Canada remembers Murray Sinclair, trailblazing Indigenous judge and senator
Relatives, friends and leaders say Sinclair, who died this week aged 73, and his legacy will ‘never be forgotten’. Canada has held a national memorial for Murray Sinclair, a trailblazing Indigenous judge and senator who led the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission into abuses committed against Indigenous children at residential schools. The public event on Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg, in central Canada, came days after Sinclair passed away on November 4 at age 73. “Few people have shaped this country in the way that my father has, and few people can say they changed the course of this country the way that my father had – to put us on a better path,” his son Niigaan Sinclair said at the start of the memorial. “All of us: Indigenous, Canadians, newcomers, every person whether you are new to this place or whether you have been here since time immemorial, from the beginning, all of us have been touched by him in some way.” Sinclair, an Anishinaabe lawyer and senator and a member of the Peguis First Nation, was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and the second-ever in Canada. As chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Sinclair organised hundreds of hearings across Canada to hear directly from survivors of the country’s residential school system. Caring Society statement on the Passing of the Honourable Murray Sinclair. pic.twitter.com/inhhyamNKt — First Nations Child & Family Caring Society (@CaringSociety) November 4, 2024 From the late 1800s until 1996, Canada forcibly removed an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and forced them to attend the institutions. They were made to cut their hair, forbidden from speaking their native language, and many were physically and sexually abused. “The residential school system established for Canada’s Indigenous population in the nineteenth century is one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history,” Sinclair wrote in the TRC’s final report. “It is clear that residential schools were a key component of a Canadian government policy of cultural genocide.” Mary Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, described Sinclair during Sunday’s memorial as “the voice of truth, justice and healing”. She said he had “a heart brave enough to expose injustices, yet generous enough to make everyone around him feel welcome and important”. Other Indigenous community leaders and advocates across Canada also have spent the past week remembering Sinclair for his unwavering commitment to confronting the systemic racism faced by Indigenous people. “One of the greatest insights he shared is that reconciliation is not a task to be done by Survivors. True reconciliation, he said, must include institutional change,” Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) in northern Ontario, said in a statement after Sinclair’s death. Sinclair speaks at a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada event in 2015 [Blair Gable/Reuters] “Reconciliation, he taught us, is ours to achieve,” Fiddler said. “The work ahead of us is difficult, but we share his belief that we owe it to each other to build a country based on a shared future of healing and trust. Murray encouraged us to walk the path towards reconciliation. Accepting this responsibility is a fitting way to honour his legacy.” Pam Palmater, chair of Indigenous governance at Toronto Metropolitan University, said Sinclair was someone who “never stopped educating Canadians … and making sure we never forget”. In an interview with CBC News on Sunday, Palmater noted that Sinclair “didn’t just conduct the TRC”; he was involved in many other initiatives, including an inquiry into child deaths in Manitoba and an investigation into the police department in Thunder Bay, Ontario. “He’s never going to be forgotten. He’s one of those people where his legacy lives on,” Palmater said. “His impact is going to be felt for many decades to come.” Adblock test (Why?)
Haiti’s transitional council moves to replace PM in contentious move
Council sets out to replace interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, marking more political turmoil and instability. A transitional council tasked with re-establishing democratic order in Haiti has signed a decree sacking interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, in a contentious move that highlights deepening political turmoil in the Caribbean nation. The decree, seen by The Associated Press, Reuters and AFP news agencies and set to be published on Monday, sets out to replace Conille with Alix Didier Fils-Aime, a businessman previously considered for the job. The nine-member council, which was formed in April to try to help Haiti chart a path forward amid surging gang violence and years of instability, appointed Conille as prime minister in May. But the council has been plagued by infighting and has long been at loggerheads with the prime minister, a longtime civil servant who previously worked with the United Nations. The Miami Herald reported that Conille and Leslie Voltaire, who leads the council, are at odds over a cabinet reshuffling and the removal of three council members named in a bribery scandal. Last month, anticorruption investigators accused those three council members of demanding $750,000 in bribes from a government bank director to secure his job. The report was a significant blow to the council and is expected to further erode public trust in it. The three members accused of bribery – Smith Augustin, Emmanuel Vertilaire and Louis Gerald Gilles – were among those to sign Sunday’s decree. Only one member of the council, Edgard Leblanc Fils, did not sign the order. Still, there are “divergent views” on whether the transitional council – whose members represent various political and civil society groups – has the power to remove Conille, the Miami Herald reported. “Constitutionally, only the Haitian Parliament can fire a prime minister, and presidents in the past have done so through political maneuvering by getting supporters in one of the two chambers of government,” the newspaper explained. “Haiti, however, is in the throes of a constitutional crisis where there is no Parliament and no democratically elected leader in the entire country.” The political turmoil comes as Haiti continues to reel from widespread gang violence, with armed groups exerting control over 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s John Holman noted that a multinational, UN-backed policing mission in Haiti – deployed earlier this year and led by Kenya – “doesn’t seem to have made a dent” in the power of the armed groups. The gangs routinely use murder, kidnappings and sexual violence in their fight for control of territory across Port-au-Prince and other parts of the country. “It seems that the gangs are as powerful as ever right now,” Holman said. Last month, the UN warned that nearly half of all Haitians – some 5.41 million people – were experiencing acute food insecurity as a result of the violence. More than 700,000 people, more than half of whom are children, have been displaced from their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration. Adblock test (Why?)
Earthquake rocks Cuba as residents struggle to recover from recent storms
Officials say efforts to assess damage are under way after 6.8-magnitude earthquake hits eastern Cuba. A powerful earthquake has hit eastern Cuba, adding more problems to a country still reeling from a series of recent storms and blackouts. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Sunday that a magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit about 40km (25 miles) south of the town of Bartolome Maso. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far. “There have been landslides, damage to homes and power lines,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said in a social media post, adding that the areas of Santiago de Cuba and Granma were affected. “We are beginning to assess the damage in order to begin recovery. The first and most important thing is to save lives,” he said. People in affected provinces have said the earthquake was one of the most powerful they have felt in their lives – no small feat in an area that the USGS says has experienced 23 earthquakes of magnitude 5 and above in the last 50 years. “We’ve felt earthquakes in the past, but nothing like this,” Santiago resident Griselda Fernandez told the Reuters news agency. Other residents in Santiago, Cuba’s second-largest city, reported that the quake caused buildings to shake and that many people were still standing nervously in their doorways. “You had to see how everything was moving, the walls, everything,” Yolanda Tabio, a 76-year-old in the city, told The Associated Press. Many of the region’s homes and buildings are older and vulnerable to earthquake damage. State-run media published images of terracota roofs and facades of concrete block homes that had collapsed with the shake. Many images showed structural damage to ceilings, walls, windows columns as well as to public infrastructure. The USGS said that nearby countries such as Jamaica also felt some effects. The tremor is the latest in a series of natural disasters that have compounded existing infrastructure problems in Cuba, where large swaths of the population also face economic insecurity. In October, Hurricane Oscar brought heavy rains and widespread power outages to the island and left at least six people dead after making landfall in eastern Cuba. Another storm, Hurricane Rafael, knocked out power for at least 10 million people after slamming into the eastern part of the island last week. The storm uprooted trees and knocked down telephone poles. Hundreds of buildings were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people were displaced. Adblock test (Why?)
Maharashtra polls: Congress suspends seven more rebel candidates
The newly suspended leaders include — Shamkant Saner, Rajendra Thakur, Aba Bagul, Manish Anand, Suresh Kumar Jethliya, Kalyan Borade, and Chandrapaul Chauksey.
Biden to lobby Trump not to abandon Ukraine during upcoming meeting
President Biden will urge President-elect Trump to not abandon Ukraine when the two meet on Wednesday, among other domestic and foreign policies, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Sunday. On Tuesday, Trump defeated Vice President Harris in the presidential election, and he will take office on Jan. 20, 2025. After Trump won his way back into the Oval Office, Biden congratulated him and invited the 45th, and soon to be 47th, president of the United States to the White House to ensure a peaceful transition of power. The two are expected to meet this Wednesday. On Sunday, Sullivan was a guest on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” where he said Biden’s top message would be ensuring his commitment to a peaceful transfer of power. Sullivan also said the president will talk to Trump about what is happening around the world in places like Europe, Asia and the Middle East. “The president will have the chance to explain to President Trump how he sees things, where they stand and talk to President Trump about how President Trump is thinking about taking on these issues when he takes office,” Sullivan said. “President Biden made clear when [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy was here in Washington a couple of months ago that we would spend all of the resources that were provided to us by the Congress on time and in full, meaning that by Jan. 20th we will have sent the full amount of resources and aid to Ukraine that Congress has authorized.” DEMOCRATS LOOKING TO POINT FINGERS AFTER ‘HUMILIATING’ ELECTION DEFEAT SHOULD START WITH MEDIA: WSJ COLUMNIST He continued by saying that over the next 70 days, Biden will make the case to Congress and the incoming administration that the U.S. should not walk away from Ukraine, because walking away “means more instability in Europe.” “Ultimately, as the Japanese prime minister said, if we walk away from Ukraine in Europe, the question about America’s commitment to our allies in Asia will grow,” Sullivan said. He would not say if Biden would propose specific legislation, but he explained that the president would make the case to continue sending resources to Ukraine beyond his term because Russia’s threat to Ukraine will remain. PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP TO MEET BIDEN IN OVAL OFFICE WEDNESDAY “The United States should not walk away from its commitment either to Ukraine or to the 50 nations that we have rallied in defense of Ukraine, in both Europe and Asia,” Sullivan said. The national security adviser’s comments came as Ukraine launched an attack on Moscow with at least 34 drones on Sunday. The attack was the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war. Trump has insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if he were in the White House at the time. He also told Reuters that Ukraine may have to cede territory in order to reach a peace agreement, which Ukraine rejects and Biden has never suggested. TRUMP TEAM REACTS TO REPORT PRESIDENT-ELECT TOLD RUSSIA’S PUTIN NOT TO ESCALATE WAR WITH UKRAINE Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military and economic aid to Ukraine since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022, funding that Trump has repeatedly criticized and rallied against with other Republican lawmakers. According to the Government Accountability Office, Congress appropriated over $174 billion to Ukraine under Biden. The pace of aid is almost sure to drop under Trump, with Republicans set to take control of the U.S. Senate with a 52-seat majority. The war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow’s forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war. Any fresh attempt to end the war is likely to involve peace talks of some kind, which have not been held since the early months of the war. Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukraine. Russia says the war cannot end until its claimed annexations are recognized. Kyiv demands all of its territory back, a position that has largely been supported by Western allies. Reuters contributed to this report.
Trump spends time golfing with grandkids at Mar-a-Lago after landslide election victory
President-elect Trump has been winding down from the recent election on the golf course, pictures show. Kai Trump, the 17-year-old daughter of Donald Trump, Jr., made an Instagram post sharing recent pictures with her grandfather on Sunday. “Sundays with Grandpa,” the proud granddaughter captioned the post, adding a heart. The post featured a selfie Kai Trump shared with the president-elect, along with videos she took on the golf course and a picture with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Musk appeared to be with his 4-year-old son in one of the photos. The child, whose name is X, was originally named X Æ A-12 when he was born in 2020. FORMER GEORGIA SENATOR KELLY LOEFFLER TO SERVE ON TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE Chloe Trump, 10, was also photographed on the golf course with her grandfather. In one clip, the president-elect was seen watching Kai Trump from a golf cart while “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John was blasting in the background. The pictures were shared days after Trump decisively won the 2024 presidential election race held on Nov. 5. On Saturday night, The Associated Press called Arizona in Trump’s favor, ending the electoral vote count for the 2024 presidential election. NEW YORK DEMOCRAT RIPS ‘FAR LEFT’ FOR TRUMP VICTORY: ‘IVORY-TOWERED NONSENSE’ Trump garnered 312 electoral votes, dwarfing his opponent, Vice President Harris. The Democratic candidate lost all seven battleground states and only collected 226 electoral votes. The Republican leader is currently selecting his Cabinet and determining who will serve in his second administration. Trump is also expected to meet President Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday. On Saturday, Trump announced on Truth Social that he would not be inviting two members of his former administration to the White House. “I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” the president-elect said. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Dem Party blame game: Accusations fly as to who is responsible for Harris’ massive loss to Trump
The Democratic blame game is at a fever pitch after Vice President Kamala Harris was swiftly defeated by President-elect Donald Trump at the ballot box in an election that had been anticipated to drag out for days as polling indicated the match-up was razor-thin. Trump sailed to victory in the early morning hours last Wednesday, after locking down key battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and Georgia and clearing 270 electoral votes. He concluded the race with 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226, and won the popular vote. In the final days of the campaigning cycle, polling indicated that the results for the election would likely be very close, which could have resulted in state recounts and lawsuits before the winner was announced. Following Trump’s clear victory, Democrats across the nation issued statements accepting the results and congratulating the president. Fallout from the devastating loss, however, has reverberated across the party as members point fingers at each other for the Trump win. 5 MISTAKES THAT DOOMED KAMALA HARRIS’ CAMPAIGN AGAINST TRUMP Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pinned blame for the loss on the Democratic Party for “abandoning” the working class, sparking rebuke from former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” Sanders posted to X last week, accompanied by a press release on the election results. “And they’re right.” NANCY PELOSI FIRES BACK AT BERNIE SANDERS FOR COMMENTS ON DEMS’ SWEEPING ELECTION LOSS: NO ‘RESPECT’ Pelosi responded that the party has not left the working class behind in favor of kowtowing to “big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party,” as Sanders had argued in his press release. “With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him [Sanders], for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families. That’s where we are,” Pelosi told The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast on Saturday. “Under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, the shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work. What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America,” she continued. Sanders doubled down on his remarks Sunday, telling NBC’s Kristen Welker that “the working people of this country are extremely angry.” “Nancy is a friend of mine,” Sanders said. “But here is the reality. In the Senate in the last two years, we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour.” SANDERS DOUBLES DOWN ON HIS CRITICISM OF DEMOCRATS, FIRES BACK AT PELOSI’S PUSHBACK “Bottom line, if you’re a working person out there, do you really think that the Democratic Party is going to the max, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? I think the overwhelming answer is no,” Sanders said. The Harris campaign and Biden campaign have reportedly pinned blame for the loss on each other, Axios reported last week. “The 107-day Harris campaign was nearly flawless. The Biden campaign that preceded it was the opposite,” one Harris campaign member told the outlet. “We did what we could. I think the odds against us were insurmountable,” another individual involved with the Harris campaign said, referring to President Biden’s exit from the presidential race in July and his low approval ratings. Biden dropped out of the race over the summer following his disastrous debate performance against Trump, where he frequently lost his train of thought and stumbled over his words. The debate opened the floodgates to both conservatives and traditional Democrat allies calling on the president to pass the torch to a younger generation as concerns mounted surrounding his mental acuity and his age. THE ‘SQUAD,’ WARREN AND SANDERS AMONG PROMINENT POLITICAL FIGURES WHO CRUISED TO RE-ELECTION VICTORIES Many of those who worked on the Biden campaign also joined the Harris campaign following the president’s endorsement of his VP to take up the mantle as Democratic presidential candidate. A person who worked on the Biden campaign shot back in comment to Axios that the Harris team was to blame: “How did you spend $1 billion and not win? What the f—?” “The Harris team benched [Biden], and then they lost, so now the people who represent Biden are saying, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t have benched him,’” another person familiar with the dynamics between the teams said. White House spokesman Andrew Bates told the outlet, “Anyone criticizing the vice president’s campaign is at odds with President Biden.” Pelosi appeared to pin blame for the loss on the president, claiming that Biden had dropped out of the race too late in the game and that that hadn’t provided an opportunity for an open primary. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” she told the New York Times podcast. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” Pelosi continued. “. . . Because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.” TRUMP WINS ARIZONA TO SWEEP SWING STATES AND SECURE 312 TOTAL ELECTORAL VOTES Biden dropped out of the presidential race on a Sunday afternoon in July via a social media post. He endorsed Harris minutes later in a follow-up X post, sparking other Democrats to rally around the VP. Pelosi did defend Biden in June, when the Wall Street Journal ran an article doubting Biden’s mental fitness as president. ”Many of us spent time
Trump team reacts to report president-elect told Russia’s Putin not to escalate war with Ukraine
President-elect Trump’s transition team would not confirm or deny that the 2024 election victor told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war with Ukraine during a call last week. The Washington Post reported that Putin and Trump spoke on Thursday, marking the first conversation between the two leaders since Trump won his way back into the Oval Office last Tuesday. Trump reportedly took the call from Florida and advised Putin to not escalate the war in Ukraine. The president-elect also reminded Russia’s president about the amount of U.S. military in Europe, a person familiar with the call who spoke on anonymity told the publication. Additionally, the two men talked about peace being the goal in Europe, while Trump also expressed a desire for further talks on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several sources told The Post. ELON MUSK JOINS DONALD TRUMP IN ‘VERY GOOD CALL’ WITH UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY When asked by Fox News for comment about the report, Trump’s team released the following statement: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders,” Trump communication’s director, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. “President Trump won a historic election decisively and leaders from around the world know America will return to prominence on the world stage. That is why leaders have begun the process of developing stronger relationships with the 45th and 47th President because he represents global peace and stability.” The statement comes just two days after a senior Ukrainian official confirmed to Fox News that billionaire Elon Musk joined a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday. ELON MUSK REVEALS HIS POLITICAL PAC’S FUTURE AMID TIGHT PRESIDENTIAL RACE Musk’s unexpected appearance during the first official conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy may point to the SpaceX CEO’s influence on the incoming Trump administration. “I had an excellent call with President Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory — his tremendous campaign made this result possible,” Zelenskyy posted on X. Details of Musk’s exact role were not disclosed, according to reporting from Axios, though sources reported Musk expressed his intent to continue supporting Ukraine through his Starlink satellite network, a service critical to Ukraine’s wartime communications. UKRAINE, NORTH KOREAN TROOPS CLASH FOR FIRST TIME; ZELENSKYY WARNS OF ESCALATION Throughout his campaign, Trump voiced skepticism about continued U.S. aid to Ukraine and emphasized a fast resolution to its conflict with Russia, which raised concerns across Europe. Trump assured Zelenskyy of support on the 25-minute call, but he did not provide specifics on either policies or military aid. Axios first reported Musk’s presence on the call, and Musk has not yet commented. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The phone call is expected to be the first of many between Trump’s team and Zelenskyy’s advisers as both sides navigate America’s involvement in the ongoing conflict. Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
Harris paid Oprah $1 million in failed bid to help campaign: report
Vice President Kamala Harris paid Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million, just one example of millions the campaign spent on various entertainers during the vice president’s failed bid for president. The Harris campaign paid $1 million to Winfrey’s company on October 15, according to a report in the Washington Examiner, coming after a star-studded town hall that Winfrey hosted for the vice president in September. Winfrey also appeared at Harris’ final rally in Philadelphia on the eve of Election Day, with the talk-show star offering a rare endorsement of a presidential candidate. HARRIS CAMPAIGN REPORTEDLY SPENT 6 FIGURES ON ‘CALL HER DADDY’ PODCAST WITH FEWER THAN 1 MILLION YOUTUBE VIEWS “We’re voting for values and integrity,” Winfrey said at the rally. “We’re voting for healing over hate.” But Winfrey wasn’t the only star the Harris campaign spent big money on, with the Washington Examiner report also revealing that the campaign spent big on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “A source familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that the Harris campaign spent six figures on building a set for Harris’s appearance on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper,” the Examiner wrote. “The interview came out in October and was reportedly filmed in a hotel room in Washington, D.C.” HARRIS CAMPAIGN AND ALLIES SPENT MORE THAN $1.4B ON POLITICAL ADS IN LOSING RACE AGAINST TRUMP The campaign also spent up to $20 million on swing state concerns on the eve of the election, according to a report in the New York Post, a sum that could have been more if a planned performance by Alanis Morissette had not been scrapped. The campaign had seven swing-state concerts on Monday, the report noted, including performances by Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh and Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, and a 2 Chainz performance at a rally three days before the election in Atlanta. “Money can’t buy you love or a good candidate,” Republican political strategist Brad Todd told the Examiner, with regard to the massive spending. “Advertising is a pretty important source of information for swing voters,” Todd said. “It no doubt matters, but it’s not enough. It doesn’t matter if you have the wrong message and it’s not delivered in a compelling way. What her campaign was missing was any effort to break with the unpopular administration she has been a part of.” The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Elon Musk endorses Rick Scott for Senate majority leader
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday endorsed lawmaker Rick Scott for Senate majority leader, joining a growing list of MAGA figures who are throwing their support behind the Florida Republican. “Rick Scott for Senate Majority Leader!” Musk wrote in a post on X Sunday afternoon, days after Republicans won back control of the Senate on Election Day. Musk’s post came in response to a post from Scott, who was responding to President-elect Trump’s demand that “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.” “100% agree,” Scott responded. “I will do whatever it takes to get your nominations through as quickly as possible.” SCOTT TOUTS ‘DEAL GUY’ BACKGROUND IN BID FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER SEN. JOSH HAWLEY ‘DELIGHTED’ TO BACK SEN. JOHN CORNYN FOR SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Musk is the latest Trump-ally calling for Scott to be the Senate GOP leader. Scott’s senate Republican colleagues, including Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Rand Paul of Kentucky have each pledged to vote for Scott. Scott, whose bid for the position is seen as a long shot by some observers, is up against fellow Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, and John Thune of South Dakota for the job McConnell has held since 2007. Scott has expressed hope that Trump will publicly endorse his bid for the top job, though some reports have indicated the president-elect has been hesitant to weigh in on the race. Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.