Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbuck co-author Eugene Daniels.

It is Tuesday, December 3rd, and here's what's driving the day.

At the end of the week, President-elect Donald Trump will head to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral,

his first foreign trip since the election, and a smart bit of cultural

diplomacy from French President Manuel Macron, who has been eager to rehabilitate ties with

the president-elect ahead of his return to power in January. The invite-only events on Saturday

and Sunday will feature more than 50 world leaders visiting the church.

Meanwhile, here on the home front, Senate Republicans are eager to make their own entreaties

to Trump by doing what they can to support his cabinet nominees or be quiet about their concerns.

The latest round is surrounding Trump loyalist Cash Patel. He's Trump's nominee for the director of the FBI.

I'm going to read off some quotes from senators on Monday to kind of give you a sense of where they are on this one.

From Joni Ernst of Iowa, quote, I do know Cash, and that's why I think he's going to be great.

I do think he will be able to get confirmed absolutely. Susan Collins of Maine. I don't know Kasper Tell. I had heard his name, but I don't know his background, and I'm going to have to do a lot of work before reaching a decision on him. In general, I found it's important to review the background check, the committee work, and the public hearing. John Barrasso said,

quote, the president ought to have who he wants Sir Rick in his administration.

Next up, we're getting more reactions to President Biden's decision to pardon his son Hunter.

Unsurprisingly, most Republicans have trashed the decision. But there's a real split showing up among

Democrats, some of whom are eager to take the opportunity to distance themselves from an unpopular

outgoing president of their own party. But by far, the most interesting reaction is the lack of one

altogether from top Democrats mentioned in the

28 conversation, including governors Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan

and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. All three have declined to weigh in on Biden's decision.

You can expect we'll be watching and bothering them to see if any of them sense a real opportunity here to show some independence from the president.

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