host: dimensioned the reaction to bishop budde and the sermon and speaking directly to dolla trump.his is from piers morgan uncensored last week, the reverent franklin graham who we heard at the inauguration ceremony at the beginning of that and their loved ones in great danger, and that is what has happened these last four years. host: let's sum up the reaction that you were talking about. guest: he's using his pulpit right now to say something about how he feels about what bishop budde said. bishop budde was in the national cathedral, she was the bishop of a national cathedral, it was her pulpit, she was speaking the gospel. i will respond to the idea that none of the policies that trump has proposed are hurting trans people, they actually are. there is every fiction, people being able to have gender affirming drugs and surgery. i want to say one thing about the trans community because i think it is really important. we should recognize that the republican party has spent something like $280 million of the campaign maligning the trans community, attacking a small percentage of the

budd: thank you. another question, china is pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects over central and south america. one example is in could or. china made a deal to fund a $3.4 billion hydroelectric dam. there are 17,000 cracks already and there is a lot of corruption. ecuadorian officials have been put in prison and sentenced for bribery charges. using that as an example for the region, the strategy of china is clear. and this is in the words of dorian minister, the strategy is that they want to take economic control of countries. in panama for instance, it is about 7.7% of their gdp as i understand. using ecuador, should congress be concerned that china could extract significant leverage over panama given the outsized role in revenue from the canal that it plays in their finances? chair sola: yes, senator. it very well could. i believe that we are in a very fortunate position with secretary rubio who knows the area very well. sen. budd: thank you very much. chairman cruz: senator, w

they would say, senator budd and then s budd and just go right around your trademark and abuse it. we have to stop that. we need to address it. we need to stop it. we need countries to understand, if you don't respect our companies ip there, you should not expect are the same treatment here. reciprocity is a word that is really effective. we are treated horribly and we want that to change. you should expect the same treatment here. sen. budd: i want to ask come up with your financial background, deepseek's founding company i think also owns a hedge fund. do you think there is a financial plate from china because of the laws in market cap? was it perhaps even a short sell play on the market? sen. budd: -- mr. lutnick: i don't know. sen. budd: is it worth looking at? mr. lutnick: of course. sen. budd: are you concerned that in the u.s. we are focused, perhaps, even here in congress, on regulating our own ai activities at the expense of china taking the lead unlocking agi or artificial general intelligence before we do? mr. lutnick: yes. sen. budd: what we need to do to prevent us fal

budd: you served over two decades in the u.s. army including holding commands at multiple levels and served through the ministrations of both political parties was? ms. gabbard: yes, senator. sen. budd: throughout your time you have been both a consumer of intelligence and policymaker. how important is it for the intelligence community to provide timely relevant, factual, objective? ms. gabbard: nothing less than our national security. too often the multitude of intelligence failures that our country has seen, that objective has not been met. now cia director ratcliffe talked about in his testimony before this committee how the cia's own internal metrics have shown analytic objectivity has gone down within that organization. this is the very kind of thing that i would seek to address if confirmed as director of national intelligence. ensuring that politics, biases, or personal views are checked at the door. i would lead by example by doing it myself in ensuring that intelligence analysis and reporting meets the objective the pres

next, i will recognize senator budd. senator budd: thank you, chair. thank you for leaving your role in private work twice to serve our country. thank you for what you are willing to do. your estate and my state and several others have gone through quite a lot since late september with hurricane helene. in the moments where i was not in western north carolina myself, i was able to look up and see a television and it was you standing there with president trump committee that if he were reelected, he would support. he has lived up to that. he has been back to western north carolina. i believe he is our rebuilder in chief. one of the things we saw was at the sba under president biden. he failed to notify congress in a timely manner about the completion of the disaster relief fund and did not build -- did not fulfill the reporting requirements along the way. if confirmed, how would you ensure timely and accurate coding to congress regarding account balances and funding needs, and how would you address the transparency failures during the biden administrati

they would say senator budd and they would say s-budd and s budd s. and they go around your trademark and abuse it. we need to stop that. we need to address it we need to stop it we need to end it and we need to have countries that understand if you do not respect our company's i.p. there, you should not respect the same treatment here. reciprocity is a word that really is effective. we are treated horribly. we want that to change where you should expect the same treatment here. >> thank you. i want to ask this with your financial background. the deepseek's founding company is owning a hedge fund. do you think there's a financial play from china because of the loss in market cap or a short sale play on our markets? mr. lutnick: oh, i don't know. >> is it worth looking at? mr. lutnick: of course. >> thank you. are you concerned that in the u.s., we're focused and perhaps even here in congress, we're focused on regulating our own a.i. activity and unlocking agi or artificial general intelligence before we do? mr. lutnick: yes. >> what do you think we ne

i do think it is important to recognize that this is kind of what we saw against bishop budde, who i know is not a radical, but she said something truthful from her tradition to donald trump. and people said, oh, it was full of hate. if you listened to that, asking for mercy is not full of hate. and for people -- here's a really important idea. there are many traditions of christianity, the tradition of martin luther king jr., there's a broad tradition of christianity in america, which is my tradition, which i am speaking out of. so i am not speaking hate. what i am speaking is out of my truth as a reverend who comes out of the important tradition in american religious life, so i reject the idea that because i'm speaking my truth i am speaking hate. host: you mentioned the reaction to bishop budde and her sermon and her speaking directly to donald trump. this is from piers morgan uncensored last week, the reverent franklin graham who we heard at the inauguration ceremony at the beginning of that ceremony, he was being interviewed by piers morgan. this is about 1.5 minutes. >> i thoug

keith's senator, ted budd, reacted to the release saying this -- >> until now, keith was captive, but the nightmare is over and keith is tree. -- free. so i want to thank president trump for his work to get these hostages released and back home to their loves ones. but there's more work to do, can we're going to continue in that work. >> reporter: another man was also freed from southern gaza in the city of khan yunis if along with another whose wife and two young children were also kidnapped the on the 7th and october. his wife and children haven't been seen since. israel had threatened hamas with the release of prisoners if hostages were paraded through a crowd again. the exchange took place for 183 palestinian prisoners. the acting u.s. head of mission reacted to the release of the hostages saying, quote, today i join aviva, her children, grandchildren and the entire siegel family in breathing a huge sigh of relief that fellow american keith is home after 48 agonizing days -- -- 484 days in captivity. we won't rest until all the hostages come home. an empathetic, timely and human m

the church, under reverend marian budde reportedly earned $53 million from government programs to resettlet sponsored over 6,000 individuals from 48 countries. by the way, catholic relief services on that as well. catholic charities, i should say. neither catholic are, nor charity -- charlie: it's an ecumenical grab. rachel: yeah. and a study the revealing that owning cogs -- dogs can cut your risk of dementia by 40%, but owning a cat doesn't make a difference. [laughter] where is pete hegseth, the cat guy? which makes us think, charlie, you may have been right about the last week. [laughter] shar shar she doesn't like me. she hates me. rick: she's saying, please, like me. rachel: you really wan him to hold that. charlie: this is the like i'm a cat person -- dog person because cats are duplicitous. rachel: why don't you like cats? if. charlie: because they're duplicitous. joey: that is hilarious. i watched that, and i thought, charlie did not understand the assignmentment. [laughter] rachel: no. i don't think our guest, the big cat person, was happy with your response. she thought it was a

keith's senator ted budd reacted to the release today saying thi- >> until now, keith was captive. the nightmare is over and keith is free. so i want the thank president trump for his work to get these hostages released and back home to their loved ones, but there's more work to do, and we're going to continue that work. >> reporter: at another man was also freed from southern gaza in the city of khan yunis. his wife and to two young children were kidnapped on the 7th, his wife and children haven't been seen since. israel had threatened hamas with pausing the release of palestinian prisoners if the hostages were paraded through the crowd again. we do know they were exchanged for 183 palestinian prisoners, some them being released into the west bank, others into gaza. next weekend there will be another release of hostages from the gaza strip, and we do understand that today conversations are taking place in doha that to continue this agreement and try to start implementing phase two of the deal. guys? charlie: so, trey, you know, we've seen this before with these prisoner releases -

the house, representative bonamici, as well as my counterparts across the capitol, senator baldwin, budd, mccain and young, for joining me in introducing this commonsense effort. madam speaker, we look ahead, we must be committed to -- we remain committed to strengthening c.t.e., ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, has access to these opportunities. and by doing so, we close the skills gap and build a more competitive and resilient economy that benefits all americans. thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the member from new jersey, mciver, for five minutes. mrs. mciver: madam speaker, i rise to celebrate the incredible voices and stories captured in "we were strangers once too." this is a powerful memoir retelling the immigrant journeys and stories of students from my district. i had the opportunity to meet these young authors and witness them share vulnerable and deeply personal experiences. their stories highlighted the difficult reality for many migrants who leave their home country an

budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. under common motion on 55 - 45 while we wait a final confirmation vote to be called we will show you his confirmation hearing from last month. >> thank you mr. sherman ranking member and the committee i'm so happy and honored to be here with fuel to really think all the members of the committee thank you for your engagement and your ideas of rebuilding the american dream for our nation's forgotten communities it was a pleasure to visit with each and every one of you all but one said that was because of a scheduling conflict. i'm so great to have the time to meet with you, thank you for making the effort and i hope our conversations will not be the end but only the beginning of a great and true partnership to meet the mission and serve the american people i would also like to take a moment to thank my wife robin who is here with us for her unwavering support over nearly three decades of us being together from college at the university of illinois to the nfl the texas house

budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mrs. gillibrand. i'm honored to be sitting here to be nominated for the next sector of the v.a. i want to think my friend kevin cramer for the kind introduction. i appreciate his work and your work as well. i thank him for that. i would like to thank president trump for his nomination and his willingness to have not on the veterans of this country. i'm privileged today and appreciate the chairman and ring them mentioning my family because i would not view without them. my wife of 36 years is with me lisa. i have my son copeland, his wife your guide my son cameron and his fiancÉe. and then on the one of the quizzes altogether and that is jordan. she is our daughter. also on the public is watching what no of the list of a didn't mention, my 86-year-old 86-year-old father who spent 31 years as a as a georgia ste trooper. bad

budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. the clerk: mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms.ortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mr. gallego. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mr. husted. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. justice. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. markey. as he steps into his role as ranking member i will work closely with senator durbin to serve the american people. i would also like to welcome three brand-new members to the committee. a person who is repeating his service here after a scant off. per day welcome to the committee senator britt, senator schmitz, senator crapo and senator schiff. welcome. [applause] before we get started i would like to set out a couple ground rules. i want to handle this hearing using a similar structure to house senator durbin handl

budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. curtis. the clerk: mr. daines. thank you, i had the opportunity to meet with almost all of you and i greatly appreciate that pretty i'm grateful to president trump when it is committee for your consideration to be the any seventh attorney general of the united states. i would not be here without my family. in big bear with me, for just a moment, a lot of made a very long trip and around the mall down so i don't forget anyone predict my beautiful mother, retired kindergarten teacher would not be here without my month rest of the week ago it was 12 years since we lost my dad to leukemia for like 12 days. my amazing husband john, it is to incredible girls, colin infinitely pretty colin is a senior university of florida next month i think all of you in this committee will be very happy to know the family is in cybersecurity. there's a third who's traveling abroad and we shouldn't be here in my amazing father-in-law, david and my sister, bet