Secretary on Defense

Today’s notice: Senators get a chance to ask questions about the Pentagon — do they want to? Bill Cassidy says he’s locked in on health care, but he may be the only one. The NRCC chair’s surprise at Trump’s Henry Cuellar pardon.

THE LATEST

Pete Hegseth’s big test. Today might be the toughest day in Congress for the secretary of war (né defense) since the confirmation fight that saw him win the job by the slimmest-possible margin.

Boat strike questions: Lawmakers are set to hear from Adm. Frank M. Bradley in closed-door sessions today, where he’ll likely face questions about the boats he’s been sinking on Hegseth’s orders. Exactly what those orders were have become bipartisan concerns. Reports that the military killed the survivors of a strike on Sept. 2 led first to a blanket denial, and then to rapidly shifting narratives from the White House.

Will Hegseth be able to keep this at arm’s length? On the Hill yesterday, the answer was not entirely clear. Democrats want Hegseth to answer for this.

But Republicans seem to be giving him space. Sen. Jim Justice told Emily that the alleged double-tap strike was “unacceptable — that’s all there is to it.” But Justice also said it’s “purely undetermined” who ordered the attack in question, and he was quick to say he was a “real fan” of Hegseth — and that he’s “the right guy for the job.”

And Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, told reporters he’s not ready to say Hegseth needs to testify himself: “Maybe in the future. I’ll wait. I’ll look at the facts that the committee could put together and present to us first, and then we’ll make our decisions.”

This is the response Trumpworld is counting on. “I really think the media and the left are misreading the base on [the strikes],” an outside ally of Donald Trump told Jasmine. “There’s really no sympathy for narco-terrorists within MAGA. The due process argument didn’t work for Kilmar Garcia. Why would it sway MAGA when it comes to a Venezuelan drug runner?”

As for the president, he is basically staying out of it. Asked in the Oval Office yesterday whether he supports targeting survivors, he said, “No, I support the decision to knock out the boats. And whoever is piloting those boats, most of them are gone, but whoever is piloting those boats, they’re guilty of trying to kill people in our country.”

So it’s likely Hegseth gets a ninth life. But he may need a 10th. Also sure to be the talk of Congress today is the unclassified version of the Pentagon inspector general report on Signalgate, which is reportedly not kind to Hegseth over his messages in a group chat ahead of a March strike in Yemen.

“TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth” is the Pentagon pre-spin, per The Washington Post.

Open tabs: Mike Johnson works in secret to strip IVF coverage from defense bill (MS NOW); House Dems Release ‘Never Before Seen’ Photos of Epstein’s Island (NOTUS); Congress pulls major college sports bill after bipartisan backlash (USA Today)

From the Hill

To start, a quick vibe check on how Republicans are handling major headlines pertaining to Trump’s agenda and his Cabinet. The NOTUS team asked Sen. Bill Cassidy both about Trump shutting down immigration for Afghans (Cassidy co-sponsored a bill in support of the Afghan allies program) and about the allegations that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a drug problem and had an affair with prominent political writer Olivia Nuzzi.

“I’m very concerned about the health care bill, and, frankly, anything else I delete because I only have so much time to think,” Cassidy said of the RFK Jr. allegations.

• Run it back: “I’ve been so consumed with health care, I’ve actually not been thinking through the ramifications of that,” he said about Afghan allies.
  

Cassidy may be consumed with health care, but… the deal to end the government shutdown doesn’t appear to be working out. Next week, Democrats are scheduled to get the vote on health care policy in the Senate they extracted from Republicans in the deal.

Does that mean senators are close to compromise? “I don’t think we are,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, an architect of the shutdown deal, said this week. NOTUS’ Ursula Perano reports there are no real negotiations going on, and no expectations for the vote to amount to much.

From the White House

A White House surprise: Trump’s “Henry, I don’t know you, but you can sleep well tonight” Truth Social post pardoning Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of bribery and foreign agent charges caught Republicans on the Hill off guard, NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson and Daniella Diaz report.

NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told NOTUS that the pardon “surprised” him. He learned about it like the rest of us: online. “He’s definitely a more formidable opponent without the legal cloud hanging over him,” Hudson said of Cuellar.

Whoops! A Republican strategist close to the White House told Jasmine that some inside the Office of Legislative Affairs believed Cuellar was open to switching parties. When the strategist learned that Cuellar had filed to run for reelection as a Democrat, they responded, “Wow.”

From the campaign trail

Dems in disarray again? Centrist Democrats are using Tennessee state Rep. Aftyn Behn’s defeat Tuesday in a special congressional election to argue that the party needs more of their preferred candidates to run in red states, NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports.

“Left-wing candidates are good fits for left-wing districts,” said Adam Jentleson, the president of Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank that promotes ideas and politics it thinks can win in conservative areas. “It is just farcical that left-wing candidates are good fits for right-wing districts.”

NEW ON NOTUS

First on NOTUS: Bipartisan frustration over House inaction. Sens. Ron Wyden and Mike Crapo are leading a push to get the House by the end of the year to reauthorize lapsed funding for rural communities surrounded by federal forests, NOTUS’ Helen Huiskes reports.

“Congress just needs to get to the point where it recognizes that even though we have a budget crisis and an explosive national debt, that this obligation, I think above almost all other of the programs that Congress is looking at, this is one which is a matter of fairness to the states,” Crapo said.

Mike Johnson gets a pass: “It doesn’t show anything about leadership, because discharge depends on the ability of members to whip the vote,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a recent introducer of a discharge petition, told NOTUS’ Avani Kalra of the surge in petitions and what they say about House Republican leaders’ ability to control their own. “We’re basically just getting back to how things are supposed to go, where everyone is equal.”

(Fwiw, majority whip is a job in leadership. Rep. Tom Emmer holds the position.)

More: Federal Workers Fired in Anti-DEI Crackdown File Class Action Lawsuit, by Jose Pagliery

Trump Pardons Texas Stadium Developer His Own DOJ Indicted, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

DHS Starts Its Deportation Surge in New Orleans, by Torrence Banks and Tyler Spence

NOT US

• Josh Shapiro has spent his life preparing to lead an America that might no longer exist, by Tim Alberta for The Atlantic
  

• A death row inmate was released on bail after his conviction was overturned. Louisiana still wants to execute him. By Richard A. Webster for Verite News
  

• How a Kansas Republican Became Part of a Racist, Antisemitic Group Chat, by Sabrina Tavernise and Georgia Gee for The New York Times

BE SOCIAL

The Hill Is Alive With the Sound of Music? Spotify Wrapped dropped yesterday, following Apple Music Replay. NOTUS asked lawmakers what their top songs and artists were, and some were apparently embarrassed?

Sen. Jon Ossoff: “I have to really give that some careful thought and see what they are first.”

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