Friday morning news: January 24, 2025

Trump executive declassification orders » President Trump welcomed reporters into the Oval Office with another stack of executive orders piled on the Resolute Desk.

One of those orders will declassify federal records related to a trio of major assassinations in the 1960s.

TRUMP: That’s a big one, huh?! A lot have been waiting for this for years, for decades.

The order pertains to the killings of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.

TRUMP: And everything will be revealed.

Most of the records related to President Kennedy’s assassination were previously declassified.

Trump pardons pro-life demonstrators » Pro-life groups are celebrating another order the president signed on Thursday.

AIDE: Next we have a set of pardons for peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights.

TRUMP: They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this.

The president’s order pardons 23 pro-life demonstrators who were prosecuted under the FACE Act. That is a Clinton-era law that makes it a federal crime to obstruct the entrances of operations of an abortion facility.

That news comes ahead of today’s annual March for Life rally in the nation’s capital. President Trump is expected to address the crowd in a video message.

House passes Born-Alive Protection Act » Meanwhile, at the Capitol …

AUDIO: On this vote, the yeas are 217, and the nays are 204, with one answer present. The bill is passed.

The House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. As the name suggests, the bill mandates that any infant who survives an attempted abortion must receive immediate medical attention.

But the bill will almost certainly perish in the Senate where Republicans lack the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Democrats already struck down a similar companion bill earlier this week.

Confirmation proceedings in Senate » Meanwhile in the Senate Chamber … 

Senators voted on President Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, John Ratcliffe.

AUDIO: The yeas are 74, the nays are 25. The nomination is confirmed.

Ratcliffe served as Director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term. He’s also a former member of Congress.

The Senate also advanced the nomination of Defense Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth. The vote was largely down party lines with two Republicans opposed. A final confirmation vote for Hegseth is expected today.

Judge blocks Trump birthright order » President Trump, after signing those executive orders reacted to news that a federal judge had temporarily blocked an order that he signed earlier this week. That order seeks to reinterpret birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.

TRUMP: Obviously we’ll appeal it. They put it before a certain judge, in Seattle, I guess, right? And there’s no surprises with that judge.

Under the president’s order, a child born to a mother in the country illegally would not necessarily be considered a US citizen. More than 20 states sued over that order. Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown:

BROWN: I think what the order today reinforces is that no one individual, not only, not even the President of the United States, can simply erase what it means to amend the Constitution and the process they're in.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued the order. The case is one of five pending lawsuits over the order.

Trump and Rutte on Ukraine war deal » President Trump says he’s pressing the leaders of OPEC-plus to lower the global cost of oil to help put pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. Russia’s economy depends heavily on revenue from the sale of fossil fuels.

And Trump added:

TRUMP: I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended.

But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says says the West must be careful not to be over-anxious to end it.

RUTTE:  If we get a bad deal, it would only mean that, uh, we will see the president of Russia high fiving with the leaders of North Korea, Iran, and China, and we cannot accept that.

Rutte said the cost of ending the war on Russia’s terms would be even greater than the present wages of the war itself.

California fires » As firefighters continue to battle wildfires raging across California Governor Gavin Newsom says more money is headed their way.

NEWSOM: With that, I'm honored—thank you—to sign these two bills appropriating two-and-a-half billion dollars, effective immediately, to the communities affected by these wildfires. 

Newsom signed the bill allocating state money for disaster aid on Thursday. The funds come as wildfires have already killed at least 28 people and burned more than 40,000 acres in the southern part of the state since they were sparked more than two weeks ago.

Authorities are dealing with two new fires. One of those, the Hughes fire had already burned more than 10,000 acres as of last night.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Katie McCoy is back for Culture Friday. Plus, your listener feedback for the month of January.

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