As you’ll read in our THE LEGISLATIVE section, both the Senate and the House have now adjourned, ushering in midterm election crunch time. Candidates are pounding the pavement in earnest and making their case to voters.
The Republican Party has advantages — a breaking agreement by G7 allies to release emergency diesel supplies, herculean efforts to pry open the Hormuz Strait, and a pro-Somali fraud opposing party in the Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s favorite talking point is that the 2026 midterm elections are a “contrast election”: the contrast between the party that encourages foreign looting of Medicare and Medicaid and the party that doesn’t, the party that celebrates sex changes in children and the party that doesn’t, the party that obsesses over race in all of its academic research and the party that doesn’t.
But there’s another contrast Republican leaders aren’t as eager to talk about: The contrast between the enthusiasm and energy of winning a “trifecta” (the presidency, the House and the Senate) in early 2025 and the labored efforts to win back jolts of that old energy now.
For Republican incumbents of the 119th, the election may be a referendum on how they performed in the prior two years. Has Congress met the historic moment following runaway inflation pushing up the cost of living, suffocating DEI mania and deadly COVID tyranny? According to reporting by quintessential Washington insider Mark Halperin, internal polling predicts voters may give them poor marks.
THE EXECUTIVE
The president is back in Washington today after a rally in Ohio Saturday with Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump will stump for Republicans in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama this week as part of a roughly month-long pre-election blitz, ABC News reported. His public schedule for Monday can be found here.
The Super Intelligence Force
A new 120-day “Super Intelligence Force” led by the nation’s top spymaster will simultaneously examine the risks of out-of-control artificial intelligence and the risks of China achieving superintelligence first and could propose new laws to address both.
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is an AI with the ability to independently reason and problem solve superior to humans. Some in DC believe that should China develop AGI first, it could use it aggressively against the U.S. to sabotage its attempts at parity and assert itself as the new global superpower.
“The risk of not being first is high,” Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
“If they were to pull ahead of us on AI, then nothing else matters,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month.
Amid some skepticism about Silicon Valley’s motives in calling for a slowdown to AI development — be it immunization from liability or protection from anti-collusion laws — the Trump administration is still stressing that the industry is taking the lead on managing risks.
But the task force’s charter, obtained by the newspaper, states that there “has always been inherent unpredictability in the effects of significant technological change.”
“I expect there will be mechanisms developed in dialogue, just like there are in other industries,” Clayton told The Wall Street Journal, citing the financial services sector’s cooperation with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Reserve.
Here is the central tension: Securing AGI first means beating China, but many efforts to prevent an AI-optimized bioweapon, catastrophic cyberattacks and other existential risks could require cooperation with Beijing.
Other members of the task force include the following officials and outside advisors: Bessent, Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Walters, venture capitalist David Sacks, and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State to President George W. Bush.
Critics like the dovish Quincy Institute wonder whether achieving AGI first will really give America a durable “moat” against China’s advance. The U.S. developed nuclear weapons first but couldn’t stop Russia from developing them too.
The Deep State’s Worst Offense (Being Corny)
Undermining the will of the people, warrantless spying, criminalizing support for Trump, trampling on the Constitution, jeopardizing public confidence in the rule of law … the Deep State has committed many crimes, and yet its corniness may be the most offensive.
Spotted at a Maryland concert sponsored by a constellation of Democratic NGOs this weekend: former Special Counsel Jack Smith, begging to be spotted. Smith wore a Bruce Springsteen shirt reading “NO KINGS.”
This sartorial protest may at first blush appear like a strange decision. After all, Smith assured Congress just six days ago that his decision to pursue criminal charges against Trump had nothing to do with partisan bias. Nevermind that Smith eavesdropped on the Trump White House, 16 members of Congress, dozens of media outlets and thousands of small-dollar conservative donors in this pursuit. But the Springsteen concert just outside of DC, sponsored by Indivisible, Third Act and the ACLU, was a prime opportunity for Smith to revel in his MSNOW celebrity.
The sponsoring Power To The People Festival Fund is a project of Catalyst Philanthropy Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2024 with $6.5 million in annual revenue, Fox reported.
Dave Grohl all but blew a kiss to his “new friend Jack,” appearing to dedicate the Foo Fighters’ performance of “My Hero” to Smith. Why not bring him on stage for a flirty rendition of “Dancing In The Dark?”
MAHA In Disarray
The official Substack of MAHA Action described Mary Talley Bowden, the organizer of a letter criticizing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calling for the removal of mRNA COVID-19 and influenza shots from the market last month, as the agent of a “psyop” in a new post on Sunday.
The post portrays Bowden’s letter, which expressed concerns about the pivot of Kennedy’s movement away from concerns about the pharmaceutical industry, as a nefarious effort to undermine it. Tucker Carlson, Rep. Thomas Massie and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cosigned her letter.
“You draw a line in the sand. Remove the mRNA platform. Not study it. Not restrict it. Not stop funding its development. Not change recommendations. Take it off the market. And if you don’t? We’re done. Now you’ve turned a policy disagreement into an identity question. Who’s really health freedom?” the essay reads.
The Food and Drug Administration under former Commissioner Marty Makary confirmed COVID deaths in children, limited use of the COVID vaccine to seniors and people at high risk of severe disease, and required the drug companies study whether booster shots are safe and necessary in everyone else. But since his resignation under pressure in May, the FDA has relieved the drug companies of their obligation to conduct these studies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children receive COVID shots regardless of prior infection or risk of severe disease.
MAHA Action had promised to raise $100 million for MAHA-aligned candidates this election cycle, but has contributed just $1 million. The group spent $155,000 on the Ned’s Club, an exclusive private venue in downtown Washington DC.
The White House has focused on its deals with pharmaceutical companies to on-shore manufacturing and lower drug prices, with Trump highlighting a deal with Bayer to build a campus near Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday. Playing hardball with Big Pharma on tariffs has led to pledges to invest billions to rebuild plants in the U.S., Trump said.
THE LEGISLATIVE
The House of Representatives and Senate are adjourned until Election Day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the upper chamber home early last Wednesday.
Congress Hits The Campaign Trail
Thune adjourned the Senate as some incumbents face mounting pressure to prove their case to voters ahead of Election Day, leaving various legislative priorities pending.
Ahead of the adjournment, Thune made multiple posts on X framing the Democratic Party as the “party of no” for their role in stalling such legislation.
“Will Democrats support commonsense measures like a stock trading ban, voter ID, and protection from higher energy costs? Or will they continue to play politics?” Thune posted Wednesday morning.
This appears to be in lockstep with the reason that lower chamber counterpart — House Speaker Mike Johnson — adjourned earlier this month.
Like Thune, Johnson highlighted the bills Senate Democrats opposed in an X post Saturday. These included: “Permanently [Doubling] Child Tax Credit,” “No Tax on Tips or Overtime,” “Enhanc[ing] Senior Deduction,” and “Tax-Advantaged Investment Accounts for Kids.”
“Now they are trying to take credit for it! Republicans want you to keep more of what you earn. Democrats will raise your taxes if they take back the majority,” Johnson added.
But cracks are already beginning to show in the united front.
Ken Paxton — the Republican nominee for Senate in Texas — was caught saying the RNC’s Sept. 9-10 first-ever midterm convention, where the Republican Party’s top brass touted their accomplishments, hurt his campaign numbers, The New York Times reported last Wednesday.
“So to be honest with you, the numbers — when we did that convention — it dropped our numbers. Everybody’s numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good,” he reportedly said.
However, the leaked audio may just be noise rather than a signal of internal divide after Vice President JD Vance came to Paxton’s defense during a Fox News interview Wednesday.
“What Ken said in an off-the-record conversation with a donor — I got to be honest with you — I’m not particularly concerned about. We’re going to help Ken,” Vance said.
Vance doesn’t seem to be the only one going to Ken’s help. His estranged wife, Angela Paxton, said in an ad posted to X by AdImpact Politics last Saturday that she still intends to vote for him.
“I’m Texas Senator Angela Paxton. People have asked my thoughts about this election and turns out, I have some ... I’m voting for the Republican ticket on November 3rd,” she said.
Regardless, the Republican nominee still appears to be in a tight spot — Democratic nominee James Talarico has a net personal approval rating of 8 points versus Paxton’s -18 points, according to a Fox poll published Thursday.
The World’s Most Powerful Golfer Doxxes A Senator
Trump shared what he claimed to be Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday post on Truth Social, flaming the senator for stalling the Sunshine Protection Act.
“Nobody wants to spend their precious time running all over the place, turning Clocks back twice a year and, having sunshine in the afternoon is better than early in the morning!” Trump wrote.
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117377462448761419
The president — known for his frequent golfing — touted how making Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent could help the golfing industry. Athlon Sports reported Aug. 4 that doing so could help the industry rake in around $1 billion per Winter season.
“The PGA [Professional Golfers’ Association] TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments. Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work,” the president continued.
Cotton promptly posted his response on X.
“No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Savings Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” the senator wrote. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.”
One of the times Congress tested permanent DST was from 1973-1974, which according to Smithsonian Magazine, led to the death of at least eight children after they were struck and killed by vehicles on their way to school because it was too dark out. In light of that, President Gerald Ford restored Standard Time (ST) for the winter months in October 1974.
Anti-permanent DST nonprofit Save Standard Time has since rushed to Cotton’s defense with a slew of posts on its X account over the weekend.
“Cotton is right, Trump is wrong,” it stated in one such post. “Permanent DST is a mandate to wake an hour earlier than Standard Time, to start school/work in darkness all winter. It would put sunrise past 8am for 3+ months in most states, past 9am in 18 states. Permanent Standard Time is the only safe clock!”
Regardless, the phone number received so many calls that it became impossible to leave a message, The Daily Beast reported.
THE JUDICIARY
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) began its 2026-2027 term today.
Alito Opts Out Of Climate Agenda’s Stress Test
SCOTUS will hear oral arguments for the Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County case Monday morning, which could set a precedent for energy companies being held liable for perceived damages from out-of-state greenhouse emissions. And if the stakes weren’t already high enough, Justice Samuel Alito opted to recuse himself from the case last Tuesday.
“Taking into account the particular arguments that were made on both sides here, I thought that recusal was the prudent step,” Alito told Bloomberg in an interview Wednesday. “She [Martha-Ann Alito] wants to hold on to individual stock, and so we have stock holdings in some companies in the oil and gas field.”
The George W. Bush-appointee’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, leased oil and gas rights spanning some 160 acres in Oklahoma to Citizen Energy III in 2022, The Intercept reported June 2023.
Alito’s recusal leaves open the possibility of splitting the Court’s decision 4-4, some legal scholars suggest.
“It’s always hard to predict how a Justice will vote before the oral argument in a case. It is possible that the Court will split 4-4, which would mean affirming the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Boulder County,” George Washington Law School professor Robert Glicksman told the DCNF last Tuesday.
However, Glicksman warned that making such a prediction remains difficult.
“Does the fact that the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of a motion to dismiss deprive the Supreme Court of jurisdiction because [it] is not reviewing a final order? That might preclude the Court from reaching the merits of the preemption issue,” he said.
This isn’t the only news of Alito stepping back from the nation’s highest court that broke this week, however.
Alito told CBS News in an interview set to air Monday that he thought about retiring this year and will consider it again next year after serving on the Court since January 2006, according to a clip the outlet posted on X last Friday.
The interview comes a day before the 76-year-old jurist who penned the majority opinion for the landmark 2022 Dobbs Decision — which ended Roe v. Wade’s nearly 50-year reign — debuts his book defending his judicial philosophy, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country.
The Legislature’s Retreat Leaves The Judiciary A Warzone
As Alito works towards cementing his legal legacy, Trump announced two new judicial nominees on Truth Social last Thursday: Brian Meyers and Todd Butler.
Trump nominated Meyers, who serves as magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, to a lifetime term on that court with the “strong support” of Sens. Ted Budd and McConnell’s tenant Thom Tillis.
Before earning his Juris Doctor at the University of Richmond School of Law and serving in the Marine Corps, Meyers worked for the late Sen. Jesse Helms, who proposed an amendment in 1982 that would’ve enshrined fetal personhood within the Fourteenth Amendment.
Trump nominated Butler to serve in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit with the “unwavering support” of Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The Fifth Circuit — which spans Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas — has been a battleground for the anti-abortion movement in light of the Louisiana v. FDA case, where Louisiana officials are suing to stop out-of-state organizations from mailing abortion pills into the state.
However, the Trump admin drew ire from pro-life leaders when it declined to provide the Fifth Circuit an official stance on abortion pills until after the FDA finishes its study on them during the case’s Sept. 9 oral arguments, The Washington Sun reported in September.
Despite such delays, the White House denied allegations that senior officials have tried to convince Attorney General Todd Blanche to stall anti-abortion action until after Election Day, The Sun reported last Friday.
Regardless, considering how the Senate Committee on the Judiciary canceled its Thursday nominations meeting last week, any attempts to spread the 2024 electoral mandate across the judicial landscape ahead of the 2026 mandate may have become yet another casualty of the Senate’s early recess. As of today, there are 27 judicial vacancies.
The push-and-pull between action and inaction comes as the state of the judiciary grows all the more dangerous, as Alito alluded to in another Friday clip by CBS teasing Monday’s feature.
“We didn’t know it when we produced the [Dobbs majority opinion] draft that was leaked, but it required courage to go ahead with that because of the implications,” Alito told CBS.
His colleague, Justice Elena Kagan, told the House Appropriations Committee on July 14 that threats against the Court rose 35% in 2026 and 25% in 2025.
“The physical threats and the harassment represents something new in our society and something that is quite disturbing … And I think it’s a danger to the courts, and I think it’s a danger to others in public life,” Alito continued.
MISCELLANEOUS
Lab Leak Coverup In Russia?
Today in headlines ripped from the 14th century: A young woman became infected with plague and died near the Russia-Mongolia border, conjuring memories of headlines out of Wuhan, China, in early 2020 and driving concerns about a wider outbreak.
The governor of a region of Siberia called Irkutsk has canceled all public events to contain the spread but did not specify the pathogen. Nearly 200 people are under quarantine, according to The Moscow Times.
The woman was hospitalized on Tuesday and died by Thursday. Several city hospitals have been placed under a three-week quarantine, including a children’s hospital and a maternity hospital, according to independent news outlet Baikal People.
Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev is appearing to maintain calm, posting on his social media page about the autumn weather, the opening of a new gym, and a fish festival, the outlet said. But on Saturday he met with the head of the Russian public health division (“Roszdravnadzor”), dispatched from Moscow.
Twenty-eight year old Daria Shipilova worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. Officials have not addressed an online rumor that she broke a test tube.
Like China and the U.S., Russia has only accelerated its participation in the global race in gain-of-function research and biodefense laboratories since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged near the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2019.
The State Department maintains Russia has revived its biological weapons program. The Russian Federation has lobbed accusations at the U.S. about biolabs in Ukraine.
Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents earlier this year describing U.S. support for biodefense labs conducting high-risk research in Ukraine through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
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I would like to know where the increase of judicial threats is coming from. Me thinks leftists.