Hey all,
I’ve been hard at work at a piece taking a comprehensive look at how the Supreme Court has approached President Trump in his second term.
My plan was to send that piece out today, but it’s involving a lot of making graphs and combing through data — not to mention reading some lengthy SCOTUS opinions — so I’m not going to be able to publish until tomorrow.
Hopefully it’ll be worth the wait!
For now, I wanted to send out a post asking if you have any questions for our next Q&A column. Rescissions, OBBBA, Epstein, Powell: I’ll take anything. Drop ’em in the comments.
In the meantime, here are two stories for your radar on the latest from Washington.
In the Senate, via CBS News…
The Senate passed President Trump’s request to rescind $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting funding early Thursday, culminating an hours-long “vote-a-rama” and sending it back to the House ahead of a Friday deadline.
In a 51-48 vote, Republicans Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, joined Democrats in opposing the package.
Vice President JD Vance, who cast two tie-breaking votes Tuesday for the measure to clear procedural hurdles, was not needed for final passage. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota was hospitalized and missed the vote.
…The Senate's version targets roughly $8 billion for foreign assistance programs, including the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The package also includes about $1 billion in cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public radio and television stations, including NPR and PBS.
Senate Republicans met with Mr. Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, on Tuesday as GOP leaders worked to get holdouts on board ahead of the procedural votes later in the day. Vought left the meeting saying there would be a substitute amendment that would eliminate $400 million in cuts to an AIDS prevention program, one of Collins’ main concerns.
And in the House, via CNBC…
The future of a trio of crypto regulation bills was thrown into question Wednesday after a second day of opposition from conservative House Republicans held up the legislation for 10 hours before it finally moved forward.
Fresh opposition also emerged over the course of the day from moderate Republicans who objected to last-minute changes intended to appease an original group of hardline conservative holdouts whose ‘no’ votes had tanked the bills on Tuesday
Late Wednesday night, a group of ‘no’ votes flipped to yesses, and the chamber finally approved the rules of debate for the crypto bills and an adjacent Pentagon appropriations package.
Wednesday’s marathon vote set the record for the longest open vote in modern House history, a record that had had been set earlier in the month.
Making history!
What are you curious about? Let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer soon….
My questions are about the Epstein suicide, specifically the lack of curiosity/skepticism on the part of the press (even the "liberal" press) about the 3 minute gap in surveillance video. There apparently is a consensus that the video that was released was not raw footage but in fact was manipulated. This should be a giant red flag for any red-blooded journalist. So, to the extent that you know:
1) Was the 3 minute video gap during a critical point, e.g., a point in time at which someone could have entered Epstein's cell or otherwise interevened wrt Epstein's suicide?
2) Who was responsible for safeguarding the integrity of the video and has there been any investigation of that person(s)?
3) What other investigative journalism is in progress wrt the Epstein suicide, e.g., wrt the removal of Epstein's cellmate?
Thank you for your good work. My question is about emerging voices in the Democratic Party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie showed a hunger for opposing oligarchy. David Hogg and Leaders We Deserve are supporting fresh voices. Angie Craig and Majority Democrats are building momentum. Mamdani in NYC is openly Socialist. On the other hand the DNC is dominated by establishment, Big Money players who will try to crush the dissent.
Do you think it is a viable, vote-getting strategy to move away from the establishment Dems supported by Big Money and toward crowd-funded, real support for working people?