From Washington: The Final Moves of the Biden Administration
33:53 Share

Travel is all about choosing your own adventure. With your Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, sometimes that means a ski trip at a luxury lodge in the Swiss Alps.

with a few of your closest friends. And other times, it means a resort on a private beach with no one else in sight. Wherever you decide to go, find the detail that moves you with unique benefits at hand-selected hotels from Sapphire Reserve. Chase, make more of what's yours. Learn more at chase.com slash sapphire reserve. Cards issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank and a member FDIC. Subject to credit approval.

Sunday, November 10th, 2024. I'm Jared Halpern. It is a time of transition as President Biden prepares to leave office. The issues that are meaningful to this administration, I don't know that there's much they can do with the power of the pen. It's going to take Congress and we don't even know the makeup of the House yet.

President-elect Trump makes plans for his second term. The difference between President-elect Trump entering the White House in 2025 versus him entering the White House in 2017 is he knows Washington now. He understands how Washington works, and that's something that he didn't understand back in 2017. This is the Fox News Rundown from Washington. ♪

President Biden will pass the baton on January 20th, just not the who he had hoped after abruptly ending his reelection bid in July and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. Still, after the stinging loss Tuesday night, the president spoke to the nation and members of his cabinet Thursday morning with a largely uplifting tone. Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made.

I've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. President Biden also reminded his staff they are still in office for several more weeks. Let's make every day count.

That's the responsibility we have to the American people. But what will that lame duck agenda look like? Fox News senior White House correspondent Jackie Heinrich has been asking that question. The only answer that we got from Karine Jean-Pierre was getting hurricane disaster assistance out, passing the NDAA, and getting judicial nominees confirmed. That being said, the incoming administration is, you know, a little bit of a question mark on the issue of Ukraine.

And so much of Biden's focus has been on making sure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself against Russian aggression. I would expect that when he goes to the G20, that's going to be a major focus as he's talking to foreign leaders, trying to shore up support coming from Europe. There may be, depending on what the makeup in Congress ends up being, an effort to get another supplemental passed before the term is up.

or potentially even revisit some of the policy decisions that have been made to box in the trump administration i mean if you talk about for sure that they'll empty out the coffers that already exist for ukraine there's still billions of dollars that the president has drawdown authority over right

That's correct. Yeah. But there are also things like, for instance, right now you have Ukraine still asking to be able to use U.S. made weapons, long term, long range missiles, rather, to strike deep into Russian territory. And the answer has been no, because the assessment from the intelligence community and the Pentagon is that

Changing that policy would have more cost than benefit. They see the possibility of Russia looking at that as escalation. And the assessment from the Pentagon is that enough of the targets are far enough out of range that a change in policy wouldn't really make a big difference on the battlefield. But in theory, if they were to...

change their position on that, give Ukraine more flexibility, especially now that you have North Korean troops in Russia ready to join the fight, that would sort of give clearance to a new level of...

the fight for Ukraine to, you know, to push ahead and potentially fortify against, you know, any restriction that was coming from the upcoming Congress or the next administration. Or put Ukraine in a better position for a negotiation should that begin under a new administration. Yeah. And also, you know, they wouldn't be able to pull that back theoretically if they ever greenlit that. So I think there are some, you know, conversations happening that are

are discussing what the options are right now. I don't have a lot of detail on that. This is obviously very fresh. But I think foreign policy is going to be a bigger and bigger focus as the coming weeks and months go on. I would imagine part of that, too, is a renewed focus on seeing if they can reach any sort of hostage deal, ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Yes. I think that Israel, you know, what they have done in the Middle East in terms of pushing back on Hamas and Hezbollah and taking out, you know, leadership in those terrorist organizations has positioned Israel in a pretty strong spot. But at the same time, you know, the negotiators are the negotiators. And so there's been a lot of sort of public debate

dispute over whose fault it was that a hostage deal and ceasefire hadn't happened yet. But now that the people who the U.S. has been saying were the obstacles to that are no longer factors. However, the U.S. and Israel can work together to get that done, I'm sure is a high priority.

We've heard President Biden over the last four years talk a lot about his message to especially European allies was America is back following the four years of the Trump administration. And he would always follow that up with, you know, the question would be, yes, but for how long? He's about to go to these two summits, APEC summit, the G20, both in South America. We'll meet with a lot of world leaders from Europe, from Asia. What's his message to them if they ask?

Are we on our own? You know, I don't think that they have that formed yet because they haven't effectively messaged even to the American people yet how to understand the outcome of this election. We saw yesterday President Biden concede his vice president's race and tell the American people after so many months and years, really, of messaging that a second Trump administration would amount to the end of democracy as we know it. He said we're going to be OK.

He didn't explain why he didn't explain how. And when I asked the press secretary yesterday to sort of finish his thought, she was not able to do that. This is a live ball that they've got. I think that they are really reeling with the outcome and trying to sort of diagnose what happened. But they don't know what to tell people yet. And they've got to talk to America first before they've got a message that they can bring overseas. I will say.

Looking backward, I mean, there were so many reasons that foreign leaders had different kinds of relationships with Trump than they do with Biden. But a lot of the big issues have changed. I mean, Trump had that famously fought with Angela Merkel over Nord Stream 2, fought with much of NATO over not...

putting up 2% of their spending for their GDP for military defense. These are issues that have come into the foreground and a lot of people would say Trump was right to press those things because look at what, how

how those countries have changed their policies since after a real threat manifested in Europe. So I think it's going to be as much of what Biden says to them as what they say to Trump. I mean, they're having these conversations now. We're hearing about conversations that Trump is having with foreign leaders all over the world. Yeah, President Biden is certainly somebody who is

is an institutionalist, respects these processes. There was a lot made about that conciliatory address that he made on Thursday. I had to remind people that that is actually what presidents have done really for history with one glaring exception, right? Is that what we kind of expect from President Biden moving forward? I know they haven't announced a date for

meeting with former President or President-elect Trump at the White House, but that will happen. And do we expect that to be kind of contentious or is the president kind of resigned that, listen, it's my duty to make sure that this is as efficient and as gracious as possible?

It's hard to say what it's going to look like. I mean, I think that Biden is doing for Trump what never happened for him in 2020 in ensuring that there is a peaceful transition, that their administration staffs work together to, you know, have a smooth handover so that there's no gap in governance. And also the sort of traditional formalities of just having a meeting, a one-on-one, you know, shaking hands and,

I remember reading stories. I mean, that image can go a long way. Some of it's just the imagery. It is. And I mean, I remember reading about it, actually read about it in Bob Woodward's book that Trump initially was not going to leave a letter in the Resolute Desk for Biden. He ended up doing it under pressure. But that was, of course, after so much, you know, during the certification process. And so the

Conditions are different. That being said, Karine Jean-Pierre yesterday got a question that sort of touched on this, and she said that the Trump team hasn't yet signed the memorandums of understanding in order to allow the two teams to talk.

Who knows what that means? I don't know if she was trying to make a jab and say, well, maybe it won't happen. It's going to be their fault. Or if it's just purely the Trump team does not have their people, their positions filled out yet. It'll take some time to see. It does take time. And even under the best of circumstances, transitions can be rocky. Is there much that the White House can do through executive order or anything else? I mean, because you talked about how President Biden did warn about these existential threats that that.

his predecessor could be. I mean, do we expect to see, probably not through legislation, but like executive orders that limit the power of the presidency in any way that would be meaningful? If there are any, we haven't heard about it. I mean, and also remember a lot of the executive orders that the president put in place over the last four years have been struck down by the courts. I mean, you just had a

an authority that deals with CBP1 and migrant detention being thrown out and sort of upends, you know, even the plans that have been or the systems that have been in place for many, many months. So I don't know if there's anything specific. But I also know that, you know, when they're asked about these things like the border, like reproductive rights, at the end of the day, the

The resounding message is always it has to come down to legislation. Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade because the case law was shaky. It was a matter of time until that fell apart, really. It was privacy law, basically, that was based around. And when Democrats had full control of the government, there's been so much conversation of they should have...

put that into the past, the law that would be here. So who knows when we talk about what's meaningful, the issues that are meaningful to this administration? I don't know that there's much they can do with the power of the pen. It's going to take Congress and we don't even know the makeup of the House yet. Do we have any sense of what the post-presidency and post-vice presidency look like for Biden and Harris?

Not yet. I mean, we haven't really heard from them. We saw Biden for the first time. Yeah, Thursday. He didn't take any questions. And then today he's going to Delaware for the weekend and he's going via motorcade. So he is avoiding cameras on the South Lawn where we would ordinarily. And by the way, we should note in the last few weeks,

since he dropped out of the race. Um, he's been much more willing to come to the cameras on the South and have conversations with people. And his VP was campaigning not happening today. And we have not seen the VP. Sure. They're still digesting what happened. And we know that they are because we're seeing leaks come out of. Yeah. There's going to be a lot of finger pointing for many months as always happens when a campaign loses. Um,

And there'll be a lot written about that, a lot reported about that. But, you know, people do kind of wonder, like, what does the president do kind of in this lame duck period? Very hard to govern. There's not a lot that Congress has to do. But, you know, these these foreign trips are still notable. He is still planning on going to Africa in December that that Angola trip.

You know, they did say that. I haven't heard anything more since then. I wouldn't be surprised if he does, though. I mean, this is the man who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has always talked up, you know, his 50 years of relationships that he has with foreign leaders. And so much of his presidency has been about foreign policy. You know,

you know, about Ukraine, about Xi, you know, how well Xi, I mean, there's really been sort of external issues have been sort of the big defining chapters of his administration. And I think that that's going to be high on his priority list for, you know, finishing his, the story of his legacy is making sure that he ensures that what he has done in his time in office continues to

pay dividends, remain in place, and that he can walk away feeling like that contribution won't just be overturned by the stroke of a pen or the decision of the next president. I want to finish with this because there was a lot asked of it at the briefing this week about regret. Does President Biden regret

dropping out of the race does he regret dropping out of the race as late as he did what responsibility does he he take for for his vice president's loss uh what's your sources telling you about kind of the president's own internal feelings about what we saw happen this week

People closest to the president, I have heard that he is sad, obviously, that his VP didn't win. Not only did he really support her, he genuinely did want to see her win, in part also because a Harris win would have been the best way to ensure that his legacy endures. That being said, I have also asked a couple people who are very close to him, you know, how's he digesting this?

what happened because he is now still the only person who's ever been able to beat Donald Trump. And does he feel at all vindicated when it comes to the forces that pushed him out of the race, the Obama world, the Nancy Pelosi's, the David Plouffe's who were not on his team and didn't help him in 2020, but swooped in when Harris became the candidate. And I get a lot of sort of

nods, smiles, and sort of knowing glances. Like, they're not going to say it, but the answer is yes, from the body language and reaction that I'm getting when I ask these people. But does he think he would have fared better?

He's always said that he thought he could win. He has always said, even when he dropped out, even after he dropped out when Harris was the candidate, he said, look, we knew this was going to be close, but we thought we could pull it out in the end. And when you're seeing how she underperformed him with some key demographics...

I think that data is really proof positive that he might have been right. It certainly would have been closer even if he lost. When you point to

working class households, you know, seniors, Catholics, some of the groups that he I mean, there are people who even within the campaign were internally fighting over whether it was the right idea to not use him in Scranton, to not even mention his name in his hometown. I mean, there are places in the country where, you know, Joe Biden is the he sort of speaks to the electorate there. And

Don't know if it would have made up for the gaffes or if it would have been, you know, something they were comfortable doing. Certainly doesn't...

show like a new way forward message that Harris was trying to be. But I don't know that that message was ever really convincing anyway. Well, you're done a lot of reporting, I know, on all of this this week. And that is what happens when election when campaigns lose. It is easy to take credit. It is harder sometimes to find the blame. But I'm sure that will continue. A lot will be written about it. A lot will be reported on it. Appreciate all of your hard work this campaign season. Jackie, get some rest before before January 20th. Thanks, Jared.

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. So much of your personal info is out of your control, like your insurance provider that has your social security number and your favorite retailer that has your payment details. If they get breached, your information, your identity, is vulnerable. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed to your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.

Not since 1893 has a president watched his predecessor return to the White House when Benjamin Harrison lost re-election to the man he had defeated four years earlier, Grover Cleveland. And while President-elect Trump did not beat President Biden to secure his second term, he is just the second person to win non-consecutive terms to the White House, doing so largely by tapping into disaffection with President Biden.

President Cleveland's second term was staffed by a cabinet different than his first term. Now administrations are much larger, with much more personnel to fill out agencies and departments. But it's clear the second Trump term, like Cleveland's, will not be the same. After all, several members of the president-elect's first team were critics.

of his re-election bid. His chief of staff will make history. Susie Wiles, a longtime Republican operative in Florida and his successful campaign manager, will now become the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. Other personnel announcements, we're told, will come in due time.

Fox News digital reporter Brooke Singman has covered the Trump campaign extensively and shares her reporting on what the transition team is focused on. I think the appointment of Susie Wiles to the chief of staff role, really what it does is it

it provides this kind of seamless transition from the campaign into the White House for many of those senior staffers that you would imagine from the campaign could be joining the administration. Susie obviously was involved in Trump's 2016 campaign in Florida, helping him to win that state back in 2016. And she also helped with the campaign in 2020. And she has been a

a really trusted, stable, steady advisor of the president. So I think the pick makes perfect sense. I think it is something that probably represents

to me at least, stability for this period of time and then for this administration, because she has been such a steady, steady ally, advisor to the president since he really got into politics nearly a decade ago at this point. In terms of cabinet picks, I think what we are seeing, this is just the rumor mill right now, and I don't know that the

the appointment of Susie Wiles to chief of staff role signals anything other than that stability and strength in that role. As for the rest of the cabinet, I think that now that she has been installed in that position, I believe the

the rest will start to fall into place. But I think that right now, it really is just what you could expect. It's the rumor mill of what's to come. -Obviously, the first Trump term had a lot of turnover, had a lot of turnover in the chief of staff's office.

Is that a dynamic? Was there a lot of turnover or was it just Reince and then was it Mark Meadows? And am I missing one? Well, there were three. Who was the third? John Kelly. Oh, right. My point is that there was turnover sort of across the administration, right? There were cabinets. There was a lot of turnover. Is that a dynamic that President-elect Trump kind of wants in a second term? Or is there a consensus here that they want a little bit more stability for the next four years?

I can't speak to what the president-elect wants, but I can say that the difference between President-elect Trump entering the White House in 2025 versus him entering the White House in 2017 is he knows Washington now. He understands how Washington works. And that's something that he didn't understand back in 2017. I think he knows who his allies are. And back in his first administration, I think he did not.

He understands who really has been loyal to him, who has been on the same track with him in terms of his policies and what he envisions for this country for another.

term throughout the campaign. And honestly, a lot of his former political rivals have now become very strong allies. Many of the people that were running against him for the nomination in the primary cycle have become very close allies of him. Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Marco Rubio,

Just named R.K. Jr. Yeah. Doug Burgum. And I think it'll be interesting to see who ends up in the cabinet. Obviously, there's rumors at this point that we could see some repeat offenders here with Dr. Ben Carson coming back to possibly run housing and urban development. I've seen reports about former education secretary Betsy DeVos possibly making a comeback tour. So I truly I will tell you that I really,

look forward to seeing how it all plays out. But I do think it is all a lot of speculation right now. And I wish I had some more hard facts to bring you today. But if we do this again next week, I'm sure things will start to formulate into some kind of a administration. What's the process? Is this going to be a... You said that...

This is now a much more learned kind of operation. They have been in Washington before. They understand the system much better than in 2016 going into 2017. I remember in that transition after 2016, like all of the potential cabinet members like doing these interviews and they were like,

pictures of them at Bedminster. And it was very like that there were comparisons to like, oh, it's kind of like The Apprentice, right? Is that are we still going to see like a parade of people go down to, you know, Mar-a-Lago, West Palm Beach, or is this going to be kind of a more private kind of behind the scenes process? I think that is to be seen. But based on the way that the

announcement of Susie Wiles as chief of staff was rolled out, which was not leaked to anyone in the press. Instead, they put out a formal press release. And that is how America found out who the White House chief of staff will be. Is that how we can expect the rest of the process to go? Possibly. As a reporter who has covered Trump and his team for nearly a

decade at this point, it is pretty quiet right now. So it does, maybe they will roll things out in a very organized manner and announce things themselves, which is kind of what I think, not to draw too many comparisons, but you're at the White House right now covering President Biden's administration. Haven't you noticed that a lot of their, at least in the early days of the Biden-Harris administration, didn't

Didn't you notice that, you know, journalists were not breaking news about any policies or breaking really much news? It was a tight run communications operation. Exactly. And I wonder if that's going to be happening here. So maybe that announcement of Susie Wiles through an official press release is the signal of that.

We'll see how the next announcement goes and we'll see that. But yes, that's for the transition team. It's being run by Cantor Fitzgerald, CEO Howard Lutnick and former small business administrator Linda McMahon. And of course, a number of other top Trump allies are involved. And the campaign is now not dissolved, but now been activated.

added to the transition. And I think we can expect to see a lot of faces. And yeah, back in 2017, 2016, you mentioned The Apprentice and big names coming in and out of Trump Tower. I think you can expect to see some pretty big names around President Trump. I mean, look at who he has been surrounding himself with in the final weeks of the campaign, or even look at social media photos of election night. He's sitting at a table with Elon Musk and with Dana

Dana White, UFC. And, you know, RFK Jr. is with him all the time. And Tulsi Gabbard is also involved in the transition, as is RFK. So I think there will definitely be big names all around him all the time. It'll be interesting, though, to see how this all plays out.

Do we expect members of his family to play a role? Obviously, his daughter, Ivanka, her husband, Jared Kushner, played pretty prominent roles in the first term. Is there an expectation that the family is going to get involved the second term? So I spoke with

Donald Trump Jr. about this several months ago, actually at the Republican convention. And of course, things can always change. But he he had told me that he had no plans of getting involved in the administration, but rather his plan was to root out any

rhinos. And for those of you who don't know what a rhino is, a Republican in name only, meaning he wanted to protect his father really from people that, you know, appeared to be an ally, but then maybe were not as MAGA as Donald Trump Jr. would hope to have around his father. Ivanka was also someone who played a large role in the first administration. She has vowed not to

get back involved in politics. And as for Eric Trump, I think he's been the one who's really been kind of running the family businesses on the outskirts. So it's unclear for that. But I think I would be very surprised to see Don Jr. or Ivanka or Tiffany playing any or, of course, Barron, who is the freshman in college, playing any kind of any kind of formal role. Including Barron, of course, who looks like he could be a starting center for. Absolutely. He's very tall. Quite tall.

Laura Trump, the daughter-in-law of the president-elect, is going to stay in her capacity at the RNC?

I believe so. OK, yeah. Of course, you know, you never know. We don't know. I don't know. Just her role was very heightened. I mean, there was there was like no separation between the RNC and the Trump campaign. So it's clear that there is an apparatus there that you would assume would be of some use now that they move from campaigning to governing. Absolutely. Yeah. Also, I mean, I guess that is that.

Yes, obviously a family member running the RNC obviously eliminates that separation between the party leadership and the nominee, but at the same time,

I think something that is nice for the Republicans is the unity there. I mean, Trump always complains about how Democrats are always united. I mean, obviously we saw something a little different this summer with the withdrawal of Biden from the ticket and whatnot. But he used to complain in his first term that Republicans in Congress were never united. There were always so many factions of them that were just...

involved in a lot of infighting. And so I think to have that party unity, that full-fledged unity from the RNC to the Trump campaign, and now while he's in the administration, I think that's probably very beneficial. I'll finish with this. Is

They're kind of an agenda here, first 100 days. Like out of the gate here, what is the primary focus, if there is one, that you expect this incoming administration to kind of hone in on? Is it the economy? Is it border enforcement? Is it Paris? I think it's everything. All of the above? I mean, I remember on the first day of the Biden-Harris administration, I think President Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day. Right.

in the Oval Office. And I think you can expect to see that from President-elect Trump. A lot of what President Biden did on day one of his administration was reverse many Trump policies that many would argue backfired on the country in terms of economy and national security and border security and things of that nature. So I think we can expect on Trump's first day in office to really see

reinstate some of his policies, do what he can to begin taking steps to bring America back to energy independence as he campaigned on, do what he can with regard to the economy and

see if what he can do through executive order or executive action when it comes to the border from day one. So I think those will be the things to expect on January 21st. President's administration has talked a lot about those first hundred days, because those are kind of the hundred days you have before the midterm election starts. Right. Totally. That's why we talk sort of about that first six months, because after that, everybody's kind of running for reelection or, you know, running to, you know,

get folks out of power. So it'll be interesting to see kind of how closely this second term looks like its first, kind of with that four-year break in between. We have not seen that, at least in modern history. So a lot to kind of learn. 1892. That's right. It was before podcast. So I appreciate- Just a little bit before a podcast.

Or even old school radio, too. Brooks, I'm going to appreciate the time sharing your reporting. You have been nonstop during this campaign, so hopefully you get a little bit of rest this weekend. Thank you so much. We'll be back to it on Monday. This episode is brought to you by Etsy. Oh. Hear that? Okay. Thank you. Etsy knows these aren't the sounds of holiday gifting. Well, not the ones you're hoping for. You want squeals of delight. Eee!

Happy tears. How did you? And spontaneously written songs of joy. I am so happy.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Um, okay, the song needs a bit of work, but anyway, to get those reactions, make sure everyone on your list feels heard with handmade, handpicked, and designed gifts from small shops on Etsy. Gifts like personalized jewelry, custom artwork, cozy style items, vintage pieces, and home decor to celebrate all of your favorite people and their specific kind of special. For original gifts that say, I get you, Etsy has it.

That will do it for this episode of the Fox News Rundown from Washington. Tomorrow on the Fox News Rundown, Florida Senator Rick Scott joins Mike Emanuel for a conversation on the election results, the Republican agenda, and the senator's bid to become the next majority leader. For our whole team, thank you for listening. This is the Fox News Rundown from Washington. ♪

Stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at foxnewspodcasts.com. Listen ad-free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts. And Prime members can listen to the show ad-free on Amazon Music. And for up-to-the-minute news, go to foxnews.com.

Cudlow on Fox Business is now on the go for podcast fans. Get key interviews with the biggest business newsmakers of the day. The Cudlow podcast will be available on the go after the show every weekday at foxbusinesspodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.