with me now to talk about what the Trump administration might do there. Kerry, good morning. Good morning. How big a priority is this for Donald Trump? This is a huge priority, and you don't need to take my word for it. But here's J.D. Vance, the vice president-elect, talking recently on the campaign trail.

6:39The most important job, this is a bit of a hit to my ego, but the most important job after President of the United States and the next administration, it's not me, it's who we select as attorney general. Michelle, the attorney general leads more than 100 ,000 people. The department prosecutes crimes, polices businesses. It defends laws about antitrust and the environment, and it protects civil rights. And the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals all report to that attorney general. Who might be in line for this job? You know, there are a lot of names floating around from members of Congress like Senator Mike Lee of Utah.

7:14There are people like Jeff Clark. He's the DOJ official Trump tried to promote in late 2020. Clark advanced phony claims of election fraud. He's faced some legal discipline for that. And then there are other lawyers like Todd Blanche, a former federal prosecutor who represented Trump. In several of Trump's criminal cases, I hear Blanche might be more likely to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. But another strong candidate is Mark Paoletta. He's a longtime D.C. lawyer who's been advising the transition. He's also very close to Justice Clarence Thomas. So what are some of the top priorities for the new Trump DOJ?

7:50Special Counsel Jack Smith is already unwinding the two federal criminal cases against Donald Trump. Trump has said he plans to pardon people involved in the January 6th riot at the Capitol. But there are a bunch of other things unrelated the president might try to do, and they're wide-ranging because the DOJ is involved in so many things. Here are just a few of them. He could try to cut federal grant funds for local police who won't go along with his immigration plans. He could try to enforce the Comstock Act and criminalize the use of the mail for abortion medication and equipment. He could restart the engine of federal capital punishment for the 40 or so people on federal death row.

8:29And some conservative advisers have also suggested trying to overhaul the FBI to try to make its director accountable to more junior officials inside the Justice Department with more political control. Can you talk a little bit about that whole question of who the FBI is accountable to? Because Donald Trump appointed the current FBI director in 2017. But it's my understanding that his term isn't contemporaneous with the president's. And that's intentional because they don't want the FBI director to be subject to political pressures per se. So how would this work? Yeah, the 10-year term was imposed by Congress after J.

9:03Edgar Hoover lorded over the bureau for decades and decades. And the thinking was he got too involved in politics in his own personal vendettas. Donald Trump appointed the current FBI director, Chris Wray, only after he fired Jim Comey. And the FBI has only one political appointee, the director. Chris Wray has now served just over seven years, so he has some time left. But Trump has had a really tense relationship with Wray. Lawyers close to Trump expect him to dismiss the FBI director sometime next year. As for the FBI director, Chris Wray, I'm told he continues to oversee the day-to-day operations, and he's actively planning with his team to lead the FBI into next year and beyond.

9:42It sounds to me like if Trump wants Wray to go, he's going to have to fire him. That is NPR's Kerry Johnson. Kerry, thank you. My pleasure.

9:57President Biden travels to Peru and Brazil this week. He's meeting with leaders of the world's biggest economies at two summits, APEC in Lima and the G20 in Rio. It's his last big foreign trip where he'll meet a large group of world leaders. And it might be his last chance to make a major statement on the global stage. But it comes on the heels of Donald Trump's victory. It's an awkward moment. So how does he shape his parting message? NPR's White House correspondent Asma Khalid will be traveling along that trip. Yep. So President Biden has said many times that America's back when he's talking about working with allies.

10:30Asma, Donald Trump is back, too, now. So what's he going to say? Well, Biden came into office after Trump shocked world leaders with the way that he conducted foreign policy. You'll probably recall, you know, Trump did not like NATO and he was openly skeptical of a whole bunch of other alliances. And so Biden has spent the last four years trying to rebuild alliances, expand NATO, working to counter China. But, you know, as you say, he is now in this awkward position. Trump is back with his same worldview that was threatening broad-based tariffs on friends and foes. So how does Biden's message have to shift now after this election?

11:06Yeah, I mean, Biden is still expected to provide some reassurances about the long-term U.S. commitment to the world. You know, former President Barack Obama was in a similar position in the fall of 2016. He also traveled to Peru shortly after Trump's first victory. And Ben Rhodes, who was former Obama's, one of his advisors, was on that trip. And he told me at that point Obama's message was, wait and see. You know, you don't know exactly how Trump will govern and engage with the world. But he says that is not the message Biden can give now. I think what's changed in eight years, the rest of the world has really priced Trump in.

11:43And I don't think that there's any time in the last four years where any country wasn't hedging against a Trump return. And, you know, multiple former Obama aides told me that there was a sense in 2016 that the world may have seen Trump as an aberration. That is no longer the case. You know, and I spoke to other people, though, I will say, who point out that international partners have a longer view of the United States' relationship with the world. Take Danielle Pletka. She's with the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. And she told me that Trump may have an untraditional approach, but he is still going to be engaged in the world.

12:19U.S. global leadership is based not simply on sentimental ideas about the beauty of NATO or about what great Chardonnay we all get together at the G7. U.S. global leadership is based on the fact that we are the largest economy in the world. That Chardonnay better be really good. I mean, you would think it's the G7. OK, so how does the return of Donald Trump then affect global relationships with China? That's the world's second largest economy. Yeah, I mean, that's one thing I'll be watching closely for this week, because China's Xi Jinping is also expected to travel to South America for these meetings.

12:55You know, broadly, I will say Biden has not drastically broken with Trump on China policy. He largely maintained the Trump era tariffs on China, and he deepened cooperation with India, Japan and Australia, building on an initiative that Trump began. And, you know, one practical message Biden could try to make this week is that the threat of more tariffs from Trump is real. And so China and other countries ought to play by the rules. All right. That's NPR's Asma Hala. Thank you very much. Good to speak with you.

13:29And that's up first for Tuesday, November 12th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Michelle Martin. Your next listen is Consider This from NPR. President-elect Donald Trump has suggested that in his second term, he will take on the news media with more than just words. How might he do it? And how will the press respond? Listen to Consider This from NPR. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukoninov, Roberta Rampton, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zach Coleman.

14:00Join us again tomorrow.

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