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Brooke Rollins confirmed as USDA chief

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The Senate voted 72-28 on Thursday to confirm Brooke Rollins’ nomination to serve as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

All Republicans agreed to pass Rollins, but more Democrats voted against her than expected — including Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), who initially helped advance her out of the Senate Agriculture Committee to the full Senate floor.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who voted in favor of Rollins, said “a lot of Democrats” are voting against most of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in response to his efforts to overhaul the federal workforce.

“There’s a lot of outrage about Trump’s unlawful conduct,” Welch said.

Rollins, who was a domestic policy chief during Trump’s first term in the White House, will be responsible for nearly 100,000 department employees and a budget of more than $200 billion. She’ll also lead USDA’s nutrition, rural developments, farm safety net and trade programs, as well as the federal response to the bird flu outbreak.

Lawmakers and agriculture industry leaders are hoping that Rollins, a longtime Trump ally who joins the administration after leading the America First Policy Institute, will stand up for agricultural interests during Cabinet discussions about Trump’s tariffs and deportations.

The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously advanced her nomination last week.

Many Democratic senators have indicated they’ve had productive conversations with Rollins about their states’ agricultural priorities. They’ll have to work with her on ongoing farm bill negotiations, workforce issues and other USDA programs that their constituents rely on.

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Congress

Mace sued for defamation by man she accused of abuse in floor speech

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Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is facing a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the four men she has publicly accused of sexual abuse in a floor speech, in a case that could test the legal protections members of Congress have for their official conduct.

The South Carolinian took to the House floor last month to accuse her ex-fiance, Charleston businessman Patrick Bryant, and three other men of rape, sex trafficking and nonconsensually filming sex acts with her and others.

Now Brian Musgrave, one of the other men Mace named on the House floor, is suing the member of Congress for defamation.

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Carolina, he categorically denied the allegations leveled against him by Mace — saying he was not present during any alleged events Mace described and did not “film” or “incapacitate” anyone — adding she “and her team destroyed the lives” of Musgrave and his family.

The suit seeks an unspecified award for compensatory and punitive damages to be determined by a jury “sufficient to impress upon the Defendant the seriousness of her conduct and to deter such similar conduct in the future.”

Mace’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The legal action also seeks to carve out an exception from the speech or debate clause of the Constitution, which provides a legal shield for members of Congress for acts taken as part of their roles as lawmakers, including “any Speech or Debate in either House.”

The clause “does not transform the floor of Congress into a sanctuary for defamation, nor does it protect Congresswoman Mace’s extra-Congressional defamatory statements surrounding her speech,” Musgrave’s suit asserts.

His lawsuit also points to some of Mace’s actions outside the House floor, including a draft of the speech circulating and posts on social media.

In her February speech, Mace claimed she was speaking out because South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson had declined to act upon evidence of abuse that she said she provided. But the top state prosecutor said Mace’s accusations of improper conduct by his office were “categorically false,” claiming the office had “no knowledge” of Mace’s alleged assault until her speech on the House floor.

Wilson and Mace are both considering bids for South Carolina governor in the state’s 2026 election.

Shortly after Mace’s public speech, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that it is investigating Bryant. Bryant has categorically denied Mace’s allegations.

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Jeffries stays silent on Schumer’s future as Senate leader

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sidestepped a question about the leadership of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — a stunning demonstration of the breach that has emerged between the two New York Democrats over a looming government shutdown.

“Next question,” Jeffries told reporters when asked if there should be new leadership in the Senate. He also declined to answer a question on whether he had confidence in Schumer and said that while he’d been in touch with his fellow leader, their conversations would “remain private.”

Schumer said Thursday he planned to vote to advance a GOP-written funding patch to avert a shutdown, which is said was the better of two bad options.

“It is a false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans have been presenting, between their reckless and partisan spending bill and a government shutdown,” Jeffries responded Friday. “We do not support a bill that is designed to hurt the American people.”

When asked whether Schumer had acquiesced to Trump, Jeffries said there was still time — the vote had not taken place yet, and some senators were still undeclared, he added.

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Mark Kelly ditches his Tesla

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Amid the Friday chaos on Capitol Hill, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) took to X to announce … he’s getting rid of his Tesla.

“This is going to be my last trip in this car,” Kelly said in a video posted to his social media.

The Arizona Democrat wrote the car felt like “a rolling billboard” advertising Elon Musk. The chainsaw-wielding special adviser to the president has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency’s shuttering of agencies and mass firings across the government. He’s also Tesla’s CEO.

Kelly said he couldn’t drive the car without thinking about the damage DOGE has brought on the government, including the firing of veterans.

“Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole, and I don’t want to drive a car built and designed by an asshole,” Kelly said.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump decided to buy his own Tesla, setting up a collection of the electric cars for his selection at the White House after protests broke out across the country at Tesla dealerships.

Following the car show, Senate Democrats sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics asking the office to open an investigation, saying Musk and Trump used their roles to promote Musk’s company with their “temporary Tesla showroom.”

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