War Torn?

Today’s notice: Does the American public know how close war with Iran is? Democrats promise they have a forthcoming midterm policy platform. One Clinton deposition down, one to go. The latest on DHS’s partial shutdown. Plus: Both parties on how to win over minority voters.

THE LATEST

Our war, but don’t ask us to get involved: “We cannot see a nuclear-armed Iran,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said yesterday as Congress heads toward a possible vote next week on whether to restrict Donald Trump’s power to launch military action against Iran. Murkowski, a regular administration critic, said she wants to know more before voting on a possible war powers resolution.

The chances of a vote constraining Trump’s military options in either chamber are slim to none right now, NOTUS’ Hamed Ahmadi reports. Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and the ever-present duo of Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are leading the push to hold war powers votes in their respective chambers, but they still have lots of convincing to do.

Time is running out. U.S. and Iranian negotiators met yesterday in Geneva for another round of indirect nuclear talks. They’re going well enough for Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who has been facilitating the talks, to reportedly land in Washington today to huddle with JD Vance. Still, no rumors of a breakthrough.

So the real conversation about war may be between Trump and the American people.

Does it feel like that conversation has happened? “He’s been very clear,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Emily.

But to others, it feels like the public has not been clued in. “They’re just gonna go blow something up and tell you about it later, and they’re not gonna tell you why,” Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen said.

Open tabs: Pro-Trump attorneys push executive order that would give Trump sweeping power over elections: Sources (ABC); Slotkin apologizes for Lindsey Graham’s ‘appalling’ outburst at Danish PM (Politico); The First Couple of a Dysfunctional DHS (Atlantic); Anthropic Rejects the Pentagon’s Demand That It Remove AI Safeguards (NOTUS)

From Democrats’ annual ‘Issues Conference’

Procrastination vacation? When reporters pressed Democratic lawmakers at their annual issues retreat for the specifics of their legislative road map to sell to voters this fall, they said they were still working on it. But they promised it would be spectacular, NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson reports.

“Our goal is to have simple solutions that we can put out and lay out that vision — that if you give Democrats that gavel back, this is exactly what we’re going to do,” House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said.

“Stay tuned,” she added.

From the Hill

“Within the next 24 hours,” House Oversight Chair James Comer said yesterday of the release schedule for video of his committee’s multi-hour deposition of Hillary Clinton, part of its Epstein investigation.

Clinton spoke for seven minutes to reporters after the deposition, and chastised Republicans for not making the hearing public and televised. She also addressed the topic at hand: “I never met Jeffrey Epstein,” she said. “I knew Ghislaine Maxwell, as an acquaintance.”

She also said she was asked about several other topics not at hand, including UFOs and Pizzagate. One Democratic lawmaker who was in the room told CNN: “I will just say that the transcript will be very revealing.”

As for Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Republican who briefly halted the deposition when she leaked photos from inside the room, she answered reporters’ questions by cracking a joke about Clinton’s infamous email scandal: “I just returned to my hotel room and installed the BleachBit software … So, I guess in regards to taking photos, I do not recall.”

From the White House

New offer, same problems? The White House said it sent over “another serious counter offer” to Democrats, as the impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding continues.

“Democrats need to make a move to end the shutdown before more Americans are harmed by a lack of funding for critical services like disaster relief,” a White House official told Jasmine.

Pressure points: TSA workers and others at DHS are set to miss their first full paycheck soon. But on Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked funding for the department for the second time, and showed no sign of budging on their demands.

Democrats are digging in for the long haul. Sen. Andy Kim told NOTUS before the White House sent its counteroffer that Democrats would continue to vote against the package until it included several reforms to immigration enforcement.

“After that State of the Union, I think it’s crystal clear, this is a president who is perfectly happy weaponizing parts of our government against the people,” Kim said.

THE BIG ONE

The minority outreach test: Close watchers of Tuesday’s Democratic Senate primary in Texas say either Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico will win primarily based on who can turn out more minority voters, NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz reports. The candidates’ final-push schedules tell the story: Both have spent the last two weeks in areas with diverse populations.

“We’ve seen in the polling that Jasmine Crockett is clearly winning among Black voters, and Talarico probably has a not as big magnitude, but a slight lead among … white voters and Latino voters,” Luke Warford, a leader in long-running efforts to turn Texas blue, said. This primary has been nasty, and race has been part of the nastiness.

Early voting offers no help as to who is winning this turnout effort, Daniella writes. Democrats have seen their coalition fracture in recent elections, and they will need it more together than ever if either candidate has a chance at an upset in November.

Black Republicans are facing their own test: Reps. Wesley Hunt, Byron Donalds and John James are all leaving the House to seek higher office, leaving Rep. Burgess Owens as the sole Black GOP incumbent seeking another term.

“I don’t want to be in the room merely because you want a Black candidate in the room,” Josh Williams, the Ohio state House majority whip running in the Republican primary to face Rep. Marcy Kaptur, told NOTUS’ Oriana González.

But he said race can be electorally important. “In a general election, more minority voters, more Black voters, will be prone to be engaged and actually vote in this district, because they’ve been left behind by Marcy Kaptur, and they’ve told me verbatim that they don’t feel representation from her,” Williams said.

A key goal for the GOP is solidifying the gains among Black voters that Trump built in 2024. Do they need Black candidates to do that? “I don’t know if it’s cause and effect. But that’s a voting bloc that we take seriously,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson told Oriana.

NEW ON NOTUS

Environmental groups flood the courts: NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak crunched the numbers and discovered an uptick in environmental lawsuits during the first year of Trump’s second term. The Sierra Club, for example, filed or intervened in more than 100 lawsuits in 2025.

“It has made our litigation more difficult and our federal court litigation more challenging,” the Sierra Club’s legal director, Joanne Spalding, told Shifra. “It certainly changes the way we frame the arguments.”

More: This Republican and Democrat Are Trying to Expand Critical Women’s Health Program, by Avani Kalra

NOT US

• For America’s 250th, Should the Coin of Trump’s Realm Be Gold? By Dan Barry for The New York Times
  
• Continuing Chaos at DC’s Troubled Psychiatric Hospital, by Luke Mullins for Washingtonian
  
• Why I Got Thrown Out of a Jasmine Crockett Rally, by Elaine Godfrey for The Atlantic

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