Late Night, Relevant Again

Today’s notice: Late Night TV hasn’t been this relevant since… September? The White House and Democrats are talking a lot about DHS, but are they getting anywhere? The newest 2026 messaging trend. Tariff politics get thorny at ground level. So do data center politics.

THE LATEST

The late shift. “Trump’s FCC colluded with corporate media executives at CBS, but I think it’s safe to say that their plan backfired,” Texas state Rep. James Talarico said at a campaign rally in Austin last night, after a day in which all the talk in the razor-close Democratic Senate primary was about his interview with Stephen Colbert that didn’t air.

A chuckling Jasmine Crockett, Talarico’s opponent in the primary, shook her head during an appearance on MS NOW at what she agreed was another instance of a network making moves to avoid any trouble with Donald Trump. “I think it’s probably better that he didn’t get on and they went straight to streaming,” Crockett joked of the millions of views Talarico’s unaired interview racked up online yesterday, though she praised Colbert’s move to make the dispute with network lawyers public.

“It is important that we resist in this moment,” Crockett said.

Colbert did just that, dedicating his entire B-block to a play-by-play of the saga while lambasting CBS for its decision to roll over for the Trump administration. “I’m just so surprised that this giant global corporation would not stand up to these bullies,” the late-night host said.

The whole thing is really just a sideshow to an increasingly nasty primary, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz reports from Austin. Polls show a toss-up between the Democrats, and that does not make for a lot of kumbaya moments. Crockett yesterday accused a super PAC boosting Talarico of airing an ad that she called “straight-up racist” (she says it darkened her skin tone). The ad itself is a particularly negative one, focused on the very real fact that Republicans really want Crockett to beat Talarico. They have even taken credit for coaxing her into the primary to do it.

“If you have a question about an outside group’s ads, I would submit those questions to the outside group,” Talarico told reporters last night.

Open Tabs The CFTC and States Are at Odds Over Prediction Markets (NOTUS); U.S. Air Force VIP fleet being repainted in Trump’s preferred palette: Sources (CBS); Europeans Quietly Press U.S. Lawmakers for Clues on the Midterms (WSJ); Noem’s use of Coast Guard resources strains her relationship with the military branch (NBC)

From the White House

“The parties are still pretty far apart,” is how one Trump aide framed the state of DHS funding negotiations to NOTUS’ Violet Jira yesterday. As the government continues to be partially shut down — and employees at FEMA, TSA and other agencies go without paychecks — Democrats responded to a legislative counterproposal from the White House earlier this week, sending them an updated wishlist of reforms for ICE and CBP.

But it’s clear that despite a new written offer, the parties aren’t getting any closer.

“The Administration remains interested in good faith conversations to end the Democrat shutdown before more Americans feel the impacts. But the Administration also remains committed to carrying out the President’s promise to enforce federal immigration law,” said the White House official.

The White House’s language has ratcheted up a bit online, with officials accusing Democrats of shutting the government down for political gain. But so far it pales in comparison to the scorched-earth tactics deployed last fall.

Meanwhile: Top White House officials, including Susie Wiles, huddled over their midterm messaging plan last night with cabinet officials, seven days before Trump’s State of the Union is set to take place on Capitol Hill. A source familiar with the meeting told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman that top Trumpworld pollster Tony Fabrizio presented new numbers on policy issues.

From the campaign trail

Trend Alert: They’re calling it the Fraud Election… It may seem like a million years ago, but the viral conservative video about benefits fraud in Minnesota dropped in December. And Republicans are hoping the outrage it channeled will drive voters in several key races, NOTUS’ Torrie Herrington reports. Benefits fraud is a big part of Republicans’ messaging in the Maine Senate race and several top targets for the NRCC.

“Democrats can’t run on ‘anti-corruption’ while their own states are ground zero for massive fraud,” an NRCC spox said.

Smart move? “Very legitimate questions about ‘where did all this money go?’ exist,” GOP strategist Matthew Bartlett told Torrie. “Is this the top priority of the American voting public right now? No.”

From the Hill

If you want something done right… Sen. Bill Cassidy released his own plan to overhaul the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, calling for changes in regulatory oversight, “novel clinical trial approaches” and the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the pharmaceutical review process.

“Biomedical innovation holds enormous promise for the American people,” Cassidy wrote in an 18-page report. “But ‘innovation’ is meaningless unless it creates products that actually help patients. Discoveries that never leave the lab help no one.”

There’s history here: It’s unclear how seriously the recommendations will be taken at the FDA, given the recent friction between Cassidy and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

From the states

Florida goes all in on deportations. “While you wouldn’t expect the Department of Lottery to detain someone … when you come across illegal immigrants, you should be turning them over to ICE,” Rep. Randy Fine, Republican from Florida, told NOTUS’ Manuela Silva of the breadth of the state’s whole-of-government approach to partnering with federal immigration enforcement.

Florida leads the nation in so-called 287(g) partnerships that link state agencies to federal enforcement efforts. According to a state dashboard, the state’s lottery department has recorded 14 “encounters” with undocumented immigrants since signing its partnership with the feds last April.

NEW ON NOTUS

Watch these politics. Republicans know the president’s tariff agenda will hurt American farmers in the near term — that’s why they approved a multibillion bailout package for agriculture set to be disbursed starting next month. But now the party has to convince those farmers the incoming tough times will be worth it in the end, NOTUS’ Jade Lozada reports.

Does this dog hunt? It’s a central midterm question. “Our farmers understand that we have to level the playing field. And how do you do that? You do that with these tariffs,” Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin said.

State vs. federal data center divide. “I don’t think that data centers are being taken seriously by a lot of my own party right now,” Oklahoma state Rep. Kendal Sacchieri, a Republican, told NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal recently after sponsoring a 3-year moratorium on the projects there.

While the White House is all in on AI infrastructure right now, Sam notes Oklahoma is just one of at least a half-dozen states where Republicans have either backed or led legislation that would force temporary bans on the construction of data centers.

NOT US

• Inside the Homeland Security Forum Where ICE Agents Talk Shit About Other Agents, by Vittoria Elliott for WIRED
  
• Obama Took On Recession, Health Care and Iraq. What He Didn’t See Coming Was Trump, by Peter Baker for The New York Times
  
• Rep. Tony Gonzales had affair with aide who set herself on fire, ex-staffer says, by Bayliss Wagner and Nancy M. Preyor-Johnson for the San Antonio Express-News

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