Congress
Trump backs Florida’s chief financial officer as successor to Gaetz in Congress
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — President-elect Donald Trump is throwing his support behind Florida’s chief financial officer as his choice to succeed former Rep. Matt Gaetz in Congress, a move that could increase pressure on Gov. Ron DeSantis to pick allies to the president-elect for other posts.
Trump on Monday said on social media that he would support Republican Jimmy Patronis for the now-vacant northwest Florida congressional seat that Gaetz gave up during his truncated bid for attorney general. Gaetz withdrew from consideration amid an outcry over investigations into his conduct even though he has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump said that Patronis had “been a wonderful friend to me,” even though Patronis did not endorse Trump in this year’s presidential race until after DeSantis withdrew from the primary.
“Should he decide to enter this Race, Jimmy Patronis has my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, JIMMY, RUN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s decision to back Patronis follows his public support of state Sen. Randy Fine for the congressional seat of another one of his picks in a second administration, Rep. Mike Waltz.
It comes at a key moment. Elected officials interested in running in the special election to pick Gaetz’s successor are required on Monday to submit their resign-to-run letters if they want to hold on to their seats while campaigning. Two state legislators had already said they planned to jump into the race, as has one local elected official.
If Patronis does run for Congress, it would fall to DeSantis to pick someone to fill his job until the 2026 elections. State Sen. Joe Gruters, a long-time ally of Trump who has clashed with DeSantis, has already said he is running for chief financial officer. The question is whether DeSantis will fill the job with someone who would be able to run against Gruters in two years.
Additionally, Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law, has expressed interest in being appointed to the Senate seat now held by Marco Rubio. Trump has nominated Rubio for secretary of state, and it will be up to DeSantis to decide who will hold that seat until the next round of elections in two years.
When asked about a congressional run on Friday, Patronis texted that he was discussing it with his family.
Patronis, whose family runs a famous restaurant in Panama City, has been the state’s chief financial officer, a statewide elected post, since being appointed to it in 2017 by then-Gov. Rick Scott. Patronis, who had been a legislator, had been a strong ally to Scott going back to his first run as governor when Patronis supported him over the GOP candidate backed by most of Florida’s Republican establishment.
Patronis does not live in Gaetz’s congressional district, but he is well known throughout the region.
This marks the second Florida congressional race that Trump has made his preference known. Over the weekend he put out a social media post urging Fine, the state senator, to run for the congressional seat in northeast Florida held by Waltz. Trump picked Waltz as his national security adviser.
Congress
Comer subpoenas Attorney General Pam Bondi over Epstein files
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a subpoena to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, demanding she testify before lawmakers over her handling of the Epstein files.
The move came after five Republicans on the committee joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-S.C.) motion to call on Bondi to testify earlier this month.
In a letter to Bondi, Comer wrote that “the Committee has questions regarding the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his associates” and its compliance with a law passed by Congress last year compelling the DOJ to release the documents.
“As Attorney General, you are directly responsible for overseeing the Department’s collection, review, and determinations regarding the release of files pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and the Committee therefore believes that you possess valuable insight into these efforts,” he wrote.
Comer’s committee has subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton and former first lady Hillary Clinton as a part of its ongoing investigation into Epstein, as well as other influential individuals named in the files.
Congress
House members to get classified briefing on expiring spy law
Trump administration officials will hold a classified briefing for House members Wednesday on the upcoming spy powers expiration, according to two people granted anonymity to announce the plans ahead of an announcement.
Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to hold a vote on an 18-month reauthorization of the surveillance authorities known as Section 702 next week, ahead of the April 20 expiration, but he’s facing down a potential rebellion from GOP hard-liners rebellion who want changes made to the spy law and to attach an unrelated elections bill.
House GOP leaders are arguing that the national security implications of the reauthorization are more important than ever given President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran and the threats posed by the widening war in the Middle East.
The briefing is set for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The 18-month extension is likely to come direct to the floor next week without action first in the House Intelligence Committee, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter and a brief interview with panel Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark).
“I don’t think we’ll mark it up,” Crawford said — a decision that could further exacerbate the internal tensions between party leaders and the hard-right lawmakers who oppose a clean extension.
Congress
Democrats deliver latest DHS funding offer to White House
Senate Democrats sent over their latest proposal for immigration enforcement changes at the Department of Homeland Security as a shutdown of the vast department drags into its second month.
The offer, confirmed by a White House official and two other people with knowledge of the matter, is the latest of several the two parties have traded since the funding lapse began Feb. 14. Little progress has been made since toward an agreement that would fund agencies including TSA, FEMA, ICE and the Coast Guard.
Democrats have vowed to block funding until the administration agrees to immigration enforcement changes in the wake of federal agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Democrats’ efforts to lop off immigration enforcement agencies and fund the rest of DHS.
The White House is “currently reviewing” the offer, the official said. But a top GOP aide immediately cast doubt of the seriousness of the proposal.
“It took 18 days for them to hit ‘Ctrl C’ and ‘Ctrl V,’” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X, referring to the copy-and-paste function on a personal computer.
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