News Brief: Trump Endorses Johnson for House Speaker; Calls for Congress to Extend Debt Ceiling

Former President Jimmy Carter prior to the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, on Sept. 30, 2018. Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas. We’re just hours away from a brand new year, we have some compelling stories to share with you right now and here’s what’s going on.

President-elect Donald Trump weighs in on his choice to lead the incoming House; also, prior to assuming the presidency, he calls on Congress to pass critical legislation regarding our national debt, and South Korean government officials order a widespread probe of their nation’s entire airline fleet following this weekend’s devastating crash of a 737 passenger jet.

Also, Russia is responding to the United States’s incoming commander-in-chief’s plan for a cease-fire in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and details are emerging regarding a nationwide tribute over the passing of a former U.S. president.

On the last day of 2024, we have a number of crucial stories to share with you, and we begin with this. Fighting to keep his job, the current House speaker has just received a critical endorsement, but there’s still some opposition in the ranks, and here’s what we know.

Trump Endorses Johnson for House Speaker

Trump says that he’s giving complete and total approval to embattled current House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to continue in his present position.

The incoming Congress will vote for the next speaker in just three days, and this new recommendation affords Johnson a good chance to hold on to his job.

Yesterday, the president-elect called Johnson “a good, hard-working, religious man” who will do the right thing, continue to win, and help make America great again.

In response, Johnson humbly thanked Trump, said he was honored by the support, and promised to help the president-elect usher in the new golden age of America.

So you know, Trump’s backing offers Johnson significant protection from a number of potential GOP challenges to his speakership, which emerged following the recent collapse of a government funding package that he helped negotiate.

Additionally, with the endorsement, Trump is showing he hopes to avoid a lengthy process to elect a new speaker similar to the one that took place at the start of the last Congress.

He also said that the American people need immediate relief from certain policies of the last administration, and he urged his supporters not to blow a great opportunity to get off to a fast start with the new Congress.

However, we should point out that Republicans will have a razor-thin majority when the new Congress begins, and a number of representatives have already expressed significant reservations regarding Johnson. A speaker must be chosen before Congress can certify Trump’s election, which is coming up in just six days on Jan. 6, 2025.

We continue now with big money news. And even before he moves back into the White House, Trump is asking the current Congress to increase the amount of money the U.S. Government is allowed to borrow. More now on what he wants and why.

Trump Calls for Congress to Raise Debt Ceiling

Trump says that the 118th Congress must hold a vote on raising the debt ceiling before the Biden administration comes to an end in just three weeks, on Jan. 20, 2025. And he says that Democrats should be blamed for any potential economic disaster that could take place—given they voted against suspending the debt ceiling at current levels on Dec. 20.

He went on to say that Democrats must vote on this critical issue now during the Biden administration, that the vote should not be delayed until June, and that he thinks Democrats don’t care if the U.S. is forced into another Great Depression as long as it hurts the Republican Party.

Trump also recently suggested that Congress should either get rid of the debt ceiling entirely or at least extend it for another five years.

To refresh your memory, in 2023, President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) raised the debt ceiling and suspended it until Jan. 1, 2025. However, extraordinary measures available to the government could allow Congress to extend this deadline by several months.

Trump said that McCarthy’s decision to extend the debt ceiling into June of the incoming administration turned Biden’s then-problem into his administration’s future problem.

Both the House and the Senate avoided addressing the impending debt ceiling limit when they passed their recent stopgap funding packages to avert a government shutdown on Dec. 20, despite calls from the president-elect to vote against any deal that did not address this pending issue.

We have an update now on this weekend’s tragic aviation disaster in South Korea involving an enormous death toll and only two survivors. The investigation involving U.S. federal officials and Boeing representatives is currently underway, and here’s what we’ve learned.

South Korea Orders Air Safety Probe After Deadly Crash

Yesterday, South Korea’s acting president ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline fleet, as investigators continue their work to determine the cause of Sunday’s tragic crash.

The South Korean leader promised that the investigation process will be transparent and that the bereaved families will be informed promptly of any discoveries.

He said the priority is identifying the victims, supporting their families, and tending to the two survivors. He also said that as soon as the recovery process has been conducted, an inspection of the country’s entire aircraft operations system will begin.

You should know that although South Korea is leading the crash investigation, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will also be involved, because the plane was designed and built in the United States. Meanwhile, both Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will also be part of the investigation.

In case you missed it, all 175 passengers and four of six crew members were killed when a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 made an emergency landing at Muan International Airport in the southwest portion of the country. The jet then skidded off the runway and exploded when it hit a perimeter wall.

It’s believed the recollections of the two surviving crew members from the moments before the crash could prove pivotal to the investigation. Meanwhile, the victims were mainly South Korean nationals who were returning from holidays in Thailand.

We should also point out that so far, none of the country’s 101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft have been grounded. Additionally, Muan International Airport has been ordered to stay closed until sometime on Thursday, but the rest of the country’s airports continue to operate as normal.

More now on the international front and President-elect Donald Trump says that as soon as he takes office, he’ll try to put an end to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, but one of those two countries says they’re not too keen on his plan. More now on that story.

Russia Not Satisfied With Trump’s Reported Cease-fire Plan

Russia’s foreign minister says that his country is “not satisfied” with the proposals made by the incoming Trump administration, which include postponing the issue of Ukraine’s membership in NATO for 20 years and the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent made up of British and European forces.

You may recall that during his election campaign, Trump pledged to swiftly resolve the ongoing conflict between the two warring countries, but until now, he has provided few details on how he plans to do so.

According to the Russian foreign minister, Moscow has not yet received any formal communication from the United States regarding a possible cease-fire proposal. He also said that until Jan. 20, when Trump takes office, the only officials who are authorized to engage with Russia on behalf of the United States are determined by the current president and his administration.

Earlier this year, however, Vice President-elect JD Vance floated the idea of creating a heavily fortified “demilitarized zone” along the current front line. He also suggested that Russia might be granted a “guarantee of neutrality” from Ukraine, meaning that Ukraine would abandon its hope of joining the NATO alliance.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said that the terms for ending the war include both the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from all territories claimed by Russia and the guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO—terms that Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.

In recent weeks, European leaders have raised the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine in the event a cease-fire deal is achieved. Also, earlier this month in Paris, Trump reportedly discussed that scenario with both French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the United States announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and direct budgetary support for Ukraine, only weeks before Biden’s term ends. The president said that at his direction, the United States will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen Ukraine’s position in this war throughout the remainder of his time in office.

Finally today, we say goodbye to our nation’s 39th president—a one-time global leader, a centenarian, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. State funeral plans are now in place for the man who led our country from 1977-1981.

Carter’s State Funeral to Begin on Jan. 4

Ceremonies for former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral will begin on the morning of Jan. 4, 2025, in Americus, Georgia. Later that day, the procession will make stops at both his boyhood home and the state capitol in Atlanta, before proceeding to the Carter Presidential Center, where his body will remain until Jan. 7.

The former president’s remains will then be flown to Washington, where they will be carried into the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. On Jan. 9, a funeral service will be held in the Washington National Cathedral before his body is returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, for a private burial service.

President Joe Biden ordered Jan. 9 to be a national day of mourning for Carter, who was 100 years old when he passed away on Sunday. Additionally, U.S. flags across the country and abroad are now being flown at half-staff for a 30-day period, which began on the day of his passing.

Biden said that on Jan. 9, suitable honors will be rendered by units of the armed forces, and he called upon all Americans to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship to pay homage to the former president.

Additionally, both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Composite have announced they will close on Jan. 9 in observance of a day of mourning for the former president.

Biden called Carter’s death “a sad day,” and said that, in his view, America and the world lost a remarkable leader, an honorable statesman, and a humanitarian. He also said that both he and his wife Jill lost a dear friend. A number of other leaders, including President-elect Donald Trump, also paid tribute to the former president.

Before we head out for the day, a few more stories making headlines right now:

A number of U.S. telecom networks, including both AT&T and Verizon, which were recently targeted by a China-backed hacking group called Salt Typhoon say that their networks are now secure.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that our country’s trade deficit widened last month to more than $100 billion, an increase of nearly 5 percent from the previous month.

And a federal appeals court has just upheld a New York jury’s verdict in a civil case that found President-elect Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996. The jury had ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages; Trump has repeatedly denied the accusations.

And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re gonna call it a wrap for the Tuesday edition (the New Year’s Eve edition) of The Epoch Times News Brief—the last briefing for 2024.

To make contact with the News Brief crew, simply reach out to us via email and we’re at [email protected] and you can also leave comments for us on The Epoch Times app, which you can download for free on either the App Store or Google Play.

Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.

And finally, as we do each and every day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote and this one comes to us from Albert Einstein who said:

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity and he also made big contributions to quantum mechanics.

And I struggled with basic algebra.

For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.

The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.

Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and unbiased daily synopsis of many of the news stories you need to know about.

Enjoy the remainder of your Tuesday and we’ll see you right back here next time for the New Year’s Day 2025 edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.

For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another and have an absolutely superb day today. Happy New Year to you and bye for now.