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Politics: 2025Talks - January 16, 2025

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(Public News Service)

Politics and views in the United States.

Audio file

Confirmation hearings continue for Trump's nominees, Biden says American hostages will be released as part of an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire deal, and North Carolina Republicans try new arguments to overturn a state Supreme Court election.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

No one from either side of the aisle should want there to be any issues with election integrity in our country.

We should all want our elections to be free and fair and the rules and the laws to be followed.

Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi says she accepts that Joe Biden is the president, but refuses to say if former President Donald Trump lost in 2020.

During her Senate confirmation hearing, Bondi condemned what she called the "weaponization" of the Justice Department and promised not to politicize it.

But Bondi also did not rule out prosecuting Trump critics.

The Secretary of State nominee Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Trump's pick for budget director, Project 2025 author Russell Vogt, also had hearings.

Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal called Vogt's assertion the law giving Congress sole control of federal spending is unconstitutional, astonishing.

That someone in this responsible position would in effect say that the president is above the law.

In his farewell address to the nation, Biden warned against a dangerous concentration of extreme wealth and called oligarchy a threat to America.

Before the speech, he announced a pending Gaza ceasefire to start Sunday and include the release of American hostages.

Democrat Zara Billow with the Council on American-Islamic Relations calls it bittersweet and long overdue.

Right now the international community needs to prioritize accountability, upholding human rights and providing urgently needed relief to the people in Gaza.

The deal would end more than 15 months of fighting, which killed 1,700 Israelis and more than 46,000 Palestinians.

Republicans in North Carolina have filed new court arguments for tossing 60,000 ballots in the yet-to-be-certified state Supreme Court race.

Three recounts show the Democratic incumbent won by about 700 votes.

But the GOP challenger now claims overseas military ballots can't be trusted.

Local voting rights activist Kate Barr says that's undemocratic.

As soon as we set the precedent that if you don't like the outcome of an election, you take it to court and throw it out until you win, we have left the land of democracy and moved into something much closer to what we left back in the revolution.

The GOP-led legislature in Wisconsin aims to put a ballot measure before voters this spring to put their strict voter ID law into the state constitution.

Proponents insist it prevents voter fraud.

Opponents, including Jay Heck with Common Cause Wisconsin, say it helps Republicans.

All it does is it reduces the opportunity for certain segments of the population to be able to vote.

It doesn't do anything about preventing fraud, and it's just a voter suppression method.

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

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