New Republican-majority Congress begins on first day of 2025
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New Republican-majority Congress begins on first day of 2025

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said President-elect Donald Trump’s national security Cabinet selection may need more scrutiny in the wake of the terrorist attack in New Orleans.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Gallego was asked whether Trump’s decisions should be accelerated following the New Year’s Day terrorist attack. “I think given what you saw yesterday, we want to make sure you have the right national security candidates,” he said. “Just using someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll actually have the kind of collaboration (and information sharing) you need.”

Gallego did not announce how he plans to vote on Trump’s national security picks: Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, Kash Patel to be FBI director and Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense.

Asked about Trump’s mass deportation plan, Gallego said the details have not yet been announced, adding that voters he spoke to on the campaign trail wanted guardrails on expelling migrants. “They want a certain type of illegal immigrant to be deported,” he said. “What I haven’t heard is that it involves family separations, and I haven’t heard anything about the detention of children or anything like that.”

Gallego, who is set to become Arizona’s first Latino senator, also responded to Trump’s statement that he would nominate Kari Lake to lead Voice Of America. “She has great experience in the media, I wish her all the best,” Gallego said of his Republican opponent in last year’s Senate race.

“I hope she learned that misinformation is not appreciated by the American people,” he added in a swipe at Lake, who denied for years that she lost her bid for Arizona governor in 2022.

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