Politics and views in the United States.

Trump, Kash Patel react to Christopher Wray's resignation as FBI Director, CAIR launches a website tracking hostility to pro-Palestinian speech, and changes at NLRB could give Trump the chance to shift labor policies.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

After weeks of careful thought, I've decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January, and then step down.

Christopher Wray says he will step down as FBI director at the end of the Biden administration.

If he chose to stay, he was likely to face firing.

President-elect Donald Trump celebrated Wray's resignation, calling it a great day for America and claiming it would end the weaponization of the United States Department of Injustice.

Kash Patel, Trump's pick to lead the Bureau, expressed confidence in a seamless changeover.

We look forward to a very smooth transition at the FBI, and I'll be ready to go on day one.

Trump continues to put devoted followers at the top of agencies like the FBI and the Pentagon, which have the ability to use force.

But he is backing away somewhat from threats of retribution against his political opponents, saying success will be his revenge.

Meanwhile, military families with transgender children are criticizing a provision in the bill funding the Defense Department that could block medical treatments for trans minors.

The amendment would prevent the military's health care program from covering gender dysphoria treatments that could "result in sterilization" for children under 18.

The Pentagon is dismissing claims that an Iranian mothership is behind large drones recently spotted over New Jersey.

State officials want more transparency and a stronger federal response to the unexplained sightings.

Unionization is on the rise, with the year seeing the most union elections in a decade.

But the Senate has failed to confirm Lauren McFerrin as the chair for the National Labor Relations Board, which could give Trump a chance to appoint a new majority.

Rutgers professor of labor studies Todd Vachon says the Trump NLRB is likely to look very different from the pro-union agency under President Joe Biden.

I'm going to anticipate almost all of these decisions in the past three years being reversed under the Trump board.

You could be surprised, but I anticipate them all to be reversed.

The Council on American Islamic Relations is launching a new website where students can report when colleges are targeting them for opposing the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

Corey Saylor with the group says they want free speech for everyone, no matter their religion or ethnicity, and what they're hearing makes protecting it vital.

They're asking us to actually look at the university and determine if the university is a threat to the free speech and viewpoints of an entire group of people who are trying to protest genocide.

With the opioid epidemic bringing more children into state custody, some county officials are calling for better oversight of placements in group homes.

Brian Davis, a county commissioner in Ohio, says a child welfare crisis and an overloaded system is letting some agencies profit on the children's placements.

We have to do something, whether that be regulatory from the state standpoint of saying you can only charge so much, or more funding from the state itself.

I'm Farah Siddiqui for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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