Hello readers and welcome back to On Politics. Zach Schermele here, USA TODAY's congressional correspondent. It's Thursday. Outside the House chamber, I just ran into Sam Forstag, the Democratic candidate in Montana's western congressional district whose shirtless photos on social media have turned heads. (Rest assured, he was in a suit.)
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Members of Congress are bracing for President Trump's primetime address tonight. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, suggested in the briefing room today that he may cast doubt on the security of U.S. elections.
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"We should have the safest and most secure elections in the history of the world," she said. "What the president will be speaking about tonight will show you that perhaps that is not the case."
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Part of his speech is expected to be about his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. In the halls of the Senate today, Republicans made no effort to hide their unease with that focus.
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"We should talk about 2026 and not 2020," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
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"My focus will be on the election that's occurring in four months, rather than the one that occurred six years ago," said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota.
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That attitude was coming from the top of the Senate GOP. "I don't know what he's going to say," Majority Leader John Thune said yesterday, calling the 2020 election a "closed issue."
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Senate GOP leadership, seen here speaking at a weekly press conference on Wednesday this week, has said Trump's voting restrictions bill, the SAVE America Act, can't pass the chamber.
Aaron Schwartz, Getty Images
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Johnson yanks veterans' benefits package |
An effort to advance a package of VA benefits bills this morning on the House floor went down in flames – the latest in Speaker Mike Johnson's struggle to get Republicans on the same page. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who is an Air Force veteran, said pulling the legislation sends the wrong message to voters ahead of the midterms.
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"That was a mistake," he told me, saying the centerpiece bill, which would increase payouts to combat-disabled retirees, was "DOA" until "people get their brains in the right order."
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Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, speaking to the media before he enters a GOP conference meeting on Oct. 20, 2023.
Jack Gruber / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The legislative package is complicated, though: Veterans groups have actually been divided on it overall. Democrats largely oppose it because, as Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts put it, it "pays for veterans' benefits today by cutting benefits tomorrow."
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Markwayne Mullin promised a quieter DHS. Then came the shootings. |
Markwayne Mullin promised to keep the Department of Homeland Security out of the spotlight, as my colleague Eduardo Cuevas reported this morning.
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Zachary Schermele is the congressional correspondent for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com.
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A key Republican said he wouldn't vote to confirm Todd Blanche until he meets with Jeffrey Epstein's accusers.
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More than 100 House Democrats voted to cut more than $3 billion in aid to Israel, a longtime U.S. ally.
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JD Vance told Joe Rogan that the Trump administration "screwed up" its handling of the Epstein files, acknowledging the rollout fueled mistrust.
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