| | | | |  | | By Robbie Gramer, Eric Bazail-Eimil and John Sakellariadis | |  On the Russia-Ukraine war, Marco Rubio gave the clearest sign yet that the incoming Trump administration doesn’t see Ukraine taking back all its territory from Russia before any peace deal. | Angelina Katsanis/POLITICO | With help from Josh Gerstein, Daniel Lippman and Nahal Toosi Subscribe here | Email Robbie | Email Eric It was hearing-palooza on Capitol Hill today, as a spate of President-elect DONALD TRUMP’s nominees faced Senate grilling on their path to confirmation. Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.), Trump’s secretary of state pick, JOHN RATCLIFFE, his nomination for CIA director and PAM BONDI, his choice for attorney general, all faced the gauntlet of hours of questioning from Senate committees. It was hard to track all of them for natsec news unless you were insane enough to stream multiple C-SPAN feeds simultaneously (we did). So here’s a cheat sheet to catch you up to speed: Rubio’s chummy welcome: Nobody had a smoother hearing than Rubio over in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (save for a few protesters who attempted to heckle before being escorted away). Both Democrats and Republicans praised Trump’s pick to be the chief U.S. diplomat, signaling he’ll likely have smooth sailing to confirmation, compared to other Trump nominees who face a steeper climb. Among the takeaways: Rubio offered the first indication that the Trump administration is fully behind the AUKUS pact focused on countering China militarily in the Indo-Pacific. He called the nuclear submarine and technology-sharing deal with the United Kingdom and Australia a “blueprint” for how to engage with other allies around the world in confronting U.S. adversaries. On the Russia-Ukraine war, Rubio gave the clearest sign yet that the incoming Trump administration doesn’t see Ukraine taking back all its territory from Russia before any peace deal. “The problem that Ukraine is facing is not that they are running out of money, it’s that they’re running out of Ukrainians,” Rubio said. “There’s a size differential here that’s important. Now what [Russian President] VLADIMIR PUTIN has done is unacceptable, there’s no doubt about it, but this war has to end.” Ratcliffe makes a promise that may be hard to keep: During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday morning, Ratcliffe beat back an array of largely friendly questions about his ability to stand independent of the President and speak truth to power — a task that could be hard given Trump’s longstanding claims that the intelligence community is biased against him. “Will you or any of your staff impose a political litmus test for CIA employees?” Sen. ANGUS KING (I-Maine) asked at one point. “No,” the former Texas congressman responded. Ratcliffe, who served as the director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, faced few tough moments in the hearing and appears to be on a glide path to confirmation. SSCI Chair Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the panel will vote on his confirmation “as soon as possible, most likely Monday afternoon.” Taking the fight to China: Another moment that stood out in the hearing, for our cyber wonks? Ratcliffe told the panel that he would ensure the spy agency develops more robust cyber weapons to go after China if he is confirmed, as our own JOHN SAKELLARIADIS reports (for Pros!). “I want us to have all of the tools necessary to go on offense against our adversaries in the cyber community,” Ratcliffe said. He added: “CIA has got to play a role in disrupting our adversaries’ technologies so they don’t get ahead of us.” Bondi dodges on 702, TikTok, foreign clients: While much of Bondi’s hearing for attorney general focused on Trump’s plans for the Justice Department, there was some key discussion on the renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and a controversial surveillance program referred to as Section 702, which allows the U.S. to collect foreign intelligence information from non-U.S. persons outside the United States. Bondi did not take a firm position on the surveillance program and how she’d approach it as America’s top prosecutor, but did say that "702’s a very important tool … extremely important." That view frustrated even some Republicans, including Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah), a strong advocate for restrictions on the program. She also dodged on whether she’d enforce a TikTok ban. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also dove into Bondi’s past work representing foreign governments. In her Senate questionnaire, Bondi disclosed that she represented the government of Qatar as a lobbyist after leaving the top prosecutor’s office in Tallahassee. Bondi said she was “very proud” to have represented Qatar ahead of the World Cup.
| | | GAZA CEASE-FIRE REACHED: A cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas is official, President JOE BIDEN and Qatari Prime Minister MOHAMMED BIN ABDULRAHMAN BIN JASSIM AL THANI announced today. As Eric and our own ELI STOKOLS and NAHAL TOOSI report, the short-term deal will see Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza over six weeks and hostages in Hamas captivity released during this time. There will be a surge in humanitarian aid into the enclave and a number of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli prisons will also be released. Over the next six weeks, Israel and Hamas will negotiate a permanent end to the fighting. Already, humanitarian groups and lawmakers on both sides are celebrating the six-week pause in fighting. Mercy Corps chief executive officer TJADA D’OYEN McKENNA said in a statement that “this agreement offers a long-awaited glimmer of hope to millions of Palestinians.” Yet D’Oyen McKenna emphasized that “the appalling suffering will persist until there is an urgent and sustained scale-up of vital aid and the unblocking of critical services, including water and fuel, in Gaza.” Others praised reports that Americans in Hamas captivity, including hostage KEITH SIEGEL, will soon be released. Sen. THOM TILLIS (R-N.C.) wrote on X: “So happy for his wife AVIVA — a released hostage herself – and his loving family. It is good to see the Biden Administration and Trump Transition working together to get this deal done.” CUBA POLICY CHANGE BACKLASH: Just a day after the Biden administration lifted Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism in exchange for a release of political prisoners, Republicans are signaling that the decision is not going to last. Former Trump officials questioned Biden’s eleventh-hour move. “It makes no sense. Truly,” said CARRIE FILIPETTI, a former Trump State Department official overseeing Western Hemisphere affairs policy. “It’ll incentivize more hostage-taking, more political prisoner-taking from other [state sponsors of terrorism] and require no actual good behavior to get them removed.” At his hearing, Rubio said he had “no doubt” Cuba remains a state sponsor of terrorism and suggested the Trump administration could reverse that decision. That said, incoming national security adviser Rep. MIKE WALTZ of Florida was more diplomatic about the situation. “Anything that they're doing right now we can do back, and no one should be under any illusion in terms of a change in Cuba policy,” he said in reaction to the news on Fox Tuesday. He added, however: “We don't like it, but again, if people are going free, then that's what it is for now.” Cuban American politicians are miffed, too. In a joint video, Reps. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, MARIO DIAZ BALART and CARLOS GIMENEZ, all Florida Republicans, slammed the Biden administration’s move. Salazar in particular had pushed Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN on the designation in a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “I thought it was not going to happen but it did, a week before President Trump is sworn into the White House,” she said. “But you know, Trump can reverse that the following week. So maybe the Cubans will have a very short party, and that is only a couple of weeks off of the list of terrorist countries.” Cuba, at most, offered muted words of praise for the move. It still accused the U.S. of pursuing a “genocidal and illegal economic suffocation policy against Cuba” and said the measures represent only “limited” steps to rectify the relationship. SHIFTING UKRAINE GOALPOSTS: Trump has vowed to end the war in Ukraine on “day one” of his new term, though it turns out it will likely take more time than that. As Reuters’ GRAM SLATTERY reports, advisers to Trump now concede that hashing out any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is likely months away. Senior Trump aides, including Trump’s Ukraine envoy KEITH KELLOGG, are now talking about a peace deal on the 100-day timeline. So, if we’re doing our math right, 99 days after Trump promised it. IT’S WEDNESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily! This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at rgramer@politico.com and ebazail@politico.com, and follow Robbie and Eric on X @RobbieGramer and @ebazaileimil. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s global security team: @dave_brown24, @HeidiVogt, @jessicameyers, @RosiePerper, @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @reporterjoe, @JackDetsch, @samuelskove, @magmill95, and @johnnysaks130
| | TRUMP’S LIKELY PICK FOR TOP CYBER ROLE: The Trump transition team is honing in on SEAN PLANKEY as its choice to be the next director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, as John and our own MAGGIE MILLER scooped today. Plankey, a senior cyber policy official from Trump’s first administration and a veteran of the Pennsylvania National Guard and U.S. Coast Guard, is firmly the leading contender to helm the Department of Homeland Security’s $3 billion cybersecurity agency. STATE DEPARTMENT RESIGNATIONS: Trump aides have asked three senior career diplomats to step down from top leadership posts at the State Department, as Reuters’ HUMEYRA PAMUK, SIMON LEWIS and GRAM SLATTERY scoop. The Trump team leading the State Department transition has asked DERECK HOGAN, executive secretary of the State Department, MARCIA BERNICAT, the director general of the Foreign Service and ALAINA TEPLITZ, the assistant secretary of state for administration, to step down. It’s renewed concerns from the first Trump administration that the incoming administration would target career diplomats who have served under both Democratic and Republican presidents and eye them with political suspicion.
| | MORE DETAILS ON CHINESE HACKS: And speaking of … CISA discovered Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon — which was recently linked to massive infiltrations of U.S. telecommunications providers — inside federal networks prior to understanding the scale of the group’s full campaign, as Maggie reports. The disclosure comes as the Biden administration and private sector are still assessing the fallout from the Salt Typhoon hack, which over the course of last year, infiltrated roughly 80 telecom companies in the U.S. and globally, compromising potentially millions of devices. “CISA threat hunters previously detected the same actors in U.S. government networks,” CISA Director JEN EASTERLY wrote in a blog post published on Wednesday.
| | GABBARD’S GAFFES: Former Hawaii member of Congress TULSI GABBARD is apparently making some flubs amid her Capitol Hill confirmation charm offensive. As The Wall Street Journal’s VIVIAN SALAMA reports, in different meetings with prominent Republicans, Gabbard couldn’t explain the function of the role of director of national intelligence. She also reportedly seemed confused about a key U.S. national security surveillance power in a meeting with undecided Sen. MIKE ROUNDS (R-S.D.). A transition official told the Journal that senators won’t be willing to cross Trump over his choice for director of national intelligence and risk getting challenged in primaries. They also pointed to a spate of successful meetings with Sens. JIM RISCH (R-Idaho) and JON OSSOFF (D-Ga.).
| | — MIKE CALCAGNI, the former deputy staff director for the House Intelligence Committee, has joined Anduril Industries as a director of government relations. — ALLIE BRANDENBURGER is now head of government relations, public affairs and communications at defense tech startup Deterrence, which just secured $10 million in seed funding. She is co-founder and CEO of TheBridge and has worked on presidential campaigns, on Capitol Hill, and in advocacy. — Startup satellite firm K2 Space has named former assistant secretary of defense for space policy JOHN PLUMB as its new head of strategy.
| | | — ANNE NEUBERGER, Foreign Affairs, Spy vs. AI — MARIA ABI-HABIB, The New York Times: Panama wants to preserve U.S. alliance, but Trump could push it closer to China — MICHAEL SCHUMAN, The Atlantic: No more Mr. Tough Guy on China
| | — Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 9 a.m.: A hearing on "Remain in Mexico" — Henry L. Stimson Center, 9:30 a.m.: The limits of influence: The challenge of translating security cooperation into leverage — Atlantic Council, 10 a.m.: The future of economic statecraft with deputy national security adviser DALEEP SINGH — Hudson Institute, 10 a.m.: An assessment of the U.S. nuclear enterprise — German Marshall Fund of the United States, 10 a.m.:"Bulgaria and the United States After the Elections: The Road Ahead." — U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 11 a.m.: A hybrid meeting on "China's approach to public diplomacy and utilizing the information space" to advance its objectives. — George Washington University, 1 p.m.: A forum on "The Future of U.S. Policy and the Indo-Pacific." — Cato Institute, 2:30 p.m.: Trump, Biden, and the future of U.S.-China policy Thanks to our editor, Rosie Perper, to whom we would not yield any extra time during her confirmation hearings. Thanks to our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, who would sail through confirmation with unanimous support. CORRECTION: NatSec Daily’s reporting on Hegseth’s financial disclosures on Monday cited a higher payment from the American Legislative Exchange Council based on information from the Trump transition team. The Trump transition confirmed it made a mistake and he was actually paid $15,000. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
