“Senate Majority Leader John Thune is in unfamiliar territory — taking heat from all sides of his conference with no clear path out of the mess. It’s a precarious position for Thune, one that’s testing the limits of the leadership philosophy that helped him win the job,” Punchbowl News reports.

“Less than a year into his tenure as Senate Republican leader, Thune has been able to successfully steer Republicans through some of the most challenging moments of his career. From the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to Cabinet nominations to a record-breaking government shutdown and a high-profile rules change, Thune has allowed the GOP conference to reach a consensus on its own rather than dictating an outcome from above.”

“And Thune has done all of this without getting on the wrong side of President Donald Trump, a huge feat on its own.”

“But amid the year-end frenzy, the strategy that helped Thune score big wins earlier this year is failing to produce results on multiple fronts, angering several GOP factions simultaneously and reviving longstanding tensions within the conference.”

Wall Street Journal: “Having cast the deciding vote to secure Kennedy’s confirmation, Cassidy is in the difficult spot of having supported someone who is working against his interests… The secretary this week stands to oversee the undoing of a vaccine norm that Cassidy has credited with preventing around 20,000 hepatitis B infections every year.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) celebrated his marriage to his partner Alexis Lewis in an intimate ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening, less than three months after he announced their engagement in an Instagram post, the New York Times reports.

“A group of influential liberal senators is directly challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer’s approach to the midterm elections and President Trump, in another sign of growing frustration among Democrats toward the minority leader,” the New York Times reports.

“The coalition of at least half a dozen senators, who call themselves the ‘Fight Club,’ is unhappy with how Mr. Schumer and his fellow senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, have chosen, recruited and, they argue, favored candidates aligned with the establishment.”

“The mutinous mood of the senators — who include Chris Van Hollen, Tina Smith, Christopher Murphy, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — reflects the widespread doubts among the Democratic base that party leaders in Congress have a strong vision and a winning strategy for returning to power.”

The Pentagon says it is investigating Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for possible breaches of military law after Kelly joined a handful of other lawmakers in a video that called for U.S. troops to refuse unlawful orders, the AP reports.

“Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) has been assigned around-the-clock police protection, her office said, following calls by President Donald Trump on Thursday morning that the Michigan lawmaker should be arrested and possibly put to death over a video that she made with other Democrats,” the Detroit News reports.

“The Justice Department is investigating possible issues with the mortgage fraud investigation into California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff that is run by two Trump administration political appointees, Ed Martin and Bill Pulte,” CNN reports.

“Congressional Republicans are feuding over language quietly tucked into the bill ending the US government shutdown that could reap several GOP senators millions by allowing them to sue the Justice Department over telephone record seizures during the 2020 election interference probe,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Republican-controlled House will vote late Wednesday to repeal the provision, which would provide a $500,000 payment for each infraction incurred during a special counsel investigation. Senate Republicans, however, have defended the language and have not committed to taking up the repeal.”

A new Puck/Echelon Insights poll finds only 40% of Democrats approve of Chuck Schumer’s handling of the government shutdown.

The Senate unanimously passed a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sending it to President Trump’s desk, Axios reports.

Senate Democrats are proposing legislation to repeal a contentious provision in the government funding bill that allows senators to file for $500,000 in damages if their phone records were seized in the Jan. 6 probe, Punchbowl News reports.

Punchbowl News: “Trump’s shift, which came in the form of a Truth Social post late Sunday night, has also upended the dynamics in the Senate, where the bill was supposed to die. Many Senate Republicans now believe the bill will ultimately pass. The question is how — and whether senators will be forced to take a roll-call vote.”

“Before Trump’s about-face, Senate Democrats were planning to gum up the floor with unanimous-consent requests in a bid to make Republicans look bad for shelving the petition. Democrats could still pursue that strategy, and Republicans could simply allow it to pass without fanfare and get it off their plates.”

“Alternatively, Senate Majority Leader John Thune could try to pre-empt Democrats by seeking unanimous consent to pass the bill. In that scenario, a Democrat could object and demand a roll-call vote to put senators on the record.”

“So there are plenty of potential options here. Thune isn’t expected to reveal his thinking on it until after the House sends the bill over.”

Time: “Schumer has professed indifference to the discontent and he had pretty good reasoning: no one who wants him gone has the power to make it happen, and no one who could do it is publicly calling for him to go. Even privately, there is little sign that Senate Democrats expect to replace Schumer before the midterm elections, according to just about every Capitol insider with a grudge and an insight. It’s pretty easy to hold onto a job when no one else is ready to step into it.”

CNN: “As eight senators in Chuck Schumer’s caucus broke ranks to side with Republicans and vote to end the government shutdown fight he had engineered, the New York Democrat was on the phone trying to make it clear it wasn’t his fault.”

“Dialing governors and influential party leaders, Schumer had a basic request: attack Republicans over rising health care costs, not Senate Democrats or him. Schumer knew he’d have to rebut accusations that he secretly guided the deal, while others would see him as not being able to control his caucus.”

“A growing number of House Democrats are calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to step aside from leadership,” Axios reports.

“Schumer is highly unlikely to heed their calls, but this represents Democrats’ largest groundswell against one of their leaders since last year’s effort to push then-President Biden off the presidential ticket.”

“Most of the senators whose data was requested as part of the investigation that led to special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 probe have now distanced themselves from a provision included in the shutdown-ending bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump, that would let them sue the government for potentially millions of dollars for not notifying them when accessing their records,” NBC News reports.