Exchange of the Day
President Trump took questions from reporters at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi:
TRUMP: Adam Schiff is one of the lowest forms of scum I’ve ever dealt with in politics… You’re telling me that he’s going to be indicted. I don’t know. You could ask Pam…”
BONDI: We’re not going to comment on any grand jury that’s open. We can’t legally.
TRUMP: I hope it’s true.
A Republic, but Can We Keep It?
Peggy Noonan: “Donald Trump’s supporters are feeling satisfaction after two astonishing achievements: He is the first president this century to establish order on the southern border, and he has secured some new possibility for a Mideast settlement. These are breakthroughs even if they don’t last.”
“But the people in this White House, with every triumph, become wilder and wilder. Their triumphalism is accelerating my now-chronic unease over the sense that the strict lines of our delicately balanced republic are being washed away.”
U.S. Strikes Another Vessel in the Caribbean
“The U.S. military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel and leaving six people dead in the Caribbean,” the AP reports.
GOP Senators Uncomfortable Trump May Pay Himself
“Reports this week that President Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him $230 million in compensation for wrongful prosecution is making Republican senators uncomfortable amid the 24-day government shutdown,” The Hill reports.
Social Security Recipients Get 2.8% Boost
Millions of Social Security recipients will see a 2.8 percent cost-of-living increase in their monthly checks next year, the Washington Post reports.
Republicans’ Purple Problem
Charlie Cook: “Close association with Trump is not a handicap in red states and districts, for now at least. It is a benefit, keeping the band together. But outside red America, it is at best a strong headwind and in some cases, an anchor around the necks of GOP candidates. One way to look at red and blue America is to think about the states that are so red that a GOP candidate literally needs no support from independents, never mind Democrats, to win. The opposite is also the case in heavily Democratic states and districts, where a Democrat can win with no support among Republicans or independents.”
“Most states and congressional districts fall into one of those camps. But there are seven states and several dozen congressional districts that are not majority-Republican or -Democrat, where a candidate needs not just to hold his or her own party together but also a substantial share of the actual independents there. As this column has noted before, Trump is not at all popular in purple America, with only about a third of independents approving of the job he is doing.”
Rand Paul Warns Trump Over Foreign Intervention
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) warned President Trump over his foreign policy, saying that the president could see “all hell break loose” if he involves the US further in Venezuela or Ukraine, Politico reports.
Said Paul: “It’ll be much bigger than Epstein, because Epstein — there was a segment of the MAGA movement that was concerned about it, a significant segment. There’s an even bigger segment of the MAGA movement that is concerned with intervention overseas. And if all of a sudden President Trump becomes the president of regime change in Venezuela and giving arms and money to Ukraine, I think a lot of people will feel abandoned.”
U.S. Inflation Picked Up to 3%
“Consumer prices rose 3.0% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, hotter than August’s increase of 2.9%,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Economists and policymakers are paying close attention to the latest inflation report for clues on the state of the economy and the direction of interest rates. Hiring slowed to a crawl during the summer, prompting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September.”
“The report is out more than a week late because a government shutdown has stopped work on economic data.”
Americans See Trump’s Retribution for What It Is
A new Quinnipiac University poll finds voters believe by a 52% to 38% margin that President Trump was “using the U.S. Justice Department to file unjustified criminal charges against his political opponents.”
A new Reuters-Ipsos poll found Americans said 55% to 26% that Trump was using federal law enforcement to go after his enemies. Even 29% of Republicans agreed with this.
Cracks Emerge in Democrats’ Unity on Shutdown
“Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock voted with Republicans on Thursday on the government shutdown, after previously rejecting every GOP measure to re-open the government or fund parts of it,” Axios reports.
“Their dissents introduce a new challenge for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). He’s keeping his total number of defections low, but the universe of Democrats willing to defy him is expanding.”
Lindsey Graham Pushes ‘Russia Week’
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is pushing for “Russia week” on the Senate floor, where senators would take up a trio of bills targeting Moscow, including a long-stalled sanctions effort, Punchbowl News reports.
Trump’s Run In with Protesters Still Haunts His Team
After protesters got within a few feet of President Trump at a D.C. restaurant last month, his team was so alarmed it had a tense talk with Secret Service officials about Trump’s security, Axios reports.
Voters Now Trust Democrats More on the Economy
G. Elliot Morris: “New polls from Gallup and YouGov show Democrats pulling ahead of Republicans as the party voters trust more to handle the economy. And the raw polling data in the Virginia governor’s race shows lower-income voters flocking to the Democratic candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, in protest of Trump’s trade and economic policies.”
Trump Is Losing Hispanic Voters
President Trump’s favorability has fallen among Hispanic adults since the beginning of the year, a new AP-NORC poll shows, “a potential warning sign from a key constituency that helped secure his victory in the 2024 election.”
The poll finds that 25% of Hispanic adults have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down from 44% just before the Trump took office for the second time.
Republicans Are Barreling Toward an Obamacare Cliff
“Republicans are barreling toward the upcoming Obamacare enrollment period without a unified plan to address the sticker shock that millions of Americans are likely to experience due to the expiration of key federal subsidies,” Politico reports.
“The lack of direction comes from the top, with President Donald Trump not providing clear guidance to his party on how he wants to deal with the expiring subsidies that could result in dramatic out-of-pocket price hikes for enrollees.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“It’s been a helluva week. I went from being a communist on Thursday to a Nazi by Monday.”
— Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner (D), quoted by Drop Site.
Trump Says Private Donor Is Paying the Military
President Trump said a private donor has contributed $130 million to cover potential military pay shortfalls during the government shutdown, calling the contributor a “patriot” and “friend,” while declining to name them, Reuters reports.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 8239
- Next Page »
