Individual accused of scamming the federal government out of Covid-19 pandemic relief funds will be: a) prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law b) asked to repay funds c) the Trump administration's commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service 'Joke appointment': Experts alarmed over this Trump pick who has 'flown under the radar' https://www.alternet.org/trump-pick-experts-alarmed/ One of President-elect Donald Trump's appointments has so far escaped the level of intense scrutiny applied to some of his more controversial high-profile nominations. But experts are warning Americans to not overlook the damage one particular potential Trump administration pick could cause. The Daily Beast reported Friday that tax experts are urging senators to vote against the confirmation of former Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), who Trump has tapped to be the next commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In addition to not having any experience as a tax enforcer (aside from a three-day course in Florida that allowed him to call himself a "Certified Tax & Business Advisor"), Long is also accused of running a scam aimed at bilking the federal government out of Covid-19 pandemic relief funds. According to the Beast, Long — a former auctioneer who ran a failed bid for U.S. Senate after leaving the House —worked with Lifetime Advisors in Wisconsin and Commerce Terrace Consulting in Missouri to help clients exploit a loophole that rewarded businesses for keeping workers on company payrolls. He bragged on a 2023 podcast entitled "Secret Tax Credit That Could Put Thousands Back in Your Pocket with Billy Long" that even if a certified public accountant may not sign off on the scheme, would-be clients could instead "go back to Billy. Let Billy do it for you." The loophole was initially projected to cost the IRS $55 billion. However, the financial blow climbed to $230 billion, and could even skyrocket to $500 billion despite the agency's efforts to close the loophole. Brookings Institution senior fellow Bill Galston told the Beast that Long's confirmation would mean "the end of tax enforcement as we know it." "He’s an auctioneer – that’s just perfect. Tax credits to the highest bidder!! going once! going twice!!" Galston said. "I can’t even get mad, it’s so bleeping funny." While current IRS commissioner Daniel Werfel is supposed to serve in his role until November of 2027, it's assumed Trump won't allow President Joe Biden's appointee to serve out the remainder of his term. Center for American Progress tax expert Brendan Duke said the IRS is actually a "really important law enforcement agency," adding that it was the IRS that ultimately nabbed notorious mobster Al Capone. "They track money laundering and terrorism. This is not a joke job, but it is a joke appointment," Duke said. "This has flown under the radar... He’s just as bad as RFK Jr., but nobody is paying attention."
Hegseth is totally unqualified to be a Cabinet member. This is what happens to any Republican Senator who opposed his confirmation. As Trump threatened a primary, Tillis -- a GOP holdout on Hegseth -- flipped North Carolina U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis secretly led an effort to persuade fellow Republicans to join him in opposing the nomination of Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. His sudden turnabout came after pressure from President Donald Trump. https://www.wral.com/story/as-trump-threatened-a-primary-a-gop-holdout-on-hegseth-flipped/21859022/ Four days after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term, his nominee for defense secretary was teetering on the brink of defeat on the Senate floor, and the president was on Air Force One talking about political retribution. Trump had gotten word that Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., planned to oppose Pete Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends” weekend host who was his choice for Pentagon chief and who faced accusations of excessive drinking and abusing women. If Tillis could not be brought to heel by that night, there would be enough Republican “no” votes to sink Hegseth’s confirmation, a humiliating defeat at the dawn of Trump’s second term. Turning to a group of North Carolina lawmakers who were flying with him to survey storm damage in their state, Trump noted Tillis’ impending defection and posed a question: Which of them wanted his endorsement for a primary challenge to the senator next year? The implication was clear: Tillis’ refusal to back Hegseth could cost him his seat. By that night, Tillis, who had been toiling behind the scenes for days to kill Hegseth’s nomination so he could avoid having to publicly cross Trump, would vote to confirm Hegseth to control the most powerful military force in the world. The story of Tillis’ secret effort to persuade fellow Republicans to join him in opposing Hegseth — and his sudden turnabout when it became clear he would be the deciding vote to defeat the nominee — is a tale of political calculation and capitulation by a single GOP senator. But it also helps explain a broader dynamic at play with Trump back in the White House, as Republicans in Congress, fearful of reprisal by the president and his supporters, have put aside grave reservations and surrendered to his demands. The trend has been on display this week in the Senate, where Republicans almost unanimously fell in line to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, elevating them despite grave concerns about their fitness for their posts. This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with Tillis’ maneuvering and his change of heart, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private discussions. In a statement from his office, Tillis disputed the premise of this story and insisted he was simply performing careful vetting, as he does for all nominees. “Senator Tillis did his thorough due diligence and stands by his vote to confirm Pete Hegseth, who is already leading the Pentagon and cleaning up the failures of the Biden administration,” the statement said. “It’s clear that there were ulterior personal and political motives of some individuals opposed to his confirmation.” A Secret Whip Effort From the beginning, Tillis, a 64-year-old former management consulting executive who has sought to carve out a lane for himself as a principled and independent Republican in an increasingly tribal party, had concerns about Hegseth. The nominee faced accusations of excessive public drinking and had made a secret settlement with a woman who had accused Hegseth of raping her, an allegation he denied. His own mother had accused him of mistreating women for years in an anguished message she later disavowed. On top of that, there were serious questions about his leadership experience; two nonprofit veterans groups that he headed, from 2008 to 2016, ended up in financial trouble. Tillis had often placed himself at the center of bipartisan negotiations, a strategic place to be given the purple politics of his swing state. Now, faced with a nominee he told people he had strong reservations about, the senator, who was up for reelection in 2026, faced a dilemma. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a former combat veteran and sexual assault survivor, had been a cautionary tale. After she publicly raised concerns about Hegseth, Trump’s hard-line supporters applied unrelenting pressure on Ernst, including threatening a primary challenge to her reelection bid next year. She retreated, saying she would not try to stand in the way of Hegseth’s confirmation. In some ways, Tillis was in an even tougher spot: In a phone call with Trump just before Christmas, he had committed to supporting all the president’s nominees. The only way for Tillis to avoid breaking that promise without having to back Hegseth was to make sure his nomination never came to a vote at all. The goal was to round up enough GOP opposition to make the case to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the brand-new and still-untested majority leader, that he should scrap the vote altogether rather than allow Hegseth to be defeated on the floor in a spectacle sure to infuriate Trump. It began in December, when Tillis agreed to be connected with Kat Dugan, a former employee at Concerned Veterans for America, one of the nonprofit organizations that Hegseth had overseen. Dugan, a constituent of Tillis’ who had volunteered for his reelection campaign, shared information that raised enough alarms for the senator that he wanted to dig for more. He reached out to Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, and said that if his side discovered any other witnesses with information about Hegseth, he wanted to speak with them, too. By mid-January, Reed had. Danielle Hegseth, an ex-sister-in-law of Hegseth’s who had been interviewed by the FBI in December, was willing to come forward with accusations against Hegseth if she was formally asked to provide sworn testimony. Reed quickly obliged, sending her a request in writing, and giving Tillis a heads-up that a new and compelling witness was possibly coming forward. On Jan. 19, the day before Trump was to be inaugurated, Tillis was briefed on what Danielle Hegseth had to say. It was a shocking account he told colleagues could doom Hegseth’s chances of confirmation. Danielle Hegseth said her former brother-in-law frequently drank to excess, including while in military uniform, and was so threatening and abusive toward his second wife, Samantha, that she once hid from him in her closet “because she feared for her personal safety.” She said Samantha Hegseth was so afraid of Hegseth’s “erratic and aggressive” behavior that she made a secret plan involving a code word, shared with Danielle Hegseth and another person, to use if she needed to get away from him. The code word was deployed once, Danielle alleged, in 2015 or 2016. Later that day, Tillis had a lengthy call with her and her lawyer in which he encouraged Danielle Hegseth to sign an affidavit laying out the disturbing details she was providing. If she did so, Tillis told her, it would carry weight and potentially move enough Republican votes — including his own, those of Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and potentially others — to sink Hegseth’s nomination. Tillis also told people that he was planning to flag the new witness to Ernst, who he thought might still be able to be swayed to oppose Hegseth, and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., another Republican who had only recently pledged to support the nominee and who he thought might also be persuaded to change his mind. As Tillis planned that effort, he was coordinating so closely with Democrats and their aides on the Armed Services Committee that they came to see him as a partner in their efforts to slow or stop Hegseth. But things were becoming increasingly awkward for Tillis. Just hours after his conversation with Danielle Hegseth, news of their phone call leaked to reporters, prompting Tillis to worry that his quiet fact-finding mission was turning into a media circus. An Affidavit and a Denial Inauguration Day came and went without Danielle Hegseth coming forward, and Hegseth’s nomination still appeared on track. Late that afternoon, the Armed Services Committee approved his nomination along party lines, with Ernst joining the rest of her party in backing him. But the next day, Danielle Hegseth submitted her testimony to senators in a signed affidavit that she stated was aimed at stopping her former brother-in-law from being confirmed. “I have been assured that making this public statement will ensure that certain senators who are still on the fence will vote against Hegseth’s confirmation,” she wrote. Almost immediately, though, her story came into question. Through his lawyer, Hegseth vociferously denied it and pointed to a statement that Samantha Hegseth had given to NBC News saying that “there was no physical abuse in my marriage.” But that statement did not address the affidavit’s accusations of threatening and aggressive behavior by Hegseth that caused Samantha Hegseth to fear for her safety. Tim Parlatore, Pete Hegseth’s lawyer, sought and received several statements directly rebutting Danielle Hegseth’s account, which he forwarded to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chair of the Armed Services Committee. Samantha Hegseth declined to provide one. In any case, Ernst said in light of Samantha Hegseth’s media comment, Danielle Hegseth’s accusations carried no weight. And a shaken Tillis privately told colleagues that her statement was a game changer. He still planned to oppose Hegseth, he said, but he would need corroboration of Danielle Hegseth’s account. “The nomination is going to go forward,” Wicker told reporters. He had “grave doubts as to the substance” of the affidavit, he said, and believed that its author “has an ax to grind.” Two days later, Tillis reviewed written materials that Danielle Hegseth produced to corroborate her account. Still, when it came time for a test vote on Hegseth’s nomination, Tillis voted “yes,” even as he told reporters he was still doing “due diligence” on Hegseth. Only two Republicans voted against Hegseth that day: Murkowski and Collins. A Hard No Turns to a Yes Collins and Murkowski were perplexed that Tillis would support advancing the nomination given all his behind-the-scenes sleuthing, but he reached out to them right after the test vote for a meeting. As the trio huddled in Collins’ private Senate hideaway office overlooking the National Mall, Tillis assured the pair that he remained opposed to the nomination and was locked down as a “no.” He headed to tell Thune. The meeting did not go as Tillis had hoped. He told the Senate majority leader that he was opposed to Hegseth’s confirmation and believed that three other Republicans — Collins, Murkowski and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — would be as well, meaning his nomination would fail on the floor. Thune needed to tell Trump he was a “no” and cancel the vote set for the next evening. Thune refused to even consider scrapping the vote and said that if Tillis intended to bring down the nominee, he should tell Trump’s team himself. Later that evening, Tillis went to the White House to meet with Vice President JD Vance. He complained about the pressure being applied to Republican senators to fall in line, and he continued to insist that he was opposed to Hegseth. That night, he also spoke by phone with Trump. The president, rarely confrontational in person, did not ask outright that he vote for Hegseth, and Tillis made it clear that he still had questions about his nominee. Still, White House officials were already sensing that he might be ready to give in. On the day of the vote, several senior aides to Trump and people close to Hegseth said they thought Tillis was too weak to hold out and would ultimately change his mind rather than cast a vote that would end his career. On Air Force One, Trump made it clear he was willing to play hardball against Tillis as payback for such a defection. Tillis called Danielle Hegseth’s lawyer repeatedly that Friday, saying that he believed her client. But back at the Capitol, Reed’s team started to get nervous around noon, when Tillis stopped returning their calls. By 5 p.m., just hours before the vote, they still had not heard from him. What they did not know was that Tillis, having failed to head off the vote, was now leaning toward voting “yes” and was doing some final negotiating of his own. On Friday, he met with Hegseth and asked for a detailed letter rebutting Danielle Hegseth’s affidavit. Tillis received the letter about an hour before the vote, and Pete Hegseth posted it on social media as the roll was being called on the Senate floor. Around that time, Tillis spoke to Trump briefly and told him that he was about to vote “yes” on his nominee. At 9:09 p.m., five minutes after Hegseth posted his statement online and as the vote was already underway, Tillis released a statement announcing that he planned to support Hegseth. On the Senate floor, Collins and Murkowski, seated at their side-by-side desks, could be seen staring at him coldly, Collins with her arms crossed, as Tillis faced them, gesticulating animatedly as he appeared to explain his turnabout. In the end, only McConnell joined the two women in opposition among Republicans, after releasing a lengthy statement in which he questioned whether Hegseth was up to the post of Pentagon chief. Hegseth was confirmed at 9:50 p.m., after Vance was shuttled to the Capitol to break the tie on what would be the narrowest vote to confirm a defense secretary in modern history. Hegseth’s family watched from the visitor’s gallery above; later, he would recount that one of his children had remarked that he “won in overtime.” As for Tillis, he avoided political punishment — at least for the moment. On the afternoon of Feb. 7, exactly two weeks after Trump had mused aloud on Air Force One about ending the senator’s political career, he had a guest aboard the presidential aircraft as he made his way to South Florida: Tillis, who cast the deciding vote to save his defense secretary. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Oh pooh. This is DC for crisesake. You post some article about senators not lining up this way or that way so the president directly and indirectly sends his surrogates out to make life rough for the one who is not coming around. I AM SHOCKED!!
Trump’s Surgeon General Pick Distorted Key Parts of Her Résumé Nesheiwat falsified, misled, selectively omitted, or lied about her medical education, board certifications, and military experience https://lastcampaign.substack.com/p/trumps-surgeon-general-pick-distorted
Under Trump, the Surgeon General doesn't even have to be a medical doctor. Trump picks conspiracy theorist ‘wellness influencer’ Casey Means with no medical license to replace Fox contributor as Surgeon General Previous nominee was withdrawn amid claims she had misrepresented her medical education https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...eon-general-pick-medical-school-b2746743.html