Summary
Donald Trump’s transition team has bypassed standard FBI background checks for key cabinet nominees, relying instead on private investigators, as reported by CNN.
This breaks decades-old norms meant to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Controversial appointees include Matt Gaetz (attorney general), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (health secretary), all facing scrutiny for past investigations, pro-Russian views, or personal admissions.
Critics argue Trump seeks to undermine traditional vetting, with potential security risks tied to bypassing these checks.
This breaks decades-old norms meant to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Come the fuck on. The FBI background checks are a “norm” too? Do we have actual laws for anything?
Gabbard is the biggest threat here, in my view.
You couldn’t dream of putting a spy in a better position than the DNI whose position is literally to oversee all intelligence agency silos.
Russia will know literally everything.
Trump is just putting a person between him and Putin this time around, Russia knew everything the first admin also. He hid meeting notes and visitor logs and nobody did shit, then the assholes voted him back in to finish selling us off because somehow that means “America First”.
This is how we know he takes our National Security VERY Seriously! Law and Order!
The Senate will allow this or not.
The senate:
🔘 Will allow this
⚪️ Will not
There are Republicans already encouraging the Senate to meet the 10-day recess necessary to allow Trump to circumvent the Senate with the Recess Appointments Clause. Which is Republicans using a rule in bad faith that was supposed to protect the process from the Senate using an excessive recess to prevent/delay a President from getting their picks vetted.
The Banana Republicans up to a good start.
Trump should just come clean and admit that he plans to betray Ukraine.
Moves to cut out the FBI appear to be in line with a pre-election memo drafted by his legal advisers and fits with Trump’s enduring suspicion that the agency is part of what, without evidence, he believes to be a “deep state” machine within the federal government bent on undermining him.
Trump administration does something obviously illegal and unethical
FBI: “Hey, that’s illegal, you can’t do that.”
Trump: “Look at this deep state organization trying to prevent me from doing my job”
I’ve needed FBI background checks for nearly every job I’ve ever had. If I need a background check to work in an elementary school, why don’t these people need it to handle our nation’s secrets?
don’t worry, DOGE will abolish the FBI, you’ll be able to work wherever you want!
What could go wrong?!
Potential security risks?
Jfc these idiots.
This all highlights how many loopholes and deficiencies there are in a system that prides itself so much on checks and balances.
No system of rules or laws can fully account for people acting in bad faith.
I think the founding fathers counted on social shame to limit bad faith actors in government. A dishonorable person used to become a social pariah and might even get killed in a duel back in the 18th century. People wouldn’t associate with them, sign a contract with them, or lend them money. But now?
Now they publish it on TikTok and collect likes and followers.
You obliquely touched on a pet theory of mine. We s a society have for decades now rallied against public shaming and bullying and that kind of thing, but I wonder if we’ve gone too far with it —antisocial behaviours are left to run unchecked, whereas 100 years ago these people would have been mercilessly mocked to their face every day. Without the fear of that public mockery and ridicule, we get this.
Trying to protect neurodivergent people unfortunately shelters bad behavior as well as benign. Yes, the antisocial guy trying to start fights and hurt animals would’ve been driven out of society, but so would the harmless kid who needs things to be arranged by the last letter of its name or something. I’ve got some idiosyncrasies that make certain aspects of “fitting in” require more effort than most, and I definitely felt the difference in attitude towards how I struggled as I got older. Another hard to control factor is that malicious people can game those same attitudes that help people who simply can’t understand why they are different.
Apparently the balance was supposed to be one person with good faith checking one without. Now we see what happens when every dumbass stands on the corrupt side of the balance.
he’d just overrule anyway like he did jared and a couple dozen others before.
Bypassed standard FBI background checks … to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Those are features, not bugs now. They know exactly who they picked.
Exactly, they don’t need the FBI to discover the things they already know about them. I would even say, those things are the reason why they were picked.
How much corruption can we take before he’s even installed? For real. This is way fucken nuttier than last time. It seems so malicious.
The 4 years of Trumpsanity isn’t starting in January, it’s starting right now. For fucks sake, I’m not ready yet. I need to start stockpiling popcorn and booze. Except this time I’ll probably need less popcorn and more booze because I don’t think it’s going to be as stupid funny as last time. It’s already not funny, it’s been nosediving into “could it get any worse?” and so far the answer has been “Yes!”.
It seems so malicious.
I guess he was being honest about all that revenge talk, eh? I mean, it is actively and onerously malicious, but just like last time, everyone’s just gonna let them steamroll them, because the federal government has long had hesitance to hold figures like presidents, senators, and supreme court justices to account, and this is just an extension of that.
I mean, we didn’t prosecute Bush and Cheney for war crimes. Hillary Clinton was proud of her friendship with Henry Kissinger. Kamala Harris was proud of her endorsement by Dick Cheney.
“It’s a big club and we ain’t in it,” but Trump and co. don’t feel the need to put up the facade anymore.
the federal government has long had hesitance to hold figures like presidents, senators, and supreme court justices to account, and this is just an extension of that.
Because if they start holding others in similar offices to account, they might have to hold themselves as well, and that ain’t happening.
“It’s a big club and we ain’t in it,” but Trump and co. don’t feel the need to put up the facade anymore.
Bingo. Instead of “hiring” (paying off) politicians, they’re just doing it themselves. They’ve lost any and all care about keeping up appearances. After all, what are we going to do? Sue them?
We will take whatever he gives. The US voters approved him. They want this. They chose this, and everything that comes from it.
This. There is no authority above the authoritarian. His word is law now. Whatever Our Glorious Cheeto wishes is now US doctrine.
Void help us all.
Thats not true. There are at least 71 million people here who voted against it. Thats a lot of people.
He won the popular vote, and the electoral college. Majority rules. (Unfortunately)
When you can’t drain the swamp, stuff the swamp with more swamp until unlimited swamp.
