Today’s notice: An incredibly high-stakes moment for the White House. Debate on Capitol Hill, but not the right kind. Not a typo: Democrats stick together. And: Why 2026 will be the first AI election.
THE LATEST
Gaza deal: Old-timey reporting still has a couple tricks up its sleeve. Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci captured a note Marco Rubio handed to Donald Trump at the White House yesterday, in which Rubio asked the president to approve a social media post announcing a breakthrough in Gaza peace talks.
Hours later, the post came. “This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America,” it read, claiming that Israel and Hamas had “signed off” on the “first phase” of a peace deal. Benjamin Netanyahu and a Qatari mediator also shared confirmations that a deal was in the works.
What’s next: The president may travel to the Middle East as soon as Friday.
Shutdown spat-off: The Capitol complex is pretty big, but apparently not big enough for two Democratic press gaggles to happen without “spontaneous” appearances from Republicans.
The Epstein-themed one: Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego walked across the complex and posted up outside Mike Johnson’s office to support their fellow Arizonan, Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who last month won a special House election but has yet to be sworn in. Democrats (and Rep. Thomas Massie) have said the delay is because Grijalva would be the final signee required for a discharge petition forcing a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files. Kelly and Gallego set about making that case.
Johnson showed up: “I’m not blocking her,” he told the senators while reporters filmed on their phones. “This has nothing to do with Epstein,” he said, calling Kelly and Gallego’s appearance a “publicity stunt.”
The health care-themed one: Rep. Mike Lawler had earlier backed Johnson up outside the speaker’s office, accusing Democrats of hypocrisy on Affordable Care Act subsidies. He then made the same point to Hakeem Jeffries after the House minority leader held a press conference. “You’re embarrassing yourself,” Jeffries said.
A key takeaway from all this, from NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz: Behind the various stunting is mounting frustration on both sides of the Capitol that there remains no substantive conversation about actually ending the shutdown.
Open tabs: Comey Pleads Not Guilty (NOTUS); FBI fires special agents who worked on Jack Smith’s Trump probe (NBC); Trump Excludes Generics From Big Pharma Tariff Plan (WSJ); Republicans Block Senate Dems’ Bid to Stop Trump’s Caribbean Boat Strikes (NOTUS)
From the shutdown
State of the stand-alone military pay idea: “That probably will happen,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “We don’t have to worry about it yet. That’s a long time.”
“Long time” check: To ensure pay goes out on time, Congress would have to pass something by Monday, NOTUS’ Ursula Perano reports.
What’s happening: “It’s hard to have a discussion when they’re not talking to us,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth told NOTUS of her Republican counterparts.
“Open the freaking government, and everybody gets paid,” Sen. Kevin Cramer said in response to sentiments like Duckworth’s.
From the Hill
Democrats keep it together: When the shutdown started, how many of you thought Democrats would still be rowing in the same direction a week later? Be honest. Either way, that’s where things are at. Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are leading a Democratic caucus that appears to be focused and unified.
The shutdown conversation is still mostly about health care, which is what leadership wanted. It’s an issue that brings this divided party together. Democratic strategists inside and outside congressional leadership circles for months told anyone who asked that they knew how to have this policy fight and how to message on it — and it’s looking like they were right.
The numbers are working in leadership’s favor, so far. Daniella reports that the different dynamics in each chamber are helping the respective leaders avoid distractions.
But: The shutdown is not over yet, and base activists and their House Democratic allies still do not trust the Senate after what happened in March. “The proof will be in the pudding, but it seems like he’s held people together this time,” one House Democrat said of Schumer. Now that’s the kind of faint praise from these guys everyone is used to!
When the president says he’s going to have you prosecuted, should you believe it? It’s “just Trump being Trump,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told NOTUS on Wednesday after Trump on social media called for the prosecutions of or investigations into no fewer than three Democratic elected officials.
“It’s ‘just Trump being Trump?’” scoffed Sen. Chris Coons. “When Trump threatens to jail his political opponents, I take him very seriously.”
THE BIG ONE
Slop ’26: Many thought the 2024 election cycle would be the first where AI truly enshittified impacted American politics. But they were off by one, NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal reports. Welcome to the robot midterms.
It’s cheap and it’s fast. “You still need smart, talented operatives to create effective content, but AI maximizes that same operative’s abilities in a way that can save thousands of dollars and hours, if not days, of work,” an NRSC spox told Sam. The committee has so far pumped out ads featuring music and footage made by AI and an AI-generated digital ad mocking Democratic leadership. An attack ad aimed at Roy Cooper in North Carolina was completely AI-generated.
AI is taking over everything. It’s the first time since social media became a factor that “there has been a sea change in technology that is dramatically impacting how we’re going to be doing our entire workflow,” Democratic strategist Maya Hutchinson, a cofounder of the firm BattlegroundAI, said.
No, really: everything. “It’ll show up in the background of how campaigns are being run, and how it’s going to make consultants more efficient,” Republican strategist David Kanevsky said. He said AI is still not good enough to take over some of the most complex polling tasks, but it has great potential for data analysis, drafting questionnaires, drafting computer code and writing memos.
Buckle up: “The interest of staying competitive might push campaigns to push boundaries,” Tim Harper of the Center for Democracy and Technology told Sam.
NEW ON NOTUS
Anti-abortion lawmakers push medical training change: Conservatives are trying to use the threat of federal funding withdrawals to change the rules on abortion education in accredited medical schools, NOTUS’ Oriana González reports. The rules currently mandate the training for obstetrics and gynecology residents, but with an opt-out option for those who object. Abortion-rights opponents in Congress want that changed to opt-in.
Put it on the calendar, please: Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, is demanding that the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer, schedule a deposition for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell now that the Supreme Court rejected her bid for an appeal. Garcia sent his Republican colleague a letter obtained by NOTUS’ Manuela Silva.
More: States May Have to Pick Up the Tab for WIC During Shutdown, by Raymond Fernández
Air Traffic Controllers Were Already Stretched Thin. Then Came the Shutdown. By Torrence Banks and Adora Brown
NOT US
- Republicans could draw 19 more House seats after an upcoming Supreme Court ruling, by Andrew Howard for Politico
- The Viral MAGA Accounts Run by a Man Who Has Never Been to America, by Jacqueline Sweet for Rolling Stone
- Hegseth’s sprawling hunt for Charlie Kirk critics spans nearly 300 investigations, by Noah Robertson and Tara Copp for The Washington Post
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