“Senate Democrats encouraged each other to dig in and stand up to President Trump on government funding during a private caucus meeting Tuesday,” Axios reports.
“A government shutdown is just hours away without a compromise from lawmakers — and Democratic resolve is only strengthening.”
“The meeting of Senate Democrats on Tuesday was described by multiple sources as a motivational one, with lawmakers encouraging each other to hold their ground against the administration.”
A new Quantus Insights poll confirms a significant tightening in the New Jersey governor’s race.
Mikie Sherrill (D) now leads Jack Ciattarelli (R) by just two points, 48% to 46% among likely voters, down from 10 points earlier from a similar Labor Day poll.
Punchbowl News: “The Senate will soon begin voting on the House-passed bill to fund federal agencies through Nov. 21. Senators will also vote on the Democratic counteroffer, a monthlong continuing resolution filled with health care policy riders and restrictions on the White House’s ability to rescind funding.”
“Both proposals will fail, and senators will then likely be sent home for the night with no clear path forward.”
“The biggest dynamic to watch is whether any Democratic senators — other than Sen. John Fetterman — vote for the House-passed CR.”
Hours before the government funding clock runs out, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that a shutdown would benefit President Trump, The Hill reports.
Said Fetterman: “The president has a lot of levers he could pull. This is one we could pull but why would we pull that lever? Because that allows him to pull a lot more levers.”
He added: “I think that would be the ideal for Project 2025.”
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, saying he could use a government shutdown to flex his executive powers at Democrats’ expense.
New York Times: “Other than some chuckles when Mr. Trump tried to crack jokes, nearly all of the generals and admirals listened to the president’s remarks in silence. There were no loud ovations during his remarks, after senior Pentagon leaders warned the attendees not to react or cheer, in keeping with the norms of the country’s traditionally nonpartisan military.”
Bloomberg: “Schumer’s move gives Democrats a rare moment of leverage in a Washington where Republicans control the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court. Trump has waged a global trade war, deployed troops in cities, slashed the federal work force and withheld funding for states, cities and health care research, mostly by executive order. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, passed Trump’s massive tax and spending package under special procedures that required no Democratic votes.”
“But to fund the government — Congress’s primary job — Republicans need 60 votes in the Senate to end a filibuster. There are just 53 Republican senators, giving the chamber’s 47 Democrats outsize influence in this debate.”
“Qatar, Egypt and Turkey are urging Hamas to give a positive response to President Trump’s proposal for ending the war in Gaza,” Axios reports.
“The three countries are the mediators with the closest ties to Hamas and primary responsibility for passing messages between the group and Israel and the U.S. Top officials of those countries have met Hamas leaders twice in the last 24 hours.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting,” Politico reports.
“Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event had occurred at all.”
Said one defense official: “More like a press conference than briefing the generals… Could have been an email.”
“A government shutdown would unfold just weeks before statewide elections in New Jersey and Virginia, with furloughs and layoffs hitting while more voters are tuning in,” Semafor reports.
“But neither party expects to get an advantage from the resulting chaos, in either state.”
“It’s a surprising reality that points to how little the risk of a shutdown has broken through with voters or outside-the-Beltway media.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Republican leaders refused requests from Democrats to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) on Tuesday, saying she will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session,” The Hill reports.
“The move deprives a petition of the last signature it needs to force a vote on a bill to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a push that Republican leaders and President Trump oppose.”
In a blistering rebuke of the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge William Young said that the push to deport noncitizens for their activism against Israel’s war in Gaza was a “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech,” the Washington Post reports.
Young decried the administration’s conduct in striking terms, quoting President Ronald Reagan’s declaration that freedom must “be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state elected officials Tuesday moved ahead with an ambitious plan to deliver prime downtown Miami real estate that will be the location of President Donald Trump’s presidential library,” Politico reports.
“The quick and unanimous vote caps off a mostly off-the-radar transaction pieced together quickly and not widely known about until last week, when Miami Dade College voted to transfer the land over to the state.”
Pew Research: “Democrats now express more disapproval of their party’s congressional leadership than at any time in several decades, while Republicans give their party’s leadership in Congress a much higher approval rating than in recent years.”
President Trump told the nation’s top military officials Tuesday troops should use “dangerous” American cities as “training grounds,” Axios reports.
Trump also told military leaders “we have to handle” the so-called “enemy from within.”
“President Trump’s efforts to send National Guard troops to big cities, punish media organizations and pressure universities and private businesses are all unpopular with voters,” the New York Times reports.
“But the continued torrent of policies and tactics has not further weakened Mr. Trump’s overall standing, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University. Instead, Mr. Trump continues to retain the support of roughly nine out of 10 Republican voters.”
“The net result: an unpopular president with an unchanged approval rating of 43 percent.”
New York Times/Siena Poll: “Voters said they would be likeliest to blame both sides if the government shuts down. But independent voters said they were twice as likely to assign blame to Mr. Trump and Republicans than to Democrats.”
“At the same time, two-thirds of voters warned that Democrats should not shut down the government if their demands are not met.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
