Classified Concerns

Today’s notice: What the House’s classified Venezuela briefing was like. Democrats turn to military veterans for two tough races. Senate Republicans grit their teeth for the Fed fight. The White House wrestles with what to do about Iran. And: Democrats’ new aggressive approach toward ICE.

THE LATEST

Venezuela behind closed doors: “I haven’t gotten full, detailed, satisfactory answers yet,” Rep. Bill Huizenga said of his outstanding questions about Donald Trump’s governance and oil-sales plans for the country.

Most of Huizenga’s fellow Republicans won’t say stuff like that in public, but NOTUS’ Oriana González reports that many sound like him behind the scenes. A classified briefing last week on the U.S. operation and what comes next yielded plenty of pointed questions for the Trump administration from House Republicans, according to more than a dozen lawmakers.

They’re staying out of view, however. Oriana’s sources said Rep. Dan Meuser was one of the Republicans that asked about a more detailed timeline for what comes next in Venezuela.

In a text to NOTUS, Meuser disputed the account. “I was very pleased with the response, and it was refreshingly honest,” he wrote — “a lot different than the Biden classified meetings we used to have.”

New details are still filtering out to the public about the U.S. military’s methods in the Caribbean. The New York Times reported that the U.S. carried out its first September boat strike, which killed 11 people, with a secret aircraft resembling a civilian plane, prompting questions in closed-door briefings with lawmakers about war crimes.

To strike or not to strike? That is the question dominating the White House this week, as the president mulls his options in Iran while the death toll from the protests there has reportedly risen. Republican senators who spoke with NOTUS’ Hamed Ahmadi and Helen Huiskes were hesitant to share an opinion, instead keeping their options open while waiting for Trump to weigh in.

“Iran has to be dealt with one way or another,” Sen. Mike Rounds said. “I am open to the recommendations that the president would have.”

Open tabs: Trump Has Complained About Pam Bondi Repeatedly to Aides (WSJ); E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution (NYT); Right-Wing Influencers Have Flooded Minneapolis (Wired); Trump is trying to change how the midterm elections are conducted (WaPo)

From the White House

Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that Trump is still interested in a diplomatic way forward in Iran, as evidenced by a Truth Social post announcing a 25% tariff on any country that does business with the regime.

The order would include allies like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and India, as well as foes like China, Russia and sometimes Pakistan. Asked for clarity on whether the tariff would be on top of current levels (for India, that could mean a whopping 75%) — or really any additional details on implementation — the White House simply responded: “On BG, refer you to the Truth.”

From the campaign trail

News from Ohio: Air Force vet Kristina Knickerbocker is announcing she will run as a Democrat for the Dayton-area House seat held by Republican Rep. Mike Turner, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports. Turner won reelection by more than 20 percentage points in 2024. Could the midterm environment put him at risk? Depends on who you ask.

“The DCCC’s desperate spin in OH-10 is a joke,” an NRCC spox told Alex.

Big names rallied around another vet last night in Washington. Democrats held a fundraiser for Army vet and prominent veterans advocate Allison Jaslow, who is running in a coastal North Carolina district also seen as pretty red.

Fundraiser attendees included a long list of Democrats like Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Reps. Katherine Clark, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Debbie Dingell.

From the Hill

“We need this like we need a hole in the head,” Sen. John Kennedy said yesterday of the DOJ criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which Powell said signifies an attempt to end Fed independence. NOTUS’ Ursula Perano and Daniella Diaz report that Kennedy’s take pretty much summarized his fellow Republicans’ feelings about the situation.

“The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s,” the U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, posted on X, insisting that her office’s use of the “legal process” was “not a threat.”

From the courts

ICE resistance takes shape? Two new lawsuits, filed separately by the attorneys general of Minnesota and Illinois (along with the City of Chicago), alleged that ICE’s deployments violated the 10th Amendment and trod on protected state sovereignty.

“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities,” Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general, said at a press conference.

This kind of legal action against ICE has mostly been initiated by activist and religious groups during Trump 2.0. Now, top state Democrats are doing it.

That said, “Abolish ICE” remains on the fringes, though mainline Democrats seem increasingly eager to rally around Constrain ICE as a party message.

NEW ON NOTUS

Bring the beat in: Four members of the U.S. Army’s premier musical band were paid $950 each to play at an event hosted by MAGA Inc., a super PAC. Military bands generally refrain from playing at partisan political gatherings, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports.

A MAGA Inc. spokesperson said in a statement that the “musicians performed on their own time as their own quartet.”

Return to sender: “To make this change a few months before a midterm election, and actually very shortly before some of the primary elections for those midterms, is a very curious decision,” Dan Vicuña, a senior policy director for voting and fair representation at Common Cause, told NOTUS’ Manuela Silva of a recent USPS initiative that could make it harder for voters to return mail-in ballots on time.

More: DOJ Fires High-Ranking Prosecutor Who Refused to Take Comey Case, by Adora Brown

Rep. Bennie Thompson Said the Fire at a Local Synagogue May Have Been Politically Motivated, by Torrence Banks

Dems Return to Court to Challenge Noem’s New ICE Oversight Restrictions, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

NOT US

• How Marco Rubio Went from “Little Marco” to Trump’s Foreign-Policy Enabler, by Dexter Filkins for The New Yorker
  
• They say they’re monitoring ICE arrests. Feds say they’re breaking the law. By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Teo Armus, Erin Patrick O’Connor and Robert Klemko for The Washington Post
  
• A Green Beret Went on a Shooting Rampage. Is the Army at Fault? By Dave Philipps for The New York Times

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