JUST IN: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to select his Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to be the next senator for the Buckeye State. Husted will take the seat vacated by JD Vance, who will be sworn in as vice president on Monday alongside President Donald Trump, who will serve his second term after a four year gap filled by the Biden administration.

DeWine had been rumored to be discussing the seat with former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramawamy, who ran against Trump in the primary before dropping out of the race and throwing his full support behind the 45th president.

Husted had been planning to run for governor in 2026 as DeWine's successor. Sources told Signal Statewide that Husted, however, is the likely choice for senate.
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BREAKING: Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to clear a critical hurdle on legislation that would require the detention of undocumented immigrants arrested for certain crimes.

The Senate Democrats who just voted to break the filibuster on the Laken Riley Act:

Cortez-Masto Gallego
Hassan Kelly
Ossoff Peters
Rosen Shaheen
Slotkin Warner

The Laken Riley Act is on track to be the first bill passed out of the 119th Congress, giving President-elect Trump an early victory on his top second-term priority.

The effort to position the legislation as the first Trump signs in his second term underscores how central immigration and border security will be for Republicans under the incoming administration.
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Netanyahu says he got "guarantees" on US backing for return to war if Hamas "sabotages" Gaza deal, source tells CNN

“There are guarantees from the Americans that if Hamas sabotages a certain stage of the deal, Israel can resume fighting,” the source cited Netanyahu as telling his ministers.

By day 16 of the 42-day ceasefire agreed to in Qatar, negotiators are expected to begin talks on phase two of the deal, which would see the release of all remaining hostages and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

“During the next six weeks, Israel will negotiate the necessary arrangements to get to phase two, which is a permanent end of the war,” US President Joe Biden said at the White House on Wednesday.

US officials agree that the way the deal is written doesn’t mean that the next phases are guaranteed. Should negotiations fail, they recognize that there’s a chance the war resumes but don’t see that as a foregone conclusion.
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NEW: President-elect Donald Trump, in a court filing Friday, urged the Georgia Supreme Court to keep Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the criminal election interference case against him.

The filing from Trump's attorneys, just days before Trump's inauguration, asked the court to uphold the appeals court ruling last month that disqualified Willis over her relationship with a prosecutor on the case.

Willis asked the Georgia Supreme Court earlier this month to reverse her disqualification.

Trump's lawyers argued in Friday's filing that the trial court fashioned an "inadequate legal remedy" by allowing Willis to remain on the case if the prosecutor Nathan Wade resigned, which he did following the ruling.
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President Trump’s inauguration is expected to be moved indoors on Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures forecasted for Washington, D.C., according to multiple sources familiar with the plans.

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BREAKING💥: CNN defamation trial: PANAMA CITY, Fla. Jury finds CNN guilty on all counts. Awards plaintiff Zachary Young $5 million in damages

The plaintiff, U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, alleged that CNN smeared him by implying he illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the Biden administration's military withdrawal from the country in 2021. Young believes CNN "destroyed his reputation and business" by branding him an illegal profiteer" who exploited "desperate Afghans" during a November 11, 2021, segment that first aired on CNN’s "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

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BUH-BYE: Education Secretary Miguel Cardona signed off Friday as the nation's top education official -- calling it his "dream job."

"To the students, families, educators, and education leaders I've served these last 4 years, I want to make it clear that while I will no longer be your Secretary of Education, I will still be your partner in all that we hope to achieve for America's students," Cardona wrote in a farewell post on X.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a longtime Democratic Party power player and former Senate majority leader, revealed his significant, behind-the-scenes role in persuading President Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

"If you run and you lose to Trump, and we lose the Senate, and we don’t get back the House, that 50 years of amazing, beautiful work goes out the window," Schumer told Biden in a private conversation at the president's Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, house, according to The New York Times. "But worse — you go down in American history as one of the darkest figures."

"If I were you," Schumer told the president, "I wouldn’t run, and I’m urging you not to run."

After Biden's disastrous debate performance against President-elect Trump in late June, Democratic Party heavyweights like Schumer and others began to discuss a campaign future with Biden. Schumer spoke directly with donors, telling them to wait and see what Biden would do.

But in private, Schumer was urging donors and allies to be quiet about their concern over Biden's age and ability to finish out the campaign, according to the Times.

"Do not be public," Schumer said. "That will get his back up, and you’ve got to let the dust settle. But if you can, call whoever you know in the campaign. Call the White House."
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Mic check 1, 2…

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