Today’s notice: Inspectors general have changed. One politician really loved their test ride for the Freedom 250. Michael Cohen and Donald Trump reunited. Who’s watching Sean Duffy’s reality show? And: The voters Democrats really need this fall might be the ones who vote third party.
THE LATEST
Independent no more. How different are inspectors general offices under Trump 2.0? NOTUS’ Natalie Alms and Eric Katz report that the once-independent system Congress established after Watergate has been radically transformed — including with a potentially pricey bathroom renovation.
The new crop of IGs. Veterans Affairs IG Cheryl Mason was previously VA Secretary Doug Collins’ top adviser. As IG, she held up a planned office move over her demand for a personal lavatory, staffers said. She also commissioned a flag for herself, telling staff she was serving in the equivalent role of a four-star general and therefore required one. One OIG employee said the flag cost more than $1,000.
Trending
In meetings, Mason boasts of her personal relationship to Collins, and she confirmed she’s canceled so-called public “preliminary alerts” of IG findings after complaints about them from Collins’ staff. “It’s not about gotcha with the department,” Mason said of her role.
This is a common approach now. At HUD, acting IG Brian Harrison told his team in a meeting, “The independence of the inspector general is intended to lessen friction, not increase friction,” according to a recording obtained by NOTUS.
At the Labor Department, IG Anthony D’Esposito, a former Republican congressman, fired the career staffer who headed investigations in his office almost immediately after taking the job, NOTUS learned. That person had been spearheading a probe into an alleged inappropriate relationship between then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and a staffer.
Veterans of the gig are dismayed. Former Labor IG Larry Turner was fired and replaced by D’Esposito after a career that spanned four different IG offices. He’s never seen an inspector general “acting as an extension of a Cabinet member” like he perceives D’Esposito to be. “What message does it say to your staff?” he said.
Open tabs: Democrat Aisha Wahab Wins Special Election to Replace Eric Swalwell (NOTUS); U.S. Workers Are Paying More for Healthcare, and Next Year Will Be Worse (WSJ); GOP issues stark warning to AI companies (Axios); Invited media and military members held at gunpoint at Space Force base (AP)
From the District
Race to the 250 finish line. When the IndyCar engines come to life for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix this weekend, it will be the president’s last chance to unify the country in patriotic fervor after several other America 250 events fell flat.
Donald Trump created the big race — 147 laps around a 1.7-mile track, making it just about 250 total miles around the National Mall — through an executive order in January. Many in Washington are dreading the event. Lori Aratani writes for NOTUS today about preservationists freaking out at the prospect of grand prix vibrations in the vicinity of all the old and fragile things the nation keeps on the Mall.
Event Chair Bud Denker, the Penske Corporation president, told NOTUS’ Manuela Silva that he had been able to assuage many people’s concerns. In 93 days, he had 81 meetings on Capitol Hill, he told her. And in a rare feat in Congress, he said he “never left an office where someone didn’t think [the grand prix] was a good idea.”
One way he lobbied for the race was behind the wheel of a white Corvette. He’s taken Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and a few other VIPs around the track, and gotten good reviews.
“One hundred miles an hour down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Denker recalled of his outing with outgoing D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. “She was so scared. … I took off like a crazy man, and she’s just in the Corvette and she wouldn’t say anything, and then her dress started flying in the air because we were in a convertible.”
He showed NOTUS a text from the mayor where she thanked him for the “time of her life.” Asked for comment, Bowser’s office said she’ll be riding around the track again this morning.
From “The Michael Cohen Show”
The song was played. “Reunited (And It Feels So Good)” by Peaches & Herb played under part of former Trump fixer-turned-turncoat-turned-supporter Michael Cohen’s softball interview with the president, which appeared to solidify a reconciliation between the pair. “I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said,” Trump told Cohen.
From the open road
Low turnout for ‘The Great American Road Trip.’ NOTUS’ Emily Kennard was one of only around 8,500 total YouTube viewers of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s reality series as of 5 p.m. yesterday, despite the series’ corporate sponsors spending millions of dollars on the show’s production.
The show features appearances from Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. It largely focuses on Duffy’s children — there are nine — and the family is often shown driving in two separate SUVs. A message of confidence in a summer of $4/gallon gas?
NOTUS PERSPECTIVES
Dana Milbank looks at how data centers are destroying Virginia’s countryside — even in places that have no data centers.
NOTUS METRO
Sign up for our local newsletter, written by Martin Austermuhle and Zara Norman.
Sports desk: The Mystics Value Georgia Amoore’s Intangibles. They’d Also Gladly Take More Points. By Dave Sheinin
NEW ON NOTUS
Democrats likely need strong third party candidates to win the Senate, NOTUS’ Paul Kane writes. In 2006, the party won three red state seats with pluralities after third party options pulled enough voters to matter. That flipped Senate control. This cycle, the Libertarian Party has candidates on the ballot in Iowa, Ohio and Texas, which will prove tempting for outside Democratic groups to try to support with independent expenditures, Paul writes.
But one of the Democratic beneficiaries of third party votes in 2006, former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, warns that the strategy could backfire. “If it is being manipulated and there are fingerprints, it can hurt,” she told Paul.
Of the 48,000 votes that went to the Libertarian in her 2006 race — helping secure her victory — McCaskill said, “That happened organically. We had nothing to do with it.”
More: Mike Rogers’ Pitch to Jewish Democrats May Be Falling Flat, by Jenna Monnin
NOT US
- Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has spent 1 in 5 days of his term in other states, by Lee O. Sanderlin and Pamela Wood for The Baltimore Banner
- ‘Have the balls to try’: The Democrats bucking AI skepticism, by Tyler Katzenberger for Politico
- Election officials prepare for nightmare scenarios: Ballot seizures and violence, by Laura Barrón-López and Vaughn Hillyard for MS NOW
- Trump wants a ballroom in Ireland. One man is having a ball fighting it. By Terrence McCoy for The Washington Post
Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of the NOTUS Newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please sign up — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@notus.com. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@notus.com.
The newsletter was produced by Elise Foley and Andrew Burton. Photo of Anthony D’Esposito by Mariam Zuhaib/AP.
Authors
