West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin may be putting his weight behind Democrats’ final push to approve Joe Biden’s pending judicial nominees.

Earlier this year, Manchin had pledged that he would not back any Biden-nominated judge who did not have at least one vote of GOP support. But now it seems Manchin is finally ready to play ball with the rest of the Democrats.

“We’re in different times right now,” Manchin told Axios when asked about his past promise to reject Biden’s nominees. He added that “my Republican friends are under the microscope.”

Manchin previously claimed his objection was in the name of bipartisanship.

“Just one Republican. That’s all I’m asking for,” he said during a March interview with Politico. “Give me something bipartisan. This is my own little filibuster. If they can’t get one Republican, I vote for none. I’ve told [Democrats] that. I said, ‘I’m sick and tired of it, I can’t take it anymore.’”

Manchin has voted against several of Biden’s judicial nominees based on that rule.

Senate Democrats are rushing to confirm Biden’s final nominees for federal judge positions before the party loses the chamber majority and Donald Trump returns to office in January. There are currently 45 judicial vacancies, and the Senate has 20 days left in session.

One of Matt Gaetz’s closest allies in Congress, Representative Jim Jordan, thinks the House Ethics Committee report about Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee should not be released.

On Fox News Thursday night, Laura Ingraham asked Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, what would happen regarding the committee’s report on Gaetz that was scheduled to be released Friday. Jordan defended his former House colleague.

“Well, it’s my understanding that it’s not supposed to go public. So if it’s not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn’t go public,” Jordan said. He spoke approvingly of Gaetz taking the attorney general position.

“There are very few people who have the cross-examination skills he does, and I want someone in the Justice Department who’s not going to say moms and dads in school board meetings need to be investigated,” Jordan added.

Ingraham: Do you have any sense about what will happen with that house ethics report..

Jordan: Well, it's my understanding that is not supposed to go public. So, if it's not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn't go public. pic.twitter.com/qtSleTeUP7

Jordan’s defense of Gaetz suggests that Trump’s nominee still has allies on Capitol Hill, at least in the House of Representatives, and that they will try to defend him if details from the report or the report itself become public. The choice of Gaetz as the nation’s top law enforcement official has drawn backlash from Republican senators, even unpopular ones like Ted Cruz, which is not unexpected when one is under investigation for allegations of trafficking and having sex with a 17-year-old girl.

Jordan, it should be noted, has been accused of ignoring accusations of widespread sex abuse while coaching wrestling at Ohio State University.

Gaetz also has extremist Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on his side, who hopes that Gaetz would prosecute vaccine “crimes against humanity.” But her opinion matters little in a Senate confirmation process, where Gaetz will have to win over a narrow Republican Senate majority. Trump may have to resort to recess appointments to get Gaetz confirmed.

Historically, presidential Cabinet picks are background-checked by the FBI—but Donald Trump’s administration has instead opted to rely on private companies to examine his appointments, a decision that could allow him to practically shoe-in some of his most controversial candidates.

Trump and his team are attempting to avoid a process that they believe is both excessively slow and intrusive, and which turns up dirt that could later be turned into political leverage by their opponents, according to sources that spoke with CNN.

The FBI has conducted the president’s background checks since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, providing critical security clearance to confirm that malicious foreign agents aren’t infiltrating the highest rungs of government.

But the decision to move away from traditional security expectations has the dual effect of helping the incoming administration circumvent a particularly grueling process for a pool of candidates who are, by all means, dangerously bizarre and inexperienced.

His choice for director of national intelligence, former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, regularly amplifies Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories. Her role would have her oversee 18 intelligence agencies, but critics—even in the House Intelligence Committee—have drawn attention to the danger of her nomination considering her particular affinity for foreign dictators like Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s pick for attorney general, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, has been the subject of several major controversies. Perhaps most notably, he was the subject of a House Ethics investigation that accused him of sex trafficking a minor, and was also faced with a related investigation by the Justice Department. (The conveniently timed appointment—and Gaetz’s subsequent resignation—had the added benefit of killing the House........

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