In today’s issue:

• President reverses vow and pardons son Hunter 
• Trump FBI choice roils Washington, law enforcement  
• Democrats strain to explain 2024 defeat
• Mistrust erodes transition guardrails 

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© The Associated Press | Susan Walsh

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President Biden granted his son Hunter Biden clemency late Sunday after repeatedly saying he would not pardon or commute his offspring’s convictions on gun and tax evasion convictions.

The rare and emotional decision as his son faced imprisonment will remove his son’s current legal jeopardy even as the president tarnishes his own reputation after insisting to voters for a year that his word as a Biden meant “honest.”

Acting weeks before his term ends and ahead of the 54-year-old Hunter Biden’s felony sentencing dates in Delaware and California this month, the president granted executive mercy “for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.”

The president, who spent the Thanksgiving holiday with his son and family members, used a written statement to argue that political foes took aim at him through his son and that Hunter Biden, who chronicled in a book his past drug addiction and lifestyle excesses, was prosecuted beyond what would have been the case with other defendants. 

Biden, who as president argued that no one, including his predecessor Donald Trump, was above the law, wrote that “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice — and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.” 

Trump, who maintains that Democrats spent years weaponizing the justice system to try to defeat him politically and campaigned this year on promises to turn the tables at the Justice Department, made the younger Biden a public target over alleged business dealings and personal choices.   

Trump never closed the door on a pardon for Hunter Biden. Some Democrats urged the elder Biden to exercise his clemency power and were not surprised the president opted to act with 50 days left until Trump’s inauguration. The public controversy is unlikely to be closed. 

In a Sunday statement, House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who joined fellow conservatives in leveling accusations against Hunter Biden for years, accused the president of lying about his family’s “corrupt influence peddling activities.”  

Congress returns: The Senate returns to work today and the House on Tuesday as Congress ponders an election result that puts Republicans in control of the Oval Office and the legislative branch next year. 

Lawmakers aim to adjourn by Dec. 20, leaving about a dozen legislative days to wrap up old business, including how to fund the government into the new year. It will be a priority. The Biden administration, lawmakers and state governors want to complete a new infusion of disaster funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration. The question is how much. And lawmakers are still pondering a farm bill. By Jan. 2, the nation’s debt limit technically returns as another issue.

Yet, Trump is pushing administrative power while lawmakers in his party are not quite as keen to forfeit to the executive branch their legislative role in democracy.

Republicans are strategizing over ambitious tax changes next year. The House GOP will retain their majority in 2025, but just barely, with one California race left to call and one GOP member gone and at least two departing after being nominated to join the Trump administration. The special election process could leave seats vacant for months. The partisan split spells challenges ahead for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the incoming White House legislative affairs team.

Conservatives, however, say they’re upbeat about “threading that needle,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told The Hill. “But failure is not an option. We’ll get it done.”

The Hill: Five key players in the fight over tax cuts.

Across the Capitol, the Senate’s independence is being tested by Trump, reports The New York Times. The prospect of a constitutional clash between Republican senators and a president of their own party originated with Trump’s call for Senate leaders to embrace so-called recess appointments — a disputed practice of installing nominees when the Senate is on a break — to circumvent resistance and accelerate the approval of his candidates.

“There is nothing more central to the Senate’s role than the advice and consent authority,” Ira Shapiro, a former longtime staffer who has written books about the Senate, told the Times.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, recently elected by his colleagues to be the Senate Republican leader next year, suggested Friday that Congress may have to balk at some uses of presidential power. 

“Every president is going to come in and try to do as much as they can by executive action as possible,” he told an audience in his state. “Congress, in some cases, is going to be the entity that sometimes will have to put the brakes on.”

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BOB’S SMART TAKE

An incoming administration with narrow congressional majorities and big expectations. Sound familiar?

Trump in 2025 will be in a similar position that Biden was in four years ago. Biden and congressional Democrats had massive plans on energy, health care and raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations. But they didn't have the comfortable margins on Capitol Hill that former President Obama had when he came into office in 2009.

Biden's Build Back Better Act, which cost more than $4 trillion, passed the House though languished in the Senate. In late 2021, the legislation died after objections from Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Build Back Better eventually morphed into the Inflation Reduction Act, a less expensive bill which became law in the summer of 2022.

Democrats should have tempered expectations and the GOP should take note. Trump's campaign promises are a mile long and while some commitments can be delivered via administrative actions, most will need congressional approval. Trump, who is serving his last term, can't waste political capital and time on flawed ideas, such as the half-baked 2017 attempt to repeal ObamaCare. 

The president-elect and congressional Republicans are ready to get to work, but they should level with the American people: Enacting change — especially in Washington — is very hard.

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3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY 

▪ Biden today heads to Angola, the first sitting president to visit the African nation, where he plans to discuss human rights, climate and China's growing influence on the continent.

▪ Cervical cancer is preventable. Why are rates increasing among women in their 30s and 40s? The Hill begins a series of reports today.

▪ It’s Cyber Monday. If shoppers need a reminder, here are some tips to save money.

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LEADING THE DAY  

© The Associated Press | Ross D. Franklin

LAW AND REORDER: Trump is determined to remake law enforcement with loyalists who share his aims, but in the process is inviting additional controversy about the government he hopes to assemble. 

His Saturday announcement that he will nominate Kashyap "Kash" Patel, 44 — who served in intelligence and defense roles during Trump’s first term —to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by the former president and whose 10-year-term expires in 2027, reopens turbulence within the bureau and poses a challenge for some in the Senate. Patel’s track record and adherence to falsehoods, including Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged, will be explored in a confirmation hearing. 

Patel has called for shutting down the FBI’s Washington headquarters, firing its leadership and bringing the nation’s law enforcement agencies “to heel.” 

Trump loyalist Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” he endorsed Patel in conversations with Trump and will vote to confirm him because “he's somebody that has been willing to uncover the wrongs” at the bureau. Hagerty asserted that in 2016, “senior leaders of the FBI collaborated and conspired to try to keep President Trump out of office, and when he came into office, they put together this fake Russia-gate investigation that hindered the Trump administration for the first several years.” 

Flashback: The investigative report into Russian interference with the 2016 election conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller is HERE.

Trump, Hagerty added, “is entitled to name his appointees.” 

The Hill: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) endorsed Patel for the FBI. 

Others greeted the choice with caution Sunday, including Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said on social media that he’s eager to replace Wray but did not immediately endorse Trump’s preferred successor. “Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,” the senator wrote on social media. 

Former Trump White House national security adviser John Bolton, a prominent Trump critic, compared Patel to one of the Soviet Union’s feared secret police chiefs. “The Senate should reject this nomination 100 to zero,” he said during a “Meet the Press” interview.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan, appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” declined to specifically comment on Patel. “The FBI director should not be subject to the whims of the to’s and fro’s of politics,” he said, noting that Wray was appointed by Trump and continued to serve his 10-year-term under Biden, and “has done a very good job.”  

Drugs: To lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, Trump on Saturday said he’ll nominate veteran Hillsborough County, Fla., Sheriff Chad Chronister to be administrator. Chronister has been in Sunshine State law enforcement since 1992 and has worked with former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is Trump’s pick to be attorney general. During a recent interview for Tampa Magazine, Chronister said he and his philanthropist wife believed Tampa would always be home base. “I think the minute that I put on my uniform and went out for my first shift, I felt like, okay, I’m a part of this community. This will be my role,” he said in the fall. 

All in the family: Trump announced he’ll nominate his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, for the coveted U.S. ambassadorial post in France. Trump in 2020 pardoned Kushner, father of former White House adviser Jared Kushner (married to Ivanka Trump). The elder Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison in 2005 as part of a deal after he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering and making illegal campaign donations. Trump also said he plans to appoint Lebanese billionaire Massoud Boulos, father of daughter Tiffany Trump’s husband Michael, to be U.S. senior adviser for Arab and Middle East Affairs. The elder Boulos campaigned for the president-elect in Michigan. 

Defense: Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, is in choppy confirmation waters. New reporting by The New Yorker and The New York Times adds to information senators are considering about the former Fox News personality who previously led two nonprofits. In “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History,” the magazine’s reporting and documents indicate the president-elect’s candidate was “forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job.”  

Labor: Trump’s selection to lead the Labor Department, Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-Deremer, a Republican who lost her reelection bid, surprised unions and rattled business. 

Public health: What to know about Trump's chosen health team, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., plus five doctors.

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WHERE AND WHEN  

• The House will meet Tuesday at noon. The Senate meets today at 3 p.m. 
• Biden today is the first sitting president to travel to Luanda, Angola. He will make the return trip on Wednesday.
• The vice president is in Washington, D.C., and has no public schedule. 
• First lady Jill Biden will unveil this year’s White House holiday theme and seasonal decorations, joined by leaders of the National Guard and their families, who will participate in a roundtable discussion at 11:30 a.m. The first lady will speak at 12:45 p.m. to thank volunteers and share a message as she prepares to show off the “People’s House” for the holiday season.

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ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press | Godofredo A. Vásquez

DEMOCRATS SEARCH FOR RESET: Official Washington’s absorption with the incoming administration pushed off the front pages public conjecture about Democrats who could make an impact ahead of the midterms and perhaps during the next presidential primary cycle.

But the buzz began ahead of Nov. 5 for Democrats Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, among others. For politicians hoping to help their party while building relationships for the future, trips to New Hampshire, North Carolina and Nevada this fall presented efficient openings.

The Hill: Here are rising Democratic populist leaders to watch.

Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to learn lessons from the 2024 presidential campaign, reports The Hill’s Niall Stanage. Consensus is scarce. 

The competition to lead the Democratic National Committee is expanding ahead of a Feb. 1 party vote. Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler jumped in Sunday to compete to be chair. Vice President Harris lost battleground Wisconsin to Trump last month. Wikler is the fourth Democrat to throw a hat into the Democratic contest. On Saturday, New York State Sen. James Skoufis announced his candidacy, joining former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Minnesota Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin.

The Hill: Virginia’s gubernatorial race next year finds two female frontrunners, Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears (R) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D), vying to make history. (Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is term-limited.)

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ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press | Alex Brandon

Two themes recur amid Trump’s plans to govern by noon on Jan. 20. One is his ferocious mistrust of governmental entities that are expected to oversee his transactions, conversations, personal information and decision making. And the other is the president-elect’s lack of transparency about statutory guardrails and traditions tied to the “smooth” transition process he recently pledged while meeting with Biden in the Oval Office. 

“Smooth” did not describe his 2016 transition.

Despite the Trump transition team’s pledges to abide by norms, recommendations and customs of governance handovers, the president-elect isn’t legally bound to follow through on his promises to be transparent.

Government Executive: Federal agencies say they’re ready and waiting to bring Trump’s team up to speed. The president-elect, as of last week, was still sidestepping many of the typical requirements for presidential transitions.

Trump’s decision to forgo using the General Services Administration for transition funding, office space and secure computers because he does not trust the GSA is one evident issue. He’s also allergic to signing a personal ethics pledge and harbors deep grievances about the FBI, mistrust of the intelligence community and prefers to rely on private vetting before unveiling his Cabinet and other personnel choices. 

Trump has operated in some cases based on impulse and has been surprised in some cases by what turns up in public after endorsing appointees whose backgrounds will slow Senate confirmations and eat up valuable political capital.

The Trump team will not seek FBI background checks until the new administration controls the bureau and installs Trump’s own personnel, The Guardian reported. The president-elect is planning that all political appointees are to receive sweeping security clearances when he takes the reins.

The New York Times (opinion): Republican and Democratic former Senate counsels agree: FBI checks on Trump nominees are a must.

During his transition, Trump has spoken with world leaders about his governing intentions, but without the security help of the State Department or other recordkeepers. 

USA Today: The State Department has been shut out of Trump’s calls with world leaders, which some perceive as a security hazard. “We’re entering a dangerous territory of telephone games where Trump is going to have private chats with foreign leaders and they're going to tell their teams one thing, and Trump is going to tell our national security team another,” said Brett Bruen, a former diplomat who served Obama in the White House.

SECRETS AND EYES: In October, Trump’s campaign began using ​​specialized, encrypted cell phones and secure laptops in an effort to protect staff following a series of successful Iranian hacks and two attempts to assassinate the former president. 

A recently discovered hack by the Chinese of U.S. telecommunications companies, undetected for perhaps a year, allowed the penetration of phone and internet systems. The discovery of the specific targeting of senior national security officials, and some political leaders — including Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance — led the FBI and other officials to conclude that the Chinese hackers were so deep in the U.S. system that they could actually listen in to some conversations and read some unencrypted text messages, The New York Times reported. 

Trump has conversed by phone and during a Mar-a-Lago meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about trade, borders and Trump’s threat to hike tariffs. The details of those conversations are foggy beyond Trump’s references to “productive” talks and Trudeau’s expressed resistance to tariffs on Canadian goods. 

Trump similarly spoke about tariffs and border security with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, but their respective versions of that transition phone call differed. 

The president-elect said he has spoken since his election with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he put billionaire adviser Elon Musk on the phone. The Kremlin denied such a call.

Following his inauguration, Trump is expected to try to return to some of the same information end-runs and work-arounds he favored during his first term. One habit he will not shake is leaning on junior loyalists to feed him flattering, gossipy and often unsubstantiated information he craves. Two current Trump loyalists in the headlines during his transition are 33-year-old aide Natalie Harp and “good news fairy” and controversial transition intermediary Boris Epshteyn. 

The president-elect’s information habits pose a challenge for the incoming White House staff secretary, Will Scharf, one of Trump’s personal lawyers whose job is supposed to be to oversee all documents that go to the president and leave the Oval Office.

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OPINION 

■ A dangerous and unqualified voice at the FBI, by Ruth Marcus, columnist, The Washington Post.

■ Note to Democrats: It’s time to take up your hammers (for homeless children),by Binyamin Appelbaum, columnist, The New York Times.

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THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press | Evan Vucci

And finally … 🎄It’s that time of year in Washington when Christmas trees appear at the White House and the U.S. Capitol grounds with grand fanfare and expectations. Visitors to the nation’s capital are encouraged to be merry, merry, even if official Washington remains in the post-election grip of political unease.

First lady Jill Biden last week received a North Carolina Fraser fir for the Blue Room and today she’ll show off the 2024 holiday decorations and the annual holiday theme at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Last year, volunteers and professionals joined forces to turn the “people’s house” into a dramatic version of “magic, wonder and joy” for the holidays. White House tour information is HERE.

The lighting of an evergreen from Alaska outside the Capitol takes place at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The National Christmas tree lighting near the Ellipse outside the White House will be broadcast by CBS Dec. 20 with musical performances by James Taylor, Adam Blackstone, Stephen Sanchez, The War and Treaty, Trisha Yearwood, Trombone Shorty, Muni Long and Mickey Guyton.

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