Close Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here The latest in politics and policy. Direct to your inbox. Sign up for the Evening Report newsletter Subscribe {beacon} Evening Report ©  Greg Nash House GOP seeks to bury Gaetz ethics report Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday the House Ethics Committee should not release the results of its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has been tapped by President-elect Trump to be attorney general. Johnson said he’d personally talk to House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) to urge him to keep the report private. “I’m going to strongly request the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not how we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.” The Florida GOP lawmaker abruptly resigned Wednesday from Congress after Trump announced his intention to have him lead the Department of Justice.  Gaetz’s resignation came days before the Ethics Committee was set to release the findings of its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by Gaetz, among other things. He denies the allegations. The AG pick faces a difficult path to confirmation, as many Republican senators have expressed bafflement and hostility toward his nomination.  The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports: “Republican senators are warning that former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) nomination to serve as President-elect Trump’s attorney general is in serious trouble, even though Republicans will control 53 seats in the upper chamber next year. Gaetz will get a chance to make his case for why he should lead the Justice Department, but Republican senators warn he faces an 'uphill' path to confirmation.”  Republican senators are pushing to see the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, whether it’s made available to the public or not.  TRUMP'S CONTROVERSIAL NOMINEES ROIL WASHINGTON Gaetz isn’t the only Trump nominee facing a tough path to confirmation.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is getting blowback from the left and the right, while Democrats are unloading on Tulsi Gabbard, who Trump has tapped to be his Director of National Intelligence. Newly elected Senate GOP leader John Thune (S.D.) acknowledged the difficult road ahead for the nominees through the Senate confirmation process.  “None of this is gonna be easy,” Thune said on Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.”  KENNEDY IN THE SPOTLIGHT Some of Kennedy’s proposals, such as his promise to get chemicals out of food, enjoy widespread support.  And Kennedy has received endorsements from some surprising quarters, including incoming Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is a physician, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who says Kennedy’s independent streak aligns with his constituents.  However, former Vice President Mike Pence called on conservatives to oppose Kennedy for his pro-abortion stance. “If confirmed, RFK, Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history,” Pence said in a statement Friday. And Democrats are warning that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine positions are dangerous for public health.  Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called Kennedy a “fringe conspiracy theorist,” while former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called his nomination “terrifying.”  GABBARD OPPOSED BY NATIONAL SECURITY ESTABLISHMENT Gabbard is facing questions over her criticism of U.S. involvement in Ukraine.  Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schulz (D-Fla.) on Friday said Gabbard is “likely a Russian asset.” The Hill has reached out to Gabbard's team for comment.  The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch reports: "Gabbard’s nomination surprised many in the national security world who expressed alarm over has past controversial comments and lack of high-level national security experience." 💡Perspectives: • The American Prospect: The Cabinet doesn't matter. • The Hill: Don't underestimate Trump's attack on government inefficiency.• The Wall Street Journal: Trump's recess-appointment scheme is anti-Constitutional.• Vox: Gaetz is a reckless pick even by Trump's standards. Read more:  • Trump tests GOP with controversial Cabinet picks. • Pressure mounts on Ethics Committee to release Gaetz report. • Drugmaker shares drop on Kennedy nomination. • Some Republicans wonder whether Trump-Musk honeymoon will last. Welcome to Evening Report! I'm Jonathan Easley, catching you up from the afternoon and what's coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here. CATCH UP QUICK  The White House announced an agreement with a major semiconductor manufacturer to invest billions of dollars in facilities in Arizona as President Biden looks to cement parts of his legislative legacy before leaving office in January. Support for the death penalty has fallen to its lowest level in decades. Almost 3 in 4 U.S. adults are obese or overweight, according to new research from The Lancet. 58-year old Mike Tyson is back in the ring tonight for a fight against YouTuber Jake Paul.NEWS THIS AFTERNOON ©  Greg NashDems debate identity politics Debate is raging in Democratic circles over the reasons behind their decisive loss to President-elect Trump earlier this month, an election that saw a rightward shift in districts across the country.  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) told “The Daily” that Democrats lost because they were obsessed with race, gender and identity in an election that revealed the nation's sharp divide along class lines. Trump posted surprising gains among racial minorities, even as Democrats called him racist.   “You can say, ‘Look, isn’t great that we have in fact a very smart and effective Black woman who’s on the Supreme Court?’ Great. But you don’t hang your hat on that,” Sanders said, referring President Biden’s appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. “What you also want to do is talk about the reality of what’s going on in the African-American community all over this country.”   Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) has been at the forefront telling Democrats they need to be more moderate on cultural issues, such as transgender women playing women’s sports. Axios reports that Democrats running for reelection felt ambushed by the Trump campaign’s ads on transgender athletes, which analysts believe were among the most effective of the cycle.   “Democrats should’ve had the easiest election in our lifetime… and yet we got defeated across the board, so seriously, we lost big. And we’ve got to come to grips with that if we’re going to be willing to change,” Moulton told CNN.   Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who lost his reelection fight in deep red Ohio, told Playbook that Democrats have lost the working class vote to Republicans. “Democrats have historically been the party of workers. I've seen that support erode from workers because Democrats haven't focused on workers the way that we should over the last 30 years," he said.   Former White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told Katie Couric that Democrats lost because of the rise of people who get their information from podcasts and other “platforms that have no fact checking mechanism and no accountability for having disinformation spread.”   But New York Times columnist Ezra Klein told “Pod Save America” that Democrats needs to stop blaming alternative media, citing the red shift in big cities, where voters expressed their displeasure with crime and the quality of living.  “Not just crime, but homeless encampments, trash on the streets, people jumping turnstiles in subways, crazy people on the streets," he said. "You just talk to people and they’re mad about it. They feel it’s different than it used to be. I mean, in San Francisco, like, the fury is overwhelming.”  Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing to resist Trump’s promise of sweeping change wherever they can. The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports: “Capitol Hill Democrats are pressing the White House to pull out all the stops to gird the executive branch against President-elect’s Trump’s promised efforts to tear down federal agencies and restructure them to his liking.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) urged Senate Republicans to serve as a check on a “particularly out of control” president-elect.  💡 Perspectives: The Financial Times: Trump broke the Dems’ thermostat. MSNBC: Dems’ problematic attitude toward voters of color hits a wall. The Nation: Dissecting the Democratic malaise. Chicago Tribune: Oprah’s company should not have asked Harris for money.  Read more: • Immigrant advocates urge Biden to ‘meet the urgency of the moment.' • Charlamagne Tha God questions White House reaction to Trump visit.  ON TAP President Biden is in Peru for the APEC summit, where he'll meet with China's President Xi. He'll then travel to Manaus, Brazil for the G-20 summit. NewsNation "The Hill Sunday": Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.). 32 days until electors vote in their states. 35 days until the government funding deadline.49 days until the new Congress begins and the House leadership elections. 52 days until Congress counts the electoral votes.66 days until Inauguration Day. IN OTHER NEWS©  AP Photo/Charlie NeibergallTrump taps Burgum for Interior; appoints his own lawyers Some of President-elect Trump’s nominees have flown under the radar, given the uproar over his more controversial selections. Here’s the latest: Trump nominated North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to serve as secretary of the Interior. Burgum briefly ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024 before forging a friendship and alliance with Trump. The Interior secretary manages the nation’s natural resources, federal lands, national parks and monuments. The department counts about 70,000 federal employees. Burgum will also lead Trump's newly formed "National Energy Council" and serve as energy czar. Here's what you should know about Burgum. Trump nominated former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) to be his secretary of Veterans Affairs. Collins, who served in the House for four terms, is a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve. He’s also a lawyer, and has worked as legal counsel for Trump. Trump nominated three of his personal criminal defense attorneys to serve in senior roles at the Department of Justice, including John D. Sauer, who argued Trump’s presidential immunity case in front of the Supreme Court this year. Trump tapped Todd Blanche to serve as deputy attorney general, and Emil Bove as principal associate deputy attorney general, the third most powerful position at the DOJ. Steven Cheung, who served as the Trump campaign's top press aide, will lead be communications director at the White House.Cabinet positions that still need to be filled:Department of AgricultureDepartment of CommerceDepartment of EducationDepartment of Housing and Urban Development Department of LaborDepartment of StateDepartment of TransportationDepartment of Treasury Read more:• Trump taps ex-SEC chair to serve as US attorney for Southern District of New York. • Trump’s pardon power looms over judges in Jan. 6 rioter cases.  Stay Engaged   Did I miss a story? Drop me a line. Follow TheHill.com for the latest and recommend us to others: TheHill.com/Evening. See you next time.