The sensitive personal details of more than 450 people holding “top secret” US government security clearances were left exposed online, new research seen by WIRED shows. The people’s details were included in a database of more than 7,000 individuals who have applied for jobs over the last two years with Democrats in the United States House of Representatives.
While scanning for unsecured databases at the end of September, an ethical security researcher stumbled upon the exposed cache of data and discovered that it was part of a site called DomeWatch. The service is run by the House Democrats and includes videostreams of House floor sessions, calendars of congressional events, and updates on House votes. It also includes a job board and résumé bank.
After the researcher attempted to notify the House of Representatives’ Office of the Chief Administrator on September 30, the database was secured within hours, and the researcher received a response that simply said, “Thanks for flagging.” It is unclear how long the data was exposed or if anyone else accessed the information while it was unsecured.
The independent researcher, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the findings, likened the exposed database to an internal “index” of people who may have applied for open roles. Résumés were not included, they say, but the database contained details typical of a job application process. The researcher found data including applicants’ short written biographies and fields indicating military service, security clearances, and languages spoken, along with details like names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Each individual was also assigned an internal ID.
“Some people described in the data have spent 20 years on Capitol Hill,” the researcher tells WIRED, noting that the information went beyond a list of interns or junior staffers. This is what made the finding so concerning, the researcher says, because they fear that if the data had fallen into the wrong hands—perhaps those of a hostile state or malicious hackers—it could have been used to compromise government or military staffers who have access to potentially sensitive information. “From the perspective of a foreign adversary, that is a gold mine of who you want to target,” the security researcher says.
WIRED reached out to the Office of the Chief Administrator and House Democrats for comment. Some staff members WIRED contacted were unavailable because they have been furloughed as a result of the ongoing US government shutdown.
“Today, our office was informed that an outside vendor potentially exposed information stored in an internal site,” Joy Lee, spokesperson for House Democratic whip Katherine Clark, told WIRED in a statement on October 22. DomeWatch is under the purview of Clark’s office. “We immediately alerted the Office of the Chief Administration Officer, and a full investigation has been launched to identify and rectify any security vulnerabilities.” Lee added that the outside vendor is “an independent consultant who helps with the backend” of DomeWatch.
Congress has asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to testify about the league’s illegal gambling scandal
Several current and former players and coaches were named in FBI indictments
Congress is demanding answers from the NBA for what’s emerging as the biggest sports betting scandal since Pete Rose was found to have bet on baseball games he managed and played more than four decades ago.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver takes questions about the FBI’s indictment of several of its current and former players and coaches. Congress has asked Silver to testify about the illegal sports betting and gambling scandal. (Image: Amazon Prime)
This week, the FBI unsealed two federal indictments naming more than 30 defendants who allegedly engaged in an unlawful sports betting and gambling operation, with the rigged poker component thought to have involved New York crime families. Several current and former NBA players, including Terry Rozier, NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones, were named in the charges.
This is the insider trading saga for the NBA,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday. “It’s not thousands of dollars. It’s not tens of thousands of dollars. It’s not even millions of dollars. We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud, theft, and robbery.”
Rozier is accused of throwing games and faking injuries for the benefit of his illegal sports gambling cohorts. Jones is accused of selling inside information about the status of key players, including LeBron James, to bettors looking for an edge on the books. Billups is alleged to have participated in an illegal poker scheme with mob ties.
Congress Demands Answers
On Friday, the bipartisan leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requesting that he testify before the panel, which has jurisdiction over interstate commerce, consumer protection, and sports, regarding the federal sports fixing and illegal gambling indictments.
The committee is seeking the NBA’s insights about the insider sports betting trading, which actions it intends to take to limit the disclosure of nonpublic information for illegal purposes, and whether the league’s Code of Conduct effectively prohibits such illegal activity. The committee members are also asking for an explanation of how the NBA’s current regulations might have allowed the matter at hand to be executed, and if the league is reevaluating the terms of its sports betting partnerships.
The hearing will presumably also discuss player props, or bets in which a player can singlehandedly influence.
Silver ‘Deeply Disturbed’
Silver was interviewed about the FBI bombshell during Friday night’s game between the Boston Celtics at the New York Knicks.
My initial reaction was that I was deeply disturbed. There’s nothing more important to the league and its fans than the integrity of the competition. I had a pit in my stomach. It was very upsetting,” Silver said on Amazon Prime Video, during the streaming service’s first NBA broadcast.
“I apologize to our fans that we are all dealing with this situation,” Silver said.
Silver also answered for the NBA’s unfruitful probe of Rozier’s illegal conduct, as alleged by the FBI, when sportsbooks in 2023 tipped the league off to suspicious betting activity surrounding his player props.
We frankly couldn’t find anything,” Silver said. “Terry cooperated. He gave the league his phone. He sat down for an interview. We ultimately concluded that were was insufficient evidence despite the aberrational behavior to move forward.”
Silver concluded by saying Rozier hasn’t been convicted of anything, but he acknowledged that “it doesn’t look good.”
The government shutdown will end soon. How do I know? Because whatever political advantage Democrats had a few weeks ago by “standing strong!” and “confronting Trump!” is quickly evaporating. When the polls flip, so will the party that has lost its way.
Congress is seeking information related to the recent FBI investigation into gambling and game fixing that resulted in the arrest of three current and former players.
The House Committee on Commerce Friday sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requesting information and a briefing to obtain information related to the scandal that resulted in the federal indictment of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones.
The bipartisan letter was signed by six members of Congress on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference at Chase Center on 2025 NBA All-Star weekend in San Francisco Feb. 15, 2025. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The committee is seeking five key points of information from Silver:
“1. Details about the fraudulent, illegal, and alleged betting practices in connection with NBA players, coaches, and officials, including the actions of NBA players and coaches identified in the recent indictment; as well as prior instances, some of which are identified above,” the letter states.
“2. Actions the NBA intends to take to limit the disclosure of nonpublic information for illegal purposes. 3. Whether the NBA’s Code of Conduct for players and coaches effectively prohibits illegal activity, including the disclosure of non-public information for the purposes of illegal betting schemes. 4. An explanation of the gaps, if any, in existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur. 5. Whether and how the NBA is reevaluating the terms of its partnerships with sports betting companies.”
The letter also references comments made by Silver during an appearance Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where the commissioner expressed support for more federal sports betting regulation.
“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver said. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the NBA for a response to the letter.
The Department of Justice listed seven NBA games that saw high-stakes wagers after non-public information was disclosed to gamblers.
Rozier’s alleged involvement came in a game March 23, 2023, when he told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would take himself out of a game early, citing an injury, so Laster could place wagers based on the information. Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report.
Laster then allegedly sold that information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed wagers totaling roughly $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” prop bets to hit in both parlay and straight wagers. After Rozier played just nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted cash winnings at Rozier’s home in Charlotte roughly a week later, an indictment says.
The DOJ says the player was eventually ruled out with a lower-body injury. LeBron James did not play that night due to an ankle injury that kept him out for two more games. The game in question was played two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Another game the DOJ mentioned was a Portland Trail Blazers–Chicago Bulls matchup March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier played nine minutes, and a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time,” allegedly told a longtime friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers would be “tanking” that night for a better draft pick and would sit some of the team’s best players. The resting of the players had not yet been public information.
Rozier and Jones were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The NBA announced that Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave from their teams, “and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.”
“The integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said.
Jackson Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital. He previously worked for ESPN and Business Insider. Jackson has covered the Super Bowl and NBA Finals, and has interviewed iconic figures Usain Bolt, Rob Gronkowski, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Mike Trout, David Ortiz and Roger Clemens.
MEXICO CITY — The United States slapped sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday and said it was sending a massive aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, a new escalation of what the White House has described as a war against drug traffickers in the region. Also Friday, the U.S. military conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, killing six people in the Caribbean Sea.
The Treasury Department said it was sanctioning Petro, his wife, his son and a political associate for failing to stop the flow of cocaine to the United States, noting that cocaine production in Colombia has risen in recent years. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Petro of “poisoning Americans.”
Petro denied those claims in a statement on X, saying he has fought to combat drug trafficking for decades. He said it was “quite a paradox” to be sanctioned by a country with high rates of cocaine consumption.
The sanctions put Petro in the same category as the leaders of Russia and North Korea and limit his ability to travel to the United States. They mark a new low for relations between Colombia and the United States, which until recently were strong allies, sharing military intelligence, a robust trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.
Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said that while Petro and the U.S. government have had disagreements over how to tackle trafficking — with the Americans more interested in eradicating coca fields and Colombians focused on cocaine seizures — the two countries have been working for decades toward the same goal.
“To suggest that Colombia is not trying is false and disingenuous,” Dickinson said. “If the U.S. has a partner in counternarcotics in Latin America, it’s Colombia. Colombian forces have been working hand in hand with the Americans for literally four decades. They are the best, most capable and frankly most willing partner the U.S. has in the region.
“If the U.S. were to cut this relationship, it would really be the U.S. shooting themselves in the foot.”
Many viewed the sanctions as punishment for Petro’s criticism of Trump. In recent days, Petro has accused the U.S. of murder, saying American strikes on alleged drug boats lack legal justification and have killed civilians. He has also accused the U.S. of building up its military in South America in an attempt to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The quickened pace of U.S. airstrikes in the region and the unusually large buildup of military force in the Caribbean Sea have fueled those speculations.
On Friday, a Pentagon official said the U.S. ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.”
The USS Ford is currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea along with three destroyers. It would probably take several days for the ships to make the journey to South America.
The White House has increasingly drawn a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug traffickers.
Trump this month declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.
When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether he would request that Congress issue a declaration of war against the cartels, he said that wasn’t the plan.
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be like, dead,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House with Homeland Security officials.
WASHINGTON — As hundreds of thousands of federal workers went unpaid Friday during the 24th day of an agonizing government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called on House Republicans to return to Washington to negotiate a bipartisan agreement.
“We need Republican support for a bipartisan path forward in order to get out of this situation,” Jeffries said Friday during a news conference at the Capitol.
What You Need To Know
As hundreds of thousands of federal workers went unpaid Friday during the 24th day of an agonizing government shutdown, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called on House Republicans to come back to Washington, D.C. and negotiate a bipartisan agreement
House Republicans have been on recess since September 19 after passing a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21
That bill has repeatedly failed in the Senate as Democrats demand an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill called the Shutdown Fairness Act that would have allowed pay for air traffic controllers, military troops and other essential federal workers the Office of Personnel Management has approved while the government is shut down
“I said this directly to the president with (House Speaker Mike) Johnson and (Senate Majority Leader John) Thune right next to me,” Jeffries said, referencing a White House meeting in late September to avert the current shutdown. “This does not get resolved until you decide to give permission to Republicans on Capitol Hill to negotiate a bipartisan resolution.”
House Republicans have been in recess since Sept. 19 after passing a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21. That bill has repeatedly failed in the Senate as Democrats demand an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that will otherwise expire at the end of the year.
The federal government has been closed since Oct. 1, when Democrats and Republicans in Congress failed to pass legislation that would fund it for the 2026 fiscal year. Hundreds of thousands of essential federal workers are now working without pay while others are furloughed.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bill called the Shutdown Fairness Act that would have allowed pay for air traffic controllers, military troops and other essential federal workers the Office of Personnel Management has approved while the government is shut down.
“Deranged Democrats just blocked our bill to pay essential workers who keep Americans safe. Why? They believe that forcing Americans to work without pay gives them leverage,” Senate Republicans wrote on X after the failed vote.
On Friday, Jeffries reiterated a point he has made multiple times since the shutdown began.
“We’re prepared to support any bipartisan legislation that comes out of the Senate that is designed to decisively address the Republican health care crisis, reopen the government and enact a bipartisan spending agreement that actually makes life better for the American people,” he said.
Jeffries cited Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report that inflation rose at an annual rate of 3% in September as evidence that Republican policies are not working. He said the upcoming health care open enrollment season will make it “even more significant for Congress and the president to deal with” the protracted shutdown as Americans begin to see increased costs for health insurance premiums, co-pays and deductibles in 2026.
He refuted the idea that Democrats bear responsibility for any lasting fallout from the shuttered government and pushed back on the Republican contention that their stalled funding bill continues spending levels approved during the Biden administration.
He said the spending levels the Republicans would like to extend are based on the Republican stopgap funding bill Congress passed in March to keep the government running through the end of September. That bill cut $13 billion for domestic programs, including Medicaid.
“That March spending bill wasn’t Biden-level spending. It was Trump partisan-level spending,” Jeffries said Friday.
“We’ve made clear we will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people. We’ve been saying that for six weeks. We have not moved off our position.”
Neither have Republicans, who insist the govenrment must reopen before any negotiations can happen.
“It’s becoming clearer by the day that Democrats don’t want an outcome, they want a political issue,” Thune wrote on X on Friday. “They’ve refused to reopen the government – 12 times. They’ve refused my offer to discuss Obamacare’s failures. They’ve refused my offer to hold a vote on their own proposal to address a problem they created. They’ve refused to pay the troops and federal employees who are working without a paycheck. The only thing they’ve said yes to? The Schumer Shutdown and political ‘leverage.’”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Thursday released an April 2022 Justice Department memo showing then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray personally approved an FBI investigation into alleged efforts by Trump campaign associates to obstruct Congress’ certification of the 2020 election.
Grassley posted the four-page memorandum on X, saying it proves top Biden administration officials “personally approved” the case — which he referred to as “Arctic Frost” — and that it “unleashed unchecked government power at the highest levels.”
The Iowa Republican added, “My oversight will continue.”
The April 2022 memo, signed by Garland, Monaco, and Wray, authorized the FBI’s Washington Field Office to open what the bureau designated a “Sensitive Investigative Matter.” The document details the FBI’s request to examine whether individuals connected to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign conspired to obstruct Congress’ certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Following the 2020 Presidential and Vice Presidential election, in an apparent effort to obstruct Congress’s certification of Electoral College, fraudulent certificates of electors’ votes were submitted to the Archivist of the United States, purporting to represent the actual elector votes from the states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin,” the executive summary reads. “Open source reporting and public statements made by individuals closely associated with Donald J. Trump, Inc. (Trump Campaign) present an articulable factual basis indicating the existence of a federal crime, and thus the FBI seeks to open a full investigation.
“Because this investigation involves a SIM as set forth in the Department of Justice memorandum dated February 5, 2020, entitled ‘Additional Requirements for Opening of Certain Sensitive Investigations’ (DOJ Memo), your authorization is required before WFO may initiate this full investigation,” the document continued.
Monaco wrote at the bottom of the document, “Merrick- I recommend you approve,” before initialing and dating it 4/5/22. Garland ultimately signed off on the investigation on the same day.
Sen. Chuck Grassley released a memo from former FBI Director Christopher Wray to former Attorney General Merrick Garland to open an investigation into the Trump Campaign in April 2022, for allegedly attempting to interfere with Congress’ certification of the 2020 election.(Samuel Corum-Pool, Anna Moneymaker and Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images)
The authorization came more than a year after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and months before now-former Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to oversee related investigations. The memo appears to document an early stage of the Justice Department’s examination of the so-called “fake electors” effort that became a focus of Smith’s probe.
In 2023, Smith subpoenaed phone records belonging to eight Republican senators and one House member, covering a four-day period — Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021 — to examine call activity around the Capitol riot. The subpoenas did not seek call content but instead listed numbers, dates and durations.
The targeted senators included Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Jack Smith, U.S. special counsel, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In addition to the eight senators, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday that he recently discovered Smith also attempted to subpoena his toll records but that his phone company, AT&T, did not hand them over.
Smith said the records were narrowly tailored and “entirely proper,” adding they were meant to support his investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
His lawyers wrote to Grassley, saying the subpoenas complied with Justice Department policy and were routine.
Republicans have broadly claimed they were inappropriately spied on and compared Arctic Frost to the Watergate scandal. Smith’s lawyers emphasized the normalcy of seeking phone records and said public officials are not immune from investigation.
Smith’s attorneys also disputed accusations from FBI Director Kash Patel that the subpoenas were hidden, noting the requests were referenced in a footnote of Smith’s final report and shared with Trump’s defense team in discovery.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.
To say that President Trump is unfazed by Saturday’s nationwide “No Kings” rally, which vies for bragging rights as perhaps the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, is the sort of understatement too typical when describing his monarchical outrages.
Leave aside Trump’s grotesque mockery of the protests — his post that night of an AI-generated video depicting himself as a becrowned pilot in a fighter jet, dropping poop bombs on citizens protesting peacefully below. Consider instead two other post-rally actions: On Sunday and Wednesday, “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth announced first that on Trump’s orders the military had struck a seventh boat off Venezuela and then an eighth vessel in the Pacific, bringing the number of people killed over two months to 34. The administration has provided no evidence to Congress or the American public for Trump’s claims that the unidentified dead were “narco-terrorists,” nor any credible legal rationale for the strikes. Then, on Monday, Trump began demolishing the White House’s East Wing to create the gilded ballroom of his dreams, which, at 90,000 square feet, would be nearly twice the size of the White House residence itself.
As sickening as the sight was — heavy equipment ripping away at the historic property as high-powered hoses doused the dusty debris — Trump’s $250-million vanity project is small stuff compared to a policy of killing noncombatant civilian citizens of nations with which we are not at war (Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador). Yet together the actions reflect the spectrum of consequences of Trump’s utter sense of impunity as president, from the relatively symbolic to the murderous.
“In America the law is king,” Thomas Paine wrote in 1776. Not in Trump’s America.
Among the commentariat, the president’s desecration of the East Wing is getting at least as much criticism as his extralegal killings at sea. Many critics see in the bulldozing of the People’s House a metaphor for Trump’s destructive governance generally — his other teardowns of federal agencies, life-saving foreign aid, healthcare benefits and more. The metaphor is indeed apt.
But what’s more striking is the sheer sense of impunity that Trump telegraphs, constantly, with the “je suis l’état” flare of a Louis XIV — complete (soon) with Trump’s Versailles. (Separately, Trump’s mimicry of French emperors now includes plans for a sort of Arc de Triomphe near Arlington Cemetery. A reporter asked who it would be for. “Me,” Trump said. Arc de Trump.)
No law, domestic or international, constrains him, as far as the convicted felon is concerned. Neither does Congress, where Republicans bend the knee. Nor the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 right-wing majority, including three justices Trump chose in his first term.
The court’s ruling last year in Trump vs. United States gives Trump virtual immunity from criminal prosecution, but U.S. servicemembers don’t have that protection when it comes to the deadly Caribbean Sea attacks or any other orders from the commander in chief that might one day be judged to have been illegal.
The operation’s commander, Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, reportedly expressed concerns about the strikes within the administration. Last week he announced his retirement after less than a year as head of the U.S. Southern Command. It could be a coincidence. But I’m hardly alone in counting Holsey as the latest casualty in Trump and Hegseth’s purge of perceived nonloyalists at the Pentagon.
“When the president decides someone has to die, the military becomes his personal hit squad,” military analyst and former Republican Tom Nichols said Monday on MSNBC. Just like with kings and other autocrats: Off with their heads.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a rare maverick Republican, noted on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that in years past, the Coast Guard would board foreign boats suspected of ferrying drugs and, if contraband were found, take it and suspected traffickers into custody, often gleaning information about higher-ups to make a real dent in the drug trade. But, Paul added, about one in four boats typically had no drugs. No matter nowadays — everyone’s a target for deadly force. “So,” Paul said, “all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.” (Paul was the only Republican senator not invited to lunch with Trump on Monday in the paved-over Rose Garden.)
On Monday, Ecuador said no evidence connects a citizen who survived a recent U.S. strike to any crime. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused the United States of murdering a fisherman in a September strike, provoking Trump to call Petro a “drug leader” and unilaterally yank U.S. foreign aid. A Venezuelan told the Washington Post that the 11 people killed in the first known U.S. strike were fishermen; national security officials told Congress the individuals were headed back to shore when hit. Meanwhile, the three countries and U.S. news reports contradict Trump’s claims that he’s destroying and seizing fentanyl — a drug that typically comes from Mexico and then is smuggled by land, usually by U.S. citizens.
Again, no matter to America’s king, who said last week that he’s eyeing land incursions in Venezuela now “because we’ve got the sea very well under control.” Trump’s courtiers say he doesn’t need Congress’ authorization for any use of force. The Constitution suggests otherwise.
Alas, neither it nor the law limits Trump’s White House makeover. He doesn’t have to submit to Congress because he’s tapping rich individuals and corporations for the cost. Past presidents, mindful that the house is a public treasure, not their palace, voluntarily sought input from various federal and nonprofit groups. After reports about the demolition, which put the lie to Trump’s promise in July that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building,” the American Institute of Architects urged its members to ask Congress to “investigate destruction of the White House.”
Disparate as they are, Trump’s ballroom project and his Caribbean killings were joined last week. At a White House dinner for ballroom donors, Trump joked about the sea strikes: “Nobody wants to go fishing anymore.” The pay-to-play titans laughed. Shame on them.
Trump acts with impunity because he can; he’s a lame duck. But other Republicans must face the voters. Keep the “No Kings” protests coming — right through the elections this November and next.
Socrates may have been claiming ignorance, Berra was talking about baseball, but both may as well have been talking about the government shutdown.
So when will it end?
“You shouldn’t ask me because I’m the guy who said it’ll only last five days,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said on Fox. “But I will tell you, a couple of Democrat senators recently indicated that they think this is going to go ‘til at least the first of November.”
However, Biggs added that he doesn’t “see an end in sight.”
Regardless… Is it even possible to game out when the government shutdown may end?
Congressional Republicans believed that Democrats would fold after a matter of days once funding lapsed in the wee hours of Oct. 1. Then Republicans argued that Democrats would cry “uncle” once federal workers missed their first paycheck last week. Later, the GOP suggested Democrats would keep the government shuttered through the “No Kings” rallies around the country last weekend.
The GOP argued that Democrats needed to show their base that they were “fighting” against President Donald Trump.
“Now that they had their protests, I just pray that they come to their senses and re-open the government this week,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., says he doesn’t “see an end in sight.” (Getty Images)
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of continually changing their reasons for why Democrats are blocking the GOP bill to fund the government.
“In a few days, it will be about something else,” Jeffries said.
So, we enter the ice age of Congressional inactivity as the government shutdown enters its fourth week.
Who could have predicted it?
Then again, who could have predicted thieves could make off with millions of dollars of jewelry inside the Louvre in an historic heist? At least the bandits stole our attention away from the government shutdown for a bit.
That said, everyone knows (even if they won’t say it publicly) who will likely end the government shutdown: Trump.
He’s not just the president. Trump has a sway over Republicans in Congress that Ronald Reagan could only envy. So until he joins the fray, the government will remain closed.
“Donald Trump definitively needs to get involved. He needs to get off the sidelines. Get off the golf course and actually decide to end the shutdown that he’s created and that he has allowed to happen,” Jeffries said.
“Donald Trump, instead of leaving the country before he leaves the country, should sit down and negotiate with us so we can address this horrible crisis,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “The president should meet with us. It’s not me, him or anything political. It’s that the people are in crisis every day.”
President Trump met with Republican lawmakers this week.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The president did meet with lawmakers this week, holding court with Senate Republicans for lunch in the renovated Rose Garden.
“Did you notice the white marble floor?” quipped the president.
But Democrats contend that Trump huddled with the wrong party. Schumer characterized it as “a Rose Garden pep rally.”
Trump implored Democrats to bend – and vote for the GOP spending bill.
“Shouldn’t the president get involved in negotiations at this stage to end this?” yours truly asked Johnson.
“We’re not going [to] pay a ransom to reopen the federal government,” replied the speaker.
“Isn’t the only key to end this shutdown to just have a sit-down negotiation with both sides?” I countered.
“Republicans have nothing to offer to Democrats,” replied Johnson.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., meanwhile, contends that “Republicans have nothing to offer Democrats.”(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
In fact, some Republicans argued that Trump shouldn’t even negotiate.
“If I’ve learned anything about President Trump, it’s his timing. I think that he feels like the timing is not right now. We’re winning the messaging war,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. “So there’ll be a time. But the time is not ripe yet.”
It’s unclear when that time may come, considering that the government has remained shuttered for more than three weeks.
And two weeks ago, Republicans torched Schumer for declaring things got “better” for Democrats the longer the shutdown dragged on, but shutdown fatigue is now setting in on Capitol Hill.
“Welcome to day 22 of the Democrats’ shutdown,” Johnson declared at the now sonorous daily press briefings delivered by both sides.
“This does suck,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on Fox Business about the shutdown.
Lawmakers are now seeking shutdown daylight.
“The hope is that we get this shutdown resolved before the end of the month,” Jeffries said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., expresses hope that the shutdown will be resolved by the end of the month.(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
There’s worry about how the shutdown might impact national parks.
“(Here are) the more negative consequences that we’ll start to see without regular staffing. Litter will pile up and park ecosystems will be affected,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark.
Both parties are convinced they’re prevailing in the shutdown.
“What I did hear on our telephone town hall repeatedly (is) ‘Don’t you guys give into these hostage takers,’” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho. “I heard that repeatedly.”
“It’s resonating with Americans. What I’m hearing from people in Connecticut is ‘hang tough,’” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
The Senate holds a test vote Thursday on a bill to pay essential workers who are on the job without a paycheck, but Democrats are skeptical.
“I’d be in favor of paying the federal workers,” said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. “That bill, unfortunately, gives a lot of latitude to the president to pick and choose, or, I should say, (White House Budget Director) Russell Vought to pick and choose (who gets paid).”
So while shutdown weariness sets in, no one knows when it might end.
It is said that knowing what you don’t know actually constitutes true knowledge.
And if no one knows the end of the shutdown, that must mean that everyone is pretty smart.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
Democrats pulled out all the stops on Wednesday to delay the vote on a short-term spending bill to reopen the government — the 12th time the Senate has considered the measure since the government entered a shutdown on Oct. 1.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., embarked on a nearly 24-hour speech at 6:23 p.m. on Tuesday, concluding his remarks at 5:00 p.m. the next day. Merkley, 68, warned viewers of the authoritarianism he said had become a facet of the Trump administration.
“Be aware and worried about the possibility of the use of an emergency in order to expand authoritarian power. That’s the position we’re in now in the United States of America. Authoritarianism with a rubber-stamp Congress, a court that’s delivering more and more power to the executive and an executive who has a well-planned strategy,” Merkley said in his remarks.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks to reporters following a weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 19, 2025.(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Republicans have shut down the government to continue the strategy of slashing Americans’ healthcare,” he said.
His speech comes as lawmakers remain gridlocked over federal funding for 2026. Whereas Republicans in the House of Representatives have passed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through Nov. 21, Democrats in the Senate have voted a dozen times to defeat the package.
The Senate once again failed to advance the package on Wednesday. It failed in a 54-46 vote.
Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have demanded an extension of COVID-era supplemental funding for Obamacare healthcare subsidies that are set to sunset in 2025.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, update reporters following their face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump and Republican leaders on the government funding crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025.(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
Republicans need the support of seven Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. The GOP holds 53 seats in the chamber.
Merkley, who came close to breaking Sen. Cory Booker’s 25-hour and 4-minute record that was set earlier this year, put the shutdown blame on Republicans throughout his discourse.
Booker praised Merkley’s stalling efforts online.
“Listening to Senator Jeff Merkley for over 22 hours, it is clear that we need to stand up for our democracy. We must continue to call out and counter Trump’s authoritarian tactics. Thank you, Jeff!” Booker said in a post on X.
On the issue of authoritarianism, which comprised the bulk of Merkley’s remarks, Merkley decried what he saw as the Trump administration’s attempts to push the limits on executive power — like its deployment of the National Guard to urban areas.
“If you remove a clear standard as to whether there is a rebellion and just say a president can deploy the military on a whim in places he doesn’t like against peaceful protesters to distract Americans or to exercise a suppression of dissent, then you have flung the doors open to tyranny. To a strongman state,” Merkley said.
National Guard members began patrolling Memphis in October as part of a federal task force established by President Donald Trump to combat what the administration says is violent crime in the city. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and Portland, Oregon, citing a need to protect law enforcement and government operations in those cities.
Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.
SAN FRANCISCO — State Sen. Scott Wiener couldn’t wait any longer. The once-in-a-generation political opening he’d eyed for years had arrived, he decided — whether the grand dame of San Francisco politics agreed or not.
On Wednesday, Wiener, 55, a prolific and ambitious lawmaker, formally announced his candidacy for the San Francisco congressional seat held for nearly four decades by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 85, who remains one of the party’s most powerful leaders and has yet to reveal her own intentions for the 2026 race.
“The world is changing, the Democratic Party is changing, and it’s time,” Wiener said in an interview with The Times. “I know San Francisco, I have worked tirelessly to represent this community — delivering housing, health care, clean energy, LGBTQ and immigrant rights — and I have a fortitude and backbone to be able to deliver for San Francisco in Congress.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced Wednesdat that he will run for the congressional seat currently held by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(Josh Edelson/For The Times)
Wiener’s announcement — which leaked in part last week — caught some political observers off guard, given Wiener had for years seemed resigned to run for Pelosi’s seat only once she stepped aside. But it stunned few, given how squarely it fit within the broader political moment facing the Democratic Party.
In recent years, a long-simmering reckoning over generational power has exploded into the political forefront as members of the party’s old guard have increasingly been accused of holding on too long, and to their party’s detriment.
Long-serving liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruffled many Democratic feathers by declining to step down during Barack Obama’s presidency despite being in her 80s. She subsequently died while still on the court at the age of 87 in 2020, handing President Trump his third appointment to the high court.
Visitors walk past a bust of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein at San Francisco City Hall. The former mayor of San Francisco served in the Senate until she died in 2023 at age 90.
(Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
As a result, age has become an unavoidable tension point for Democrats heading into next year’s midterm elections.
It has also been an issue for Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 83, the former Senate majority leader who has faced health issues in recent years and is retiring in 2026 after more than 40 years in the Senate. Other older Republicans are facing primary challenges for being perceived as too traditional or insufficiently loyal to Trump or the MAGA movement — including Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), 73 and in office since 2002, and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), 68 and in the Senate since 2015.
For decades, many conservatives have called for congressional term limits in opposition to “career politicians” who cling to power for too long. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and David Trone, a Maryland Democrat, renewed those calls on Wednesday, announcing in an op-ed published in the New York Times that they would co-chair a national campaign to push for term limits.
However, perhaps because they are in power, the calls for a generational shake-up in 2026 have not been nearly as loud on the Republican side.
Democratic Party activists have sounded the alarm about a quickening slide into gerontocracy on the political left, blamed it for their party’s inability to mount an energetic and effective response to Trump and his MAGA movement, and called for younger candidates to take the reins — while congressional leaders in their 70s and 80s have increasingly begun weighing their options in the face of primary challenges.
“It’s fair to say the political appetite for octogenarians is not high,” said Eric Jaye, a veteran Democratic strategist in San Francisco.
“The choice in front of people is not just age,” said Saikat Chakrabarti, a 39-year-old tech millionaire and Democratic political operative who is also running for Pelosi’s seat. “We need a whole different approach and different candidates.”
“There’s like this unspoken rule that you don’t do what we’re doing in this moment. You sit out and wait your turn,” said Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, 40, who has launched a primary challenge to Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento), who is 81 and has been in Congress since 2005. “But I’m not going to wait on the sidelines, because there is an urgency of now.”
A national trend
The generational shift promises to reshape Congress by replacing Democrats across the country, including some who are leaving without a fight.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, 78 and a senator representing New Hampshire since 2009, said in March that it was “time” to step aside.
In Illinois, Sen. Richard Durbin, 80 and a senator since 1997, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 81 and in the House since 1999, both announced in May that they would not run again. Durbin said it was time “to pass the torch,” while Schakowsky praised younger “voices” in the party as “so sharp.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, 78 and in the House since 1992, announced his retirement last month, saying that “watching the Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party.”
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks at a news conference.
(Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Other older Democrats, meanwhile, have shown no intention of stepping aside, or are seeking out new roles in power.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, 77, recently announced she is running to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is 72 and has been in the Senate since 1997. Mills has tried to soften concerns about her age by promising to serve just one term if elected.
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, 79 and in the Senate since 2013, has stiffly rebuffed a primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton, 46, accusing Moulton of springing a challenge on him amid a shutdown and while he is busy resisting Trump’s agenda.
In Connecticut, Rep. John Larson, 77, who has been in office since 1999 and suffered a complex partial seizure on the House floor in February, has mocked his primary challengers’ message of generational change, telling Axios, “Generational change is fine, but you’ve got to earn it.”
David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., speaks at the 2022 March for Our Lives.
(Leigh Vogel / Getty Images for March For Our Lives)
David Hogg, a 25-year-old liberal activist who was thrust into politics by the 2018 mass shooting at his Parkland, Fla., high school, is among the party’s younger leaders pushing for new blood. He recently declined to seek reelection as the co-vice chair of the Democratic National Committee to bring primary challenges to older Democratic incumbents with his group Leaders We Deserve.
When he announced that decision in June, Hogg called the idea that Democratic leaders can stay in power until they die even if they don’t do a good job an “existential threat to the future of this party and nation.” His group fundraises and disperses money to young candidates it backs.
When asked by The Times about Pelosi and her primary challengers, however, Hogg was circumspect, calling Pelosi “one of the most effective and consequential leaders in the history of the Democratic Party.”
A shift in California
Pelosi is not the only older California incumbent facing a primary challenge. In addition to Matsui, the list also includes Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch), who is 70 and has been in office since 1997, and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), who is 74 and has been in office since 1999.
But Pelosi’s challenges have attracted more attention, perhaps in part because her departure from Congress would be the clearest sign yet that the generational shift sought by younger party activists is fully underway.
Nancy Pelosi is sworn in as House speaker in 2007, surrounded by her grandchildren and children of other members of Congress.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
A trailblazer as the first female speaker of the House, Pelosi presided over two Trump impeachments. While no longer in leadership, she remains incredibly influential as an arm-twister and strategist.
She played a central role in sidelining Biden after his debate meltdown, and for the last couple months has been raising big money — a special skill of hers — in support of California’s Proposition 50. The measure seeks voter approval to redraw California’s congressional districts to better favor Democrats in response to Trump’s pressure campaign on Texas and other red states to redraw their lines in favor of Republicans.
Pelosi has used Prop. 50 in recent days to deflect questions about her primary challengers and her plans for 2026, with her spokesman Ian Krager saying she “is fully focused” on the Prop 50 fight and will be through Nov. 4.
Chakrabarti, who helped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) unseat a longtime Democratic incumbent in 2019, said he sees even more “appetite for change” among the party’s base today — as evidenced by “mainstream Democrats who have voted for Nancy Pelosi their whole life” showing up to his events.
And it makes sense, he said.
For decades, Americans have watched the cost of essentials skyrocket while their wages have remained relatively flat, Chakrabarti said, and that has made them desperate to support messages of “bold, sweeping economic change” — whether from Obama or Trump — even as long-serving, mainstream Democrats backed by corporate money have worked to maintain the status quo.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez leaves a news conference at the Capitol in 2019. At left is Saikat Chakrabarti, who was her chief of staff and is now a candidate for the congressional seat held by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag)
He said it is time for Democrats to once again push bold, big ideas, which he plans to do — including Medicare for all, universal child care, free college tuition, millions of new units of affordable housing, a new economy built around climate action, and higher taxes on billionaires and mega-millionaires like him.
Wiener, who also backs Prop. 50 and would be the first out gay person to represent San Francisco in Congress, said he cannot speak to Pelosi’s thinking — or to Politico reporting Wednesday that Pelosi is considering her options and has been seen “publicly elevating” San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan in the race — but is confident in his readiness for the role.
Wiener agreed with Chakrabarti that big ideas are needed from Democrats to win back voters and make progress. He also said that his track record in the state Legislature shows that he has “been willing to take on very, very big fights to make significant progressive change.”
“No one has ever accused me of thinking small,” he said — citing his success in passing bills to create more affordable housing, reform health insurance and drug pricing, tackle net neutrality, challenge telecommunications and cable companies and protect LGBTQ+ and other minority communities and immigrants.
“In addition to having the desire to make big progressive change, in addition to talking about big progressive change, you have to be able to put together the coalitions to deliver on that change, because words are not enough,” Wiener said. “I’ve shown over and over again that I know how to do it, and that I can deliver.”
Political analysts said a message of big ideas will clearly resonate with some voters. But they also said that Pelosi, if she stays in the race, will be hard to beat. She will also face more serious questions than ever about her age and “her ability to function at the extraordinarily high level” she has worked at in years past, Jaye said, and will “have to answer those questions.”
If Pelosi decides not to run, Chakrabarti has the benefit of self-funding and of the current party enthusiasm for fresh faces, they said, and anyone — Chan or otherwise — would benefit from a Pelosi endorsement. But Wiener already has a strong base in the district, a track record for getting legislation passed and, as several observers pointed out, a seemingly endless battery.
“Scott Wiener is an animal. The notion of work-life balance is not a concept he has ever had. He is just like a robotic working machine,” said Aaron Peskin, who served 18 years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, some alongside Wiener.
Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Oakland) speaks to reporters at the Capitol in September.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Amanda Litman, the president of Run for Something, which supports young progressive candidates, said there is pent-up demand for a new generation of leaders, and “older Democrats, especially those in Congress, need to ask themselves, ‘Am I the best person to lead this party forward right now?’”
Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Oakland), 48, won her seat in 2024 after longtime Rep. Barbara Lee, 79, who had been in the seat since 1998, decided to run for Oakland mayor. Simon said that to her, “it’s not necessarily about birthdays” but who can do the job — “who can govern, who can mentor and who can hold this administration accountable.”
As a longtime community activist who worked with youth, Simon said she is “extremely excited” by all the energy of young Democratic office seekers. But as a freshman in Congress who has leaned on Lee, Pelosi and other mentors to help her learn the ropes, she said it’s also clear Democrats need to “have some generals who are really, really tried and tested.”
“What is not helpful to me in this moment,” Simon said, “is for the Democrats to be a circular firing squad.”
Over the past decade, Donald Trump’s opponents have struggled to find an effective answer to the rise of right-wing authoritarianism. There have been deeply earnest sign-carrying boomers. There have been antifa-inflected black-clad protesters ready to spar with militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
FIRST ON FOX – A former longtime Navy SEAL and fifth-generation Kentucky farmer who is backed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday declared his candidacy in the state’s 4th Congressional District, as he challenges Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in next year’s GOP primary.
“I’ve dedicated my life to serving my country, and I’m ready to answer the call again,” Ed Gallrein said in a statement shared first with Fox News Digital.
And pointing to Massie, a frequent GOP critic of the president during his second term in the White House, Gallrein emphasized, “This district is Trump Country. The President doesn’t need obstacles in Congress – he needs backup. I’ll defeat Thomas Massie, stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, and deliver the America First results Kentuckians voted for.”
The campaign launch comes four days after Trump took to social media to praise Gallrein, urge him to run, and blast Massie.
Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, arrives for a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump argued that Massie was a “Third Rate Congressman,” a “Weak and Pathetic RINO,” and a “totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly.”
And the president applauded Gallrein, calling him a “Brave Combat Veteran” and a “very successful Businessman” who, if elected to Congress, would “fight tirelessly to Keep our now very Secure Border, SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”
Trump’s social media post included a photo of himself and Gallrein holding red MAGA hats in the Oval Office.
Gallrein served three decades in uniform, rising to the rank of Captain. According to his campaign bio, he served multiple times on SEAL Team SIX, deploying to Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and earned four Bronze Stars and two Presidential Unit Citations.
Ed Gallrein, left, seen with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, on Tuesday launched a congressional bid to primary challenge Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Gallrein’s campaign launch comes four days after Trump backed him and urged him to run.(Ed Gallrein congressional campaign)
His campaign release also highlighted that “Gallrein’s roots run deep in Kentucky.” He was born and raised in the state. And his family, which has farmed for over a century, built Kentucky’s largest dairy farm and Gallrein Grain Farms, one of the state’s largest grain operations.
Massie took aim at Gallrein following Trump’s social media endorsement, calling him a “failed candidate and establishment hack,” as he pointed to Gallrein’s unsuccessful run last year for the state Senate.
“After having been rejected by every elected official in the 4th District, Trump’s consultants clearly pushed the panic button with their choice of failed candidate and establishment hack Ed Gallrein,” Massie said in a statement to Politico. “Ed’s been begging them to pick him for over three months now.”
Trump started targeting Massie for ouster earlier this year over the seven-term lawmaker’s opposition to the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed the GOP-controlled Congress early in the summer nearly entirely along party lines. The sweeping GOP megalaw is the president’s major legislative achievement since returning to the White House.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) during a news conference with alleged victims of disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Massie is also leading the push, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, in forcing a House floor vote to urge the release of the Justice Department’s files on the late convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a move the White House and House GOP leaders have aimed to counter. Massie is on the verge of reaching the needed 218 signatures to force the vote.
Two top Trump political advisers — 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio — in June launched a super PAC that aims to defeat Massie. Nearly $2 million has been spent already to run TV ads targeting Massie.
But Massie has used the attacks from Trump and his allies to boost fundraising, hauling in more than $750,000 the past three months, which was the best fundraising quarter of his congressional career.
Massie’s district, in the northeastern part of the state, includes Louisville’s eastern suburbs and Cincinnati’s Kentucky suburbs.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.”
The government shutdown is entering a fourth week as Democrats and Republicans blame each other for holding the country “hostage.” Caught in the middle, federal workers, government services, and the economy are all feeling the impact. Previous shutdowns have seen reduced overall economic growth, disproportionately affecting certain industries. National parks and museums remain closed, flight delays are mounting, and backlogs for new small business loans and flood insurance renewals are growing.Republicans continue to accuse Democrats of blocking paychecks by refusing to reopen the government, while Democrats argue that Republicans are unwilling to negotiate over the core issue of health care funding. “Congressional Democrats seem to want to keep the government shut down even though it would mean that a lot of you would not get your paycheck,” Vice President JD Vance said in remarks to an audience of Marines celebrating the 250th anniversary Saturday.Democrats pushed back in “No Kings” protests across the country.”They’re the ones acting like children refusing to negotiate with Democrats in the Senate who they know have to vote for a budget in order for it to become law,” Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview Saturday.The shutdown has had a sizable impact as uncertainty weighs on the federal workforce. Under the Trump administration’s direction, federal agencies have been planning not just furloughs but also permanent layoffs. However, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the firings, deeming them potentially illegal.Public perception of who is to blame has been roughly evenly split. A new Associated Press poll finds that a majority, about 6 in 10 Americans, blame President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. An even larger majority, three-quarters of Americans, believe both sides deserve at least a “moderate” share of the blame, suggesting that no one has truly escaped responsibility for the shutdown.Watch the latest coverage on the federal government shutdown:
WASHINGTON —
The government shutdown is entering a fourth week as Democrats and Republicans blame each other for holding the country “hostage.” Caught in the middle, federal workers, government services, and the economy are all feeling the impact.
Previous shutdowns have seen reduced overall economic growth, disproportionately affecting certain industries.
National parks and museums remain closed, flight delays are mounting, and backlogs for new small business loans and flood insurance renewals are growing.
Republicans continue to accuse Democrats of blocking paychecks by refusing to reopen the government, while Democrats argue that Republicans are unwilling to negotiate over the core issue of health care funding.
“Congressional Democrats seem to want to keep the government shut down even though it would mean that a lot of you would not get your paycheck,” Vice President JD Vance said in remarks to an audience of Marines celebrating the 250th anniversary Saturday.
Democrats pushed back in “No Kings” protests across the country.
“They’re the ones acting like children refusing to negotiate with Democrats in the Senate who they know have to vote for a budget in order for it to become law,” Sen. Chris Murphy said in an interview Saturday.
The shutdown has had a sizable impact as uncertainty weighs on the federal workforce. Under the Trump administration’s direction, federal agencies have been planning not just furloughs but also permanent layoffs. However, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the firings, deeming them potentially illegal.
Public perception of who is to blame has been roughly evenly split. A new Associated Press poll finds that a majority, about 6 in 10 Americans, blame President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. An even larger majority, three-quarters of Americans, believe both sides deserve at least a “moderate” share of the blame, suggesting that no one has truly escaped responsibility for the shutdown.
Watch the latest coverage on the federal government shutdown:
President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who is serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.
The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.
He reported to Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, on July 25 and is being housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.
“I just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump posted on his social media platform.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” he wrote.
Andrew Mancilla, one of Santos’ lawyers, said Friday he was “very, very happy with the decision,” though he said it’s unclear at this point when Santos will be released.
“The defense team applauds President Trump for doing the right thing,” Mancilla said by phone. “The sentence was far too long.”
Santos has been in prison for 84 days. During his time behind bars, he has been writing regular dispatches in a local Long Island newspaper, The South Shore Press.
In his latest letter, published Oct. 13, Santos pleaded to Trump directly, citing his fealty to the president’s agenda and to the Republican Party.
“Sir, I appeal to your sense of justice and humanity — the same qualities that have inspired millions of Americans to believe in you,” he wrote. “I humbly ask that you consider the unusual pain and hardship of this environment and allow me the opportunity to return to my family, my friends, and my community.”
A prominent former House colleague, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, also urged the White House to commute his sentence, saying in a letter sent just days into his prison bid that the punishment was “a grave injustice” and a product of judicial overreach.
The judge in Santos’ case had agreed with federal prosecutors that a stiffer sentence was warranted because Santos didn’t seem remorseful, despite what he and his lawyers claimed.
Santos’ commutation is Trump’s latest high-profile act of clemency for former Republican politicians since retaking the White House in January.
In late May, he pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who in 2014 pleaded guilty to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan.
He also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.
Trump himself was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving hush money payments. He derided the case as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.
Santos was once an up-and-coming star for the GOP.
He became the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress in 2022, flipping a House seat representing parts of Queens and Long Island.
But Santos served less than a year in office after it was revealed that he had fabricated much of his life story, which in turn led to investigations into how the then-unknown politician had funded his winning campaign.
A son of Brazilian immigrants, Santos had claimed he was a successful business consultant with Wall Street cred and a sizable real estate portfolio.
He eventually admitted he had never graduated from Baruch College — or been a standout player on the Manhattan college’s volleyball team, as he had claimed. He had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
He wasn’t even Jewish. Santos insisted he meant he was “Jew-ish” because his mother’s family had a Jewish background, even though he was raised Catholic.
In truth, the then-34-year-old was struggling financially and even faced eviction.
Santos was charged in 2023 with stealing from donors and his campaign, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits and lying to Congress about his wealth.
The odds of a prolonged federal government shutdown stretching into mid-November have jumped as negotiations to pass a funding bill continue stalling in the Senate, according to Polymarket betting odds.
Newsweek reached out to spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The government shutdown began October 1 after legislators failed to reach consensus on a bill that would allocate funding to the federal government, and the stoppage could last several more weeks, as Democrats and Republicans continue to remain at odds over key issues to broker a deal.
There are many impacts of government shutdowns—hundreds of thousands of federal workers may be unpaid or furloughed, and there can be disruptions to passport processing applications, national parks and government benefits.
Republicans control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but the Senate filibuster requires 60 votes to advance bills, so the continuing resolution has to gain more bipartisan support to pass. Democrats have pushed for concessions on health care funding, but Republicans have sought to pass a bill that already advanced through the House.
What To Know
The likelihood of the shutdown lasting another month has increased over the past few days, according to Polymarket, which showed a 38 percent chance of the shutdown lasting until November 16, as of 4:30 p.m. ET Friday.
That’s up from only about 10 percent a week ago.
Polymarket on Friday gave the shutdown a 17 percent chance of ending from October 31 to November 3, and a 15 percent chance from November 4 to November 7.
There is a 9 percent chance it ends from November 12 to November 15, according to Polymarket.
Polymarket traders have bet nearly $500,000 on the date that the federal government will reopen.
Kalshi showed similar results. It gave a 70 percent chance that the shutdown would last 35 days and become the longest in U.S. history, a 51 percent chance that it would last more than 40 days and a 39 percent chance it would stretch over 45 days.
The Senate again voted Thursday on the bill to end the shutdown, but there has been no movement in the more than two weeks since it began. Only two Democratic senators—Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania—voted in favor of the bill.
Thune sent the Senate home after the vote, meaning the shutdown will last until at least Monday. The House of Representatives has not been in session since September 19.
The Republican leader told MSNBC on Thursday that he has told Democratic leaders he is willing to make a deal to hold a vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies that are poised to end if Congress does not act. This has been a sticking point for Democrats, but it has yet to be seen whether his offer is enough to convince others to change their vote.
What People Are Saying
Schumer, on X Wednesday: “If Republicans continue to ignore the healthcare crisis they’ve manufactured: People will go bankrupt People will get sick People will lose insurance People will fail to get the care they need and more people will needlessly die.”
Thune, on MSNBC Thursday: “There is a bill sitting at the desk right now that opens up the government, and you all know that. The president would sign it today. It’s simply a function of five Democrats joining the three Democrats who are already voting to open up the government. And I think that’s the quickest way to end this.”
Cortez-Masto, in a statement September 30: ““President Trump and Congressional Republicans are already hurting Nevadans who are dealing with high costs, an economic slowdown, and a looming health care crisis. This administration doesn’t care about Nevadans, but I do. That’s why I cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration.”
What Happens Next
The Senate is set to reconvene Monday, and a deal to bring the shutdown to an end will be a top priority. The House has canceled votes and is unlikely to return until the shutdown is over.
President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who is serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges.
What You Need To Know
President Donald Trump said Friday he had commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, who is serving more than seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty to fraud and identity theft charges
The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign
He reported to Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, on July 25 and is being housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates
The New York Republican was sentenced in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.
He reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, in southern New Jersey, on July 25 and is being housed in a minimum security prison camp with fewer than 50 other inmates.
“George Santos was somewhat of a ‘rogue,’ but there are many rogues throughout our Country that aren’t forced to serve seven years in prison,” Trump posted on his social media platform. He said he had “just signed a Commutation, releasing George Santos from prison, IMMEDIATELY.”
“Good luck George, have a great life!” Trump said.
Joseph Murray, one of Santos’ lawyers, said late Friday that the former lawmaker’s family was en route to the prison for his release. Andrew Mancilla, another Santos lawyer, applauded the president “for doing the right thing.”
Spokespersons for the Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Santos’ account on X, which has been active throughout his roughly 84 days in prison, reposted a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post Friday.
During his time behind bars, Santos has been writing regular dispatches in a local newspaper on Long Island, in which he mainly complained about the prison conditions.
In his latest letter, though, he pleaded to Trump directly, citing his fealty to the president’s agenda and to the Republican Party.
“Sir, I appeal to your sense of justice and humanity — the same qualities that have inspired millions of Americans to believe in you,” he wrote in The South Shore Press on Oct. 13. “I humbly ask that you consider the unusual pain and hardship of this environment and allow me the opportunity to return to my family, my friends, and my community.”
Santos’ commutation is Trump’s latest high-profile act of clemency for former Republican politicians since retaking the White House in January.
In late May, he pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who in 2014 pleaded guilty to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan. He also pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, whose promising political career was upended by a corruption scandal and two federal prison stints.
But in granting clemency to Santos, Trump was rewarding a figure who has drawn scorn from within his own party.
After becoming the first openly gay Republican elected to Congress in 2022, Santos served less than a year after it was revealed that he had fabricated much of his life story.
On the campaign trail, Santos had claimed he was a successful business consultant with Wall Street cred and a sizable real estate portfolio. But when his resume came under scrutiny, Santos eventually admitted he had never graduated from Baruch College — or been a standout player on the Manhattan college’s volleyball team, as he had claimed. He had never worked at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
He wasn’t even Jewish. Santos insisted he meant he was “Jew-ish” because his mother’s family had a Jewish background, even though he was raised Catholic.
In truth, the then-34-year-old was struggling financially and even faced eviction.
Santos was charged in 2023 with stealing from donors and his campaign, fraudulently collecting unemployment benefits and lying to Congress about his wealth.
Still, a prominent former House colleague, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, urged the White House to commute Santos’ sentence, saying in a letter sent just days into his prison bid that the punishment was “a grave injustice” and a product of judicial overreach.
Greene was among those who cheered the announcement Friday. But U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican who represents part of Long Island and has been highly critical of Santos, said in a post on social media that Santos “didn’t merely lie” and his crimes “warrant more than a three-month sentence.”
“He should devote the rest of his life to demonstrating remorse and making restitution to those he wronged,” LaLota said.
Santos’ clemency appears to clear not just his prison term, but also any “further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions,” according to a copy of Trump’s order posted on X by Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.
As part of his guilty plea, Santos had agreed to pay restitution of $373,750 and forfeiture of $205,003.
In explaining his reason for granting Santos clemency, Trump said the lies Santos told about himself were no worse than misleading statements U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal — a Democrat and frequent critic of the administration — had made about his military record.
Blumenthal apologized 15 years ago for implying that he served in Vietnam, when he was stateside in the Marine Reserve during the war.
“This is far worse than what George Santos did, and at least Santos had the Courage, Conviction, and Intelligence to ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!” Trump wrote.
The president himself was convicted in a New York court last year in a case involving hush money payments. He derided the case as part of a politically motivated witch hunt.
Many leading progressive senators are sitting on the sidelines despite their leaders backing Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who jumped into the race this week.
Senate Democrats are poised for the 10th time Thursday to reject a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won’t back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits.
The repetition of votes on the funding bill has become a daily drumbeat in Congress, underscoring how intractable the situation has become as it has been at times the only item on the agenda for the Senate floor. House Republicans have left Washington altogether. The standoff has lasted over two weeks, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, even more without a guaranteed payday and Congress essentially paralyzed.
“Every day that goes by, there are more and more Americans who are getting smaller and smaller paychecks,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, adding that there have been thousands of flight delays across the country as well.
Thune, a South Dakota Republican, again and again has tried to pressure Democrats to break from their strategy of voting against the stopgap funding bill. It hasn’t worked. And while some bipartisan talks have been ongoing about potential compromises on health care, they haven’t produced any meaningful progress toward reopening the government.
Democrats say they won’t budge until they get a guarantee on extending subsidies for health plans offered under Affordable Care Act marketplaces. They warned that millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance — such as small business owners, farmers and contractors — will see large increases when premium prices go out in the coming weeks. Looking ahead to a Nov. 1 deadline in most states, they think voters will demand that Republicans enter into serious negotiations.
“We have to do something, and right now, Republicans are letting these tax credits expire,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Still, Thune was also trying a different tack Thursday with a vote to proceed to appropriations bills — a move that could grease the Senate’s wheels into some action or just deepen the divide between the two parties.
A deadline for subsidies on health plans
Democrats have rallied around their priorities on health care as they hold out against voting for a Republican bill that would reopen the government. Yet they also warn that the time to strike a deal to prevent large increases for many health plans is drawing short.
When they controlled Congress during the pandemic, Democrats boosted subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans. It pushed enrollment under President Barack Obama’s signature health care law to new levels and drove the rate of uninsured people to a historic low. Nearly 24 million people currently get their health insurance from subsidized marketplaces, according to health care research nonprofit KFF.
Democrats — and some Republicans — are worried that many of those people will forgo insurance if the price rises dramatically. While the tax credits don’t expire until next year, health insurers will soon send out notices of the price increases. In most states, they go out Nov. 1.
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she has heard from “families who are absolutely panicking about their premiums that are doubling.”
“They are small business owners who are having to think about abandoning the job they love to get employer-sponsored health care elsewhere or just forgoing coverage altogether,” she added.
Murray also said that if many people decide to leave their health plan, it could have an effect across medical insurance because the pool of people under health plans will shrink. That could result in higher prices across the board, she said.
Some Republicans have acknowledged that the expiration of the tax credits could be a problem and floated potential compromises to address it, but there is hardly a consensus among the GOP.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., this week called the COVID-era subsidies a “boondoggle,” adding that “when you subsidize the health care system and you pay insurance companies more, the prices increase.”
President Donald Trump has said he would “like to see a deal done for great health care,” but has not meaningfully weighed into the debate. And Thune has insisted that Democrats first vote to reopen the government before entering any negotiations on health care.
If Congress were to engage in negotiations on significant changes to health care, it would likely take weeks, if not longer, to work out a compromise.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., slammed the expiring Obamacare subsidies at the center of the government funding standoff as a “boondoggle” as the shutdown approaches the two-week mark with no end in sight.
Votes on appropriations bills
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are setting up a vote Thursday to proceed to a bill to fund the Defense Department and several other areas of government. This would turn the Senate to Thune’s priority of working through spending bills and potentially pave the way to paying salaries for troops, though the House would eventually need to come back to Washington to vote for a final bill negotiated between the two chambers.
Thune said it would be a step toward getting “the government funded in the traditional way, which is through the annual appropriations process.”
It wasn’t clear whether Democrats would give the support needed to advance the bills. They discussed the idea at their luncheon Wednesday and emerged saying they wanted to review the Republican proposal and make sure it included appropriations that are priorities for them.
While the votes will not bring the Senate any closer to an immediate fix for the government shutdown, it could at least turn their attention to issues where there is some bipartisan agreement.
A government shutdown occurs when Congress fails to pass a budget before the start of the new fiscal year. Here’s what you need to know.
Stephen Groves | The Associated Press and Mary Clare Jalonick | The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court may help the GOP keep control of the House of Representatives next year by clearing the way for Republican-led states to redraw election districts now held by Black Democrats.
That prospect formed the backdrop on Wednesday as the justices debated the future of the Voting Rights Act in a case from Louisiana.
The Trump administration’s top courtroom attorney urged he justices to rule that partisan politics, not racial fairness, should guide the drawing election districts for Congress and state legislatures.
“This court held that race-based affirmative action in higher education must come to an end,” Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer wrote in his brief. The same is true, he said, for using the Voting Rights Act to draw legislative districts that are likely to elect a Black or Latino candidate.
Too often, he said, the civil rights law has been “deployed as a form of electoral race-based affirmative action to undo a state’s constitutional pursuit of political ends.”
The court’s conservatives lean in that direction and sought to limit the use of race for drawing district boundaries. But the five-member majority has not struck down the use of race for drawing district lines.
But the Trump administration and Louisiana’s Republican leaders argued that now was the time to do so.
If the court’s conservatives hand down such a ruling in the months ahead, it would permit Republican-led states across the South to redraw the congressional districts of a dozen or more Black Democrats.
“There’s reason for alarm,” said Harvard law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulous. “The consequences for minority representation would likely be devastating. In particular, states with unified Republican governments would have a green light to flip as many Democratic minority-opportunity districts as possible.”
Such a ruling would also upend the Voting Rights Act as it had been understood since the 1980s.
As originally enacted in 1965, the historic measure put the federal government on the side of Blacks in registering to vote and casting ballots.
But in 1982, Republicans and Democrats in Congress took note that these new Black voters were often shut out of electing anyone to office. White lawmakers could draw maps that put whites in the majority in all or nearly all the districts.
Seeking a change, Congress amended the law to allow legal challenges when discrimination results in minority voters having “less opportunity … to elect representatives of their choice.”
In decades after, the Supreme Court and the Justice Department pressed the states, and the South in particular, to draw at least some electoral districts that were likely to elect a Black candidate. These legal challenges turned on evidence that white voters in the state would not support a Black candidate.
But since he joined the court in 1991, Justice Clarence Thomas has argued that drawing districts based on race is unconstitutional and should be prohibited. Justices Samuel A. Alito, Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented with Thomas two years ago when the court by a 5-4 vote approved a second congressional district in Alabama that elected a Black Democrat.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts wrote the opinion. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh cast the deciding fifth vote but also said he was open to the argument that “race-based redistricting cannot extend indefinitely into the future.”
It has six congressional districts, and about one-third of its population is Black.
Prior to this decade, the New Orleans area elected a Black representative, and in response to a voting right suit, it was ordered to draw a second district where a Black candidate had a good chance to win.
But to protect its leading House Republicans — Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise — the state drew a new elongated district that elected Rep. Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat.
Now the state and the Trump administration argue the court should strike down that district because it was drawn based on race and free the state to replace him with a white Republican.
