Extra: The Brewing Battles in Washington
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I'm Jared Halpern. Earlier this week, we spoke to Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream about President-elect Trump's transition and what message he may be trying to send Washington with some of the controversial names he's nominating to join his team.

Bream discussed Trump's potential strategy, the challenges incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune will face as he navigates the confirmation process, and the potential political and legal fights ahead for the second Trump administration. She also weighed in on Trump's plan to launch the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOJ, the pressure on some Supreme Court justices to retire, and how Democrats are assessing their election losses last week.

We often have to cut interviews down for time during the week, but we thought you might like to hear the full interview. Thanks for listening. Please follow the weekday rundown podcast if you haven't already. Now here's Shannon Bream on the Fox News Rundown Extra. It sounds like in the weeks ahead, we're going to have some pretty contentious confirmation fights, even with a Republican-led Senate, no?

Yeah. I mean, on the day that John Thune is elected the first GOP majority leader in what, 17 years to be the new guy, he also gets a present from President Trump who says, and by the way, I've chosen Matt Gaetz to be my attorney general, and you're going to have to shepherd that through Senate confirmation. So that was a jolt to the system, certainly here in Washington. And it's raised this conversation again about recess appointments and whether President Trump, as he told all of the

folks that were vying for Senate GOP leader, that he expected them to be open to this recess appointments situation, which is kind of controversial. Well, because it's the Senate giving up its constitutional right to advise and consent. Exactly.

The question of Gates, though, specifically, is whether or not we think it even reaches a confirmation vote. Just based on kind of the first 24, 48 hours, there have been several Republican senators who have expressed either outright opposition or at least a healthy dose of skepticism.

Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. Sort of shell shocked, I think, would be how some of them appeared to respond when stopped on Capitol Hill and asked about this. And, you know, it's kind of rare for people to get to a Senate confirmation, to get to the floor, to get to the vote and not actually get through. It usually falls apart somewhere on the way to the floor, whether they withdraw or they don't make it through a committee or, you know, there are all kinds of ways that can happen.

So you got to wonder what the deal was with Gates, now former congressman. We know that he had this ethics situation, which you've tracked and followed there on Capitol Hill. That was it appears coming to a head. And that could have been a real issue for him or not. We don't know what the findings were, but the belief was they weren't going to be positive.

So, you know, he dodges that for now. But I think that he would have to know if he goes through a traditional Senate confirmation process. It is not going to be an easy one, but he likes a fight. So he may actually sort of look forward to that jousting back and forth. Should he make it that far?

But we also have other cabinet picks that also seem to be pretty uphill. Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman, the Democrat turned Republican for DNI. She has had some some statements. She has made some international visits that have raised a lot of eyebrows on a bipartisan level. What's the state of her confirmation for the top intelligence official in the government?

I mean, to be the person that's coordinating all of our intelligence agencies, it is a huge critical position. And that's one of those places I do think senators will take this advise and consent role very, very seriously. Many of them know her from her years on Capitol Hill. And so it'll be very interesting to see how they dig into that. I think she's got bipartisan appeal. But as you point out, there's some things there that if you're going to assign this person that level of

of power and authority over our intel agencies, there are going to be some senators who will have real questions about that. Listen, Republicans will have 53, but you can't count on all of them staying together all the time on every pick. She could pick up some Democrat votes. I mean, that's going to be a very interesting one to watch. But like you said, there's plenty of material out there that senators are going to want to go through with her.

I guess the question more broadly is...

What is the strategy? I mean, if you have these these confirmation or these nominations that are going to be challenging confirmations, does that run the risk of really hamstringing an incoming administration if you kind of have nominees that are immediately rejected by a Senate controlled by your own party? I mean, that's a risky gamble, isn't it?

It is. But I think that President Trump is trying to send a very clear message to Washington that, as you and I know, in 2016, I don't want to speak for you. I didn't think in spending Election Day with them that they thought they were going to win. I think President Trump not being a politician, per se, did not have any idea what the swamp was going to be like and how tough it was going to be on him.

From within his own party and from the opposing party. He has a different mindset this time around. He is very determined. He knows the game now. And I think with some of these picks, he's definitely sending a message, I think, inside his party and out.

Is the message kind of a test of loyalty, a test of how strong his influence is, especially in the Senate ranks, which has been over the last eight, nine years, less MAGA-y, I guess, if that's a word, than House Republicans?

Yeah. And I think, listen, both on the House and Senate side, there are some fractures in the parties. And that's clearly the case within Republican circles as well. How much power will establishment control versus these new MAGA voices? And I think that, you know, we saw this play out in the Senate majority leaders. You know, now it's going to be the majority leaders race. You had Rick Scott, who has been a very loyal ally to President Trump and much more of a MAGA type voice.

Make a run for it. Did better, I think, than the last time around, possibly, that he made a run at going directly at Mitch McConnell. But you saw that Thune and Cornyn had to both signal that they are on board with President Trump's plan and that they intend to be, I think, pretty loyal foot soldiers in pursuing those things. But they are people who also spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill before MAGA was a thing.

And it'll be interesting to see if there are places they break with the president, whether it's over a nomination they think is a step too far. We'll see. The other challenge for any majority leader or any party leader in the Senate is, you know, making sure that you put your members in the best opportunity possible.

For reelection, there are a lot of Republicans in the Senate that are up in two years. They have a pretty challenging map that makes this even a tougher needle to thread for for Senator Thune.

It is because if you are putting them up to really difficult votes, things that cause them to have to take a, you know, a public position on something that's very controversial, you know, it'll be used for or against you. There'll be some voters out there. If you vote for, say, for the example of, you know, Matt Gaetz is a G who will love it and say they really are with President Trump. They're totally MAGA. We can trust them. And others who will say like,

Wait, when you had an opportunity to take a vote on a very difficult, controversial nominee, you know, you did or didn't fall in line. That is definitely going to be a litmus test for voters, for these folks who are up in 2026. What have we learned over the last week or so about the type of administration that President Trump wants to run? Obviously, we know that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to play at least an outside advisory role.

Yeah. And it's interesting to try to figure this out because these are not Senate confirmation positions. This is a commission that we don't even know what the structure or authority for this thing is going to be. Right.

You know, people talk about, well, it's got to get congressionally funded if it's going to have, you know, real teeth and power. But it could be like, you know, one of these outside deals that it's going to make recommendations. It's going to highlight and very publicly show people, hey, you know, this bag of hammers cost $18,000 when you could go to, you know, the hardware store and get it for $100 or whatever. I think that even if they don't have...

the literal power to enact change, they're going to have a big spotlight. And I think that what they'll do is going to be more of an independent commission that comes together and says, here are all these inefficiencies we found. These are all the people that could be let go. Here's how we streamline these agencies. Oh, and let's move these 10 outside the beltway. I think it's going to be a very disruptive process.

kind of situation. But man, the glee that Elon Musk seems to have about this, he's fired up. And I think that he's so excited. But that's the other part of this, right? Because that is raising a lot of ethical concerns. Elon Musk has a ton of business concerns

In front of the government regulators, whether it's SpaceX, whether it's Tesla, whether it is X. He has a ton of business that is subject to government regulation. Should he be the one? I guess the question's been raised that is recommending cuts to government regulation. Right. And you've got to think he'll have to stay out of the space where he has any contracts.

And maybe that's what Vivek does. I don't know. You know, he does have, Elon does have business with the government. And so that's going to be an interesting situation to see if they wall off

anything that could affect him personally. I think he would get that. I think, you know, he would understand the optics of that kind of thing. But man, that leaves a lot of other federal agencies for him and Vivek to have a good swipe at. And I think the American people have in their gut the feeling, regardless of which party they support or if they're apolitical,

that the government wastes a lot of money and they work really hard and pay their taxes. And I think that that's something that cuts across partisan lines, that people would like some accountability to these bottomless pits of bureaucracy, that they're not sure what's happening, who's doing it and how their money is getting spent. You're right. It'll be interesting to see what this they're calling it a department. It won't be a department unless Congress creates a new department. Right. Well, we'll see. And I think there'll be questions about adding a department.

on government efficiency to government. Right, and there's already, you know, plenty of Doge merchandise out there for this department. And people trying to get their resumes through these guys.

Yeah. And I think that they're because Elon's been such a fan of that. They've now Doge has just become a great name for what they're trying to do with this commission or whatever this entity ends up being. Yeah. I might have to learn a lot more about the cryptocurrency space. Me too. I don't know a lot about it, admittedly. I'm with you. Yeah.

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Legal challenges that are sure to give rise. President-elect Trump has talked kind of about immigration, the border as being the number one issue, the number one concern. He has named Tom Homan is this border czar, this immigration czar who is going to lead what has been described as the largest deportation operation ever.

Are federal courts likely to stop that? Is there much that federal courts can do? Obviously, immigration has always, whether you're a Republican or Democrat, whatever you're trying to do, seems to always be tied up in the courts.

Yeah, and remember SB 1070 out of Arizona years ago, ending up at the Supreme Court when there was this debate over who can enforce federal immigration laws. Arizona wanted to do some of its own work saying, listen, the feds aren't doing it. Federal courts have ruled on this stuff. Supreme Court's ruled on this stuff many times.

When it's coming from an administration and you're taking executive action, the first stop is absolutely going to be federal court. A lot of immigration groups out there say, you know, they've already got their lawyers lined up. They're drafting things. They're getting ready for what they think will come from the administration. But there were a lot of things the Trump administration had in place when he left office. As we know, dozens of those things were repealed by the Biden administration.

Listen, the administration this year brought back some things regarding the border that actually have impacted the flow and dialed back those numbers a bit. So this administration has acknowledged, obviously, there's executive action that can be helpful and be legal at the same time. But I would imagine these immigration rights groups and lawyers are looking at Stephen Miller and Tom Homan saying, we're going to be very busy because this stuff is automatically going to go to court.

And, you know, you can have a federal court that's a district court somewhere that's amenable to the arguments of these immigration groups. Maybe it's out in California, the Ninth Circuit, that kind of thing. But they can issue nationwide injunctions that shut down the entire program across the country. So, listen, given the language the Supreme Court has out there about how the feds are the ones who have the power to run federal immigration policy, right?

I would expect that some of these things will take time, but the Trump administration is going to feel very much like they've got the legal wind at their back, although court battles take time. They do. Speaking of the Supreme Court, some pressure on justices from both ends of the ideological spectrum to maybe retire in the next couple of weeks, months. Do you expect any major announcement?

Listen, I think just from a logical standpoint, when people say like, oh, does Justice Thomas or does Justice Alito want to go in a couple of years while Trump is president, while Republicans have a comfortable relationship?

though tight margin in the Senate. And they're the signals we're getting from both of those camps is like, don't talk to us about that. We do not have plans for that. We're just, you know, doing our work. And this is a lifetime appointment. You know, Justice Sotomayor, there was pressure starting months ago for her to consider stepping down. She's only 70, which is I was going to say she's not like the Supreme Court year. She's not like that. Oh, no, no, no. This is the middle of the Supreme Court.

you know, age spectrum over there to get to get on the court at the age of 50 or so is considered like super young spring chicken situation. So, you know, I see her during arguments and she seems like she always has like she's completely engaged. She seems physically well. She's open about the fact that she manages diabetes, but that she's very aggressive about taking care of herself. And I think much like Justice Ginsburg, she resents the public calls for her to go anywhere. Right.

um so you know sources close to her tell fox that she's not considering it she feels good she's doing her thing you've even got you know dick durbin one of the top democrat leaders in the senate saying you know we this conversation is ridiculous how in the world you would get this done now if you're trying to do it between now and christmas when you've got government funding and all these other lame duck things to get done

You know, a lot of people think it's just way too risky of an experiment. Yeah. I mean, to do a confirmation during the lame duck period would be pretty unprecedented, I suppose, as much as we use that word lately. Let me finish with this. And that's just kind of a broader discussion that I imagine you'll have Sunday is what Democrats try and figure out what happened last week.

Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of soul searching that's still going on. Of course, I think I think it's like any shock to the system. You know, it takes time to kind of come to grips with the reality. And then there's going to be a lot of as we saw the first week or so, a lot of finger pointing, a lot of blame. The Harris versus Biden, you know, camps and all kinds of debate within the party that I think they're really just kind of starting to.

that autopsy on exactly what happened. And I wish I could tell you, but shortly I will be able to announce who we've got on from the Democrat side this week. And I think that there'll be a very interesting voice on what happened and where they go from here. And we will be watching on Sunday. Shannon Bream, always appreciate our chats. Have a great show. The pleasure is mine, Jared. Thank you. See you soon. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Shannon.

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I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com. I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at GuyBensonShow.com.