‘A Wise Man Sometimes Says Nothing’

Today’s notice: Trump answers the question no one asked, and then does it again. Inside “the box” at Alligator Alcatraz. ACA subsidies run into trouble in the House Republican Conference. A scoop about the Senate race in Minnesota. A scoop about the fight over language at the NIH.

THE LATEST

‘This is NOT the appropriate response’ was the take from Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Donald Trump after the president blamed the killings of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, on “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Ellis was not alone, with retiring Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and consistent Trump critic Rep. Thomas Massie topping the list of Republicans who publicly posted condemnations of Trump’s response to the deaths.

Lest you think that was a staffer with Trump’s Truth Social password, the president doubled down in the Oval Office yesterday. “He was a deranged person, as far as Trump is concerned,” Trump told reporters. “He was bad for our country.”

Hypocrisy feels like a key feature of our time, but it is important to remember that refusing to mourn, or mourning the wrong way, was worthy of taxpayer attention after Charlie Kirk’s assasination. The government pressured television shows off the air, combed through social media posts and revoked visas over public comments deemed politically incorrect.

Several Republican senators instead pleaded ignorance — or had no comment — when NOTUS’ Tyler Spence asked whether Trump’s post was helping their cause around violent rhetoric.

“The president ought to speak for himself,” Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters. “I’ve said what I think about it.” Cruz posted a lengthy tribute to Reiner and said on his podcast he was “mourning the murder.”

“I don’t do ongoing commentary about everything that’s said by everyone in government every day,” Mike Johnson told reporters.

Sen. John Kennedy offered some mild criticism of Trump: “A wise man sometimes says nothing, because he’s a wise man. I think the president should have said nothing,” he said, per HuffPost’s Igor Bobic. Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Trump’s post was respectful.

Trump has Laura Loomer on his side and some others. But there have been plenty on the right who have lamented what they see as a missed opportunity to truly own the libs on political speech. This isn’t the first time: The president also suggested a month ago that Democrats should be hanged for treason.

Open tabs: Trump advisers strafe Hawley over new anti-abortion group (Axios); DOJ officials say they stopped a terror plot targeting companies in L.A. (WaPo); Trump’s religious freedom nominee is being held up by a former political foe, his allies say (NBC); FBI Spent a Generation Relearning How to Catch Spies. Then Came Kash Patel. (The Bulwark)

From Alligator Alcatraz

“It was like a dog crate,” Cuban migrant Rogelio Enrique Bolufé Izquierdo says of “the box,” a small structure he alleged was used at the ICE detention center on the grounds of an abandoned airport in the Florida Everglades. Bolufé is now in detention in New Mexico awaiting deportation. He and another former detainee who spent time at the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” facility told NOTUS’ Jose Pagliery “the box” was a 2x2-foot caged area used for punishment, backing up a report from Amnesty International last week.

“There’s a place here called the ‘hole,’” Bolufé said of the New Mexico facility. “But since there wasn’t a ‘hole’ at Alcatraz, they had the dog crate. They created that ‘box.’”

“This ‘report’ is nothing more than a politically motivated attack,” a spox for Gov. Ron DeSantis said of the allegations. “None of these fabrications are true.”

From the Hill

A new Affordable Care Act subsidy debacle has emerged: Johnson told members that an amendment to House Republicans’ health care bill extending COVID-era ACA subsidies can’t be included unless it is made budget-neutral, citing House rules, sources tell NOTUS’ Reese Gorman.

Johnson is pushing for members to find some pay-fors to offset the cost, but moderate Republicans — who were under the impression they’d be getting to vote on a subsidy extension — say that would just water down the benefit, these sources tell Reese.

Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries is pushing for a vote on a three-year ACA subsidy extension.

The House’s health care vote is scheduled for Wednesday. Let the whipping operation begin.

From the White House

“I think we’re closer now than we have been, ever,” Trump said yesterday about a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal, mirroring positive comments offered by two U.S. officials in a Monday morning press call after a weekend of talks in Berlin.

Officials say they believe they’ve solved “90%” of the issues between the warring nations and have made a (limited-time) offer on security guarantees to Ukraine they described as “Article 5-like.” Though light on details, it appears to be the strongest offer they’ve made so far. Officials also said they believe Putin would agree to Ukraine joining the European Union, after signaling initial openness.

Sticking points: Territory concession is one area where it’s clear no consensus exists. Officials said multiple ideas were discussed — like economic free zones — but ultimately suggested that the issue might have to be dealt with leader-to-leader. “We’ve given [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] some, what I’ll call thought-provoking ideas. He’s got to get back to us,” said one official.

As does Putin. It’s unclear when or how these new updates will be relayed to him or whether Russia will actually be on board.

From the campaign trail

Let the games begin! Michele Tafoya, a prominent former sports reporter turned conservative podcaster, is seriously considering a bid for Senate in Minnesota, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports. She met with the NRSC last week to discuss a bid, and Democratic candidate Rep. Angie Craig has been polling on a potential matchup with Tafoya.

NEW ON NOTUS

Scoop: Don’t use the phrase ‘health equity.’ That was effectively the guidance NIH staffers got last week, according to a memo sent to agency staff and obtained by NOTUS’ Margaret Manto. This is the most clarity NIH employees have gotten on the review of grants Director Jay Bhattacharya announced in August.

Notable: The review must begin with a “computational text analysis tool” that would flag phrases in grants that are “misaligned” with the administration. HHS would not tell NOTUS what those terms are. The guidance memo did cite “structural racism,” “health equity” and poverty and immigration research as possible red flags.

Inside the FEMA whiplash: “Getting FEMA out of DHS and making it a Cabinet-level agency would allow it to operate independently of DHS and would allow it to fulfill its statutory requirements,” Declan Crowe, a FEMA emergency management specialist who was placed on leave after signing a letter criticizing agency leadership, told NOTUS’ Torrence Banks.

Crowe was brought back to work before Thanksgiving, then let go again when he and his colleagues’ reinstatements were made public.

More: All Talc, No Action: Washington Goes Soft on Asbestos Testing, by Torrie Herrington and Manuela Silva

Newsom Hires Former CDC Officials to Run New Public Health Network, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

The House Republican Who Keeps Criticizing His GOP Colleagues, by Torrence Banks

NOT US

• The Children of MAGA Speak Their Minds, by Olivia Empson for Vanity Fair
  
• He Recorded China’s Detention of Uyghurs. The U.S. Wants to Deport Him to Uganda. By Amy Qin and Chris Buckley for The New York Times
  
• Trump’s Global Culture War, by Jeet Heer for The Nation
  
• Rob Reiner was more than a Hollywood liberal. He was a sophisticated political operator. By Melanie Mason for Politico

Meet Us

Welcome to “Meet Us,” where we introduce you to a member of the NOTUS team. Tyler Spence is a NOTUS reporter and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow covering politics, with a focus on Ohio.

Tyler Spence Tracey Salazar

Hometown: Huntington, West Virginia

Past: I interned for The Indianapolis Star and was a fellow at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism while in grad school at Indiana University. Before that, I covered local policy and politics for The Herald-Dispatch in my hometown and was the executive editor of The Parthenon at Marshall University.

Why journalism: I’m the type of person who can’t help but look up the town I’m driving through to learn everything about it. I love to learn and I love to help others learn.

NOTUS + AJI highlight: My first day working on the Hill. It was the night before the shutdown.

Thing you can’t live without: A walkable neighborhood.

Best advice I’ve gotten: A calm sea doesn’t make a great sailor.

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