Politics and views in the United States.

Biden carries out the largest ever single-day act of clemency, voting rights advocates raise alarm over Trump's pick to lead Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and election denier Kari Lake is tapped to lead Voice of America.

TRANSCRIPT

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

I'm waiting to see exactly what this list covered before saying what I think the next list should cover, but I'm hopeful that there will be a next list and I'm glad that the president did this.

Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal credits President Joe Biden for commuting the sentences of 1,500 people on home confinement.

Jayapal is also asking Biden to change the sentences of those on federal death row to life in prison before President Donald Trump takes office.

The White House is reportedly looking at preemptive pardons for members of the House January 6th Committee, who Trump says should be jailed.

The former chair, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, says pardons would be well justified.

We stand by the work of the committee.

Our committee did a wonderful job.

We shared it with the public and all the public has to do is to read the report.

Trump is again saying he'll immediately pardon those convicted for January 6th.

That came in an interview with Time magazine, which named him its Person of the Year.

Meanwhile, a new Justice Department report finds the FBI didn't use undercover informants to investigate the insurrection.

It says only three agents were at the Capitol that day, despite persistent rumors that they instigated the violence.

Voting rights advocates are raising alarm over Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Attorney Harmeet Dhillon says the 2020 election was stolen and has repeatedly sued to roll back voting rights.

She wants more partisan poll watchers and limits to mail-in voting.

Our governments, because of the way that we do elections, are sending ballots to people who aren't entitled to vote.

They're registering people who aren't entitled to vote.

Vote fraud almost never happens, but if confirmed, Dhillon would oversee hundreds of civil rights attorneys handling anti-discrimination and voting rights cases.

Failed Arizona governor and Senate candidate Carrie Lake has been tapped to direct the publicly funded Voice of America, whose coverage Trump criticized as unfair.

The former news anchor is a Trump loyalist and election denier who often voices disdain for mainstream media.

You guys up there in the fake news have worn out your welcome.

You have spent the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his amazing patriotic supporters.

Echoing an argument made in Congress, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is asking the federal government to ban those receiving SNAP benefits from spending them on junk food.

The state's Secretary of Human Services, Kristi Putnam, says nearly a quarter of all SNAP purchases are unhealthy.

If we have better health to start with, then we're going to avoid the worst health outcomes down the road, like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease.

Hunger activists say arguments about poor families' food choices could lay the groundwork for slashing safety net programs to offset tax cuts for the wealthy.

I'm Katherine Carley for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.