Half Full, Half Empty

Today’s notice: The Epstein files saga enters an awkward phase. The latest on DHS funding talks. A question worth asking at today’s high-profile immigration hearing, and a preview of some election-integrity fireworks in the House. Plus: A tale from a redistricted Ohio.

THE LATEST

Will Epstein fallout hit the U.S. like it has elsewhere? “Look at what’s happening in Britain,” Rep. Ro Khanna told reporters at a press conference in freezing conditions outside DOJ HQ last night. “I mean, the king of England is putting out statements, and yet in our country, we have not had that reckoning.”

The American political story is still about what’s not been released, rather than what has. Elsewhere, royals, diplomats and businessmen are facing consequences. Even some paleontologists are feeling the heat.

Khanna and his GOP counterpart, Rep. Thomas Massie, says the truth is still being hidden. Six potential Epstein co-conspirators were redacted in files given to the public, they said, including at least one “prominent” person and a senior foreign government official. But they’re not releasing the names just yet. (In some back-and-forths on X last night, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche unredacted some documents Khanna and Massie said were incorrectly blacked out. “This DOJ is committed to transparency,” he posted.)

Anticipation has been the glue that bonds together the unlikely coalition that eventually shamed congressional leaders and the White House into releasing the Epstein files. There’s no denial that it worked. “Initially my reaction to all this was, ‘I don’t care. I don’t see what the big deal is,’” Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis said yesterday. “But now I see what the big deal is. The members of Congress who were pushing this were not wrong.”

Now the politics get more difficult — it’s easier to talk about the files one has not seen than the files one has. Democrats are divided over how to respond to House Oversight Chair James Comer’s demands on Bill and Hillary Clinton, for example. But they all want to see the files.

Republicans are back to an awkward place, too. Revelations about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s dealings with Jeffrey Epstein led to some calls for his resignation — including from Massie — but the White House wants that talk shut down. Republicans don’t seem eager to cross Donald Trump on the issue.

The way America is handling things: As long as there are redactions to argue about and the possibility of new paperwork to be found, it’s hard to see how this shifts into a shared political reality of accountability.

Open tabs: Trump to Repeal Landmark Climate Finding in Huge Regulatory Rollback (WSJ); How cigars, whiskey and an old-school Oklahoman got the government funded (Politico); A Raid in a Small Town Brings Trump’s Deportations to Deep-Red Idaho (NYT); Federal judge blocks California’s law enforcement mask ban (CNN)

From the Hill

The White House has sent over a counterproposal to Democrats’ initial wish list of reforms for ICE and CBP, an official told Jasmine yesterday. Officials remained mum when asked what, exactly, was included in that list.

Never say never: Discussions between the White House and Senate Democrats are creating some optimism that a new short-term resolution could be reached by Friday to avoid a partial shutdown, NOTUS’ Hill team reports. John Thune told reporters that he would start teeing up a new continuing resolution today, but he wasn’t willing to predict how long it would go.

On the other hand: Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer aren’t sold. “The initial GOP response is both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct,” they said in a joint statement late last night. “Democrats await additional detail and text.”

The House’s hearing with the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is today. The Senate takes its turn Thursday.

One question worth asking: Is the government tracking how many children have been separated from their families? NOTUS’ Jackie Llanos reports that it’s proven very difficult to track family separations during Trump’s mass deportations, with no comprehensive data on the number of children entering the foster care system.

Stunting the stunt? The House Administration Committee is set to hold a hearing today centered around the MAGA vision for U.S. elections. We’re told the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Joe Morelle, will lead Democrats in trying to flip the majority script and talk instead about Trump’s recent (and controversial) suggestion that Republicans federalize election management.

From the White House

Trump takes a new infrastructure hostage: This time, it’s the under-construction Gordie Howe International Bridge between Detroit and Canada. “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them. Also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Trump posted to Truth Social last night.

The ransom? Ontario resuming its sale of U.S. spirits, Canada’s suspension of trade talks with China and a lowering of the country’s tariffs on American dairy products.

Plus: “With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset,” Trump wrote.

From the campaign trail

Kaptur’s challenge: “We are going to have to do a lot of work to introduce her and meet those voters and learn what their priorities are,” a campaign strategist for Rep. Marcy Kaptur told NOTUS’ Tyler Spence about the new areas in her redrawn Ohio district, which is markedly more red than it used to be.

Meeting new voters is a 2026 Democratic trend. The DCCC is announcing this morning five new pick-up opportunities, bringing the list to 44. It’s now targeting seats held by Republican Reps. Jeff Crank in Colorado, Brad Finstad in Minnesota, Ryan Zinke in Montana, John McGuire in Virginia and the seat being vacated by Rep. Nancy Mace in South Carolina.

NEW ON NOTUS

The House found a rare point of agreement last night: The chamber passed an affordable housing bill by a 390-9 vote, a stunning act of bipartisanship in an era of deep divisions.

“I’ll work with the devil himself to get something on housing passed,” Rep. Mike Flood, the chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, told NOTUS’ Raymond Fernández just before the vote.

More: A Democratic Candidate in Pennsylvania Is ‘Sick’ of Congressional Stock Trading. He Also Owns Stocks. By Dave Levinthal

NOT US

• Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State, by Alex Burness for Bolts
  
• The Children of Dilley, by Mica Rosenberg for ProPublica
  
• How Trump’s politics returned to Earth, by Ben Smith for Semafor
  

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