--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, November 14th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's official. Republicans cemented their control of the House of Representatives late last night, giving the GOP the trifecta, full control of the House, the Senate and the White House.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Republicans in the House and Senate have a mandate. It's true. It was a decisive win across the nation. The American people want us to implement and deliver that America First agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke on the steps of the Capitol earlier this week about what a full Republican sweep will mean.
--:-- Mike Johnson: Party leaders have said they intend to move quickly to cut taxes, loosen regulations on oil production, and tighten border security.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When President Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, we all look back and recognize that the Republican Party was not fully prepared for that moment and precious time was wasted in the beginning of that Congress.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We are not going to make those mistakes again. We will be ready on day one. We are prepared this time.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans voted for their new majority leader and picked John Thune of South Dakota, who has clashed with Donald Trump in the past, but said he's now eager to enact Trump's agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of his first tasks will likely be trying to push Trump's nominees through the confirmation process.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There have been an avalanche of picks this week, but the president-elect made his most stunning one yet yesterday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He tapped Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida for attorney general.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Gaetz is one of Trump's fiercest defenders and an avowed enemy of virtually every other top Republican.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He was behind the successful ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the House Speaker Post, and he was previously investigated by the Justice Department for child sex trafficking, but not charged.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The House has also been investigating him on allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and whether he used campaign funds for personal use.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of Gates' fellow Republican representatives, Max Miller of Ohio, said he and his colleagues were happy about the pick only because it meant Gates would be leaving the House.
--:-- Max Miller: Most people in there are giddy about it. Get him out of here.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Gates resigned from the House almost immediately after being nominated, effectively ending the House ethics investigation into him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They were going to vote tomorrow on whether to release a highly critical report on Gates and it's not clear if they will still release their findings.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: If Gates does become attorney general it will put him in a position to carry out Trump's promise to exact revenge on federal officials who prosecuted him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of the open questions I think that come out of this process as far as it's unfolded so far is what the Trump and American voter appetite will be for an administration that is so geared toward revenge and retribution when you have voters who have elected you on issues like the economy and immigration and crime.
--:-- Katie Rogers: You know, does appointing somebody like Matt Gaetz to the DOJ to dismantle checks on power, is that going to be something the average voter is going to look at and say, yes, this is what I voted for.
--:-- Katie Rogers: I think the tension between voters wanting the Trump administration to accomplish things for them is going to butt up against a very different objective for Trump, which is taking out revenge on perceived enemies within the institutions that are checks on the presidency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: At the White House yesterday...
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Mr. President-elect and former president, Donald, congratulations. Thank you. And I'm looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition.
--:-- Donald Trump: Thank you. And I'm looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Biden hosted President-elect Trump for a meeting, part of the traditional handoff from one president to the next, a tradition that Trump himself skipped when he refused to concede in 2020.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the Oval Office, Trump thanked Biden and the two shook hands.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Politics is tough, and it's, in many cases, not a very nice world, But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate very much a transition that's so smooth.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It'll be as smooth as it can get.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Cameras were escorted out of the room after about 30 seconds, and the two then met for two hours behind closed doors with their chiefs of staff.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The White House said Trump came with a detailed list of questions for Biden, and that the conversation had been cordial and substantive.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump later called the New York Post and said the two had talked about the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.
--:-- Donald Trump: I wanted to know his views on where we are and what he thinks and he gave them to me. It could have been better. It could have been worse.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's how one economist described the latest inflation numbers released yesterday by the federal government.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The consumer price index climbed 2.6 percent from a year ago.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The latest reassurance that inflation has been brought way down from its peak of over 9 percent in 2022.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But it's still slightly higher than last month's numbers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And it means prices on everything from food to rent are still climbing and are much higher for Americans than they were a few years ago.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Efforts to keep fighting inflation could be complicated by the transition to a new administration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump has promised big increases in tariffs that most economists think would drive inflation back up.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Earlier this week in China, a man plowed his SUV into a crowd of people exercising outside of a sports complex in the city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and injuring dozens more.
--:-- Vivian Wong: It appeared to be the deadliest attack in the country in a decade.
--:-- Vivian Wong: But almost immediately, the Chinese government began to censor any details about it.
--:-- Vivian Wong: By the time that I was able to get to Zhuhai on basically the first flight out, the police and the government officials were already working super hard to make it seem like nothing had ever happened.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Our first stop, we went to two different hospitals where we had heard that victims had been taken.
--:-- Vivian Wong: We wanted to see if we could find any victims or their relatives, but that was quickly quashed because in all of the different ICU wards that we checked, there were government officials standing guard, making sure that we could not reach the family members.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Even though in one hospital, actually, we could see the family members standing just a short distance away.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Then we went to the sports center where the attack actually happened.
--:-- Vivian Wong: And there was also a steady stream of local residents who were coming by to drop off flowers as a sort of makeshift memorial.
--:-- Vivian Wong: And basically, the minute they would drop them off, someone, a worker, would come and pick them up and carry them out of sight.
--:-- Vivian Wong: The government's efforts to brush the attack under the rug also played out online.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Censors quickly took down eyewitness accounts and newspaper articles and only left up the official government statement about the incident saying the attacker had been unhappy about his divorce.
--:-- Vivian Wong: This is straight out of the Chinese government playbook after any sort of mass incident or tragedy.
--:-- Vivian Wong: Basically, the goal is to ensure that the government narrative is the only voice out there so that people can't mobilize around grief.
--:-- Vivian Wong: They can't ask questions about the government's response.
--:-- Vivian Wong: And a big part of that is that the Chinese government has really made a sort of unspoken contract with its people, which is that it's going to surveil them, it's going to really limit their rights, but in return, they're going to get a really safe society.
--:-- Vivian Wong: And so the government just really doesn't want there to ever be any sign that that safety is not maybe as perfect or as complete as they would want their people to believe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, there's a big art show in Pisa, Italy this week with big names.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Gustav Klimt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But there's a catch. All of the art is fake.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The paintings were seized as part of an ongoing investigation into a network of art forgers and dealers operating across Europe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: and officials are displaying the fakes to show what they've been able to find.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In all, Italy's specialized art theft squad has seized over 2,000 pieces of fake art in the last year, one of the biggest counterfeit busts in over a decade, according to the leader of the squad.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The market value of what they've seized is estimated to be over $260 million.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So far, 38 people have been placed under investigation for either creating or selling the forgeries, including suspects in Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A lot of what the squad scooped up have been fake Banksy pieces, claiming to be from the reclusive artist.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They shut down an entire Banksy exhibition in the town of Cortana, Italy, after they determined nothing in it was real.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One tip for spotting forgeries, which comes from the website of the company that represents the real Banksy, is just good advice in general.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Quote, always remain skeptical.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, more on the rush of Trump appointments with Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Peter Baker, and Julie Davis.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
