A New Trump Cabinet Takes Shape
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I'm Charles Payne. I'm Kat Timpf. I'm Stuart Varney. And this is the Fox News Rundown. Wednesday, November 13th, 2024. I'm Jessica Rosenthal. President-elect Trump's team is taking shape fast, with some heavy hitters already being announced for critical positions. But...

What message do they send about a second Trump term? I think the president this time really wants people who share his outlook to implement the policies. I'm Chris Foster. A judge, not a jury, will decide what happens to Lakin Riley's accused murderer. No one deserves to die, but everyone agrees that this was one of the very last people who deserved suicide.

such a horrible and violent ending as what she encountered there in Athens. And I'm Tomi Lahren. I've got the final word on the Fox News Rundown. ♪

Ahead of the former president's visit to the White House today, his transition team has been announcing who will fill what role in a second Trump administration, including Fox's own Pete Hegseth, a secretary of defense. Pete served as an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and has served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. He has two bronze stars and a combat infantryman badge.

Among the president elects first picks, however, was Susie Wiles, the first woman chief of staff, as well as Tom Homan. Once the former president's head of immigration customs enforcement, he will now serve as the border czar. He told Fox's Sean Hannity this week. We're going to take the handcuffs off ice that the Biden administration put on them and let ice where they do that they do best. And let me say this.

Back to the viewer, Joe Biden. They promised, this administration promised they're going to concentrate on the criminal aliens. That was a priority. Secretary Mayorkas said that. I looked at the stats today. The removal of criminal aliens is down 74% from President Trump. Former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin will serve as the head of the EPA. We have the opportunity to roll back regulations that

are forcing businesses to struggle. They're forced to cut costs internally. They are moving overseas altogether. Zeldin told Fox News his focus will be on restoring U.S. energy dominance, revitalizing the auto industry, bring back American jobs and make the U.S. the global leader of AI.

Homan and Zeldin are just two of the positions that have been filled so far. Obviously, President Trump was asked before the election, do you have anybody in mind for your cabinet picks? And he didn't want to talk about it, but he did admit on Fox & Friends, he said, I think about this every second of the day. Brooke Singman is Fox News digital political correspondent. So he never...

White signaled what he thought he would do. But obviously, he has been thinking about this throughout his campaign. So far, we have the head of Environmental Protection Agency, TAP. That is former Congressman Lee Zeldin, who ran for governor in New York. Then you have U.N. Ambassador-

Elise Stefanik. She was serving as the House Republican conference chair in the House, so she's going to be leaving Congress and over to the United Nations here in New York City. We have Kristi Noem, who's not been fully

formally nominated at this point, but sources have told us that the president is expected to nominate Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, to be the secretary of Homeland Security. We have Stephen Miller, who was an advisor for Trump's first administration and a senior advisor on his campaign. He is going to be serving as the deputy chief of staff for policy.

You have Tom Holman, who served as the former acting ICE director, who is now going to be the Trump administration's border czar. That's a non-confirmed position, but one that the president can appoint, which he did. We also have Florida Congressman, Republican Mike Waltz. He was the first Marine Beret ever elected to Congress. He will serve as the White House National Security Advisor. Of course, the president is the one who has been rolling out

these picks himself when they are confirmed. This has been a really interesting transition period already, just one week out from Election Day, because the first appointment here was Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff. Now, she was the co-chair of the Trump campaign. They ran a very tight ship on the Trump campaign. It wasn't very leaky. They had a very, very...

Very careful and strategic messaging operation. And right now, it appears that at least with that announcement, there was a formal Trump-Vance transition team press release that went out last week announcing Susie Wiles as chief of staff.

And Susie Wiles is a very steady, strong leader for Trump and has been a trusted advisor for many years and and for many decades in the Republican Party altogether. Yeah, I believe that Trump and his his closest team wants to announce these big cabinet secretary nominations and picks for top positions at the White House through that type of channel, a very organized channel.

very careful strategic manner with a formal press release. But unfortunately, it appears there are some leaks going on from the transition team. And that is how a lot of these things appear to have been reported at this point. Now, when it comes to all of this, the analysts are in full analysis mode about what those picked signal about a second Trump term. Every president staffs his administration with a

with people that support him or reflect his worldview. Bill McGurn is a Wall Street Journal columnist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. People are mostly interested in the top positions, you know, that require Senate confirmation, the Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, and so forth. Those are the positions

ones that get real interest, the heads of federal agencies like the APA with Lee Zeldin. So it's not surprising the president wants his own followers. It seems to be slightly different from the first Trump administration so far. There's no Rex Tillerson or business leader. I think the president this time,

really wants people who share his outlook to implement the policies. And a president has a right to pick those people. My take, I served in the Bush administration, George Bush in his second term. And, you know, a president appoints about 4,000 people to the federal government throughout

And I think one of the differences in this election and broadly between Republicans and Democrats is the Republicans are appointed that the knuckleheads who get in, they don't cause too much mischief. The Democrats, by instinct, are activists. So I think when you have the lowest ranking Democrat appointed to the Department of Agriculture, they're going to figure out a way to

how to propose that a corn program also subsidize abortion, or there'll be DEI at Homeland Security. That's just what they do. They're so active. And so I think a lot of government is just shifting the bulk of the federal government from going in one direction to another.

Among the first names we heard, for example, and to your point, Tom Homan, Stephen Miller, not cabinet positions, but like Homan as a kind of like border czar, Stephen Miller as a possible deputy chief of staff on policy, immigration hardliners first and foremost were...

What does it say to us that those were among the first picks for any sort of positions in this new White House? Well, I think it says that President Trump is serious about what he campaigned on, what he believes. Even people who don't like him have to acknowledge that in his first term, he kept a lot of promises. Like so many presidents promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Trump did.

And I think this what he's signaling now is that his rhetoric on immigration and fix closing the border. I shouldn't say just fixing, closing it for a while till we get up with a system to process people. He says that we still need outside workers coming in, but he wants them to come in lawfully and orderly. And I think these picks reflect that, you know, I serve with lease in the Bush White House.

And I think Arise has been pretty impressive. When she was elected to Congress in New York, she was, I think, the youngest person or the youngest woman ever elected. And she's built herself up. You're talking about Elise Stefanik. Yes. And she's a Harvard grad, I believe. So I think she's been very vocal. She led the case against the university president's

that allowed the anti-Semitic protests to burst out on their campus and menace the Jews on campus. And she was very firm about that. So it's a role that kind of suits her. Talk to me about Mike Walz for NSA. I think that is also not a Senate-confirmed position, but we know a lot about him from his questioning

During congressional hearings, he's a very – I guess you could call him a China hawk. He's definitely got strong positions about Iran. He's expressed concerns about Ukraine, that Europe should be paying more for Ukraine's defense.

What do we make of Mike Walz, a former Green Beret? Yeah, I think, again, the president is very serious about the threat from China and so forth. And I think Walz is a genuinely solid man with firm opinions. So it would be very interesting to see where they go. I mean, some big parts of policy are not yet decided.

For example, the biggest one, I think, is Russia-Ukraine. The president-elect says he's going to solve this problem within...

24 hours of being president. Essentially, he's going to make an offer that Putin can't refuse. The question is, what are the terms of that offer? And what if Putin doesn't go along? What then? And I think that's when the rubber meets the road. We see what the real policy is. I mean, I don't think the president is going to do what some people think and just write off Ukraine. He doesn't want to lose a country that

in fact, a much more important country than Afghanistan was when Biden just gave it away with that chaotic withdrawal. So we'll have to see where he goes. But those big decisions will determine a lot of little policies to follow up the reinforcement for the overall view. Talk to me a little bit about a

The naming of somebody like Lee Zeldin as the head of the EPA. Zeldin went on Fox News and said his focus is going to be on rolling back regulations. Is that sort of the point? Even if you don't necessarily have some deep, extensive experience in the agency you're being appointed to, that you are philosophically in line with this president? Yes, I think that is the point with the EPA.

So many projects that would improve people's lives are held up because of impossible environmental regulations.

And they take forever to decide this. And I think Zeldin wants to cut through those things, you know. And a lot of them, you know, people, the critics will say, yes, they're just going to allow people to pollute everything. A lot of these regulations that we're talking about don't have any effect on pollution. There's a lot of ways to keep the environment clean and not go crazy and still allow our businesses to prosper. Right.

Let me ask you one more. You know, one of the things the former president did

is he told us initially who he would not be welcoming back. I thought that was very unique, but he told us he's not welcoming back Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo. And the reaction from a lot of folks was, well, this is a president who can have, you know, whatever he wants. The doors are being, you know, beaten down by people who want to participate in, you know, Trump 2.0. But it struck me that a lot of the reaction, you know, and like, you know, the X-verse is, you know, for

For those who like this former president and are happy that he's back in office, I

they're really happy that people like Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo aren't coming back. They call them neocons or, you know, rhino adjacent, you know, did that send a message to you? Listen, I can speak to this because in my family, I mean, I work for William F. Buckley. I work at the journal editorial page in the Bush administration. I work for the leading conservatives of our time. And in my family, I'm called the rhino. You know,

You know, rhino, rhino, rhino, whenever there's talk about this. I wasn't surprised by Nikki Haley. I think Donald Trump resents that she ran against him, probably resents some of the things she said. And Cesar is trying to hop back on the...

the train now that he won. I'm not surprised. I am surprised he kind of singled out and said, you're not going to win. I mean, when we pick a Miss America, we don't, and Miss Hawaii, we don't say, Miss Mississippi, Miss New Jersey, you're out of the race. You're not even considered. So that was odd. For Mike Pompeo, it was particularly odd because I think he's a very sober, hard-nosed person, West Pointer. I think he served with honor

for Trump in the first term. He lasted all four years, I believe, which is a rare distinction, and was not, you know, sort of a leading critic of Donald Trump. So that was surprising. But, you know, Trump went on to praise him for their past service, and it was an anachronistic note. But it is odd. Again, to me, it's like telling...

all the other 49 contestants in Miss America. You're not going to win. Thanks for insight, Bill McGurn. Appreciate your time so much. You're welcome. Time to move? Skip the hassles of selling during the holiday season and sell your home directly to Opendoor. Request an all-cash offer in minutes, close, and get paid in days. You can even pick your close date so you can move after New Year's. Start your move at opendoor.com or download the Opendoor app.

Opendoor is represented by Opendoor Brokerage, Inc., licensed 02061130 in California, and Opendoor Brokerage, LLC, in its other markets. Terms and conditions apply. I'm Dana Perino, and this is Perino on Politics. Dawn Stu Stewart joins me to discuss the historic outcome of the 2024 presidential election, available now on foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. This is Tomi Lahren with your Fox News commentary coming up.

Jury selection was supposed to start today in Athens, Georgia, for Jose Ibarra's murder trial. Instead, he's waived his right to a jury trial, preferring that a judge decide the case. The bench trial is scheduled to start Friday. Ibarra is the Venezuelan man accused of killing Lakin Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student attacked while she was out jogging on the University of Georgia campus in February. Her father, Jason Riley, is speaking to Georgia state senators the next month. I stand before you a heartbroken man.

Part of my purpose has been taken. God gave me a beautiful daughter to father, protect, provide for, and nurture. A man with an evil heart stole her life. He was in this country and in this state illegally. My vision for every senator in this chamber is that you protect citizens from this illegal invasion. In May, state legislators passed and Governor Brian Kemp signed a law requiring state and local officials to check the immigration status of criminal suspects.

A Lake and Riley Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain until deportation anyone in the country illegally convicted of crimes, including shoplifting. Nebraska Senate Republican wants it passed in the Senate as well. This tragedy could have been avoided if ICE had detained Jose Ibarra. But time after time, he was let go. Ibarra and his brother were accused of stealing from a Walmart. They lived together in an apartment with another brother, all having entered the country illegally.

The attorneys wanted the murder case moved out of Athens, Georgia, hoping to take some of the emotion out of it. And now there's not going to be any jury at all, just a judge. Some legal experts really find it puzzling that when you ask for a bench trial, it's because the evidence is very complex. You want someone who's expert in the law to decide it. Fox News senior correspondent Jonathan Seri. Really, most courtroom observers say that the prosecution appears to have a very strong case

against him. Having said that, the defense has tried several times to get a change of venue because this is a case that shocked this small college town of Athens.

and they argue that there was no way that you could find impartial jurors or jurors that certainly had not heard from all of the media reporting surrounding this case. So potentially, just trying to read the minds of the defense attorneys, perhaps they thought that a judge might be

be better able to focus on the process and due process rather than getting wrapped up in the emotion of this highly emotional case. Yeah, and there certainly is a lot of that. We'll remind people about the details. What happened the day Lake and Riley died and the days after.

She was a 22-year-old nursing student from the Athens campus of Augusta University. So even though she was not a UGA student, she was in Athens and she was on a jogging trail, a popular running trail along a wooded park on the UGA campus. And that's where investigators say she was attacked

They determined from an autopsy that she died from blunt force trauma to the head and asphyxiation. Ibarra entered a not guilty plea back in May, but again, prosecutors seem very confident that authorities investigated this case thoroughly and that they have a very strong case against him. Yeah, and the case has, of course, become very political due to Ibarra entering the country illegally and being previously arrested and let go.

How was he linked to the murder? He was arrested pretty quickly after Lincoln Riley's body was found. Yeah, he was a day later. There was apparently some incident at the residence hall involving a fire hazard. Police were called to look in and they noticed that one of the residents had some what appeared to be traces of blood on his knuckles like he had

been on a fight and so they went around gathering further evidence. The defense had tried to argue that this was not due process, that the evidence that they gathered was unfairly gathered but the judge did not agree with them. The case was

allowed to move forward. And as far as the political consequences, certainly, Ibarra being a Venezuelan national, undocumented, allowed to remain in the US while he appealed his illegal immigration status or applied for legal immigration status, it certainly became fodder for Republicans to go against the Biden administration.

You remember that shout from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, "Say her name." And so it was very consequential on the national stage in the presidential election, originally for Biden and then later when Kamala Harris entered the race for president, Republicans portraying Democrats as weak on immigration.

But it also had an impact locally in the district attorney's race. The district attorney covering both the county that Athens is in and also neighboring Oconee County, she was an incumbent Democrat, a progressive Democrat, Deborah Gonzalez, and she lost power.

her reelection bid to an independent challenger and you know there were a lot of things going on there she came into office during all of the um fervor over the black lives matter protests the calls to defund the police and all of that and a lot of that backfired politically but also uh

A lot of political analysts say that this case certainly had an impact on that race. A lot of people very upset and not wanting to grant any leniency to Mr. Ibarra. Jonathan, look, I live more than 800 miles away from you there in Georgia, and there's a sign high up on a utility pole that I drive past a lot. It's been there for months. It says, Remember Lakin Riley.

I can't imagine what the local coverage of the case has been like. It's been huge. It's a top story on the local news. Any developments, certainly today with this preliminary hearing that no one knew what to expect, but turned out to be very consequential, playing front and center on the news. And then certainly when this case goes to trial, originally opening arguments were very

expected to begin on Monday. Now, because Ibarra has waived his right to trial by jury, it appears that the trial will begin Friday morning, opening argument starting Friday. And so this case is really moving along, and certainly the first day of the trial will be huge. And originally, jury selection was to begin Friday,

on Wednesday and that would have been widely covered but now it's just going to start with a bang straight out of the gate going straight to trial now that a jury won't be involved. Lake and Riley has become a cause in death. What was she like in life according to her friends and family and do we know how her family feels about the murder becoming so heavily covered and becoming about more than her death politically?

Yeah, I haven't spoken with her family, and so I can't speak to how they feel about all of the intense media coverage. They certainly love their daughter. Her friends loved her. She was a nursing student.

someone whose mission in life was helping others it's something that friends said that she brought not only to her training as she was going to school for for nursing and that she would bring to the job but also something that she brought in her everyday dealings certainly everyone a

I mean, no one deserves to die, but everyone agrees that this was one of the very last people who deserved such a horrible and violent ending as what she encountered there in Athens.

And it's really a shock to the whole community in Athens. UGA is a big college. A lot of people send their sons and daughters there and expect that they'll be safe there, that they'll be looked after. And certainly after this murder, it shocked the community, and there's been efforts to beef up security and really protect

do a better job looking after Georgia's young people. But when you have bad actors, there's only so much you can do. What's the peeping Tom charge about? Uh, the defense wanted that handled separately. Yeah. Um, so on February 22nd, a bar is accused of going to a residence on the UGA campus, uh, where he allegedly peeped through a window, uh,

Authorities say that he spied on a university staff member, that according to the indictment. Ibarra's defense team tried to have the Peeping Tom charge removed to this case and tried separately, but prosecutors argue that these two incidents are really intertwined. Prosecutors want to show that this guy was a stalker, that he was a menace,

And so the judge ultimately sided with the prosecution. And so this will be something, the peeping Tom allegation is something that will be brought up in trial when the judge hears the whole case. Was this supposed to have been a crime of opportunity? He just happened to, you know, see a young woman jogging and thought, this is my chance? Or there's no sense that he was, you know, stalking her for any length of time, right?

Yeah, authorities say this was a crime of opportunity. The victim and the defendant did not know each other, that she just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has really sent shockwaves throughout the running community because she was jogging at the time that she was attacked. She was an avid runner and she

people in the running community and I think every right-minded person would agree with this, that

women should feel safe when they go out for a jog and this attack made so many of them feel unsafe it it's um it's it's horrible that you feel that if you're going to go out for a run that you have to bring a friend along or someone for security but uh but sadly uh this is something that has just

sent shockwaves throughout the running community and people would like to change society and crime in general so that people can feel safe running, particularly women. But this case has really made a lot of people scared. I suppose a judge and not a jury deciding the case will speed it up, theoretically?

Yeah, in theory, it will speed up things a lot. And even if the trial is presented at the same pace that it would be before a jury, you don't have deliberations. Yes, the judge will...

take it under advisement, go into chambers, think about it, maybe go home, think on it. But the judge will most likely make a ruling faster than what you would expect from a jury just because you don't have 12 people having to agree on the same verdict. It's just one person reaching a verdict. Fox News senior correspondent based in Atlanta, Georgia, Jonathan Serri. Jonathan, thanks. My pleasure.

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It's time for your Fox News commentary. Tommy Lahren. What's on your mind? There are reports circulating that Kamala's $1 billion campaign can't pay its bills and is possibly defaulting on payments to vendors. Kamala's Vibe campaign shelled out megabucks paying for fame, glitz, and glamour, and they still lost. Remember that Oprah town hall? Well, it reportedly cost the Kamala campaign $1 million, but it gets worse. When Fox News

When folks were literally drowning in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, you know where Kamala was? Recording a raunchy sex podcast with Alex Cooper in a replica set that reportedly cost six figures.

Kamala's campaign was entitled to drop whatever they wanted, but the tone deafness really is next level. Good news is Donald Trump is such a nice guy, he even offered via a social media post to help Kamala with her bills. What a nice guy. But aren't you glad you didn't elect Kamala to manage America's pocketbook? I'm Tomi Lahren and you can watch my show Tomi Lahren is Fearless at Outkick.com.

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