Politics

Why the co-chair of Trump’s transition team is raising eyebrows

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

Why the co-chair of Trump’s transition team is raising eyebrows

In mid-August, Donald Trump released the names of a five-member transition team, which would be responsible for helping make post-election plans in the event that he wins. The list generated headlines because of the former president’s willingness to keep matters within the family: Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were part of the lineup, despite their lack of qualifications, which struck many observers as odd.

But the one person on the five-member transition team with the lowest public profile was Howard Lutnick, the CEO of a financial services firm called Cantor Fitzgerald. While the billionaire megadonor is certainly known on Wall Street, it’s likely that most Americans are not familiar with him or his message.

That might soon change.

Over the weekend, for example, Lutnick spoke to NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard and suggested that some of Trump’s high-profile critics from his own former team — including retired Gens. John Kelly and James Mattis — might’ve committed “treason” during their tenure in the administration. Lutnick added that they were “Democrat [sic] generals.”

Soon after, the billionaire spoke at Trump’s hate-filled Madison Square Garden event, where he talked about eliminating all income taxes and touted Trump’s candidacy as necessary to “crush jihad.” (Presumably, the Republican campaign, already hoping Muslim voters will overlook Trump’s years of ugly Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslim Americans, didn’t welcome the rhetoric.)

Common sense might’ve suggested that the Trump campaign keep Lutnick away from microphones for a while, but with just days remaining before Election Day 2024, the co-chair of Trump’s transition team instead appeared on BLN — and the interview didn’t go especially well. Newsweek reported:

Donald Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick questioned the safety of vaccines while speaking with BLN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday night. ‘Vaccines are safe,’ Collins said, while talking about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s self-reported possibility of being ‘promised’ by the former president to head the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture if Trump wins the 2024 election. ‘Why do you think vaccines are safe,’ Lutnick shot back, adding, ‘there’s no product liability anymore.’

As part of the same exchange, Lutnick added that he knows “so many more people” now that have autism, prompting the BLN host to emphasize the reality that “vaccines don’t cause autism.”

Wait, it gets worse.

Failed independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed this week that he received a promise from Trump about a role in his possible second term. As my BLN colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted, the fringe conspiracy theorist expects to have control of both the U.S. Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services and the agencies under its purview, which include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Given Kennedy’s bizarre ideas and worldview, that’s a rather terrifying prospect — even Trump’s former surgeon general is concerned — though Lutnick defended the idea.

“[Kennedy] wants the data, so he can say, ‘These things are unsafe,’” the billionaire megadonor argued during his BLN appearance. “He says, ‘If you give me the data, all I want is the data, and I’ll take on the data and show that it’s not safe. And then if you pull the product liability, the companies will yank these vaccines right off, off of the market.’ So, that’s his point.”

That’s the plan? Trump will put an unqualified conspiracy theorist in a position of enormous power, and that — according to the handpicked co-chair of Trump’s transition team — might lead to vaccines being pulled from pharmacy shelves?

This is, as New York magazine’s Jon Chait noted, “a glimpse into a public-health nightmare.”

Every day, the stakes in the 2024 presidential race get higher.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

Politics

Trump-backed Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona’s battleground 1st District

Published

16 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely cruised to victory in Arizona’s 1st District on Tuesday, one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

Feely, a close ally of President Donald Trump, leveraged Trump’s endorsement to topple former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik.

He’ll face a steep challenge defeating the Democratic nominee in November: The 1st District, which spans the affluent suburbs north of Phoenix, is one of House Democrats’ top targets after Trump won it by just three points in 2024. Feely is looking to keep the seat under GOP control amid a midterm year that presents major headwinds for the party.

Politics

Rep. Andy Biggs wins GOP primary for Arizona governor

Published

16 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs has won the GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November, setting up a marquee governor’s race in one of America’s most competitive states.

Biggs, a former chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of President Donald Trump, easily dealt with his only serious challenger, Rep. David Schweikert, on Tuesday. Before the primary results were official, he had already begun pivoting to the general election against Hobbs, who is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democratic governors this fall.

Republicans feel bullish about their odds of flipping the governorship, after Trump carried the state by five points in 2024. But even though Trump won last time, the state has gradually shifted to pure tossup territory over the past few years, electing Democrats to both Senate seats, as well as the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices.

Hobbs had already shifted her focus to Biggs as well. Her campaign has amassed a significant warchest for the race and has already started running ads. Biggs, given his lack of a significant primary challenge, has been able to hold onto more cash than his GOP rivals, but is still behind Hobbs.

The race will test whether Republicans, who are starting down a potentially bruising midterm cycle, can reclaim the top office of a state that has long been a place of success for the party.

During the Republican primary debate, Biggs spent more time talking about his working relationship with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly than he did flexing his endorsement from Trump or highlighting his House record, including his time atop the Freedom Caucus. Instead, he tried to refocus on his bipartisanship in Congress and his leadership in the state legislature.

“I know how to reach across the aisle,” Biggs said during the debate.

But he will still have to contend with many of his past stances, including his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And Hobbs is already working to ensure voters know where Biggs stands on key issues as a longtime member of the House, including his anti-abortion positions and his role in 2020. Her campaign has repeatedly attacked him as “too extreme” for the state and has dubbed him “basement Biggs” for keeping a relatively low profile throughout the GOP primary.

Politics

Trump-backed Mark Lamb wins Arizona House primary despite sex scandals

Published

16 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A scandal-plagued House candidate powered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement won a messy primary Tuesday.

Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, overcame a late push from self-funding candidate Daniel Keenan in Arizona’s 5th District. Lamb will enter November as the heavy frontrunner in the deep-red Phoenix-area district to replace Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running for governor.

Keenan had poured nearly $2 million of his own cash into the campaign and attempted to make Lamb’s alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of power central to the race. Lamb has denied the allegations.

But Lamb — bolstered by Trump and Arizona-based Turning Point USA — managed to ward off the attacks.

The race’s outcome reveals the strength of Trump’s endorsement, and it’s the latest example of how willing GOP primary voters have been to accept scandal-ridden candidates favored by the president.

Lamb, who served as sheriff until 2024, earned national notoriety as a gun-toting critic of the Biden administration’s immigration and border policy. He secured Trump’s backing for the 5th District contest last year.

Then in May, the Arizona Republic launched a multi-part investigation alleging that Lamb engaged in a yearslong pattern of sending sexual images and instigating intimate encounters between him, his wife and others. One woman involved, Jillian Stannard, accused Lamb of encouraging her husband to have sex with other women, including Lamb’s wife. She also alleged that Lamb threatened her, saying there would be consequences, when Stannard raised concerns to religious leaders.

Screenshots the Republic obtained of messages with another woman, Tammy Peacock, suggest Lamb — then a sitting county sheriff — threatened to leverage Arizona’s revenge porn law against her.

In a statement last week, Lamb spokesperson Ed Morabito told Blue Light News that “these allegations are false and come from long-discredited political opponents.”

Lamb did not lose any significant endorsements in the wake of the scandals — Trump reinforced his endorsement in mid-July — even as Keenan made the allegations central to his campaign.