JUST IN: Senior FBI officials have been ordered to retire, resign or be fired by Monday -- CNN.
Oh no. How terrible.
Trump has imposed a further sanction on the Spies Who Lie: Not only are their security clearances stripped, but they are forbidden to enter any federal building.
They are national security risks and possibly traitors, and yes, they should not be permitted to meet with their fellow subversives on federal grounds.
The Daily Wire:
President Donald Trump is taking further action against the 50 former intelligence officials who falsely suggested Hunter Biden's laptop was "part of a Russian disinformation campaign," instructing agencies to also ban those individuals from stepping foot in secure U.S. government facilities, according to a memo obtained by The Daily Wire.
The Jan. 29 cabinet memorandum, first obtained by The Daily Wire, expands Trump's day-one executive order, which revoked the security clearance for the 50 individuals. Sent "on behalf of the President," it orders the country's top national security agencies to "revoke unescorted access to secure U.S. Government facilities from the 50 former intelligence officials named in the Executive Order."
Trump sent out a mass-email to federal workers with the subject line, "Resign."
He's telling them that if they resign voluntarily, they will get eight months of pay with no further work demanded of them.
The White House will issue a memo Tuesday offering to pay federal workers who don't want to return to the office through Sept. 30, as long as they resign by Feb. 6, an administration official tells Axios.
Why it matters: It's an acceleration in President Trump's already unprecedented purge of the federal workforce.
What they're saying: "The government-wide email being sent today is to make sure that all federal workers are on board with the new administration's plan to have federal employees in office and adhering to higher standards. We're five years past COVID and just 6 percent of federal employees work full-time in office. That is unacceptable," a senior administration official tells Axios.
The White House expects 5% to 10% of federal employees to accept the offer, which would potentially mean hundreds of thousands of people.
The administration projects the buyouts could ultimately save taxpayers up to $100 billion a year.
Zoom out: The offer applies to all full-time federal employees, except for military personnel, the Postal Service, and those working in immigration enforcement or national security.
Between the lines: Many federal workers are already feeling scared about the administration's crackdown on DEI, its return-to-office policy and the effort to reclassify civil servants.
That unease could increase take-up on this new offer.
Mark Halperin says that his sources say that Kash Patel has the 50 Republican votes needed for confirmation. He also says that RFKJr. is on the bubble -- he doesn't have fifty votes yet, but he also doesn't have fifty votes against him yet. Note that liberal "Republican" Bill Cassidy of Louisiana basically declared himself a "no," of course, saying that he would vote "no" to, get this, protect Trump. He claims that if someone dies due to not getting vaccinated, this will "blow up" in the press and cause political damage to Trump.
See? He's super-MAGA, everybody. He continues to work with the Democrats to thwart MAGA but he's really doing it all just to protect us, because we're too fucking stupid to think for ourselves and need arrogant leftwing bullshit artists like Cassidy to guide us.
Kennedy may have a single Democrat vote -- Sheldon Whitehouse, who is actually a personal friend of RFKJr.'s and who might, maybe actually put his venomous politics aside for the sake of friendship.
I doubt it, though.
Halperin said that Gabbard is in trouble. Which Josh Hawley confirms:
The Blaze is hearing the same.
While Gabbard may have cleared one hurdle, others sprung up during her hearing. Several senators, including Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, pressed Gabbard over her past support of the NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Lankford and other lawmakers urged Gabbard to call Snowden a traitor, but Gabbard refused. That being said, she acknowledged that Snowden was a criminal and outlined a four-step plan to prevent any "Snowden-like" leaks in the future.
All things considered, Gabbard performed as well as she could have. The question is whether it was enough to pull herself across the finish line.
Although Lankford previously committed himself as a "yes" vote on Gabbard, he was "surprised" at the nominee's response to concerns about her Snowden stance.
"I was surprised because that doesn't seem like a hard question on that," Lankford said Thursday. "It wasn't intended to be a trick question by any means."
Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana also seems to be on the fence about Gabbard. Young pressed the nominee with a similar line of questioning, asking about her past introduction of legislation that called to pardon Snowden.
"He likely endangered American lives through his action," Young said Thursday. "As a leader of the intelligence community, how do you think you would be received on some of these past actions to support or even to pardon Snowden?"
While some lawmakers expressed hesitancy, Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas put out a statement that could only barely be described as an endorsement of Gabbard.
"Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 provides that the president shall appoint officers with the advice and consent of the Senate," Cornyn said. "Having won the election decisively, I believe President Trump has earned the right to appoint his own Cabinet, absent extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, it is my intention to consent to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence."
Liberal Girlboss Feminist Joni Ernst also declared that she would support her fellow Girlboss, because, of course.
JD Vance underlined the policy: The government is not a make-work program for DEI hires without skills. It exists to provide vital services to people: