The Epstein Messaging Debate

Today’s notice: The politics of the DHS shutdown. What members are after in Munich. Who’s invited to Trump’s party — and who isn’t. New faces at the FEC. And: Democrats debate how to campaign in the era of the Epstein files.

THE LATEST

Back to our regularly scheduled programming: The debate over Department of Homeland Security funding was once fueled by a bipartisan urgency to do something to avoid a shutdown. That urgency appears to have disappeared — at least for one side.

“It’s up to the White House and the Senate Democrats to find that path, because whatever we come up with, the president would have to sign,” Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican appropriator, said last night as a protracted shutdown for the department went from imminent to highly likely.

Republicans are proposing a clean CR to keep funding the agency as is, and Democrats are balking, the NOTUS Hill team reports.

In turn, Republicans have ceded this conversation to the White House. An official told Jasmine that the White House sent a more detailed legislative text of their counterproposal to Democrats last night, after Democrats blasted the first version that came in a memo they said was vague.

Is this a political win? Democrats, in theory, are getting what they wanted here — to flex their cloture power on DHS. And they’re still pushing for more. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democratic appropriator in the House, has proposed a CR that funds DHS except for the immigration-enforcement-surge agencies. Don’t bet on that, though it’s another sign they are feeling strong right now.

But there are substantive consequences here. A top FEMA official warned lawmakers that a DHS shutdown could severely impact disaster response, NOTUS’ Torrence Banks reports.

Open tabs: DHS Hires Labor Dept. Aide Whose Posts Raised Alarms (NYT); Kennedy Center fundraising in deep turmoil after Trump takeover (Politico); FDA defends decision to not review Moderna’s mRNA flu shot (NBC); Republicans chastise Trump administration for failed indictment of Democrats (Semafor)

From the Hill

The cleanup crew? “I hope to work with our European allies and let them know that the United States is still [an ally],” Rep. Gregory Meeks, top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told NOTUS of his plans for this weekend’s Munich Security Conference.

He’ll be part of a congressional delegation of at least 50 members, NOTUS’ Hamed Ahmadi reports, previewing their shadow diplomacy efforts.

Tariff double-trouble: Tuesday was for bucking Mike Johnson over his proposed rule to block resolutions of disapproval against Donald Trump’s tariffs. Wednesday was for bucking the president on the tariffs themselves.

Six House Republicans voted to rescind the president’s tariffs against Canada. The reasoning: “We’re paying for it economically,” said Rep. Don Bacon, NOTUS’ Jade Lozada reports.

“Totally inappropriate”: That’s how Rep. Pramila Jayapal described the “burn book” Pam Bondi brought to yesterday’s fiery House Judiciary Committee hearing. Eagle-eyed photographers captured Bondi reading a page of what appeared to be Jayapal’s search history from her inspection of unredacted Epstein files at a DOJ facility earlier this week.

“I intend to pursue this and stop this spying on members,” Jayapal wrote in a post on X.

From the White House

Catching strays: Gov. Kevin Stitt, the Republican chair of the National Governors Association, got slammed as the “The RINO Governor of the Great State of Oklahoma” in a Trump post yesterday. It’s just the latest in a tense back-and-forth over who was invited to an NGA event set to be held in Washington next week.

Stitt told governors yesterday that Trump had decided to invite all Democrats to the annual NGA business meeting at the White House, after all. But it wasn’t much of an olive branch: Trump said he still planned to exclude the NGA’s Democratic vice chair, Gov. Wes Moore, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. He insisted they “are not worthy of being there.”

Will it be enough for the other Democrats to cancel their boycott of the event? Unclear.

From the campaign trail

Have Democrats gotten serious about rural voters? They “actually are looking to try to make those areas competitive,” Republican strategist Paul Shumaker told NOTUS’ Christa Dutton of Democratic efforts to compete in rural North Carolina. Don’t mistake that for him being bullish about it, though.

Setting expectations: “This is investing in a 20- to 40-year project,” Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, told Christa. Nationally, the DCCC has launched its first-ever effort to target rural voters with real money, as has the DNC.

The potential pitfall: “The money they raise goes mainly to television ads, consultants, more urban East Coast elites,” said Robin Johnson, a rural Democratic strategist. “Then we scratch our heads and wonder why we lose every two years.”

THE BIG ONE

How should Democrats campaign on Epstein? One strategy playing out in the field: Epstein was a rich sex offender who had rich friends like Trump.

That’s what Sen. Jon Ossoff did: “We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. You remember that? But this is a government of, by and for the ultrarich. It is the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class ruling our country,” the purple-state senator said on the stump Saturday.

“Ossoff is on the right track, which is to say, I need to connect this thing, this saga, to something deeper about who fights for you and who doesn’t fight for you,” said Faiz Shakir, a progressive strategist and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign manager.

Not all Democrats are into it: “This is also an important issue, and we should talk about it, but at the same time, it isn’t the biggest issue for the American people,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz said. “The cost of rent has nothing to do about Epstein.”

How to talk about Epstein has become an ongoing dilemma for liberals. One activist suggested Democrats lean in and “ditch the out-of-touch advisers in their ranks, some of whom are connected to Jeffrey Epstein.” Others have called it a sideshow.

Republicans have found their message: “Frankly, I think our country is facing far greater problems, and I have not devoted much time to following the Epstein hysteria,” Rep. Tom McClintock told NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson.

NEW ON NOTUS

Bernie heads west: “Who is pushing the development of AI and robotics?” That’s the question Sanders hopes to answer on a trip to California next week, where he is set to meet with industry leaders about AI and the economy. When he returns, the senator from Vermont plans to introduce legislation to call for a moratorium on the construction of data centers, NOTUS’ Torrie Herrington reports.

Just in time for midterms: Trump yesterday nominated two Republicans to the Federal Election Commission, the first step to reopening the idled agency, NOTUS’ Taylor Giorno reports. He tapped Andrew Woodson, a lawyer who at one point worked for former FEC Chair Lee Goodman, and Ashley Stow, who has worked with another former FEC commissioner, Trey Trainor. Two vacancies on the commission remain.

More: Trump Directs the Defense Department to Use More Coal-Powered Electricity, by Shifra Dayak

NOT US

• As Helene Survivors Await State Help, Some Victims of Earlier Hurricanes Are Still Out of Their Homes, by Ren Larson for The Assembly
  
• Trump keeps driving online fundraising — for both parties, by Jessica Piper for Politico
  
• America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs, by Josh Tyrangiel for The Atlantic
  

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