Send Me Your Shutdown Questions!

Also: I’m sorry.

Good morning! We have three pieces of business to get to today:

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1. Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar; I’m wishing an easy fast to everyone celebrating.

Yom Kippur is a day that’s supposed to be set aside for reflection on how we’ve erred throughout the year, and for atoning for the ways in which we’ve fallen short. So, in that spirit, I always like to state right here in the newsletter: I’m sorry. I’m sorry for any errors I’ve made in Wake Up To Politics this past year. I’m sorry for stories I should have covered, but didn’t. I’m sorry for stories I shouldn’t have covered, but did. I’m sorry if you tried to reach out to me and I failed to respond. I’m sorry if I did respond, but not politely.

I will try to be better in the year ahead. Thanks for reading Wake Up To Politics, even if it (and I) are still very much a work in progress.

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2. I’ll be doing a subscriber Q&A post tomorrow, so send in your questions! From my inbox over the last few days, I know a lot of you have questions about the history of shutdowns, the logistics, the political strategy, the potential endgame, and what this all will mean — so please send them my way! I want to answer them.

What are you still wondering about after my shutdown coverage from the last few days? Let me know.

But, also: you don’t have to limit yourself to shutdown questions! What question has been gnawing at you about American politics or history or government or media? Is there something you’d like to get my perspective on? Something you’re trying to figure out? The weekly Q&A post is the time to ask.

Here are three ways to ask questions:

• Reply to this email!

• Send me an email at gabe@wakeuptopolitics.com.

• Leave a comment below!

It’s that easy.

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3. And, finally, let’s take a look at a few stories I’m tracking this morning:

Shutdown negotiations. In yesterday’s newsletter, I noted that there didn’t seem to be much negotiating happening Tuesday night on the Senate floor as lawmakers were about to plunge us into a shutdown. It only took 24 hours for that to shift: Wednesday saw a big bipartisan huddle on the floor, with moderates from both parties discussing potential escape hatches.

Per Politico, these talks are still in their early stages, but are centered around “passing a shorter-term stopgap than the seven-week measure passed by the House, as well as possible assurances that Republicans are willing to compromise on extending soon-to-expire health insurance subsidies.” Stay tuned for more.

Shutdown power plays. President Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that he plans to meet with White House budget director Russ Vought today to “determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”

This comes after he wrote last night that he planned to “use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud.”

Vought moved Wednesday to freeze $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects, blaming the shutdown (although it was unclear if the shutdown was really to blame). He also threatened on X to cancel nearly $8 billion in green energy projects. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that new government layoffs are “imminent”; again, it is unclear if those are truly related to the shutdown, or the funding gap is merely being used as pretext to take actions the administration would have taken anyway.

Battle for the Fed. The Trump administration recently appealed to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to allow the president to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, at least on a temporary basis while the legal challenge to her dismissal continues.

On Wednesday, he got his answer — and it wasn’t a “yes” or “no.” Instead of granting or denying the administration’s emergency application, the Supreme Court opted to defer making a decision on Cook’s future until after hearing oral arguments in the case in January.

Because a lower court judge previously ruled in Cook’s favor, the Supreme Court’s move had the effect of maintaining that status quo, allowing her to remain on the board at least for the rest of the year — meaning the effect of the decision went against the president’s wishes, even if the court didn’t say that directly, a notable move for a court that has often sided with Trump (especially on cases concerning presidential firing powers).

The Senate strikes back? I also want to call attention to two pieces of news from the last few days:

1. President Trump withdrew his controversial nomination of Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition to raising concerns about politicizing the BLS (whose previous leader Trump fired), Antoni’s nomination was bogged down by reports that he was outside the Capitol on January 6th and that a Twitter account appearing to be his had posted several inflammatory messages about Kamala Harris, John McCain, and other political figures.

2. Earlier this week, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) protested after Vought signaled that he was withholding funding for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), which oversees inspectors general, and the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC). Two days after the duo sent their letters, Vought backed down and released the funding.

My point here isn’t that Senate Republicans are suddenly standing up to Trump en masse. But I do find these little tea leaves interesting. They show there is some vestigial muscle within the Senate GOP for standing up to the White House, and that there is some pushback going on behind the scenes that we don’t always see publicly. (There hadn’t been much public Republican opposition to Antoni, for example, but clearly the White House felt he wasn’t going to notch 50 votes, or they wouldn’t have pulled his nomination.)

For a Congress that has largely gone along with most of the administration’s objectives, it’s notable when you do see pushback (or evidence of pushback we didn’t even know was happening).