Today’s notice: A long, tragic night in Washington after an aircraft collision near DCA.
Plus: House Republicans try to keep up with Donald Trump. It’s not a pretty picture inside the DNC right now. More from inside Karoline Leavitt’s FEC filings.
The Latest on the DCA Crash
Hundreds of first responders worked through the night conducting recovery operations in cold and difficult conditions after a U.S. Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger jet over the Potomac.
Officials have not released a number of casualties, but 64 people were on board the plane, which was landing in D.C. from Wichita, Kansas. Several Army personnel were on the helicopter, which was conducting a training flight out of Fort Belvoir, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X last night.
There will likely be months of investigations ahead as Congress and agencies demand answers about the tragedy. Hegseth said the Army and DoD have already launched an investigation, and President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the incident was a “bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy — who was sworn in hours before the collision — said he’d spoken with Trump and that his agency would provide “all the support” needed.
Ahead today, officials will hold another press conference at 7:30 a.m., and flights are not expected to resume at DCA until at least 11 a.m.
Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, who chairs the Commerce subcommittee on aviation, said at a late-night press conference that he had taken the same flight many times.
“I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, non-stop flight service to DCA,” he said. We’re going to know people who were on this flight.”
— Kate Nocera
Keeping Up With Trump
“This is going to be the new pace in Washington, everything has changed, and the American people wanted that,” Mike Johnson said at the end of the House GOP retreat at Donald Trump’s Doral resort.
Johnson was referring to the flurry of executive action taken in the early days of Trump’s second term on immigration restrictions, energy production, reducing inflation and the issue that dominated the news cycle of the retreat: OMB’s proposed federal aid freeze.
“It’s been at a breakneck pace,” Johnson said.
At the retreat, Johnson doubled down on his goal to see a budget resolution by Feb. 24. Steve Scalise floated pairing government funding — which runs out on March 15 — with a debt ceiling hike. The speaker also said he wants to codify Trump’s over 300 executive orders into law. And that’s to say nothing of the Senate’s busy confirmation schedule. Johnson promised reporters there would be “no shortage of anything to write about or to report on — and get used to it.”
That’s absolutely true, and while we found plenty of things to write about — on the concepts of a reconciliation plan, for instance — it was Trump and his OMB memo that took the air out of the room. So much so that Republicans found time to launch an old-but-new campaign against their favorite antagonist: the media.
“Welcome to the first dumb media hoax of 2025,” White House deputy chief Stephen Miller said.
—Riley Rogerson, reporting from Miami | Read the story.
The Real Problems for the Next DNC Chair
The next chair of the Democratic National Committee — who will be elected on Saturday — won’t just contend with the party’s disillusioned voter base, but some financial hurdles and internal labor violation grievances shared by former and current DNC staff, former Kamala Harris campaign officials and party strategists.
NOTUS has the inside story on the troubles ahead for whoever takes the reins.
- There were 500 layoffs postelection, including one person who had been employed for nearly 40 years, with little warning and no severance.
- Laid-off employees were sent NDAs after the party’s November loss, which multiple staffers saw as an effort to stop newly pushed-out staff from chiming in on how it all happened.
- The party is in tough financial straits. And though current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison has refused to do more to help the defunct Harris campaign, the new chair will have to hit the ground running on fundraising.
—Calen Razor | Read the story with Jasmine Wright.
Front Page
- Democrats Are Optimistic Republicans Share Their Concerns About Tulsi Gabbard: At least two Republican senators on the Intelligence Committee are reportedly skeptical of Gabbard.
- Virginia’s Lawmakers Are Giving Buyout Advice to Federal Employees: As the Trump administration makes an ambitious effort to reduce the number of federal employees, the Virginia delegation is hearing from constituents asking if they should stay or go.
- Jaime Harrison’s Final Memo as DNC Chair Goes After Project 2025: Specifically, its impact on rural America, where Democrats didn’t perform well in 2024.
- House Democrat Urges Mike Johnson to Increase Capitol Security Following Oath Keeper Visit: Members are increasingly on edge about Capitol security.
More From Karoline Leavitt’s FEC Reports
Last week, Karoline Leavitt’s 2022 congressional campaign amended all its FEC reports, showing more than $200,000 in individual donations above the legal limit and have to be refunded. Leavitt’s campaign still hasn’t paid back the money.
NOTUS’ Claire Heddles reports the filings also reveal the campaign failed to do due diligence on illegal donations from businesses, a move that Claire writes resulted in “years of reprimanding letters from the Federal Election Commission” and now as she takes the podium for Trump, her former campaign still owes about $38,000 in refunds to nearly 30 companies.
“[I]t’s ridiculous we have to do this again for a click bait story very conveniently timed with Karoline’s new role as White House Press Secretary,” Leavitt’s designated campaign spokesperson told NOTUS. “As we’ve previously stated, the campaign has followed the FEC’s instructions and there were no acts, errors, or omissions by the candidate.”
NOTUS Exclusive: The Under-the-Radar Inauguration Donors
The tech bros very publicly gave big to Trump’s inauguration, but they’re not the only corporate backers who ponied up to potentially curry favor before regulations get written and lucrative federal contracts are awarded.
Reporting for NOTUS, Dave Levinthal uncovered several lower-profile — but significant — corporations who donated to the inauguration, including an embattled digital identification firm, a private prison company with massive government contracts, a cannabis distributor keen on pro-pot regulations and a Chinese-owned agriculture outfit with controversial U.S. landholdings.
Meet a Fired Inspector General
Former Interior IG Mark Greenblatt was appointed by Trump in his first administration and was vocal about problems he saw in the department during Joe Biden’s term. Then last week, Trump fired him despite a law saying that could not happen.
“You need someone objective to come in there and say, ‘Are these programs working or not working?’” he told NOTUS’ Anna Kramer in an interview. “Now you have this massive pendulum switch to ‘Drill, baby, drill,’ and you need someone independent who can look at these programs without a dog in the fight. That’s really the key.”
The IG firings will likely end up in court. Greenblatt told Anna he will not try to return to the building.
Not Us
- You’re So Vain, You Probably Think Kash Patel Hates You by Ashley Parker for The Atlantic
- The West is trying to interfere in our elections, Russia moans by Ketrin Jochecová for Politico
- We Went on DC’s Best (and Maybe Only?) Trump Tour by Eric Wills for Washingtonian
- Florida men (and women) ascend in Trump’s Republican Party by Kadia Goba at Semafor
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