You sing along… you crank the volume… but you don’t actually know what in the world you’re singing.

For 90’s music fans, there’s “Informer” by Snow.

For 80’s types… perhaps it’s “Come on, Eileen.”

For the 70’s fans….. maybe “Bennie and the Jets”.

Is it only the Swifties who know every word of “Blank Space”?

Or how about: “MMM Bop”, “Lady Marmalade” and (my favorite) “Return of the Mack” from 1997?

I love it… I sing it in the car… and I have no idea what the hell I’m saying.

In the day ahead, exactly two months until the midterm elections, I’m wondering how many voters are devotedly and enthusiastically going to show up. without knowing the actual words/platforms/backgrounds of their preferred candidates.

Does MAGA actually know the real state of the economy? Do they know the actual state-of-play of the Iran War, President Trump’s position on data centers or GOP plans for grocery prices? The tariffs? Are they cool with the Ballroom, the Monumental Arch and the $1.776 billion slush fund?

Or are they just humming along with the melody …. and backing Trump’s preferred candidates no matter what? (MMM Bop!)

Do they still love Trump, even without knowing the… lyrics… of Trump 2.0?

Today - two months before the election - Trump is underwater in polling in 47 of 50 states.

I’m most struck by Iowa, where there are three incumbent U.S. House Republicans who could be toppled by strong Democratic challengers.

A Suffolk University poll shows Democrats in position to potentially win those three Congressional seats, an open US Senate seat and the gubernatorial race, in a state Trump won by 13 points in 2024.

As for Democrats… are they sufficiently pissed at Trump that they’re ready and eager to vote Democratic up and down the ballot? Will they do so, even if they aren’t familiar with – or even especially keen on – the Democratic nominees in their local races?

In his latest analysis this morning, analyst Nate Silver estimates Democrats have a “generic ballot” advantage of 6.6 percent. That’s nearly identical to the Democratic advantage in August.

Generic ballot testing measures “generic Democratic nominee” vs. “generic Republican nominee.” It’s sort of like the….. “Come on Eileen” lyrics of political measurements.

Then, there’s the enthusiasm gap.

In the final stretch to election day, Democrats are wildly more enthused about voting.

Ipsos polling shows Democrats with a strong edge among those “certain to vote.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), who oversees messaging for US House Democrats, told DAY AHEAD the GOP is fumbling the issue of gas and food prices.

The Republican National Committee and President Trump are trying to gin up the Republican base with a two-day convention at the hockey arena in Dallas next week. (Sept. 9-10)

But – oof – that might not be enough. Turnout for the event is a big question. Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) told CNN that she might have to skip the convention, because of local events in her battleground Congressional district. Salazar said, “I can’t be in two places at once.”

As I explained on CNN….. that’s a bad sign for the GOP. They won’t be singing (Blank Space?) from the same songbook.

Take a look at the polling summary in the Ohio gubernatorial race from the New York Times this morning.

It doesn’t get much closer than this.

The Democratic nominee, Dr. Amy Acton, told DAY AHEAD she is visiting, door-knocking and campaigning in rural and southeast Ohio communities which had skewed RED in the past 15 years.

Acton said Democrats can regain ground because of an “exhaustion” among voters with the viciousness of politics and with the billionaire class.

Speaking of toss-ups… here’s the latest US Senate race forecast from the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

They’ve got Texas and Ohio as toss-up races… as Democrat James Talarico muscles his way into a competitive race against Republican nominee Ken Paxton, in a state Trump once carried overwhelmingly.

Talarico’s campaign team told us Talarico has officially accepted a debate invitation from CNN, but that Paxton hadn’t. That’s in addition to three televised debates that that Talarico agreed to earlier this summer. (I’m told Talarico said “yes” to debates by local TV in Dallas and Austin)

But for now: No debates. Paxton might be hoping that his supporters show up, without even hearing the political lyrics on a debate stage.

MMMBop!

I talked about this race on CNN’S NewsNight

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REMINDER: You can subscribe to the audio version of the DAY AHEAD. It’s an unscripted, efficient and conversational rundown of the news that’s worth tracking.

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Here are some of the other emerging stories in the day ahead

1) In the day ahead, let’s see if more members of Congress raise the pressure on Secretary Pete Hegseth. House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has a 10:30am news conference at the Capitol.

In the wake of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation, the murky trajectory of the Iran War (murky .. even to Congressional leaders) and increasing reports of depleted military resources, the pressure is increasing on Hegseth.

But it’s the Republicans who are worth watching most closely.

Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis wrote on social media, “I urge the President to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.”

Tillis added, “I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”

Trump gave Hegseth some kudos last night at the White House, saying “we knocked the hell” out of Iran this week.

2) The National Capital Planning Commission, which has been commandeered by Trump-acolytes, will have a review today of the latest Trump remaking of DC landmarks: Lafayette Park.

The commission will have a public hearing on Team Trump’s plan for massive fencing and barricades surrounding the historic park, which sits across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

The National Capital Planning Commission’s announcement argues the project will provide “security and access improvements at Lafayette Park and its surrounding streets.”

But there will be an outcry at – what critics call – a militarization or blockade of a space that has a rich history of political protests, candlelight vigils and celebrations.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation has submitted a formal comment on the project, which warns that the commission is working with incomplete (or outdated) information as it speeds ahead with plans for the fencing.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s comment also emphasizes how Lafayette Park is “nation’s premier site for free speech and peaceable assembly from the Suffragette movement up through Black Lives Matter.”

St. John’s Church, where Trump famously stood and held a bible during DC protests in 2020, has issued a memo to the commission warning of the impact of Lafayette Park fencing:

https://www.ncpc.gov/email/upload/8_28_26_St_Johns_Church_Comments_Lafayette_Square_Fence_Proposal_SIGNED_NCPC__1787933757.pdf

Here’s the agenda for today’s meeting, which begins at 1pm eastern: https://www.ncpc.gov/review/agenda/

3) In a new court filing, attorneys for Katie Phang are asking federal Judge Emmet Sullivan to intervene and to “direct” Todd Blanche to finally produce FBI interview notes from the Epstein Files… for court review and for possible public release.

In this 7-page court filing, Phang’s legal team argues Blanche continues to defy the judge’s June court order requiring the release of more files.

Here’s the filing:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.291779/gov.uscourts.dcd.291779.40.0.pdf

Phang’ team argues Blanche’s attorneys have “repeated unsupported and unpersuasive arguments as to why it could not timely produce the FBI notes or redaction log.”

I’ll track this through the day.

4) There will be a ceremony at the Georgia state capitol today to mark two years since the fatal Apalachee High School mass shooting in Winder, Georgia. Families of those who were killed or wounded will attend the event. High school administrators will join too. Outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) will deliver remarks. But the advisory from the governor alerts reporters that there will be “no question-and-answer” portion of the program. No chance for questions on gun violence control.

Separate from today’s event, a group of US House Democrats have been planning for potential hearings and legislation in 2027 to combat gun violence, including Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), whose son was killed in a shooting in 2012. Democrats want to hit the ground running, if they win the majority.

5) January 6th Capitol Hill pipe bomb defendant Brian Cole is asking a federal judge in Washington to dismiss the terrorism charge filed against Cole by the Justice Department. Cole was arrested in Virginia in 2025, after a four-year search for a suspect in the placement of the pipe bombs.

The case has gone quiet recently, as Cole remains in pretrial detention. The feds charged Cole in January with federal felony charges, but secured a superseding indictment in April to add the terrorism component to the case.

Part of Cole’s argument said the terrorism charge is inapplicable because the alleged pipe bombs were not found outside an office of government, but were instead spotted near the Democratic and Republican party campaign headquarters. Therefore, the defense argues, the relevant DC code doesn’t apply.

Here’s an excerpt:

Cole’s defense previously sought to get his case tossed by arguing that Trump’s blanket January 6 pardons should apply to Cole’s case. The judge disagreed.

Watching this case is quite something. The Justice Department threads needles in its court filings to avoid mentioning the Capitol riot and the horrors of the January 6th siege. Police leaders have previously said the pipe bombs were impactful, by detouring and distracting officers as the riotous mob approached on January 6, 2021.

6) Top U.S. House Democrats have formally requested the US Postal Service’s internal inspector to investigate reports of a faulty ballot screening system at the agency. A whistleblower alleged there are technological problems that could upend how the Postal Service handles midterm election mail-in voting, if Trump’s executive order takes effect.

The ranking members of the House Oversight Committee and Committee on House Administration have asked for an immediate probe. Their memo includes the whistleblower warning, “The United States Postal Service is secretly creating a ballot screening system, potentially in contravention of federal law, that could prevent millions of voters across the country from receiving their mail-in ballots. This disclosure makes it abundantly clear that the actions taken by the Postal Service at President Trump’s direction threaten a ‘foreseeable catastrophic disruption to our coming nationwide elections.”

7) In Michigan, state Attorney General Dana Nessel has won a court order to prevent Kalshi from offering sports wagers in the state. Nessel’s announcement today said, “The preliminary injunction requires Kalshi to maintain geofencing to block Michigan residents and those within Michigan’s borders from having access to its illegal sports betting contracts. Violations of the order would result in a $500,000 per day fine.”

Meanwhile, there’s also a fight over the issue in New Jersey. According to NJ.com, “New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the nation’s highest court to resolve a question that has divided courts nationwide: whether prediction markets can offer sports wagers without following state sports-gambling laws.”

This is a big battle. The prediction market industry is surging and seeking to get a bigger foothold in sports.

8) FLOCK CAMERA WATCH: Can and should police be able to buy and deploy Flock Cameras without get approval from city leaders, city commissions or mayors? That’s the question on the front page of this morning’s paper in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where a new deployment of the A.I.-powered cameras is raising questions with city officials.

The paper provides a handy photo … showing one of the Flock cameras in the heart of town.

There’s a new NEXT GEN poll out of Arizona showing the enormous concerns about Flock cameras.

The polling found: 63% of residents oppose having ALPR cameras in their communities.

82% worry that law enforcement might misuse the data.

Here’s the full report from KJZZ radio in Phoenix.

https://www.kjzz.org/politics/2026-08-23/poll-arizonans-are-concerned-about-police-misuse-of-flock-camera-data

9) In Mississippi, WJTV-television is spotlighting the pain of soaring costs, especially gasoline.

The TV station elicited this response from Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) who is running for re-election this year.

Hyde-Smith said, “The number one thing that a president’s job is, is to have a secure, safe country. All of this is about making sure that we have a safe country. We were being threatened, amazingly, being threatened by Iran. And this will eventually work out. This is a peak, no doubt, this is a peak. And it hurts. But it is for a better cause of a secure country.”

Gas prices are lower in Mississippi than elsewhere in the nation. (Closer to $3.70/gallon). But a Self Financial review of US Labor Dept data showed Mississippi has the fifth highest average grocery prices in the country.

Here are the other states in the top 10:

MORE: https://www.self.inc/info/grocery-prices-by-state/

Mississippi Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom is canvassing the state this week in what he’s billing as a “Where’s Cindy Tour?”... in which he criticizes Hyde-Smith for not making sufficient appearances – or answering public questions – from her constituents about costs.

Have a great day. I’m back on the campaign trail for new reporting later today.

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Road rage can be pernicious. Hard to resist.

Sometimes it’s difficult to keep our “cool”, while watching an aggressive driver speed, weave and menace his way through traffic. He cuts people off, he deliberately rides your bumper and he tries any number of dangerous shifts that could trigger a multi-car pile up.

If you’re on the highway, you might just back away, to avoid being any part of the carnage or chaos he risks uncorking.

Critics of the Trump Administration equate Secretary Pete Hegseth with being an out-of-control operator inside the Pentagon.

The purge of top generals and officials, including Monday’s resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, raise questions about Hegseth’s steering and handling of the bureaucracy.

The abrupt halting of his “semi-regular” press briefings on the Iran War might remind you of a driver who’s careening down the highway, but refusing to use his turn signal … to alert everyone of his trajectory.

With a new army of social media influencers deployed inside the Pentagon, Hegseth appears to poised to amplify a communications strategy that reminds me of a driver’s frustrated, one-finger gesture at other cars.

In the day ahead, there are emerging questions about how sustainable the Hegseth era is .. inside the Pentagon.

In the 7th month of war — and in the wake of another round of new strikes Tuesday against Iranian Revolutionary Guard targets near the Strait of Hormuz — the question I’m hearing most frequently is: How long will Hegseth last?

Or should he last?

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told CNN, “He wouldn’t be my choice (for Sec. of Defense). I want someone more in the model of General Mattis. I have concerns with these firings … the American public deserves to know why this is going on.”

Bacon didn’t stop there.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said, “This administration is like a viper pit. This is not a team.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) said, “It’s long past time” for Hegesth’s impeachment

One Administration official told the Washington Post, “Pete is not speaking truth to the president. As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information”

Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) told DAY AHEAD her constituents are “pissed” about the Pentagon leadership’s steering

Hegseth is incurring more wrath, for body shaming youth cadets from Canada on social media.

I’m not going to recirculate Hegesth’s post, but here are the immediate responses:

.

Rick Wilson, a Florida political strategist who has been unambiguously critical of Hegseth, told DAY AHEAD that Hegseth continues to lose public support amid widespread resignations and firings inside the Pentagon. Wilson said Hegseth’s reported flirtation with a 2028 run is a dead end journey… for a reckless driver.

Hegseth and his top brass are reportedly hiring “influencers” to join the civilian workforce to burnish his image and wrangle more support for Hegseth’s policies, including his disdain for diversity.

As I mentioned on MSNOW, Hegseth’s communications strategy has struggled mightily…. from the start.

Overnight, the Justice Department filed a 34-page argument defending their decision to fire three Stars & Stripes journalists.

Here’s the filing:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.295983/gov.uscourts.dcd.295983.15.0.pdf

The Trump Administration is arguing the journalists were making official statements in their roles as government employees when they gave a televised interview with CBS News Sunday Morning earlier this summer.

The Administration argues that they “own and fund” the paper, which has served as a vital source of news for servicemembers and the military community.

The journalists — including editor Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte - emphasized in their CBS News interviews how they view their roles as “independent.”

Korte said, “I’m working for Stars and Stripes . . . not for the Pentagon, not for an administration, not for any policymaker. I’m here to cover the military community.”

When CBS asked Slavin what ‘foxhole’ he’d be willing to die in, Slavin said the paper “need[s] to be able to provide independent news to service members. . . . If we can’t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations? Yeah, that’s the foxhole.”

Team Trump and Team Hegseth argue they are the bosses. They want to drive the car, fast and furiously.

In the court filing they note, “Approximately 65 percent of Stripes’ annual budget is appropriated funds; the remainder is revenue from subscriptions, sales, and advertising.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday in Washington, D.C. federal court.

The future and reputation of this storied news source, which launched during the Civil War, risk being impacted.

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Other News Threads I’m Pulling Today:

1) In the day ahead I expect Democrats to push for public testimony and updated reports from US Postal Service leadership. There are big questions and big fears after Tuesday’s revelations from a whistleblower about major problems inside the agency’s plan to execute Trump’s mail-in voting rules.

This morning, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said, “A whistleblower just confirmed Trump’s mail-ballot verification system is broken enough to lose or reject people’s ballots ahead of the midterms. I am calling for an immediate stop to this rollout, and I am demanding that USPS leadership come before Congress to testify under oath. The American people deserve answers before a single ballot is put at risk.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is the Senator who revealed the whistleblower’s warnings. This is the portion of his lengthy argument that resonated most with me: One voter’s mislabeled ballot could disenfranchise many hundreds or thousands of other people.

Blumenthal said, “Not only is this system astonishingly untested, USPS has simultaneously implemented an impracticable zero percent failure rate. When ballots are submitted to USPS in large-volume batches, if any one ballot in the batch cannot be verified against the Portal, all ballots in that batch will be rejected. For example, if a state election official brings a batch of 10,000 ballots to USPS and USPS is unable to match just one of those ballots against the Portal – because, for example, someone has recently changed their name after marriage or they’ve moved – then USPS would refuse to mail the remaining 9,999 ballots as well.”

Per a court official, there are deadlines set for Tuesday in the federal civil lawsuit filed by Democratic campaign committees (and watchdog groups) seeking a court order to halt Trump’s mail-in voting restrictions. Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, is the judge presiding over the case in DC.

Center for Election Innovation and Research election security expert David Becker issued a statement to DAY AHEAD, “Fortunately, the USPS order continues to be blocked by the courts, and I expect that injunction to be formalized after a hearing in a Boston federal court (tomorrow) While there may be appeals, I am confident that the courts, including the Supreme Court, will refuse to embrace the chaos that would result if the USPS tried to implement major changes in the weeks before the 2026 election because of President Trump’s illegal executive order. Voters who choose to vote by mail will continue to have access to the secure and convenient process used in past elections.”

2) The Trump/Elon Musk downsizing of the federal government appears to have lost money…. inside the IRS. The agency’s internal watchdog has found a 27 percent reduction in the IRS’s examination and collections staff has cost the government $5 billion in unpaid revenue.

The findings raise further questions about whether Musk’s DOGE (with which he promised “$1 trillion in savings”) has cost more money than it saved.

And the risk of people dodging their taxes could soar, with fewer examiners on-the-job. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said, “These losses present a challenge to improving taxpayer service and enforcing the nation’s tax laws,. We are concerned about how staffing losses are impacting the IRS’s ability to ensure that it meets department priorities.”

Here:

3) The Intercept media organization is seeking a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in New York City to prohibit Trump and Natalie Harp “from posting, or allowing to be posted, announcements from President Trump on the website Truth Social so long as ‘Truth API’ is in operation.”

The API charges $100,000 for early access to Trump’s posts.

It’s ….. wildly controversial. The Intercept is serving as a plaintiff in the case, arguing Trump and Harp are unlawfully monetizing official government announcements in violation of the 1st and 5th amendments. They argue the taxpayer-funded government cannot PAYWALL public information.

4) Don Lemon and his co-defendants in the controversial federal criminal case in Minnesota are filing new motions to get their cases dismissed. A group of attorneys for Lemon’s co-defendants in the church case will argue “government misconduct” warrants dismissal.

They argue the “government improperly posted defamatory comments & prejudicial photographs of certain defendants on social media”, including Pam Bondi tweets.

The defendants’ court filing said, “The Defendants are now on notice that the Government will not hesitate to publicize information about their cases—true or not. This could certainly have an impact on whether witnesses are willing to come forward or testify in this case.”

The Justice Department argues a group of “agitators” – including the arrested defendants – “disrupted the religious service and intimidated, harassed, oppressed, and terrorized the parishioners” on January 26 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The judge has set an October 1st deadline for responses to motions in the case.

5) Speaking of dismissals: The Atlantic news organization is asking a federal judge in Washington to dismiss the libel lawsuit filed by FBI Director Kash Patel over the Atlantic’s report “The FBI Director is MIA”

In their new argument, attorneys for the Atlantic said Patel’s pronouncement that the reporting is “not legitimate journalism… coming from the country’s top law enforcement official, is profoundly disturbing, and coupled with reports that Director Patel has initiated a criminal investigation into the journalist who wrote the Article, raises serious First Amendment concerns. But beneath its bellicose public messaging, the Opposition only confirms that this Court has all it needs to dismiss the Complaint as a matter of law on this Motion.”

They’ll also argue, “While he claims defendants should have reviewed ‘FBI attendance records,’ ‘operational protocols’ and ‘security detail protocols,’ it is undisputed that neither he nor his agency provided any of these documents or indicated any intent to do so, despite being a ‘custodian’ of such materials…. Director Patel still has not identified any information in these materials that would show the Article to be false.”

6) AFFORDABILITY WATCH: A low-key Congressional subcommittee hearing at 10am will reveal the scope of the crisis with utility costs. A witness for the Center for American Progress will testify to the House Small Business Committee, “Energy costs have risen at more than four times the rate of overall inflation and at more than four times the rate of wage growth. Residents in some states experienced electricity price increases 10 percent or more between June 2025 and June 2026, including in New Hampshire, Virginia, Michigan, and Idaho, and the average household is expected to spend nearly $800 on electricity this summer.”

That’s the backstory behind so much of the fear and loathing of data centers. Utility and electric costs are already through the roof… and demand is poised to soar further.

I’ll monitor the hearing for us.

In the meantime, here’s the latest indication of how this issue is surfacing in small and big communities.

In Las Vegas, a data center is paused.

In New Jersey, the news is underscoring the political divisiveness of data centers:

7) I’m sifting through some new polling in the day ahead. Democratic operatives are calling our attention to this new Reuters/Ipsos survey, which shows Democrats are more enthusiastic about turning out to vote this November. It’s a nine-point edge.

FOX News is spotlighting a different Reuters poll, which shows an overwhelming number of respondents strongly oppose Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario.

Brutal. Only 14 percent favor the attempted re-naming.

One final poll, EPIC MRA of Michigan said its survey showed 62 percent of respondents in the swing state oppose development of data centers.

Vice President JD Vance was touting data centers in Michigan this week, as part of a campaign trip for GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers.

8) Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) is trying to keep his grasp on a battleground Congressional district in Colorado, which he flipped from blue-to-red in 2024. Democrats are unfurling a new Spanish language add, in the suburban Denver district. My read of the district data shows the region is 40 percent Latino. The ad argues Evans’s votes have bolstered Trump Administration attempts to limit Medicaid and increase costs of health insurance.

Healthcare costs are emerging as a final messaging push by the parties with 62 days until the election.

Here’s the ad against Evans

Evans is arguing “Democrats have overregulated hospitals and insurance providers, causing the insurers to either leave the state or reduce their coverage.”

His opponent, Democratic nominee Manny Rutinel, has said, “We need to expand Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs just like the VA does for our veterans.”

9) We’ll see the victorious incumbents in in the Tuesday primaries in Massachusetts return to the Capitol today. Rep. Richie Neal (D-MA) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) bested younger primary challengers last night.

NBC summarized the results: “Lynch, 71, won renomination over Patrick Roath, a 39-year-old former aide to former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. With his win, Lynch staved off an attempt to add him to the list of Democratic officeholders dethroned by rivals pushing for generational change.

Elsewhere in the state, fellow veteran Democratic Rep. Richard Neal also secured renomination, defeating teacher Jeromie Whalen in another Democratic primary.”

NBC notes how Roath outraised Rep. Lynch. But the money wasn’t a silver bullet.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) handily defeated a primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA). It wasn’t close.

WBZ-TV in Boston has the headline: “Massachusetts is heaven for incumbents”

10) Embattled Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) is officially “censured.” The vote was overwhelming on the U.S. House floor.

Roll Call reports, “House members censured Rep. Chuck Edwards for sexual harassment of two former staffers, even as he insisted that poetry he wrote and gifts he gave were not intended to be romantic.

They voted overwhelmingly, 413-2, to censure Edwards and adopt a report from the Ethics Committee detailing ‘persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct.’

Speaking on the House floor, Edwards defended himself, saying he was sorry he put the women in an ‘uncomfortable position’ but adding ‘regret is not an admission.’

‘I am imperfect. I have made mistakes, but I do not believe I committed sexual harassment,’ the North Carolina Republican said.”

11) From Freeport, Illinois to Steuben County, New York, the spread of measles is dominating headlines. A hospital in Hornell, New York reports new cases…. which have sickened unvaccinated people.

Here’s the overarching headline in Illinois:

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I’ll be in New York City today and tonight, to gather new reporting and to join CNN’s Newsnight with Abby Phillip at 10pm eastern time.

You can also hear my weekly appearance on KMOX radio in St. Louis at 11am eastern time.

And we’re focusing on Pete Hegseth’s future — in the road rage Administration - on this morning’s edition of Scott MacFarlane Reports on YOUTUBE.

SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottMacFarlaneNews

Wait til you hear about the new polling

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Remember when they used to have smoking sections in restaurants?

And in airports?

Hell… they even allowed smoking on-board airplanes and in teacher lounges in high schools.

The idea of a smoking section – and a non-smoking section – seems so ludicrous now.

Was it really supposed to shield us?

Even if you didn’t smoke and didn’t want to be exposed to smoke – you were gonna be exposed to the smoke either way!

In year two of the 2nd Trump term, we’re all experiencing a political version of the restaurant “non-smoking section.”

The public and the courts are making it clear: Some of Trump’s priorities are unwanted or unlawful. Yet .. everyone gets exposed to it anyhow.

That’s true of three big initiatives in the day ahead: The White House Ballroom, data centers and Trump’s manhandling of the name of Lake Ontario.

1) Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts put it on paper. Roberts said Trump’s $400-$600 million ballroom, launched without the approval of Congress, is “likely unlawful.”

Roberts added, “Congress has explicitly prohibited the construction of any ‘building or structure’ on any reservation, park or public grounds of the federal government or in D.C, without express authority of Congress.”

Yet .. the ballroom will continue.

A 5-4 ruling of the high court (with Roberts joining the three justices appointed by Democrats) will permit the massive project proceed.

The residents of Washington, D.C. aren’t necessarily keen on the change of the iconic landscape of their community, or the firehose of corporate donor money that’s helping fund Trump’s pet project. Taxpayers are exposed too, as was evidenced by the Trump Administration’s request for supplemental funding for Congress.

The Washington Post reported 35,000 people submitted comments on the Ballroom project. A whopping 97 percent were critical or opposed.

But just the non-smokers at the restaurant, they’ll just have to deal with their dissatisfaction.

2) Data centers are as popular as …. second-hand smoke.

In the day ahead, Republicans in the US House will be peppered with questions about Trump’s statement that “the only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.”

Hoo boy.

“Backwards and poor.”

The disdain toward data centers is bipartisan and fierce.

And it’s easy to see. Let’s just peruse this together.

Wisconsin’s Democratic nominee for governor (David Crowley):

“If local communities don’t want a data center, they shouldn’t be forced to have a data center. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

Wisconsin’s Republican nominee for governor (Rep. Tom Tiffany)

“There should be no new data centers in Wisconsin without strong standards”

Ohio’s Republican nominee for governor (Vivek Ramaswamy)

Ramaswami says he’s issue an executive order immediately halting approval of any new data center project announcements in Ohio until a legislative framework takes effect.

Ohio’s Democratic nominee for governor (Dr. Amy Acton)

Acton supports a conditional moratorium on data centers to ensure they cover one hundred percent of their utility costs, exclusively build with union labor, operate with full transparency, create jobs and abide by environmental standards

Texas’s Republican nominee for governor (Gov. Greg Abbott)

Abbott has issued a moratorium on the approval of data centers

Texas’s Democratic nominee for governor (Gina Hinojosa)

Hinojosa slams Abbott: “A temporary moratorium is a scam because Abbott will likely lift it on November 4th, right after the election. The only way Texans are protected is when real laws are passed.”

There are literally dozens of pending pieces of legislation in Congress that would restrict or tighten rules on data centers. Yet the Senate remains home on recess for two more weeks. And the US House seems eager to promptly expedite its business this week and race back to the campaign trail.

In the meantime, data center developers plug along…. in the political smoking section.

3) Trump’s trade war with Canada and his unilateral attempt to rename Lake Ontario haven’t won over the critics. Not yet. And there’s no indication of a sea change in public looming in the day ahead.

The title of ‘Lake America’ appears as widely popular as …. an ashtray.

The front page in Great Falls, Montana notes how Trump’s decision has been met with “ridicule” and “backlash.”

New legislation in the US House would overturn Trump’s executive order. Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY), Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) have introduced a piece of proposed law that would prohibit the President from altering or renaming the official geographic names of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, or Lake Ontario. The bill would also nullify Trump’s Executive Order and prohibits federal funds from being used to implement it.

Kennedy spoke with DAY AHEAD about his proposal, arguing that his Buffalo constituents are directly impacted by Trump’s menacing of Canada.

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The seventh month of the War in Iran will proceed without the US Army Secretary.

Dan Driscoll has resigned after months of reported friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

No one seems surprised by the development. The Associated Press is reporting: “No reason was given for the departure of Driscoll, who is a friend of Vice President JD Vance, but tensions with (Secretary) Hegseth have been widely reported. It marks the latest in a series of shakeups of top military leadership, with the Army especially seeing major upheaval.”

Hegseth’s efforts to contain his critics and push back on the media have been …… uneven.

He quickly ceased his intermittent 8am “news conferences” on the war. (Those stopped in May). And his agency’s attempt to fire Stars and Stripes reporters and his ouster of the Pentagon press corps from the complex have backfired.

I discussed on MSNOW:

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Overnight, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released the damning revelations of a US Postal Service whistleblower who warned of a risk of “catastrophic failure” of the agency’s attempt to execute Trump’s executive order limiting mail-in voting.

The Postal Service’s newly-created mail ballot “portal” system for handling the mail-in votes is a mess, according to the whistleblower.

Blumenthal’s new memo to the US Postal Service said, “According to the whistleblower, USPS’s effort to develop and deploy the Portal has been ‘rushed,’ ‘risky and haphazard’ because leadership has demanded an impossible timeframe. In an effort to meet impossible deadlines, USPS has eliminated standard and needed testing, thereby creating substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections. USPS lacks the technical or operational capability needed to effectively implement the EO’s provisions in a way that safeguards every citizen’s right to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Despite this, the Trump Administration appears intent on USPS moving forward with its flawed plans, no matter the chaos they may create.”

The mail-in voting scheme feels like an electoral version of…. the non-smoking section.

Other Emerging Stories I’m Tracking Today:

1) It’s primary election day in Massachusetts, which lands at the end of the election year primary calendar. Polls opened at 7am and close at 8pm tonight.

The two races with outsized interest include the fight for the Democratic nomination for US Senate and for the Democratic nomination for Massachusetts’s 8th U.S. House District.

Here’s the front page in Quincy, Massachusetts.

In a final wave of rallies and events, incumbent Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) was joined on the campaign trail by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to tout Markey’s progressive values and his work in office.

He also appeared last night in Titus Sparrow Park with Boston mayor Michelle Wu.

This morning, Markey’s team is circulating a Washington Post article which said, “Markey is comfortably ahead in polls and well-positioned to keep his job in Tuesday’s Democratic primary against Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA).”

But primary polling has been – to put it charitably – flawed and unreliable this year. Moulton is making a “generational change” argument against the 80-year-old incumbent. In his closing message, Moulton argued, “This primary is about more than just the next six years. It’s about the next generation. We need leadership that can fight to deliver universal pre-K, secure healthcare as a human right, and stand up for our future.”

The push for generational change is also coloring the primary in the 8th district House race, where Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), 71, is trying outflank attorney Patrick Roath. Roath, 39, has mobilized door-knockers to canvass several communities at 11am and 1pm today.

Lynch has served in Congress for more than two decades and has a senior position among Democrats on the US House Oversight Committee, where he’s a prominent figure in many of the panel’s high profile hearings and probes.

WBUR summarizes the primary this morning, “After representing the congressional district just south of Boston for 25 years, Rep. Lynch is facing perhaps his toughest challenge yet. Roath, a 39-year-old lawyer and former political aide, is taking on the more moderate 71-year-old congressman on a platform of generational change and progressive policies. And some recent polling suggests the race could be tightening.”

The primary for the Democratic nomination for the House seat Moulton is vacating is also a battle. It’s a 5-way race that includes the former Biden aide Dan Koh and Tram Nguyen, a state representative and immigration attorney, who was the first Vietnamese American woman elected to public office in Massachusetts.

2) In the day ahead, I’m tracking the battleground North Carolina 1st Congressional District race. Rep. Don Davis (D-NC) is defending a seat in a district Trump won handily in 2024. But Davis’s GOP challenger is suffering through a wave of tough headlines.

The Kalshi predication market platform announced it reached a settlement with Laurie Buckhout, which suspends her “from direct or indirect access to Kalshi for a period of 3 years and imposes a financial penalty of $2,589.96.”

Buckhout is mustering a rematch against Davis this year. And she reportedly made a Kalshi wager on her own campaign.

According to local news coverage on WRAL-TV, the findings against Buckhout were “part of a national investigation that found multiple politicians were betting on races they were involved in, violating Kalshi’s rules against trading on insider information.”

WRAL reports Buckhout issued a statement which said, “I bet on myself. Literally. It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right. Safe to say my career as a Kalshi trader was short-lived.”

On CNN, Puck reporter Abby Livingston had a very sharp take: This risks looking very “out of touch” to voters who are increasingly distrustful of the powerful, the connected and those with inside information.

3) Federal judge Ana Reyes has scheduled a Thursday court hearing in the federal civil suit challenging Trump’s takeover of the locally-treasured East Potomac Park Golf Course in Washington, D.C. Critics of the Trump U.S. Department of Interior renovation of the park allege the work crews are zealously and recklessly chopping down trees and destroying the landscape.

Per a court official, the court hearing will happen at 2pm eastern on Thursday.

According to my news buddies at WUSA-TV, there have been large protests on-site against this project. WUSA reported, “Protesters said they are concerned that the project could affect the park’s trees, surrounding green space and popular four-mile running and biking loop. Details about the scope of the proposed renovation remain unclear.”

The federal lawsuit by a preservation organization argues, “In keeping with President Trump’s efforts to remake the public spaces of Washington, D.C., in his image, (Dept of) Interior and National Park Service decided to destroy East Potomac Golf Course and to build in its place a championship-style golf course suitable for professional tournaments. Such courses tend to be large and sprawling, with exaggerated features, inflated maintenance costs and difficult elements beyond the skills of most recreational players.”

But the work on the project could begin TODAY, ahead of the court hearing, according to my news partners at WTOP radio.

This social media post by reporter Paul Kane crystallizes the frustration of people who know and enjoy that park.

This reveals another problem with Trump’s ongoing vanity projects. The residents of Washington, D.C. aren’t happy with the “upgrades”, from the Reflecting Pool to the golf course to the Monumental Arch.

4) A Nonprofit advocacy group is bringing an “Epstein Reading Room” to a series of Congressional battleground districts, to make available the approx. 3 million pages of released records. They’re targeting Iowa and Nebraska, where there are FOUR GOP-held seats that could flip.

Omaha: Sept 13

Des Moines: Sept 17

Iowa City: Sept 20

Cedar Rapids: Sept 21

The effort is being spearheaded by a group called the Institute for Primary Facts, which has the support and muscle of some Epstein survivors.

The family of the late Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein survivor, is championing this effort. In a statement they said, “The public deserves access to information that exposes abuse, protects the vulnerable, and holds powerful people accountable. We are proud to stand behind this work and to help carry forward Virginia’s legacy of courage, truth-telling, and unwavering advocacy.”

5) I’m gonna keep an eye on a 10am news conference in Columbus, Ohio, where outgoing Gov. Mike Dewine (R-OH) is promising an announcement on combatting pediatric cancer.

The last time Dewine did so, the state marshalled several million dollars in grant funding to state organizations and researchers who are pursuing innovations in diagnosing and treating those cancers.

Dewine’s final term ends this year.

It would be nice to hear more candidates for office nationwide talk about how they’ll address health crises, cancers and health disparities.

6) In Louisville today, the American Legion is staging its national conference. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) will address the veterans and their advocates. It’s the first such event for the organization since the onset of War in Iran.

The Legion has a series of training sessions at the conference to help supporters and advocates raise awareness of the risk of veterans suicide.

Organizers of the convention shared a very telling data point about the broad need for veterans care. Vets from 21 states have undergone on-site screenings or reviews by American Legion Veterans Service Officers, staff from the Louisville VA Regional Office, and VA compensation and pension exam contractors.

7) FLOCK CAMERA WATCH: Check out the front page of the paper in Hutchinson, Kansas

There’s an important storyline in this report: Two local communities have cancelled their contracts for the A.I.-powered camera systems and a Wichita man is suing to halt the use of cameras without warrants in that city.

The city of Gardner, Kansas has discontinued its use of the cameras. In a statement, the city said, “The decision reflects an ongoing evaluation of technology and resources to ensure the Police Department is using tools that provide the utmost value to the community and support its public safety operations.”

Adam Hamilton, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Kansas, shared his thoughts with DAY AHEAD:

“The recent reports that more than 50 government employees with access to Flock camera data used that access to spy on people they knew are deeply disturbing. Flock was entrusted with keeping the public safe but instead allowed unacceptable privacy violations to happen repeatedly. Law enforcement has a tough job and needs every legal tool available to solve and reduce crime, but Flock has made it abundantly clear its tools cannot be trusted with this data. Republicans and Democrats agree Flock should not continue to receive taxpayer support without serious legal reform guaranteeing every Kansan's 4th Amendment rights.”

8) In Troutville, Virginia, near Roanoke, local cattlemen will meet with Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) to talk about Trump’s controversial beef importation program. Spanberger will warn Trump’s plan will “flood the market with foreign-produced ground beef subsidized by American taxpayers — undercutting Virginia’s beef cattle producers and devastating family-run operations across the Commonwealth.”

That event begins at 11:30am eastern.

Meanwhile, here’s the headline in Oklahoma City today.

9) An instructive episode has occurred in Bismarck, North Dakota. State legislators staged a public forum on Artificial Intelligence development and data centers. They convinced industry leaders to attend and speak as well.

But the order of speakers triggered backlash. Per KYFR TV’s report this morning, “(People) were angry with how the discussion was handled, including letting special-interest groups talk before the public.”

Here’s the report from KYFR Television. https://www.kfyrtv.com/2026/09/01/public-voices-concerns-over-ai-data-center-discussions/

With only 63 days until the midterm elections, elected leaders need to grapple with a reality nationwide: People don’t feel “heard” by the powerful and by institutions.

An anti-establishment wave is forming in the electorate.

People need to feel heard.

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I’ll be joining at 9am to talk about the brewing frustrations of voters, and how it is sinking Trump’s approval and the prospects of other incumbents across the country.

Reminder: My new PODCAST is live. I’ll talk you through the DAY AHEAD in a clear, concise and unscripted manner. No inside-baseball Beltway talk. No jargon. No coastal myopia. We’ll talk about how all of this craziness impacts us and our families — and our communities (Big, small, east and west)

CLICK HERE FOR THE DAY AHEAD PODCAST

And watch out for some movement QUICKLY in the federal lawsuit filed by ousted journalists with Stars and Stripes.

Lots of new reporting here ====>

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Or a little “tacky”?

Or slightly “over-the-top”?

I have this little number. (It wasn’t expensive. And it possibly glows in the dark)

The terms “garish”, “tacky”, “over-the-top” and other much stronger terms are among the 100,000 public comments submitted to the National Park Service to describe Trump’s planned massive, Monumental Arch.

Check it out here:

This a rendering of the Arch, which appears to dwarf and obscure the Lincoln Memorial:

Other commenters called it “authoritarian”... or “imperial”.... or a “spectacle.” It does not bode well for public opinion that 100,000 commenters inundated the Trump Administration with criticisms of the project.

But the wave of negative reaction appears unlikely to slow down Trump’s latest (and tallest) vanity project.

In fact, DAY AHEAD has learned Trump’s National Park Service has slammed down the gas pedal on the project. They’ve directed stakeholders and expert groups to submit their comments on the Arch by a Friday deadline. The Park Service then wants to set up a consultation meeting for September 9th on launching the Arch project.

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The week ahead appears to include a series of pivotal deadlines, hearings and orders in the courts – or from the courts - for Team Trump.

Federal judge Trevor McFadden has ordered the Pentagon to respond by TOMORROW to a legal challenge to halt the firings of three journalists from Stars and Stripes. A potential inflection point in the case could come as early as Friday, when Judge McFadden holds a hearing in the case on a motion for an immediate pause to the firings.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.295983/gov.uscourts.dcd.295983.2.0_1.pdf

The three journalists are: Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer and reporter Lara Korte.

The three allege unlawful retaliation for a summer TV segment on CBS, in which Slavin and Korte talked about the importance of being independent journalists, and not bowing to any pressure to publish lies or misleading stories.

Their lawsuit argues, “Defendants seek to terminate plaintiffs because they publicly expressed their personal opinions about Stipes’ operations as citizens and because defendants disapprove.”

According to Stars and Stripes’s own reporting on the case, “The Pentagon agreed Friday to keep three Stars and Stripes employees on administrative leave for another week to allow the court to weigh in on their lawsuit alleging wrongful termination.”

About Korte, the lawsuit said “Defendants propose terminating her because she expressed her opinion that she ‘worked for ‘Stars and Stripes’ and ‘not for the Pentagon,’ or ‘for any administration.”

Stars and Stripes is legendary and has been the epitome of journalistic independence, in addition to being a vital source of information for servicemembers and their families, since its inception in 1865.

Attorney Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward told DAY AHEAD the media organizations who are challenging Trump for violating 1st Amendment rights are poised to win in court. (Perryman is not handling the Stars and Stripes case)

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We begin the week awaiting a pivotal decision from DC federal judge Christopher Cooper about the fate of the Kennedy Center. The Trump allies on the Kennedy Center board notified the court that they’re sliding back their planned date for a two-year closure and renaming of the facility until October. So it appears Cooper will not have to issue a temporary restraining order this week against any imminent changes at the facility.

But none of that will matter, if Judge Cooper eventually issues a ruling to fully block the changes and closure. Plaintiff’s attorneys argued Team Trump has brazenly defied Cooper’s May 2026 order prohibiting the addition of Trump’s name to the facility.

(The Kennedy Center board voted on August 13 to seek to circumvent Cooper’s order and to re-add Trump’s name to the complex)

The reputational harm to the Kennedy Center - a prized American landmark - is significant. And that harm is worsening in the process.

A newly-formed advocacy group Hands off the Arts is rallying artists and arts-lovers to speak out against Trump’s takeover and his potential demolition off the facility. The group includes former Kennedy Center employees who warn about potential financial calamity to the Kennedy Center, if Trump continues the overhaul.

Chris Raleigh is an organizer for the group. Raleigh spoke with DAY AHEAD:

Here’s my new enterprise report on the fast-growing, untraditional coalition that is forming to protect the Kennedy Center

The legal challenge and the public awareness campaign don’t allege Trump is making “garish” or “tacky” or “ugly” changes to the Kennedy Center.

At least not yet!

But they do allege a form of authoritarianism, which circumvents the necessary approvals of Congress.

Here are the other emerging stories as the week begins

1) We’ll watch to see if the U.S. conducts another set of airstrikes in Iran in the day ahead. For the first time since July, the U.S. military unfurled a series of strikes over the weekend. And Iran retaliated.

The U.S. hit two Iranian launchers on Larak Island earlier Sunday.

The Iranians ricocheted some retaliatory strikes and responded to say: The attack “will result in punishment of the aggressor.”

What gave rise to the strikes? Per this morning’s Washington Post, “Iranian forces were preparing to fire rockets from Larak Island, in the country’s south, that would have dispersed sea mines into the strait’, said Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for Central Command.

U.S. forces in the region cleared long-lingering mines from shipping routes last week and ‘remain prepared to protect the free flow of commerce through this essential waterway,’ Hawkins said.”

US Central Command posted a response to Iran on social media last night, as the public counterpunching appears to have fully supplanted peace negotiations.

2) Speaking of the Washington Post, there’s a staggering headline today. They report the Pentagon has secretly hired and deployed conservative media influencers into civilian roles to bolster Secretary Pete Hegseth and Hegseth’s controversial policies.

The Post report said the Pentagon had not disclosed the initiative or the hirings, despite pledges of being the most “transparent” Defense Department in history.

The Post reported, “Those involved include Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel, people familiar with the matter said. Pentagon records reviewed by The Washington Post show that both have active official government email addresses as of this past week and are assigned to the office of Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The email addresses include a ‘.civ’ suffix, meaning they are labeled as civilian employees, rather than as military personnel or contractors.”

Hegseth is facing scrutiny for a series of ongoing controversies:

• Congress is displeased with the infrequency and lack of quality of the Pentagon’s briefings on the Iran War

• Hegseth is purging top Pentagon officials, without offering justification

• He appears uniquely focused on the word “lethality” and testosterone

Speaking with DAY AHEAD, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said “Our problem isn’t lethality... our problem is sometimes we put idiots in charge of things.”

3) The US House begins its return to Washington, D.C. in the day ahead. The House Rules Committee meets at 4pm on a series of forthcoming resolutions and bills. One of them is “Providing for the condemnation and denouncement of socialism in all its forms.” The GOP might aspire to use that resolution as some form of wedge issue against House Democrats.

The Democrats might counterpunch and argue: Where are the GOP’s priorities? Why not vote on legislation on costs? Data centers? Iran? Schools? A.I.?

There are precious few legislative days remaining until the elections. The Senate ain’t back in DC until September 14.

4) In Sacramento today, California’s US Senators are launching a new investigation into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after a Sacramento Bee report about armed ICE agents entering an immigration law firm. The Bee reports, “Multiple U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents armed with guns attempted to inspect a Sacramento immigration law firm — and threatened to return later and break windows.”

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article316885229.html#storylink=cpy

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) are demanding a series of records about the nature of the raid.

The questions they’ve submitted to I.C.E. include:

• What was the purpose of the ICE operation on August 14 at Morris Law Group?

• Why did the ICE officers fail to secure a judicial warrant prior to their arrival at Morris Law Group’s premises?

• What is ICE’s protocol or policy regarding requiring judicial warrants to enter private property?

5) Some US House Democrats from upstate New York will introduce legislation this morning to prohibit Presidents from re-naming the Great Lakes.

I’ll be speaking with Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY) about his proposal on this morning’s edition of Scott MacFarlane Reports on YouTube.

On MSNOW, former Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland uncorked a scathing takedown of Trump’s executive order:

On the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario, this new sign has been erected:

6) In Massachusetts today, a state executive order is taking effect to limit access to Kratom. The new rule was signed by Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA) and temporarily places all forms of kratom into Schedule I under commonwealth law. Healey’s order restricts the sale of kratom products across Massachusetts and gives local health boards and other municipal officials additional authority to take enforcement action against retailers who sell kratom products.

Some shop owners have sued to halt this action. They note how their store shelves will now be filled with “contraband”, under Healey’s order.

But the health concerns of Kratom have surged in the past few years.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R-MO) is conducting her own probe into major Kratom manufacturers and retailers. Hanaway said, “Consumers may be exposed to unapproved, unsafe, and deceptively marketed opioid-like drugs.”

7) FLOCK CAMERA WATCH: Here’s the headline in the Columbus Dispatch, which reports the city is considering ditching the FLOCKS. Seven of the nine city council members in the Ohio capital would “entertain” ending the city’s partnership with FLOCK.

The fear and suspicion of the A.I.-powered law enforcement cameras are bubbling up in communities big and small.

The cameras are being discussed in the state’s close gubernatorial race. But FLOCKS don’t appear to be a wedge issue. A report by SIGNAL OHIO this morning said, “Both of Ohio’s major governor candidates have adopted critical stances on Flock surveillance cameras – while not supporting outlawing them altogether.”

Looks like both Democratic nominee Amy Acton and Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy are “concerned.”

Here: https://signalakron.org/billionaire-jeff-yass-ohio-governor-race-november-election-2026/

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who is mired in an increasingly fierce re-election battle, has ordered limits on state agencies that seek FLOCKs.

Here’s today’s headline in Longview, Texas:

8) Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) has ordered flags lowered through sunset tonight as the state memorializes an Overdose Awareness Day. We’ll see many US communities from Amherst, Massachusetts to Rochester, New York mark the day by illuminating buildings in purple.

This morning, a report published by US News and World Report underscores the ongoing severity of opioid addiction. The report found, “Illegal use of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is more than double its use for medical purposes in the United States, a new study has found. More than 7 of 10 people whose urine tested positive for fentanyl had not been prescribed the drug, but were using it illicitly, researchers report in the September issue of the journal E Clinical Medicine.”

9) In St. Paul, Minnesota, Mike Lindell is suffering another big loss. The state supreme court has rejected Lindell’s pursuit of a statewide recount of the GOP gubernatorial primary. The problem for Pillow Dude: He lost the race by 11 percent! It wasn’t close. It doesn’t warrant a recount.

Per this morning’s St. Paul Pioneer Press, Lindell didn’t wire the money to pay for the recount himself.

Lindell argues “anomalies” in the voting.

I’ll see you on SUBSTACK LIVE at 9:30am with - as we discuss the metastasizing crisis for Trump and the GOP in Iran.

I’ll be joining CNN in the 1pm eastern time hour.

Then I’m on MSNOW in the 2pm-4pm window.

My radio round-robin includes KNX-AM radio in Los Angeles at 8:45am, WTOP-FM in Washington at 2:45pm and “America at Night” across the country on Westwood One at 9:05pm.

Let’s have a great day! I’ll even wear that orange sports coat. It’s not “garish”! Well.. not totally garish.

• One is a Butler University graduate, who grew up in a tiny Indiana community between Indianapolis and Terre Haute.

• Another is a former health director from Montgomery County, Ohio, whose activism led her to the frontlines of protests, where was she pepper sprayed in Columbus while decrying the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

• Another is a labor organizer, who admits he’s much more comfortable at a college football game than at the symphony.

• Another is a young, but wildly accomplished attorney who stood and argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024. That lawyer told me he is ready and eager to fight against “lawlessness.”

Thing is: Mallory Miller, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Chris Raleigh and Nathaniel Zelinsky are just some of the unlikely characters who’ve joined the fight to stop the takeover, overhaul and renaming of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Some on the team have much larger roles than others.

But the sheer diversity and the untraditional backgrounds of the group are an indication of the importance of the issue… and the wide-ranging coalition of Americans who care about protecting the legendary arts facility.

Some fight in courts of law. Some fight in the courts of public opinion. And they’re getting more reinforcements each day.

D.C. federal judge Christopher Cooper is expected to rule by October on a lawsuit brought by Rep. Beatty seeking a court order to halt Trump’s overhaul of the Kennedy Center. Beatty argues the Kennedy Center board of directors - stocked with Trump acolytes - is unlawfully circumventing Congress and the law to make haphazard, illegal and unwise changes to the Center.

The others – in different ways - have Beatty’s back.

The “Muted” Board Member Speaks Out

Rep. Beatty, elected in 2012 to represent Columbus in the U.S. House, has put her name and reputation on to the legal challenge to halt Trump’s commandeering of the Kennedy Center. Beatty is an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center board. Her federal civil lawsuit has – at least for now – halted the new Trump-aligned board of directors from adding Trump’s name to the facade and from executing an unprecedented two-year closure and overhaul of the facility.

Beatty is the named plaintiff. She is the one who is risking a unique form of menacing and wrath from Trump surrogates who defend his moves and his controversial decisions.

A force in Ohio politics and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Beatty has a history of waging political fights, including for voting rights reform, combatting police brutality, addressing financial inequality, ensuring diversity and inclusion and expanding healthcare access.

She also has shown a conciliatory side. In 2023, I reported about her work with Republican colleague Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH) to form a “civility caucus” in the U.S. House.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-break-fever-of-incivility-toxic-incidents/

Her biography touts how Beatty was once named to Ebony Magazine’s 150 most powerful African-Americans in the United States. She also notes how she faced pepper spray while advocating for justice for the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Seated in the courtroom Thursday for a hearing on her lawsuit, Beatty was surrounded by well-wishers, who thanked her for her effort. The federal judge hearing the case remarked from the bench that he appreciated Beatty’s appearance in the courtroom, and noted how her fight had likely grown larger than Beatty might have initially anticipated.

Beatty has argued that, while serving on the Kennedy Center Board, she was improperly shut out (“muted”) during an early board meeting that launched the renaming. She said the Board of Directors has unlawfully bypassed the necessary authorizations from Congress to launch the changes and renaming.

Beatty told Scott MacFarlane Reports that her battle is against “an unlawful action.” “Not even the President of the United States should be allowed to get away with doing something that is unlawful,” she said.

Her legal battle has been impactful. It was Beatty’s suit that elicited a ruling from Judge Cooper in May that ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the Kennedy Center facade. And it is Beatty’s suit that remains pending, and which has stalled further Trump overhauls for at least a few more weeks.

Beatty received a rousing round of applause at a US Senate forum in July for her lawsuit.

Beatty told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “This is also transformative for other things we’re fighting for: Whether it’s healthcare, housing and (ensuring) that the American people know when you fight, you win!”

The fight continues. At least until the judge rules, likely by early October.

The small-town dance instructor

Mallory Miller left a particularly small community in Indiana to pursue her dreams. One of her first stops was Butler University in Indiana. As a true Hoosier, she frequently posts her approval of the state’s basketball teams.

Miller’s career as a dance instructor and program manager promptly brought her to Washington, D.C. for a two-year stint as an assistant director of dance programming at the Kennedy Center from 2023 to 2025. Her job ended amid the Trump-infused shake-up. (She said she was terminated for seeking to form a union)

Miller has since joined the informal and growing network of arts professionals, arts fans and concerned citizens who’ve rallied to seek to save the facility and halt Trump’s overhaul.

It was Miller and her team who successfully worked to get a fixed camera posted at the nearby Watergate hotel to capture an exclusive perspective of laborers removing Trump’s name from the facade this Spring. A tarp was unfurled on the facade to prevent the public from seeing the removed name.

As a member of an emerging advocacy group called Hands off the Arts, Miller volunteers for media interviews to champion the effort to block Trump’s effort.

Standing in the sun on a sidewalk near the building last week, Miller told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “It is a monument to his shame that he refuses to let the public see that his name has come down.”

Miller said, “This place is an inspiration to people around the world and around the country. It’s a unique institution that does not deserve what has happened to it.”

On Instagram, Miller galvanizes supporters to join the battle.

Her advocacy began in 2025, amid the Trump takeover. Her September 2025 social media post said, “Let’s keep the Kennedy Center a place where artistic expression can flourish regardless of who is in charge.”

The Labor Organizer

Chris Raleigh, a national labor organizer in Washington, D.C., admits that he’s no student of the arts.

But Raleigh is married to a former Kennedy Center employee and knew immediately that Trump’s commandeering of the Kennedy Center was an issue Raleigh needed to fight.

Raleigh told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “I did not grow up an arts person. I was more of a sports person, much more comfortable at a college football game than the symphony.”

Raleigh said, “But I think I was one of the first people who said, ‘I just don’t care. I just I just want to fight this out.”

He has helped organize and mobilize a group called “Hands Off the Arts”, which touts more than 2,800 activists to help fight the overhaul of the Kennedy Center.

In a mobilization message to members, Hands Off the Arts touted, “We seek to rally the DMV arts community to stand up to, to stop, and finally reverse the trend of partisan interference in the arts. The Kennedy Center is under threat from President Trump, who wishes to demolish the building and fire hundreds of workers. ‘The KC’ belongs to the American people.”

Raleigh said his group has helped provide information and support for the legal challenges against the Kennedy Center takeover. He has also spearheaded a media campaign to advocate and offer interviews to local and national media.

The travails, firings and lawsuits uncorked by Trump’s assumption of control of the Kennedy Center have been a dominant news story in national and local DC media. Raleigh has become a “go-to” resource for reporters who are seeking interviews.

“I was determined as hell. I had seen so many other places roll over,” Raleigh said, “I was just gonna say no.

Hands Off the Arts has a public mission statement (below) and had members present and visible at a US Senate hearing on Trump’s vanity projects in July.

The Litigator

When Nathaniel Zelinsky was called upon to speak in Judge Cooper’s courtroom on Thursday, Zelinsky stepped to the microphone and said, “Your Honor, it’s like Yoga Berra used to say: ‘It’s deja vu all over again.”

Zelinsky, a Yale Law graduate and former federal appeals court clerk, has led the legal fight against Trump’s takeover at the Kennedy Center.

Zelinsky has a remarkably track record of legal successes, including a 9-0 win at the Supreme Court of the United States in 2024. He also served as a special prosecutor for Minnesota in the criminal prosecutions of the four former police officers charged in connection with the death of George Floyd.

Zelinsky is feeling like Yogi Berra, because he had already successfully argued to get Trump’s name stripped from the Kennedy Center facade in May. But in court on Thursday, it was Zelinsky who made the legal argument to keep Trump’s name from being added again.

Zelinsky in a principal for the Washington Litigation Group, which is a non-partisan, non-profit law firm that emerged in 2025 as a firewall against Trump’s executive orders and shattering of norms and institutions.

The Washington Litigation Group has also taken up the causes of: A former Olympian charged with destruction of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump’s $1.776 slush for convicted crooks and Trump’s attempt to overhaul the federal civil service.

The Washington Litigation Group has hired an all-star team of accomplished for federal prosecutors, appellate court experts and litigators. Mary Dohrmann and James Pierce, two former top deputies of then-Special Counsel Jack Smith, have joined the organization. Pierce told National Public Radio in an interview, “I have decided — and all of us at the Washington Litigation Group have decided — that standing up for the rule of law is the critically important choice to make at this point.”

Zelinsky told Scott MacFarlane Reports that his fight against unlawful actions by the Trump Administration in Trump 2.0 is critically important.

The Kennedy Center dispute, Zelinsky said, “is a microcosm of all the corruption.”

He told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “The Kennedy Center is a tangible visual symbol of law. Trump is supposed to hold it in his trust.”

The federal lawsuit argued by Zelinsky, on behalf of Rep. Beatty, will continue in the weeks ahead.

On Friday, the Kennedy Center attorneys agreed to postpone the two-year closure and the renaming of the facility until October, perhaps sensing a negative ruling was imminent from Judge Cooper

But a ruling from Cooper is likely before October on Zelinsky’s renewed arguments to keep Trump’s name from returning to the facility – and over whether the Trump Team can plow ahead with the closure and renovations.

Zelinsky said, “When you start a case.. You don’t know where it’s gonna go.”

But one trajectory seems certain: The team of resistors is growing.

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There’s “Friday exhausted.”

And then there’s …..“Friday of the first week of school exhausted.”

Hoo boy.

Teachers and students understand it well!

The goal is simple: Make it to the finish line, find a couch and take a nap.

Or .. grab a very strong coffee. With extra sugar. In the really big cup.

Today is the final day of the first full week of classes at many colleges and universities, including at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, a storied HBCU with a sprawling and historic campus.

Fighting exhaustion is key for today’s college students and new grads, according to NC A&T Alum Tylik McMillan.

But it’s a different type of exhaustion! They have to fight “political exhaustion.”

It’s severe, McMillan says.

McMillan explains to DAY AHEAD:

In the day ahead, McMillan is helping organize - and will speak at — a March on Washington. On this 63rd anniversary of Dr. King’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial, the National Action Network and community leaders nationwide are holding another rally at the Memorial. McMillan will speak at approximately 11am eastern time. So will a series of community and civil rights advocates.

(Yes… they’ll be gathering next to the shambles of the Reflecting Pool….. but beneath the glory of Lincoln)

McMillan, a North Carolina A&T Class of 2019 graduate, is trying to nudge young voters past the finish line – amid their exhaustion with the toxicity and hellscape of our current politics.

McMillan is the NAACP’s National Director of Youth & College. He’s fighting to galvanize young voters who he argues are not “apathetic” or “disinterested”... but are experiencing a version of “exhaustion” with the failures of this political system to actually make changes. Including at his alma mater… where Republican leaders have removed the on-campus early voting location at the storied Dudley Building -- site of civil rights activism in the 1960s – and just steps away from where undergrads live.

(Instead those college students would need to make a laborious trek across the city, without cars, if they wanna vote)

McMillan and today’s rally organizers will have mobilizers on-site in DC - in addition to those already deployed in communities nationwide - to help young people organize, volunteer and register to vote.

He argues it is blatantly disenfranchising for the GOP to remove college campus polling locations.

Sure, many voters are willing to crawl over broken glass to vote in November’s elections.

But as the week concludes, community activists and political strategists are wondering: How many young people are “Friday exhausted” with our current politics, with Trump and with all of the chaos of our politics? Who needs a boost?

A few notes as the day begins

• Overnight, a federal judge in Massachusetts has again ordered a halt to Trump’s attempt to implement his executive order to restrict mail-in voting. The US Postal Service must once again halt its attempt to execute Trump’s plan. (It’s headed back to the Supreme Court)

• Some governors are vetoing or fighting any effort to remove polling places from colleges and communities with Black voters. That includes Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) in North Carolina

  

• The NAACP has unfurled a $20 million spending campaign in the midterm elections, to push a “Get out the Vote” effort

  The organization touts their investment: “This is an unprecedented investment by the NAACP for a midterm election, underscoring the urgency of the moment in the wake of the Supreme Court’s rulings that gutted the Voting Rights Act and unleashed racial gerrymandering across the South.”

Perhaps that’ll help fight any voter exhaustion.

As for North Carolina A&T, the school remains a jewel in the south.

Football season opens tomorrow night on-campus against Morgan State University.

Oh.. and what I wouldn’t give to be back in college on campus on a Friday afternoon in the fall!

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The worsening trade crisis with Canada is a dominant story in the day ahead.

Here’s the headline this morning on WOOD Television in Grand Rapids, MI, where an economics expert warns, “In the end, it’s going to make things more expensive here on this side… And it already is affecting how we pay and how we build cars here in Michigan, because cars used to pop back and forth across the border a lot. Now they don’t do that quite as much, and there’s a little bit more being made here in Michigan than was being made before we started to see these types of things.”

Trump deliberately and overtly fanned the flames, by signing an order to attempt to rename Lake Ontario to be “Lake America.”

The Administration is also poking Canada on Canadian media.

In an interview that’s plastered on the CBC this morning, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Canadian network TV that the trade mess is Canada’s fault.

City of Brampton, Ontario Mayor Patrick Brown told DAY AHEAD that the Canadian response to Trump has overwhelming public support among Canadians. Brown warned the damage could be “permanent” to U.S. - Canadian relations.

Trump’s attempt at re-naming Lake Ontario is being lampooned. Here’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response.

As I mentioned on MSNOW, Lake Ontario was only one part of “renaming stuff Thursday” for Trump.

Trump’s attorneys also argued in court Thursday for court approval for their renaming of the Kennedy Center into the “Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by Pres. Donald J. Trump.”

In the day ahead, we await Judge Christopher Cooper’s ruling on whether Team Trump can proceed with a two-year closure and name change next month.

Plaintiff’s attorneys for Kennedy Center board member (and Trump critic) Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) argued the Trump lawyers have been making “breathtaking”, “threatening”, “contemptuous” arguments to defend their plan. (including the suggestion of “demolishing” the Kennedy Center)

Beatty and her attorneys also argued the Trump-aligned Kennedy Center Board is knowingly and openly defying Judge Cooper’s prior order prohibiting the renaming of the facility, without the authorization of Congress.

Let’s see if Cooper releases his ruling TODAY. Though I’d expect it to come next week instead.

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Downstairs from Judge Cooper’s courtroom, three journalists for the storied Stars & Stripes news service have filed a federal civil lawsuit against Secretary Pete Hegseth, Hegseth’s spokesman Sean Parnell and the Defense Department, alleging the Pentagon unlawfully sought to fire the journalists as retaliation.

The suit argues, “Defendants are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom.”

The suit is filed by Stars & Stripes journalist Lara Korte, publisher Max Lederer.. and editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, who allege Team Hegseth fired them after their interview with CBS, in which Slavin said “We need to be able to provide independent news.”

Their lawsuit also argues, “Defendants seek to terminate plaintiffs because they publicly expressed their personal opinions about Stipes’ operations as citizens and because defendants disapprove.”

Note (below) how the journalists emphasize Stars & Stripes legendary history, beginning during the Civil War.

It has served as a strong and unfettered source of news for military members, their families and the greater public for more than 150 years, until the Trump Administration’s attempts to intervene.

Here’s their lawsuit:

https://t.co/Un8pElh2pP

There are other stories surfacing today .. ahead of the weekend

1) Today marks the end of the tenure of outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt opted to make the job a particularly pugilistic form of political advocacy. Her press briefings were increasingly infrequent and intermittent. Though …. her appearances on FOX News were consistent and reliable.

No immediate successor has been named. In a final Q-and-A with reporters, she took only one question and touted Trump as …… great.

The Trump press team has been – and might continue to be – an extension of some of Trump’s name-calling, belittling and menacing of reporters.

Trump has used the following terms to describe women in the White House press corps this year:

• Stupid

• Loud

• Boisterous

• Piggy

• Corrupt

• “Darling”

Who in the White House press corps is eventually going to openly call out Trump - to his face – in defense of their colleagues?

https://youtube.com/shorts/l78KRCCbP9w?si=tb-upFBLI1900oGD

DAY AHEAD spoke with former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the impact – and the damage – of Trump’s press strategy. Psaki said the Trump press team is reduced in its impact, because it lacks in credibility.

2) At 10am pacific time in Las Vegas today, the uber-powerful Culinary Union will join a public hearing on the cost crisis. The event is led by local and national Democrats. Democratic US House members from Nevada and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, are organizing a “field hearing” to hear testimony on the impact of inflation on families and workers.

A leader of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 will be among the witnesses. I’ll track this hearing - to get a sense of the types of investigations into the Trump Administration that Garcia might uncork, if his party wins control of the House in November.

Garcia would have subpoena power and the authority to call any hearing on any topic come January.

You can watch the event here: https://youtube.com/live/FWsCr_KRvjQ?feature=share

3) There are more revelations of the chaos and failures of DOGE. This morning, I’m looking through a heckuva report from the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.

The group found that the Trump/Musk federal job cuts were enormous, but also painfully self-destructive. Tens of thousands of “downsized” federal employees were – almost immediately – hired back, because of gaping holes in federal services.

The report said, “Unsurprisingly, many of these positions were not dispensable. From nurses and attorneys to contact center representatives and security guards, there was seemingly little thought about which positions were truly essential. The government has now begun to hire employees with skills similar to those who separated under the ‘deferred resignation program.’ By June 2026, 20,557 employees had been hired in the same agency subcomponents and occupational series as prior to the “deferred resignation program” separations.”

Here’s a visual version of the job cuts

And here’s the report:

https://ourpublicservice.org/know-the-facts/blog/inside-the-chaos-of-the-deferred-resignation-program

4) Nonpartisan election security experts will have a 1pm eastern time briefing to discuss the impact of the recent court decisions that have cracked the door for Trump‘s plan to institute federal restrictions on voting.

Some superb outside groups – including the Center for Election Innovation & Research – have done Herculean work in tracking and offering analysis of the many conflicting court rulings over mail-in voting.

The group’s David Becker, a former Justice Department official, talked to National Public Radio about the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that allowed Trump to – tentatively – move ahead with the new voting restrictions.

Becker said, “Some new cases that were actually invited by this Supreme Court opinion will likely stop this order from being executed for 2026, but it’s also very possible that we’re going to see a lot of confusion and chaos about it, and that might have been the administration’s intention.”

I’ll have updates for you after today’s 1pm media briefing.

5) The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is announcing a hearing for Monday in Somerset County, Pennsylvania for a public discussion of the nation’s footing and readiness to prevent terror strikes. Ahead of the 25 year mark of the 9/11 attacks, the panel has been sounding the alarm about the complex mission preventing future strikes and foreign threats.

DAY AHEAD reviewed testimony at the committee last month. It included this warning: “The threat landscape has evolved significantly over the last 25 years. Consider technological advancements in A.I., quantum computer, drones, cyber and biothreats.”

The committee is holding its event on-site at the Flight 93 Memorial in Stoystown, Pa.

6) Some US Senators are launching a probe today into the Trump Administration’s plan to procure electro-shock gloves for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

In a memo to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, a group of Democratic Senators have demanded a series of records by the second week of September.

Here are some of the records they’re demanding

• All documents and communications reflecting the justification for this procurement, all documents and materials reviewed by DHS prior to the contract, including manuals, safety guidelines, training materials and protocols, or consultations with experts or training instructors, and the identity and title of every official who participated in or approved the acquisition decision

• All documents and communications discussing the specific operational need these devices are intended to address, including examples of incidents in which officers were unable to arrest or detain an individual using other available less-lethal weapons or tactics

• The legal and factual basis for awarding a sole-source, no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies

7) DATA CENTER WATCH: Palm Beach, County Florida will consider a year-long moratorium on large-scale data center construction and development. County commissioners reviewed some of the language in the plan last night.

Elsewhere in Florida, communities are raising red flags about the “noise” and the water usage of these massive facilities.

Palm Beach County is part of a battleground U.S. House district.

Different approach in Louisville, Kentucky. Here’s the headline of the Louisville Courier Journal, which notes the city has approved an expansion to 1.5 million square feet of space in the southwest section of the city.

Today’s Politico reports House GOP leaders are getting inundated this month with concerns about data center sprawl.

The report said, “Reeling from voter complaints over the five-week summer recess about rising power prices linked to the nationwide data center boom — necessary to power the growing artificial intelligence demand — some Republicans are now pressing for action around a bill called the Ratepayer Protection Act. The bipartisan measure, which advanced unanimously out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July, would require states to consider adopting a federal standard that would ensure data centers cover the costs of the grid upgrades needed to serve them.”

8) Many, many headlines in Florida today about the “misappropriation” of Medicaid funds (taxpayer money) to a political organization.

In Lakeland:

In Orlando:

In Tampa:

Here’s the the bonkers part of this CBS News report about the scandal of the misappropriated money: No will be charged, because “Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida… or had any memory of who made it.”

The CBS News report is below:

A state grand jury found the (Ron) DeSantis administration “misappropriated” taxpayer money when it diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement into the Hope Florida Foundation, arguing the transfer was “part of a sophisticated scheme to fund political activities,” according to a copy of the sealed grand jury report obtained by CBS News Miami.

The grand jury report said the money, which was supposed to be used to provide health insurance for poor children, was instead hastily passed through multiple organizations before eventually landing in the bank accounts of two political action committees and the Republican Party of Florida. Those funds were then used in 2024 to defeat Amendment 3, the citizen initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida.

“Despite our finding that the money was misappropriated, we find insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally,” the report concluded. “Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida… or had any memory of who made it.”

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I’ll see you on SUBSTACK LIVE at 12pm eastern with Skye Perryman, who is leading the fight against many of the Trump vanity projects, the slush fund and unlawful orders.

Miles Taylor will join me on SUBSTACK LIVE at 3:30pm with the latest updates on his group - DEFIANCE.ORG - and how they’re planning to peacefully pushback on Trump’s actions.

Then it’s HAPPY HOUR at 5pm, in which we’ll take your questions and pull on the news threads you recommend.

Let’s get through this “Friday exhaustion” and make it to the weekend!

Love. It.

It’s from this morning’s The Guardian.

1) They used one of those bulk photos from the archives of “major toilet paper” purchasing.

As a dad who shops at the warehouse shops to save money, I know what it’s like to buy…. a month’s worth of things. It ain’t glamorous. But it’s necessary. Especially now.

2) There are never any *people* in these “toilet paper shopping” news photos. No one will agree to be photographed while buying ……. a month’s worth of bulk toilet paper!

3) The Guardian used the headline “wiped out” in the story. Chef’s kiss.

4) But mostly, I love this headline because it tells a bigger story. It’s an important story.

This morning’s edition of The Guardian details the potential surging price of “bathroom tissue” and other paper products. A cost spike is a real and pernicious threat on both sides of the border, amid this new trade war with Canada.

The Guardian begins its report by writing, “Using the bathroom or having a cry is about to become more expensive for North Americans as the US and Canada enter a full-fledged trade war that threatens to flush away decades of peaceful trading between the two nations.”

(“Having a cry”? And doing so with toilet paper?)

Meanwhile, here’s the front page of the newspaper in the battleground state of Maine.

The Kennebec Journal is spotlighting Canada’s retaliatory threats to limit exports of electricity and energy. The paper notes how electricity is one of the state’s biggest imports from Canada.

In Washington state, the local exporters are raising new concerns about the trade war.

Federal agriculture data shows seafood is the biggest agricultural export from the Puget Sound region and the state of Washington.

Today’s Seattle Times is raising the red flag, warning of the impact.

This morning, Reuters notes the political impact in Canada, for prime minister Mark Carney. The report said, “The additional tariffs — from both sides of the border — along with Trump’s renewed threats ⁠to Canada’s sovereignty — mark one of the most acrimonious moments in modern Canada-U.S. relations. Trump’s actions have prompted an outpouring of support for Carney, who has urged middle-power nations to band together to form a ​new global order and pursued new trade and security alliances to disentangle Canada from its reliance on the U.S.”

At the White House, US Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer bypassed questions about next steps in the Canadian trade battle, including questions from my teammate Luke Radel.

Trump has several meetings today, but none of them is public.

He flies to Houston later today a Republican National Committee political event. That’s also private.

So we don’t expect updates from him about the trade war or pricing today.

We’re less than a month until early voting begins. This risks being a political mess for the White House.

Such a mess, that even a month’s worth of toilet paper can’t clean it up.

But the toilet paper will be handy for a “good cry” for endangered incumbents.

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At 2pm, I’ll be in Washington, D.C. federal court for a hearing in the high-profile, high-level lawsuit challenging Trump’s takeover, renaming and two-year closure of the Kennedy Center. The hearing is in courtroom 27 of the courthouse.

Judge Christopher Cooper is reviewing arguments from the lawyers representing Kennedy Center board member Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), who argue the Trump-acolytes on the Kennedy Center board are unlawfully circumventing Congress.

Attorneys for the Trump board members will argue that they need Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, to avoid a financial catastrophe and the fleeing of donors. They publicly suggested the possibility of demolishing the treasured arts center, if they don’t get their way.

In a statement this morning, attorneys for Beatty noted their response filed last night. The response said, “Defendants have not-so-subtly said: ‘This is a nice Kennedy Center you have here, and what a shame should something happen to it.’ This is a breathtaking assault on the rule of law. It’s delusional.”

Team Trump’s arguments have been absurd, according to multiple former Justice Department officials. The Trump attorneys will argue in court today “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down,” without Trump’s preferred closure/rehab plan and the addition of Trump’s name to the facility.

They’ll also argue “The Kennedy Center is in terrible trouble” ... “dangerously dilapidated.” And they say Trump has “unrivaled experience” to save the “sick” facility.

DAY AHEAD spoke with former US Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, who has accused the Justice Department of overt and poisonous politicization under Attorney General Todd Blanche. Oyer said the agency’s court submissions in the Kennedy Center are damaging to the Justice Department’s reputation with judges.

Rep. Beatty has an all-star team supporting her, including attorneys with stellar careers in the Justice Department and prior Administrations. (The Washington Litigation Group and Democracy Defenders Fund)

Judge Cooper ruled against Trump’s Kennedy Center leadership team earlier this year, ordering Trump’s name be removed from the facade. Cooper also has indicated he’ll ask questions about the tarp that’s been erected to obscure the removal of Trump’s name from the building.

I’m keen on hearing Cooper’s impression of these latest, dramatic arguments.

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Here are the other news threads I’m pulling today:

1) One-by-one, I’m seeing a series of state attorneys general and governors take a curtain call and celebrate the landmark civil settlement with META. (Facebook & Instagram)

It is undeniably one of the largest consumer legal settlements in US history. The dollar amount ain’t much by META standards: Approximately $16 billion. But the technology concessions are being touted by plaintiffs as an important change to how the social media giant offers its products to children and teens.

CBS did a solid job of summarizing the big changes: “A two-hour daily time limit for teens; a restriction barring minors from accessing Facebook and Instagram at night; and muted push notifications during school hours. Meta will also enact changes to better verify the ages of its users who are under 18 and implement stronger, more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social-comparison features, such as ‘like’ counts.”

In the day ahead, look for META or its surrogates to apply more pressure to TikTok and YouTube to put similar measures in place.

Here’s a joint statement this morning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who’ve worked together on child online safety legislation:

“This massive settlement shows how terrified Meta and Mark Zuckerberg are of accountability in open court. We applaud the bipartisan coalition of state Attorneys General for forcing Meta to start paying a real price for the harm its products have caused an entire generation of young people.”

Gov. Patrick Morrissey (R-WV) said, “Meta knew the immense physical and psychological toll its platforms were taking on young people, yet chose profit over the mental health and safety of our children.”

I’ll note: some of the state attorneys general and governors are also championing the share of the $16 billion that’ll be redirected to their states.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced: “New York will receive at least $819 million and up to $1.15 billion.”

Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) said, “It will bring more than $500 million to New Jersey to continue the fight.”

2) A local judge has issued a stay away order against Philan Le, 35, of California, to restrict Le from Washington, D.C. Le has pleaded not guilty to a charge of Attempted Possession of Prohibited Weapon.

What was the weapon?

A federal affidavit obtained by DAY AHEAD alleges police stopped Le with a “real deal” guillotine in his truck near the Capitol.

Seems it was difficult to hide. The guillotine was 10 feet tall! The affidavit from police said the device had a metal blade sharpened at an angle.

Le allegedly told police he “didn’t have issues with any specific Members of Congress”, but gave no reason for why he’d be carrying such a device.

US Capitol Police shared this image with us:

3) A Washington watchdog group has filed formal bar complaints against US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro and two of her federal prosecutors.

The complaints allege Pirro and the others pursued a politically-motivated, unwarranted probe into six Democratic Members of Congress for a video those legislators made in 2025. The video told U.S. servicemembers that they are not bound to execute unlawful orders.

A grand jury rejected the proposed prosecution, in a striking pushback against Trump’s Justice Department.

In the new bar complaint, the Legal Accountability Center argues, “Prosecutors have enormous power, and with that power comes an obligation to exercise independent legal judgment rather than use the criminal justice system to carry out a president’s political demands. When prosecutors pursue charges against political opponents without an adequate basis in law or fact, professional accountability is essential.”

The six Democrats - including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) - are all veterans of the U.S. military or intelligence agencies.

Trump accused the group of being part of a seditious effort that is “punishable by DEATH”.

Here’s the reaction this morning from Sen. Slotkin: “Six months ago, Jeanine Pirro saluted President Trump and tried to criminally indict me and five colleagues for a 90-second video that simply restated the law. That was on top of doing the same to a number of other public figures who the President perceived as enemies of the state.”

4) Yes, Alaska is a battleground state. Its U.S. House race is competitive. And Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is one of the most endangered incumbents in the Senate in November. Sullivan trailed his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK), in this summer’s open primary elections.

The Trump Administration is sending its Energy Secretary Chris Wright to Alaska today for public events. (They’ve already notified the local press) Wright meets with Alaska miners in Fairbanks at 12:15pm Alaska time this afternoon.

5) Stars and Stripes has a striking headline in the top left of today’s edition.

The report said, “A Pentagon practice of not requesting enough money from Congress to fully maintain its facilities has left an estimated $285 billion repair backlog, posing a risk to military missions and the living conditions of personnel, a government watchdog said.”

I’ve been going through the watchdog (Government Accountability Office) report about Pentagon facility management that’s cited by Stars and Stripes. The independent investigators found the root of the Trump Administration’s problem with military facilities. They found the Pentagon “faces challenges in hiring and retaining key maintenance workers, which are critical for maintaining facilities. According to officials, challenges include hiring in remote and isolated locations; employment competition with the private sector; and federal hiring, pay, and work eligibility practices, which have been exacerbated by recent workforce reductions and the subsequent hiring freeze.”

The downsizing and DOGE of government has starved many key federal programs.

The Government Accountability Office included images of some of the deterioration at Air Force and Navy facilities.

6) At 10am central time today, there’ll be a status conference in federal court in Alabama in the controversial Justice Department prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’ll be discussing potential trial dates. (It’ll happen no sooner than early October)

I’ll monitor this and report back to you.

The prosecution alleges the organization engaged in fraud through their payments to confidential sources who funneled information to the SPLC about right-wing extremist organizations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center alleges they’re the victims of a vindictive prosecution. They’ve said, “The charges against SPLC were brought not because of any criminal activity, but because the SPLC has been critical of the Administration’s policies and has published about extremist views held by Administration officials.”

The Justice Department recently added a new indictment and a second defendant to the case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdal/pr/second-superseding-indictment-adds-defendant-and-charges-southern-poverty-law-center

7) This morning, the forecasts for two more battleground US House races are shifting toward Democrats. The Cook Political Report is now characterizing the Florida 14th district (redrawn thru mid-decade gerrymandering) and the Michigan 10th district (open) as “toss-ups.”

No surprise: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has quickly pounced. In a statement this morning, the organization said, “Democrats are building the momentum to win thanks to their relentless focus on lowering costs, tackling corruption, and fighting for hardworking families.”

8) The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is launching a probe of FLOCK CAMERAS, amid mounting concerns about the pervasiveness and intrusiveness of the A.I.-powered camera devices.

A subcommittee panel chaired by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is demanding a series of records from the company by Sept. 8. Hawley justifies the probe, in part, by noting a series of alarrming recent incidents. His memo said, “In Missouri, the St. Charles County Police Department terminated its contract this month after an audit revealed that a civilian employee had run Flock searches for personal reasons, completely unrelated to their law enforcement duties.”

Among the records Hawley’s pursing:

• Lists/logs of how long personal data is retained

• Policies over who gets access to the data and cameras

• Notifications given to local authorities and government

I’ll see you from Capitol Hill and the courthouse today.

And I’ll be joining WSB radio in Atlanta at 10:30am eastern time.

Busy day ahead.

And she spells out what has to be done in January 2029 to begin to rebuild the Department of Justice.

Lots of news in our conversation! Take a listen.

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How many times must you hit it, before you finally summon the will power to get outta bed in the morning?

Remember this relic? I used to hit punch the snooze button on this thing. (But they built appliances strong back in the day … the clock kept working anyhow!)

Ahead of the elections, there have been proverbial alarms blaring for the the past few weeks and months.

When will elected leaders hear, respond and rouse themselves to action?

1) The alarm is blasting in the battleground state of Maine.

Here’s the front page headline in the local paper in Augusta, Maine. It literally lists the items that’ll become more expensive in the days ahead, because of President Trump’s new trade war with Canada.

Furniture, dairy products and wine included.

Canada’s Finance Minister has announced his country “will match the U.S. tariffs dollar for dollar, up to 50% on $27.6 billion of imports from the United States of America.”

Trump’s response, as the day begins, was a social media post threatening to attempt to rename Lake Ontario to… Lake America.

The alarm is blaring. But no one is budging inside the Trump Administration. They’ve hit the snooze button.

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2) In the battleground state of Iowa, there are some especially alarming reports about the cost crisis for corn belt farmers who ….. are responsible for helping produce an awful lot of our food.

This morning, the Financial Times characterizes it as the state’s farming industry’s “worst crisis in 40 years, as an explosion in diesel and fertilizer costs triggered by (the) war against Iran pushes grain producers to the brink.”

But there appears to be no quick change coming. The snooze button has been hit.

Both the Trump Administration and Iranian officials have resumed a round of diplomatic pugilism.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pledging to ”sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime.”

The Iranian parliamentarian speaker is dunking on Bessent on social media. Among his posts last night: “Americans know that no one buys their bombast; the United States is not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries. Iran’s trading partners, both in the media and through messages sent to us, have made it clear that they don’t take these statements into account anywhere.”

And here’s another of his posts:

Iowa begins its early voting in less than 50 days.

There are three GOP-held US House seats that Democrats feel confident that they can flip.

What are the next steps for the U.S. in Iran? The Pentagon, the Treasury Department and the White House have no press briefings on the calendar today to offer details.

Beep, beep, beep. SNOOZE.

3) A new Associated Press poll reveals 80 percent of us have adjusted our grocery shopping because of soaring costs.

More people are buying generic brands. Most have stopped purchasing certain items. Nearly half have changed where they shop. (Let me tell you: The generic Frosted Flakes aren’t bad)

The Trump Administration and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are defending their plan to important ground beef to help lower prices. But as the day begins, Rollins is not revealing where the sources of the imported beef. She and Team Trump won’t say from whom we’re buying it.

Some GOP leaders, including Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), have blasted the decision. They argue it undercuts domestic producers.

Rollins’s response to questions at the White House included a lot of shade directed at the Biden Administration for this new mess. (Snooze button)

Meanwhile, Trump’s MAGA stronghold looks to be fraying too. This YOUGOV poll has been spreading fast this week:

It shows Trump underwater in polling in 47 of 50 states. And he’s barely on the positive side in West Virginia. His net approval there is just +4, even though he won West Virginia by a +42 margin (with 70% of the vote)

DAY AHEAD is on the road this week and made a stop in Jefferson County, West Virginia, where Democrats said the state’s independent voters are disappointed in the GOP’s handling data centers. They’ve noticed how Trump has embraced – and encouraged – more data center development.

Jenny Thacker is a Democratic candidate for state delegate. Thacker told DAY AHEAD she is getting positive feedback from voters of both parties when she knocks on doors to campaign. Thacker said the War in Iran and the GOP (local and federal) expenditures on vanity projects are frustrating voters.

But Trump plows ahead with his pro-data center campaign and his touting of the economy.

Politically speaking – he’ll either need to shift public opinion or stop hitting the snooze button on changes.

Another court hearing is scheduled for tomorrow in the high-octane legal challenge against Team Trump’s two-year closure of the Kennedy Center. It’s set for 2pm in the courtroom of Judge Christopher Cooper. We could see more pre-hearing arguments filed on to the docket today.

The Trump-acolytes on the Kennedy Center board have unfurled a new, extended argument for the closure – and for re-adding Trump’s name to the facility.

It’s worth a moment to glance at this thing: It’s 26 pages of adoration for Trump and apocalyptic warnings about the Kennedy Center’s future.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972/gov.uscourts.dcd.287972.68.0.pdf

The Kennedy Center attorneys’ arguments included these:

• The Kennedy Center is in terrible trouble. The crisis is so acute that, without the Trump Administration, its people, and President Trump, the Center cannot survive, either structurally or financially.

• The building has become dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit. It is structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.

• To bring this sick and poorly run facility back to health will require time, energy, talent, and large amounts of money.

• A task which President Trump, given his unrivaled expertise and experience in real estate and construction, and prominence as President, is uniquely qualified to accomplish.

And that’s just the first page!

The plaintiffs, including Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), argue the Kennedy Center leadership has unlawfully circumvented Congress and “in a new and breathtaking act of defiance of Congress and of this Court, defendants have voted to return President Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center’s façade.”

A report by the Washington Post throws a lot of cold water on Team Trump’s claim that his name is a silver bullet for the arts facility.

DAY AHEAD is outside the Kennedy Center too. (I put a lot of miles on the car)

I talked with Mallory Miller, a former Kennedy Center employee who now advocates against Trump’s takeover. Miller helps lead Hands Off the Arts and blistered the President’s handling of the arts center.

And here’s my full report:

Here are some of the other emerging issues and stories in the day ahead

1) No matter the outcome – or rationale - for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s controversial meeting with Jared Kushner, Jeffries’ party is going full-bore in its investigations of Kushner.

Get a load of the opening line of the new memo to Kushner, from House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD):

“You may have been too busy causing a new foreign policy fiasco in Albania after your yachting foray in the Adriatic to get back to us on some questions we have about your stark conflicts of interest taking place right here in America.”

Raskin’s panel is investigating a reported land purchase by Kushner. They’re seeking the following records by Sept 7:

• All records and communications between you or any affiliated entity and any representative of the Albanian government relating to real estate, business deals, or protests in that country

• All records and communications between you or any affiliated entity and any representative of the United States government relating to real estate, business deals, or protests in Albania

• All records relating to the approval or consideration of any real estate project in Albania, including but not limited to purchases, government approvals, payments, or investments.

2) Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) begins her general election campaign, after securing the GOP nomination in last night’s narrow runoff election. Democratic nominee, Dr. Annie Andrews, is labeling the race as “The Sister vs. The Doctor”

Graham’s victory remarks said, “The past few weeks have been an unbelievably challenging time for our family, but you know what? We did it.”

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) conceded and said he will support Graham in the general election campaign. And he said he “hates” how all of this turned out.

3) As of today, Ghislaine Maxwell has 3,978 days remaining in federal prison, barring a pardon from Trump. In a blistering 67-page opinion, a federal judge in Manhattan has tossed – and trashed - Maxwell’s argument for release from prison.

The judge said “Maxwell’s claims are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous.”

The judge also emphasized in the opening of the opinion that Maxwell’s felony convictions are “all arising from her participation, with the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, in the sexual abuse of young girls over the course of a decade.”

I checked the Federal Bureau of Prisons records system. Maxwell’s scheduled release date is July 17, 2037. She’s still at the low security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. And no…. The Justice Department has yet to provide a detailed answer about why she was transferred after Maxwell’s meeting with Todd Blanche last year.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.869.0.pdf

4) Campaign operatives are circulating a new Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll this morning, which shows Trump at 39 percent approval in Pennsylvania.

And take a look-see at the generic ballot numbers, which show voters favoring a “Democratic candidate” over a “Republican candidate” in November.

This 7-to-9 point gap is becoming a recurring theme in generic ballot polling.

There are at least four competitive, GOP-held US House seats in Pennsylvania: The PA-1, PA-7, PA-8 and PA-10.

The Inquirer interviewed a voter named Vincent Russo from Lackawanna County (home county setting of “The Office” TV series), which is in the PA-8 district. Russo, 78, said this about Trump, “I think the people are starting to see he does nothing but lie.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) has argued to DAY AHEAD that the battlefield could widen to more GOP-held US House seats before November. Shapiro is giving his entire party a boost at the top of the ballot. The new polling shows Shapiro with a 16-point lead in his race for re-election.

5) DATA CENTER WATCH: The campaign pugilism over data centers is escalating in the battleground of Wisconsin. The Democratic Governors Association is launching a new ad to bolster Democratic gubernatorial nominee David Crowley. The ad accuses GOP nominee Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) of “selling us out” on data centers, and making it more difficult for Wisconsin to regulate A.I.

Democrats are arguing, “Tiffany backed Trump’s disastrous budget law that gave data center operators a $68 billion tax break, while sending Wisconsinites’ utility bills skyrocketing.”

Here’s the ad:

Rep. Tiffany is responding, with a post arguing that he’ll do the better job protecting ratepayers and water supplies against data centers.

It’s truly striking how both parties are trying to be viewed as the “most opposed” to data centers, in the final weeks of the election.

In Maine, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson is making a push for stronger rules and regulations on data centers, as he seeks to thwart Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

Jackson spoke with DAY AHEAD:

6) Looks like Pennsylvania is going to set up another 40 pop-up “measles clinics” in the coming weeks, after a series of new reported measles cases and deaths. The fatal cases are in Lancaster County, in southeast Pennsylvania. The state health director has issued a statement this morning, “Their loss underscores why the Department of Health is working diligently to provide information and protection for Pennsylvanians. The measles virus spreads quickly and easily to anyone who is not immune. If you are not protected or immune, you are at risk of getting measles.”

NBC News’s report this morning notes the surging concerns about the anti-vaccine rhetoric inside the Trump Administration, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy. And their report said “Kennedy has a history of anti-vaccine rhetoric and, according to local reporting in 2021, was a keynote speaker at an event in Lancaster County in which he said, without citing scientific evidence, that vaccines are harmful.”

Per Brett Meiselas’s report, Gov. Josh Shapiro personally confronted Kennedy over misinformation. Brett’s report said, “Shapiro said he was ‘very, very blunt’ with Secretary Kennedy warning him that spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines has ‘real life consequences.”

https://meidasnews.com/news/shapiro-reveals-blunt-confrontation-with-rfk-jr-after-measles-deaths

Per a statement from Shapiro, Kennedy called the governor Tuesday morning and offered to send federal personnel to Pennsylvania to help respond to the state’s growing measles outbreak. Shapiro told him the commonwealth could handle it without them.

According to Brett’s reporting, “Shapiro said he used the conversation to deliver a much more pointed message to Kennedy about the consequences of the rhetoric coming from the Trump regime.”

“I was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that’s coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.

7) I’m watching today for any new court filings by ABC Television in its legal battle against the Trump Administration. Federal judge Loren Alikhan has just scheduled an October 6 hearing in lawsuit by ABC Television against Trump’s FCC

ABC will argue for a temporary restraining order against the FCC’s onerous “early license renewal” review of ABC TV stations.

The TV network argues Trump and his Administration have launched a retaliation campaign against a network that airs criticisms of Trump on its late night show with Jimmy Kimmel and on “The View”. Their lawsuit said, “The campaign began in this Administration’s earliest days and has only intensified since. Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech—the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air. Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”

ABC’s suit is here:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.295648/gov.uscourts.dcd.295648.1.0_2.pdf

8) As schools reopen in more US communities this week, the cost crisis is further squeezing teachers. Just ask any teacher who had to his the store this month for classroom supplies…. The costs add up.

A new report this morning from the Economic Policy Institute in DC argues there is also a teacher “pay penalty” that’s worsening nationwide. Their report found teacher salaries aren’t growing nearly as fast as wages in other professions. This was a topline finding of the study, “Teachers earned on average 74.8 cents on the dollar in 2025 compared with other college graduates—much less than the relative 93.9 cents on the dollar that teachers earned in 1996.”

The teacher salaries are marked in the BLUE LINE below

I did a deeper dive into federal and university studies. Here are the five states in which teacher wage growth have been HIGHEST (best)

-New Mexico

-Utah

-Idaho

-Colorado

-California

9) FLOCK CAMERA WATCH: In the day ahead, more US cities, towns and villages will face pressure to end their contracts for FLOCK CAMERAS, the controversial and omnipresent, license-plate reading cameras used by authorities.

There is new legislation in the state legislature in Minnesota to order new regulations of the camera devices.

Here’s the bill:

https://www.house.mn.gov/members/Profile/News/15523/41732

One of the proposed changes in the rules in Minnesota: “Data collected by a license plate reader must be destroyed no later than 48 hours from the time of collection unless it is related to an active criminal investigation.”

Here’s the headline in Logansport, Indiana this morning. 500 people in nearby Lawrence County signed a petition to ban the cameras…. Over the course of just four days!

In Missouri, the Willard Police Department received so, so, so much pushback, they’ve cancelled their contract for Flock cameras.

In Evansville, Indiana, irate opponents of Flock cameras have gone a step further. They’ve vandalized or damaged a half dozen of the cameras since June.

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10) Tributes will continue today for Dolly Parton. She was such a unifying figure. The Republican governor of Ohio and the Democratic governor of Kentucky have both orders flags lowered in Parton’s honor. Trump has done so too.

Taylor Swift’s statement said, ‘“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right.”

My news partner at WSB radio in Atlanta reported this morning, “Her philanthropic work became one of the most recognizable parts of her legacy. Parton launched the Imagination Library in 1995 to promote childhood literacy and provide free books to young children. The program has distributed more than 300 million books to children around the world. An estimated one in six U.S. children under the age of 5, including many in Georgia, receive free books through the organization.

Parton was the third-most nominated woman in Grammy history with 55 Grammy nominations.”

Pardon had recorded a final song called “My Place in History” and placed it in a time capsule, to be opened on what would’ve been her 100th birthday. That’s January 19, 2046.

I spoke about Parton’s legacy, her imprint in Washington and her Kennedy Center honors, during my appearance on CNN with Phil Mattingly.

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Busy day ahead. I’ll be joining MSNOW in the 12pm hour with my latest reporting (including the many items you read above)

Then in the 1pm eastern time hour, I’ll be joined on SUBSTACK LIVE by on the ongoing shattering of the Justice Department by the Trump Administration. Liz and I will talk about how the agency will eventually be rebuilt.

Sometimes you feel truly flattered.

Sometimes you wonder: Is that a subtle or unintentional dig at me?

The phrase: “You look great for your age” is a personal pet peeve.

It might be well-intentioned… but ugh.

Or: “Your house feels so cozy.”

I still remember the boss who once asked me: “Nice look. Who helped you pick out your clothes today?”

Even when intentions are good… the result of backhanded compliments can be mixed.

When you’re campaigning for high office, there is no room for subtlety or half-hearted compliments and endorsements.

As we watch another big primary runoff election in the day ahead, I’m listening for the final round of “compliments” and “endorsements.”

The special primary runoff election for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in South Carolina is – arguably - a referendum on Trump’s political power. Trump endorsed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) against her challenger Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).

But here’s what jumps out at me. Her Republican surrogates have made this pitch in the final hours of the primary campaign for Darline Graham: She buys groceries.

• About Graham, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said, “She goes to the grocery store. She understands the prices of eggs and meat

• About Graham, Rep. William Timmons (R-SC) said, “Darline knows what it’s like going through the food line checkout.”

• About Graham, President Trump said, “She’s into the price of groceries and the price of food and the price of beef.”

Will voters find that appealing? Will they find that relatable amid a cost crisis? Will they find that to be a worthy qualification?

Or will voters find that to be a form of gender stereotyping? Do none of the men who serve in office – including Rep. Norman – do any grocery shopping? Does this underscore that Trump doesn’t know the price of food?

We’ll find out after polls close at 7pm tonight.

A couple of other top-line notes:

• If Norman wins, that’d be yet another primary election loss for a Trump-endorsed candidate. (We’ve already seen Trump-backed candidates lose in GOP nominating fights in Michigan, Florida and Wyoming this month)

• Norman is a longtime fixture in DC and is often a contrarian with GOP leadership, sluggishly slow-walking his vote for Mike Johnson in the Speaker of the House election last year. And he’s a January 6th denier, who falsely claims some form of internal conspiracy or staging.

  

There are a number of topline, federal candidates on the ballot with significant national security and military experience, who are beginning the homestretch of their campaigns. They’re leaning into their expertise to sway voters in the battlegrounds. Their surrogates aren’t relying on the phrase “She knows the price of groceries.”

• Laurie Buckhout, the GOP nominee seeking to flip the Democratic-held North Carolina 1st District, is a retired Army colonel touting that she’s “led troops in combat and built a career focused on national security, leadership, and mission-driven execution.”

• Cait Conley, the Democratic nominee fighting to flip the New York 17th District (which was won by Kamala Harris in 2024) notes how she served for 16 years as an active-duty Army officer, deploying overseas six times to combat zones including Iraq and Afghanistan.”

• Rebecca Bennett, a former US Navy helicopter pilot is trying to defeat incumbent Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) in the New Jersey 7th District.

Bennett sat for a lengthy interview with DAY AHEAD and talked about how her military experience will guide her decision making and priorities.

Speaking of Bennett .. and of Tom Kean… I asked Bennett for her thoughts on Kean’s multi-month absence from office – and criticism he received about a “lack of transparency” – ahead of his announcement of a depression diagnosis.

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Elections security experts, watchdog groups and no shortage of Democratic officials are urging caution and calm today, after the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling gave Trump a tentative win in his push for mail-in voting restrictions.

National Public Radio’s report this morning provides crisp clarity on the machinations. NPR reported, “The Supreme Court’s decision did not weigh in on the legality of Trump’s executive order, which has so far not directly affected eligible absentee voters’ option to cast ballots by mail. Instead, the ruling focused on the ability of the mostly Democratic-led states to challenge Trump’s order when they did.”

As SCOTUS Blog notes this morning, “A separate ruling by the same federal judge in Massachusetts, in a case filed by a different set of plaintiffs, temporarily prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from implementing one provision of the executive order anywhere in the United States. That ruling remains in effect, at least for now.”

The lawyers and state attorneys general who mustered the first round of legal challenges against Trump’s voting restriction order are ready to draft and file another round of lawsuits.

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, which has oversight of federal elections issues, has offered this statement: “Despite the Court’s meddling, the decision today does not give the President power he does not have in how states run their elections. The Executive Order is still not lawful.”

Here’s the summary from Ken Dilanian this morning on MSNOW. It’s a very efficient analysis, with a good use of the phrase “Ya gotta be kidding me!” directed at the Court.

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Talks between Iran and Oman about the future of the Strait of Hormuz resume in the day ahead.

According to CBS this morning, “The two countries have negotiated for weeks over a new system to manage commercial shipping traffic through the vital waterway, with the notion of fees being imposed a recurring theme.”

It’s unclear if the Trump Administration’s threat of an “economic D-Day” will slow or speed the negotiations.

Iran is fully prepared to face new US sanctions, according to Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh. Madanizadeh said, “American sanctions will fail this time in their attempt to sever our economic arteries, just as they failed in the past.”

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argues the U.S. will have an upper hand due to a new round of threatened “economic asphyxiation” that’d squeeze Iran’s aviation, minerals and shipping industries.

Here are the other news threads I’m pulling today:

1) Canada is taking a tougher and tougher line against the Trump Administration. Let’s see if there’s more rhetorical pugilism against Trump for launching a trade war between allies. Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario has unfurled this argument toward Trump: “I have a lot of real estate on my ass. So he has a lot of room to kiss my ass.”

Trump has escalated the conflict in the day ahead, by threatening another 50% tariff on Canadian automobiles, auto parts, and steel.

Canada’s “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs against the U.S. are scheduled to take effect in two weeks.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is seeking to galvanize support among Canadians in the face of the U.S. economic threat.

2) Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is defending his recent meeting with Jared Kushner. Jeffries has posted a social media video in which he said, “(Kushner) asked for a meeting and I took it… to discuss the affordability crisis.

Here’s an excerpt, as shared this morning on “Way Too Early.”

Let’s watch for more reaction to Jeffries meeting, as Democratic incumbents and challengers face reporters today.

3) Looks like the Iran War has cost each of us $600 since March, just to pay for the additional price of gasoline. This morning, a new report from a Congressional economics panel breaks down the state-by-state cost of the gas price hikes. Long gone are the days of $3.00-$3.50/gallon gas.

The average for all households is at the bottom.

4) COST OF LIVING WATCH: A few important updates from Governors today, who are doing the blocking and tackling of economic development, even as Washington is immersed in gridlock.

• Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is announcing a second rail line serving a Pittsburgh to New York route, via Harrisburg. Shapiro expects the line to begin service in mid-November. He’ll argue today: “The people of western Pennsylvania have waited a long time for more passenger rail service and my Administration has chased every opportunity to get this done.”

• Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) will make a housing announcement in Henderson, North Carolina later this morning. The community is still trying to recover and rebuild from the devastating Hurricane Helene. Stein will announce a new initiative.

• In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) will announce 13 new economic development projects that’ll sprout 3,500 more jobs. I’m looking at the list… it includes a slate of new jobs in northwest Ohio for a company that builds custom robots and automation machines

• In Maryland, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) is unveiling improved, “fraud-resistant” benefits cards for people who qualify for nutritional benefits. In an indication of the cost crisis, Moore’s office reports that more than 500,000 now qualify for benefits to buy food.

• In Georgia, outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) is launching a trade mission to Chile and Peru to try to win more job investments in Georgia. Kemp’s economic director argues, “Chile and Peru offer opportunities in top industries such as agribusiness, technology, and manufacturing – areas well represented by the Georgia-based small businesses that are joining us this week.”

5) In the day ahead, the intense (and expensive) Florida gubernatorial race appears focused on taxes. GOP nominee Byron Donalds has launched an ad arguing he supported Trump’s tax-on-tips and taxes-on-Social Security platform. Democratic nominee David Jolly is counterpunching, “If I had been in Congress, I probably wouldn’t have supported the Donalds-Trump tax bill because of the amount of grift, graft and raw corruption in it for the White House, for Byron’s donors, and for his own self-enrichment.”

Jolly is making some joint appearances with his running mate, Lt. Gov candidate Gwen Graham, including in Miami.

I talked with political analyst Charlie Sykes about Jolly’s prospects in Florida.

6) The US Senate race in Kansas is worth monitoring in the day ahead, after a Kansas City Star headline said, incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) “spent more time & taxpayer money near Florida property.”

Weeks ago, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported Marshall is looking to sell his vacation home in Florida.

But the Kansas City Star’s new report is circulating far and wide today. The report said, “A Star analysis of travel expenses reported by Marshall’s office to the Secretary of the Senate shows that between July 2021 and July 2024, the Kansas Republican spent more than $18,800 on official trips that included at least one stop in Sarasota or nearby Tampa. Marshall’s office disputed that figure, saying many of the expenses cited in those filings were related to non-Florida travel on the same trips. Payton Fuller, Marshall’s spokesperson, said the senator actually only spent $5,271 in the Gulf Coast trips, citing ‘itemized expenses that aren’t public.’ The office has so far not provided copies of those receipts.”

Today, the Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, who is seeking to unseat Marshall in November, will push Marshall to release full travel schedules. Hamilton will also request an audit of Marshall’s expenses.

This is pure campaign brawling.

Hamilton is a megachurch pastor who has uniquely high name recognition for a Senate challenger.

Let’s see how much traction Hamilton can create with this announcement:

Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article316969706.html#storylink=cpy

7) In the day ahead, I’ll continue tracking the downsizing of some US Dept of Veterans Affairs services and staffing levels. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and some other New York members of Congress are trying to ward off the planned closure of a veterans clinic in the city of Schenectady.

Here’s Tonko’s new memo to Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins:

At a Congressional hearing in April, Collins argued that some “underperforming” clinics will be closed by his agency. Collins testified, “For years, our veterans were going and being handed off, handed off, handed off, new doctors coming in all the time … a lot of time they were not showing up, we were having to then schedule them in other places…This is a problem.”

The Trump Administration also moved to shutter the clinic in McMinville, Tennessee.

7B) Meanwhile, veterans in southwest Florida are lobbying today for a new medical facility there. They cite a fast growing veterans population and the need for hundreds more veterans’s hospital beds. Here’s the headline in the Fort Myers News Press.

8) There’ll be a 6pm central time rally in Fort Worth, Texas, where Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa is trying to raise awareness about a controversial plan to potentially scale back polling locations in Tarrant County, Texas.

Looks like the local board of commissioners will consider the proposal at a meeting on Sept 1. Per Spectrum News, “If the plan goes through, polling locations would drop to 176 from 316 in the last midterm election in 2022, a 45% decrease. The plan also would cut early voting sites from the 50 allocated in 2022 down to 42 for this fall.”

Tarrant County is a crucial stronghold for statewide Democratic candidates.

9) Hundreds of thousands of students return to school today, including in sections of Maryland. Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott is among those handing out free supplies to kids, amid the affordability crisis. Houston mayor John Whitmire is distributing 200,000 free backpacks. And when Washington, D.C. schools opened yesterday, DC mayor Muriel Bowser also handed out free backpacks for kiddos.

Your author’s kids go back to school today.

I took the requisite photos outside the school doors. Your author will also have a…. quieter writing environment for the next 9 months.

10) FOLLOW-UP: Yesterday I wrote about the soaring prices of school lunches and how parents are grappling with how to afford a year full of meals. Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand talked Monday evening about the need for universal breakfast and lunch programs in the state’s schools.

In making his argument, Sand noted:

• How Jesus taught the importance of “feeding the hungry”

• The ability of Iowa to secure federal funds to pay the cost (in his words: Having taxpayers from California and Florida help foot the bill)

• His own kids placement in public schools - and the need to ensure their schoolmates are fed and healthy

Here’s a clip of Sand that DAY AHEAD spotted:

11) AFFORDABILITY WATCH: Growing labor costs are part of a pizza trend in New Jersey. More of the state’s famed pizza joints are scrapping “by the slice” sales. You’ve gotta buy an entire pie, if you want to a piece. The cover of the Newark Star Ledger is irresistable.

I’m back on the road today, with a series of reports about how Trump’s approval rating is sinking, even in MAGA strongholds. I’ll be bringing the Scott MacFarlane Reports crew to Jefferson County, West Virginia. We’ll file our reports on YOUTUBE tonight and tomorrow.

This evening, I’ll also be a guest in-studio on CNN and MSNOW. And I’m joining the good folks at WAKR radio in Akron midday, as Ohio’s dramatic statewide races reach their final weeks.

Trump’s “Marie Antoinette problem".

And what’s behind the surge of Sen. Jon Ossoff?

Lots of news in my conversation with Charlie Sykes and

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• Grilled cheese sandwich

• Sweet potato tater tots

• Fresh fruit

… Will cost $4.20 at Miami-Dade County public schools.

It’s a similar cost for the Mac & Cheese and lima beans served today for lunch for kiddos in Morgantown, West Virginia.

And it’s roughly the same for the personal pepperoni pizzas for students in public schools in Tucson, Arizona.

Millions of kids return to school in the day ahead.

Amid the pernicious and spreading cost crisis, school systems are trying to adjust to prices. In Miami, many of the meals were made available for free to students in the post-COVID years. They’re not free for all students anymore.

But seemingly everything is too costly… for the schools and for the rest of us.

Brown-bagging it seems tougher now too, with the price of a loaf of bread and a small jar of peanut butter each hovering between $3.00-$4.00.

In the day ahead, how will endangered political incumbents and a lame duck President respond to the unequivocal calls for help with costs?

Trump’s White House webpage touts a “Golden Age” that’s underway. In support of his claim …. are photos of a “Rose Garden Club” dinner for VIPs.

The recent menu for one those dinners included: “Rose Garden Salad that included tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, followed by steak or chicken, or pasta primavera for vegetarians. Chocolate cake was dessert.”

The Marie Antoinette “let them eat cake” jokes are there for the picking! The Trump-aligned power brokers weren’t eating Grilled Cheese or school cafeteria lima beans. And they weren’t grappling with the family budget to pay for it.

What will voters think of this?

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Meanwhile, as we travel to work today, we fill up on $4.00+/gallon gasoline. ($5.00+ in the pacific timezone. $4.50 in the battleground state of Arizona)

So… was yesterday’s display of Indycar firepower and speed at the Grand Prix Race in DC a pleasant distraction from gas prices? Or was it a politically tone-deaf event, in lieu of the soaring prices? Or – charitably - was it something in-between?

We’ll find out what voters think shortly. Early voting is just 25 days away in some states. Voters can make their voices heard.

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As parents buy back-to-school supplies, books and computers for the college-bound teenagers, are they finding it more expensive?

At the Target stores in Boise, Idaho, Bloomington, Illinois and Tulsa, Oklahoma, this dorm-room storage shelf now costs $65.00. Never mind the costs of the books, shoes or ….. loaves of bread and peanut butter that will be placed in the shelves.

On CNN, Dana Bash asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon about the troubling increase in the prices of school supplies.

This was McMahon’s ambiguous answer.

Maggie Haberman noted on “Morning Joe” this morning that Trump appears disinterested in talking about the economy and is insisting the economy is “fine.”

Voters who shop at that Boise store can begin early voting in less than two months. They’ll vote in fewer than 50 days in Illinois.

Voters there and everywhere will have a chance to render the verdict on prices.

In the day ahead, here’s where we stand on prices.

• There’s a pledge by Trump to import ground beef and lower his tariffs. Maybe that makes the cheeseburgers cheaper in middle school cafeteria? If so, it might validate the criticisms of Trump’s tariffs. Also… who knows where the beef is coming from? The National Farmers Union ain’t happy with the beef imports.

  

Some allies of Trump aren’t happy with Trump’s beef decision either. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called it “ill-advised”

• Meanwhile, there’s an unspooling, renewed trade war with Canada. The cost of dairy products, appliances and agriculture products could all be impacted, which could further inflame grocery and household prices. In Port Huron, Michigan, this morning’s paper notes the renewed trade battle is destabilizing.

  

• Rather than arguing about prices, the White House social media account is touting this:

Today’s White House schedule shows Trump has another Rose Garden event today. It’ll happen at 2:30pm eastern. (roughly the same the Tucson high schoolers will be eating their school pizza)

No events on pricing are listed on the White House schedule. As for Congress — they remain home on their August district work period.

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My latest enterprise report circulated overnight.

Take a glance at this new reporting… about a pardoned Jan 6 riot defendant who faces trial in December and the prospect of life in prison.... two years after laughing in court about how Trump was gonna take good care of him.

It’ll be a busy start to the week. Here are the other emerging stories I’m watching

1) The Trump Administration is going to face new questions about why it hasn’t released a legally-required report about foreign election threats on the forthcoming November midterms. The unclassified intelligence report was required within 180 days of the election. So .. Team Trump is late. Very late.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have again pressed the Administration to provide the reports. Their memo to the Administration said, “We write to remind you that the intelligence community is currently in violation of multiple statutes designed to ensure that Congress understands the full scope of foreign adversary plans and intentions this cycle.”

The Administration has also declined to release copies of the unclassified findings of foreign interference efforts in the 2024 election. The silence is deafening.

DAY AHEAD has asked the Office of Director of National Intelligence for updates over the past 72 hours. They have not offered guidance.

I explained the matter on MSNOW:

2) Speaking of threats to the midterms. Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top Democrat in the US House on intelligence matters, is warning about Trump’s purge inside the intelligence offices. The mass firings were executed by Trump-acolyte Bill Pulte, during Pulte’s brief reign as acting Director of National Intelligence this summer.

Himes’s new letter to the Administration warns, “Staffing changes at ODNI suggest that the National Intelligence Council has been a target for reductions or reassignments of career analysts. If true, we are concerned that such actions will diminish the expertise available for producing coordinated intelligence analyses about how Russia, China, Iran, or other foreign adversaries threaten U.S. national security.”

Election security experts have told DAY AHEAD that foreign actors could try to screw with our elections in November by attempting to flood malignant misinformation on to social media, to sow distrust or scare away some prospective voters. (i.e. Lies about fraud or “ICE agents are at the polls!”) Local election administrators and watchdog groups have been conducting exercises to prepare responses. But Himes warns: There are fewer police on the beat, with Trump’s deliberate purge in intelligence offices.

3) The Democratic National Committee is pursuing a lawsuit this morning against a *domestic* risk to the election. Citing Team Trump’s talk about “seizing ballots after the 2020 elections”, the DNC wants to prepare for any future attempt by the Trump Administration to snatch ballots in November.

The Democratic National Committee has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in Washington, D.C. federal court asking a judge to order Trump’s FBI to hand over records on plans for any “Inspection or seizure of election materials—with or without a warrant—to be conducted in the period beginning 30 days before general election.”

4) As the week begins, we’ll wait for some tea leaves or some direct answer to this question: When will the Supreme Court conclude a deeper review of the White House ballroom litigation? On Friday, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts ruled the Trump Administration could tentatively continue its above-ground work on the estimated $400-$600 million project, while the Court looks further into the lower court ruling.

Trump’s crews continue their rapid-fire work on the project. The White House continues to refuse to go to Congress for approval, even though Congress could render all of the legal challenges moot by officially blessing the Ballroom project. And the Ballroom continues to be a potential political albatross for Trump.

I explained why on MSNOW:

5) Had any trouble getting your mail lately? Is it coming way late in the day? There are some big questions emerging for the US Postmaster General from people in Vermont. As the week begins, Vermont legislators are sending a series of questions to Trump’s top mail delivery official.

In a request to Postmaster General, Vermont’s Congressional delegation asks for answers to the following questions by September 1st.

• What percentage of households in Vermont are currently receiving six days of mail delivery per week?

• How many open mail carrier roles across Vermont remain vacant and what is the average length of vacancy?

• Will USPS meet its hiring goals in Vermont this year?

6) It’s flying way too low below the radar, but there is a big staffing inside the nation’s veterans medical centers and clinics. Wait times and delays are unfolding in cities big and small.

Here’s the headline from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which details how the major Minneapolis VA Medical Center is down to just one anesthesiologist. The result: Delayed operations and reduced surgical capacity.

In Washington, D.C., the agency’s flagship medical center has suffered a staffing issue with radiologists. An internal inspection found “most diagnostic radiologists resigned between July and December 2025, which contributed to delays in completion of radiologic studies.”

DOGE has had a brutal impact on a number of agencies. And the VA is not immune.

The Irag and Afghanistan Veterans of America blasts the VA for using vacancies as an excuse to downsize. The group said, “A vacancy is not an opportunity to shrink the size of the VA health care workforce, or to push veterans out of VA direct care. These vacancies do not necessarily show a lack of demand but are a signal that the system cannot recruit and retain fast enough to meet the needs of the veterans it serves. Deleting the positions does not solve existing access problems.”

7) The NAACP is blasting the Pentagon’s reported consideration of renaming a carrier for Trump, instead of naming the carrier for a Black war hero.

Here’s their statement this morning, “Doris Miller earned his place in American history through courage, sacrifice, and service. Donald Trump only wants to serve himself.”

These vanity exercises are offensive to broad swaths of US voters. It’s quite something to watch these ideas unfold so close to an election.

8) There’ll be a review this week by some US House members into whether we’re more vulnerable to cyberattacks on our water systems, hospitals and financial systems because of Trump’s major cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Here’s the bottom line in the inquiry sent by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS)

9) The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based watchdog group, is filing a Freedom of Information Act suit seeking records from the Trump Administration about the $1.7 billion slush fund. This particular request caught my eye:

They want emails and calendar invites from the following Trump officials, in which the fund is mentioned:

I’ve configured the court docket to ping me with alerts for each filing in the case.

(Yes – there’s an APP for that! It’s called the RECAP browser extension, for use in the PACER.GOV federal court docket)

10) There’s a lot of focus on the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races in Ohio. But there is also a battleground race for the U.S. House seat in Cincinnati. Democratic incumbent Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH) is holding a 3pm news conference today about the cost crisis and healthcare insurance hurdles for people in southwest Ohio.

Landsman and state legislators will argue, “A majority of Ohioans (55%) believe the economy has gotten worse over the past year, and consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since 2014. More than 340,000 Ohioans stand to lose their health care, over 100,000 Buckeyes have already lost food assistance, and gas prices surged more than 80 percent amid Trump’s war with Iran. Meanwhile, Ohio has lost nearly 41,000 jobs in the past year alone.”

I’ll monitor the event.

11) There will be a similarly-themed event at 10:45am in Southfield, Michigan, where state Democratic candidates will have a press event arguing about “GOP threats” to healthcare insurance. Democrats are trying to throttle the campaign of GOP nominee Rep. John James (R-MI) in the gubernatorial race.

12) In Missoula, Montana, this is the front page of the newspaper this morning. There’s a big spread for Sam Forstag, the Democratic U.S. House candidate in the Montana 1st Congressional District. Forstag is arguing how the GOP is jeopardizing health services and the future of programs like Medicaid. This is strong local press for Forstag, in the final weeks before early voting begins.

12) DATA CENTER WATCH: In Kansas, there are reports of cities filing legal challenges against citizens who are leading petition drives against data centers. According to the paper in Salinas, Kansas: Cities are protecting their data center projects by arguing the petitions “don’t hold up legally”

I’ll see you on SUBSTACK LIVE at 10am eastern/9am central with Charlie Sykes and to unpack some of our latest reporting and analysis on the midterm elections, including in Charlie’s home base in the battleground Midwest.

You’ll hear me on Westwood One radio nationwide at 9pm eastern when I join “America at Night.”

I’ll also join KNX radio in Los Angeles, WTOP in Washington and MSNOW’s “The Moment” today.

Banuelos appeared in court via zoom in 2024 from the local jail. He was being held pending trial for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol Siege.

The charges were uniquely serious. Banuelos was accused of carrying a gun – and firing it into the air – while amid the January 6th mob.

But Banuelos liked his outlook. He liked it a lot.

During his hearing, Banuelos looked straight into the zoom camera, at Judge Tanya Chutkan who was on the bench in her courtroom on the 2nd floor of the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse. He gave a brief chuckle and then said, “Trump is going to be in office in six months, so I have nothing to worry about.”

Banuelos was correct.

Until he wasn’t!

He now has big worries…

….Much bigger than nearly all of the dozens of pardoned riot defendants who’ve since been charged – or convicted – for other crimes.

Scott MacFarlane Reports has learned Banuelos is being held in cellblock D-5 at the Salt Lake County, Utah jail, just west of Interstate 15. And he might never see the light of day again.

Banuelos is scheduled for a three-day trial beginning December 1st, for a different crime.

If Banuelos loses, he faces the prospect of life in prison. And this time: Trump can’t save him.

According to court filings by prosecutors, Banuelos kidnapped and attacked a woman in Utah. It’s a state prosecution, not a federal case, removing it from Trump’s jurisdiction.

According to the court submissions by prosecutors, the victim told law enforcement that Banuelos “hit her in the face and told her he was going to kill her. Banuelos then grabbed her by the shirt and dropped her on the floor, causing her to hit her head. (She) recalled feeling like Banuelos was going to kill her.”

The victim also told police that Banuelos sexually accosted her. She allegedly told investigators, “Banuelos was aggressively kissing her and punched her in the head. She said when she tried to punch him back, he got ‘really angry.’ Those court documents from prosecutors also said the victim alleged Baneulos ‘grabbed her shorts, pulled them off, and threw her, causing her whole body to fly in the air.”

Investigators say they got their big break in the case in August 2025, seven months after Banuelos walked out of prison with a Trump pardon.

Though the assault occurred in 2018, investigators said a DNA match was made last summer to link Banuelos to the attack. He was caught in November near Chicago, outside a fast food joint.

This is an excerpt of the charging document from prosecutors, which includes some alarming allegations.

Citing Banuelos’s criminal history, prosecutors argued successfully to secure pretrial detention against him. They argued, “The defendant not only has ties to Illinois but also to Mexico, Colorado, and Florida, and should be considered a flight risk. The defendant is charged in this matter with nine first-degree felonies. Based on the serious nature of the allegations, the defendant’s history of dangerous and violent behavior, and the unknown location of the defendant, the State requests that a no-bail warrant be issued in this matter.”

Banuelos’s case is a paradox. It’s part of an increasingly common pattern, yet unique in its own way too.

The unique component of Banuelos’s case is …. Quite something.

Banuelos was accused of pulling and firing a gun, while marauding amid the riotous mob outside of the Capitol on January 6. His case underscored the pervasive danger for police and staff who were trapped on the Capitol grounds, during the worst of the siege.

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But his post-pardon legal predicament is part of a larger trend and troublingly common. Banuelos is one of nearly 100 January 6th defendants who are facing new criminal prosecutions in the months after Trump’s blanket pardon, according to a report by the ranking member of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary.

Others have been arrested for child molestation, breaking & entering and theft. A 2025 criminal case in New York had a distinctive parallel to the Capitol Siege, when a pardoned January 6th defendant was arrested for sending a violent threat against a Member of Congress.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who served on the Congressional committee which investigated the US Capitol Siege, told Scott MacFarlane Reports it’s no surprise to see pardoned rioters facing new criminal legal problems.

A review by Lawfare included this sobering graphic, which indicated the tonnage of new criminal cases for pardoned riot defendants, including more than a dozen sex crimes cases.

Trump’s haphazard, blanket clemency was executed without a review of the recidivism risks of the pardoned defendants.

Though Banuelos was pardoned before he was put on trial, his case nevertheless underscores the danger of validating the lies that January 6th was “a day of love” or that the prosecutions were the result of a “weaponized” Department of Justice.

Banuelos openly predicted his pardon nearly a year before it was issued. When he sniped at the judge who urged him to be cautious in court in 2024, Banuelos’s defiance presaged the remorseless conduct and statements of hundreds of the pardoned rioters.

Former January 6th Committee investigator Denver Riggleman told Scott MacFarlane Reports.

Banuelos has pleaded not guilty in his Utah case. His defense attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

What will be the impact of Banuelos’s January 6th case when he goes to trial for the Utah kidnapping?

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “Previously charged conduct would not be relevant to the case that we filed unless that previous conduct is specifically tied to the elements of the currently charged offense. Like any other prosecution people may have history, but that is not what drives the conversation for the current case. What drives it is the evidence and the alleged violation, and our ability to screen and file on those.”

A 12-person jury will have the ultimate say.

Not Trump.

Not this time.

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• The third-term talk by Trump should not be ignored carelessly?

• The other big problem - and bad message sent - from Trump’s airplane runway concession truck sneak-away.

• The dangerous implications of Pete Hegseth’s handling of USS Abraham Lincoln.

A superb conversation with

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Imagine your cart filled with staples and must-haves: Like milk, bread, cheese, meat and ….. Cocoa Pebbles cereal.

Now imagine that the store has closed every single checkout register… except for one small self-serve kiosk.

The lines; the gridlock; the madness!

That’s what it’s like on Washington, D.C. roads in the day ahead.

Trump’s latest preferred U.S. 250th birthday event, a Grand Prix race in DC, is cannibalizing the streets, paralyzing the movement of people and forcing limited access to some of the biggest tourist attractions in the country, including the Smithsonian museums

First of all: Let’s embrace the irony. There is a traffic hellscape forming, because of

The bigger picture: The people of Washington, D.C. who have protested some of Trump’s other vanity projects in the District, might not be terribly keen with this latest pet project either.

But the Grand Prix race will still happen.

The broader public, many of whom are drowning in the wave of higher costs, might prefer the White House redirect its time and energy toward lowering prices. (including the price of those groceries and Cocoa Krispies)

The people of Gary, Indiana might prefer such a massive logistical project be directed to help them, instead of overhauling DC streets. Here’s the headline this morning in the Northwest Indiana Times, as people undergo a 9th day without power.

But the Grand Prix race will nevertheless happen.

And it appears Trump will lead a “lap of honor” at the start of the weekend race, ensuring the event will be viewed as part “vanity project”.... amid gridlock.

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Meanwhile, for Democrats seeking to flip control of Congress, the opposite dynamic is unfolding.

It must feel like ….. every single checkout lane has just opened…. and options are aplenty!

New political race ratings show a series of new pathways for Democrats to snatch control of the US Senate and US House.

The Cook Political Report’s latest analysis is a blockbuster. It shifts the GOP-held Iowa and Texas US Senate races to “toss up”

Democratic nominee James Talarico continues to far outraise his GOP challenger Ken Paxton. A series of recent polls have shown Talarico leading, in a state that has a history of teasing and taunting Democrats in statewide races.

The analysis says, “While Talarico remains right-side up in his favorables — at least so far — the deeply flawed Paxton is underwater by as much as double digits in some surveys and is notably underperforming even a generic Republican in GOP polling. In addition to a bevy of public polls, private Republican polling has had the race tied for some time.”

In Iowa, Democratic nominee Josh Turek is mustering a strong challenge to GOP nominee Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) … and the GOP is starting to express some real misgivings. Per the Cook analysis: “Republicans will privately admit that Turek — a former Gold Medal basketball paralympian who’s in a wheelchair due to spina bifida — is hard to demonize [...] Turek on Wednesday released an ad emphasizing the 700 times he voted with Republicans in the state legislature, saying he will work with Trump if elected.”

(More on Iowa state races later in this editorial note)

A Democratic victory in Texas or Iowa eases the burden and stresses Democrats might be feeling in Michigan about a possible GOP flip in the US Senate. Democratic candidates in Maine, Ohio and Kansas also offer new pathways to a majority.

As Democrats seek to expand their battlefield in the fight for control of the U.S. House, they’re seeing new roadways through some very red states. Inside Elections has shifted several of its forecast in the direction of Dems.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is socializing this excerpt of the analysis this morning:

DAY AHEAD is on the campaign trail today, in Virginia, where there are multiple competitive races.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) told DAY AHEAD that his party is positioned to flip three GOP-held seats in his state.

In the day ahead, Gina Hinojosa’s campaign will be touting a new forecast indicating a chance of a Democratic upset in the Texas gubernatorial race too. Hinojosa is trying to oust Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX).

Hinojosa is trying to make a big imprint with the issue of data centers. So much so: Her latest round of ads look like this:

For Democrats seeking to build a firewall against Trump, the options are multiplying.

It’s as if extra checkout lines are opening up inside the grocery store. Pick your favorite choice and path.

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Other emerging stories I’m tracking to conclude the week:

1) My latest enterprise report has just posted here on Substack. (A few minutes ago)

It reveals President Trump’s “get out of jail free” cards for convicted crooks … are actually costing crime victims a fortune.

A scathing new investigation by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will detail how the sweeping wave of Trump’s pardons has robbed federal crime victims of $1.7 billion in potential restitution and fines. The committee was expected to release the report later today.

Because Trump wiped clean the slate of court-ordered restitution to victims, the convicted criminals are relieved of having to pay back stolen funds or fix the damage of their crimes. The 25-page investigation by the committee argued Trump’s pardons have triggered a historic and “massive redistribution of wealth in favor of convicted criminals.”

More here:

2) I’m awaiting the response today to a new demand by House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) that Attorney General Todd Blanche appear before the committee to answer questions about Blanche’s mishandling of the Epstein Files.

Here’s the new request from Garcia to committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY)

Garcia cites Blanche’s recent statement (on Meet the Press last weekend), which raise questions about whether Blanche will even attempt to maintain the Justice Department’s historic independence from politics.

Garcia’s memo said, “The Committee’s interest in Mr. Blanche is especially urgent given his recent comments demonstrating a distorted view of the Justice Department’s core responsibilities. Since his confirmation, Mr. Blanche has explicitly refused to commit to “‘ act independently’ of White House direction, in a shocking departure from decades of DOJ policy. As you know, Mr. Blanche previously served as President Trump’s personal attorney, and his comments only heighten concerns that Mr. Blanche will manage DOJ’s work—including the Epstein case—for the benefit of President Trump personally, and not the American people. Many Americans already believe that DOJ has sought to cover up the Epstein files to protect President Trump. Mr. Blanche must directly address these concerns for the American public.”

Garcia talked to DAY AHEAD about his push for answers from Blanche.

3) Federal judge Loren AliKhan in Washington has ordered the Trump Administration to respond by September 3rd to the new legal challenge from ABC Television, which seeks a temporary restraining order against the FCC’s onerous review of ABC TV stations

The probe was launched amid Trump’s complaints about ABC.

I don’t expect filings today. But we could learn the date of a very intense, high-profile public hearing in the case. It appears that’ll happen in the first week or two of October.

4) Trump’s ongoing election denialism comes with a cost. But this time: It’ll be Mike Lindell paying the bill.

The pillow dude is going to dig into his pockets to fund a hand recount of the primary election votes in Minnesota. It’ll cost a reported $1 million.

Lindell lost by 11 points. (not a nailbiter) But he still hasn’t conceded. And much as he did in 2020, Lindell is again spouting election denials.

According to KTSP TV in Minneapolis this morning: “Lindell said the review will cover every paper ballot cast in the Aug. 11 primary at no cost to Minnesota taxpayers. He said he is seeking the recount after what he described as ‘irregularities’ in election reporting data. ‘One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand count every ballot in the state, and I am going to exercise that right to full extent of the law,’ Lindell said.”

5) At 12pm today, I’ll be watching a press conference from North Carolina, a battleground state for control of Congress. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC), local state legislators, and the mayor of Canton, NC (west of Asheville) will talk about the health care cost crisis.

Here’s a nugget from their presentation: “Premiums rose an average of nearly 150% for nearly 900,000 North Carolinians, with nearly 165,000 already dropping their Affordable Care Act coverage entirely.”

The cost crisis is deeper than just gas and groceries… and I’m watching Democrats emphasize their focus on health insurance costs. Let’s see how it works in North Carolina today. (Canton is in the 11th US House District, which is being vacated and could become a toss-up)

6) While we’re talking about battleground US House races: Keep an eye on the Michigan 7th District, near Lansing. A new poll commissioned by the Democratic-supporting House Majority PAC shows Democratic nominee William Lawrence leading incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Barrett 49% to 47%. Lawrence is a progressive activist who is trying to wrest a very purple district from the GOP. There’s a tough fight ahead.

The NBC TV station in Lansing, WILX-TV, notes how Lawrence is also leaning into the issue of healthcare costs.

7) Emerson Polling, which had a strong track record in its 2024 polling of the race for the White House, has some more buoyant news for Democrats in the midterms. Their new poll today found, “On the generic ballot test, 51% support the Democratic candidate, while 43% support the Republican. Six percent are undecided.”

That’s a necessary component of a wave election.

8) On the calendar today at the Iowa State Fair: A tribute to Elvis, a “Boulevard of Dairy Breeds” and the big butter cow. Nice!

Despite those wonderful distractions, the politics are worth monitoring too.

Democrats are especially optimistic about their prospects of flipping the GOP-held Governor’s mansion. Rob Sand, the Democratic state auditor, is trying to outflank the GOP nominee Zach Lahn. (Lahn defeated a Trump-endorsed challenger in the primaries)

Per my buddy Laura Belin of Bleeding Heartland, Sand gave his speech at the Fair, and didn’t mention Lahn during his remarks.

But Belin said Sand’s recent criticisms against Lahn have questioned Lahn’s roots in Iowa. Belin reported, “Rob Sand’s campaign is not backing away from Lahn’s residency as an issue. In a TV ad that just went up on Monday, a narrator says ‘a governor’s always on call’ for disasters or emergencies, adding that it’s a full-time job, but Zach Lahn’s not a full-time Iowan. “

Meanwhile, this image the paper in Cedar Rapids is potential campaign currency for Sand.

9) DATA CENTER WATCH: Less than 48 hours after Trump again extolled the virtues of data centers and urged support for new major data center facilities, another US community said “no”

Here’s the headline in Greensboro, North Carolina, where the city council has just approved a six month moratorium.

There’s a moratorium in Indianapolis, according to this morning’s Indianapolis Star.

But in Pike County, Ohio – near Chillicothe – Open AI is touting its new expansion, promising lots of local jobs.

Rep. Subramanyam, whose district in northern Virginia is home to wide sprawling data centers, says public sentiment is definitively shifting against these facilities.

Here’s more of what Subramanyam told DAY AHEAD

10) Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) have launched a probe into whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth installed a loyalist inside the STARS and STRIPES news service, which has been an independent news source since the Civil War

The Senators’ inquiry to Hegseth said: “The placement of an active-duty Public Affairs officer in the senior leadership of an organization whose credibility depends on its independence from the military chain of command raises serious questions”

More:

https://www.veterans.senate.gov/services/files/27F5B67B-41DE-4481-9931-C94578BE65E9

According to the Washington Post this morning, “Max Lederer, who spent more than 30 years at Stars and Stripes, announced Tuesday he was stepping away after nearly two decades as publisher. His email to staff about his departure included a parting shot at the Defense Department. ‘It has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization,’ Lederer wrote in an email obtained by The Washington Post. He said his retirement is effective Sept. 30.

11) I’m keeping an eye on the court docket in the Northern District of California for any unsealing of any records in the probe of former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Per this morning’s San Jose News, Swalwell’s phone and laptop have been seized.

12) AFFORDABILITY WATCH: In Marshfield, Massachuetts, the operators of the major summer fair are absorbing the soaring costs to keep ticket prices at $15 per person. The front page of the morning newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts shows the granular impact of the cost crisis. It’s pervasive. And it’s jamming up everyone…. in blue states and red.

I’ll see you on SUBSTACK LIVE at 1pm eastern time with - to talk about this weeks’ fire hose of news and these cost crises.

Then I’ll be on MSNBC this afternoon on tonight.

Have a great day.

A scathing new investigation by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will detail how the sweeping wave of Trump’s pardons has robbed federal crime victims of $1.7 billion in potential restitution and fines. The committee was expected to release the report on Friday.

Because Trump wiped clean the slate of court-ordered restitution to victims, the convicted criminals are relieved of having to pay back stolen funds or to fix damage of their crimes. The 25-page investigation by the committee argued Trump’s pardons have triggered a historic and “massive redistribution of wealth in favor of convicted criminals.”

The committee investigation argues Trump has “demolished” a rigorous, and largely apolitical, pardon system. They said Trump also allowed pardons to flow to “high-bidding”, deep-pocketed convicts, who lobbied through – or helped enrich - allies of the President and attorneys.

The investigation by the Judiciary Committee and its ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) detailed dozens of pardons which zeroed out the unpaid fines and restitution of Trump allies and supporters, including the $3 million that was owed by January 6th US Capitol rioters.

The following charts, which the committee will release Friday, list the potential price tag of each pardon, for the victims of the respective crimes.

The report emphasized the cost of Trump’s pardon of former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton, who was found guilty of defrauding investors. The report said “Mr. Milton had been sentenced to four years in prison, and a federal judge was scheduled to rule on prosecutors’ recommendation that he be ordered to pay nearly $700 million in restitution to his victims.”

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/trevor-milton-sentenced-four-years-prison-securities-fraud-scheme

The committee’s report underscored Milton’s support of - and relationship with – Trump, ahead of his clemency. The report said, “Mr. Milton and his wife donated over $1.8 million to committees supporting the President’s reelection, including $920,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in October 2024 and $750,000 in September 2024 to the MAHA Alliance super PAC affiliated with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.”

The Congressional investigation found victims of admitted fraudster Jason Galanis were stiffed of more than $80 million in restitution. Galanis pleaded guilty in 2020 of defrauding shareholders and clients of an investment advisory firm, as part of a scheme to manipulate the market on behalf of Gerova Financial Group. The committee report said, “President Trump pardoned Mr. Galanis and wiped out any obligation to pay further fines or restitution. Days later, Mr. Galanis petitioned for the return of the $2 million he had already advanced to his victims. A federal court quickly denied this claim, outrageous even by the depraved standards of Trump pardonees.”

More on Galanis’s case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/jason-galanis-sentenced-manhattan-federal-court-multiple-securities-fraud-schemes

The report also spotlighted the absolving of $37 million in restitution payments to victims of the former Ozy Media outlet and its former leader Carlos Watson. Watson was pardoned as he was being shuttled to serve a federal prison term for fraud, despite a report that an Ozy official “impersonated a YouTube executive on a phone call with Goldman Sachs to convince the bank to make a $40 million investment in Ozy Media.”

The committee said, “The defrauded investors will never be repaid.”

Trump’s disruption of the traditional Presidential pardon system, includes the Administration’s controversial decision to fire then-U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer in 2025.

In a May 2025 essay, Oyer noted the deliberate and notorious politicization of the Pardon Attorney’s office by Team Trump, eradicating a tradition of nonpartisan reviews and requirements to secure pardons.

Oyer emphasized Trump’s appointment of Trump ally Ed Martin to lead the office. She said Martin is an “ideological extremist who has none of the requisite qualifications. In fact, he is so extreme and unqualified that Senate Republicans tanked his nomination for the position of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Martin’s appointment is stunning because the Pardon Attorney has always been a nonpolitical appointee who undergoes rigorous vetting to be qualified as a member of the career Senior Executive Service. Martin has not gone through that process.”

A Justice Department spokesperson told Scott MacFarlane Reports, “Presidents of both parties have exercised their constitutional authority to grant pardons and commutations without consulting the Department of Justice. Under the Trump Administration, the Office of the Pardon Attorney continues to serve a key role in assisting the President. The Department is committed to timely and carefully reviewing all applications and to make recommendations to the President that are consistent, unbiased, and uphold the rule of law. There has been no departure from this long-standing process.”

Here: https://substack.com/@lizoyer/p-163702582

The Judiciary Committee Democrats said the pardons of dozens of convicted fraudsters undermine the Trump Administration’s new emphasis on “cracking down on fraud.”

The report from the Democrats said, “In recent months, often to justify immigration crackdowns or cuts to health care and food assistance programs, House Republicans have, hilariously, made ‘fighting fraud’ one of their central talking points… This is true. But convicted fraudster Donald Trump and the MAGA pardon industrial complex are all about committing fraud, protecting fraudulent schemes, and pardoning convicted fraudsters.”

The Judiciary Committee Democrats, who are seeking to take control of the panel after the midterm elections, would be empowered in 2027 to issue subpoenas, calling hearings and depose witnesses into Trump’s pardons, if they win the majority in the midterm elections.

The panel’s report argues pardon recipients have helped secure their clemency through “flattering” Trump or by making exorbitant payments to people with the President’s ear.

As part of their argument, they highlighted the clemency of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted of conspiring to distribute hundreds of tons of drugs.

MORE: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-sentenced-45-years-prison-conspiring

Hernandez allegedly befriended powerful people “in President Trump’s orbit,” according to the Judiciary Committee Democrats’ review.

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I used to wake myself at 6am for the earliest batch of the shows (Muppet Babies, SuperFriends, Looney Toons, Smurfs, etc).

It was a generation-defining part of growing up during the pre-internet, pre-cable TV era, in which broadcast TV was at the peak of its power.

On Saturday mornings, this was the lineup on ABC TV.

The cartoons were also…. well…. effective vehicles for an overdose of toy commercials and sugar cereal ads.

But we friggin loved them anyway…. including the advertisements for superhero action figures or My Little Pony lunchboxes.

Broadcast TV’s dominant years are behind it. Sadly.

But holy hell: ABC TV has a chance to be a new type of superstar.

Why?

Because courage breeds courage. And because pushback breeds pushback.

A judge has set a deadline for today for ABC Television and the Trump Administration to make new filings – and establish some deadlines - in ABC’s new, blistering lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. ABC argues the FCC is unfairly and unlawfully “coercing and retaliating against a network that refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands.”

Technically, federal judge Loren AliKhan has ordered the parties to propose “a briefing schedule on the motion and provide three dates and times for a hearing on the motion.” I’ll birddog the court docket all day for updates.

But no matter the disposition of ABC’s lawsuit, the legal fight itself might help deter Team Trump from bullying and weaponizing its agency against other media outlets.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Biden appointee who has emphatically criticized FCC chair Brendan Carr for deploying a heavy hand, spoke with DAY AHEAD.

Gomez said ABC’s legal challenge is critically important.

DAY AHEAD asked Gomez if she believes Chairman Carr’s claim that he’s launched the review of ABC because of his concerns about the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Gomez said that claim is hogwash. And ….yes…. dangerously cartoonish.

Lisa Stark, a former ABC News Correspondent, told DAY AHEAD that she is proud of her former employer for drawing a line in the sand.

As major media contracts and downsizes, Trump has found a more vulnerable target to menace.

CBS – and previously ABC – paid settlements to end some remarkably frivolous lawsuits by Trump last year. The settlements appear to have only emboldened Trump, not satisfy him. It was capitulation, according to critics.

Other broadcasters sent reporters to cozy up with Trump and his Cabinet at last month’s White House Correspondents Association dinner, at which Trump spewed venom and menacing words at journalists.

ABC is taking a harder stance now. These federal civil cases span months, if not years. So it’s a long and expensive battle. Though ABC has hired a heavy hitter for its case, with the appointment of attorney Paul Clement to the case. Clement is a former US solicitor general.

Like their 10:30am Saturday morning show (circa 1986), they’re perhaps hoping to launch a *league* of media “superfriends” who are willing to fight.

More here:

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Trump wasn’t ambiguous or subtle when he sought to weaponize the FCC. At an October 2024 speech at the Detroit Economic Club, Trump said the following, “Y’know, they have a license which is worth billions of dollars and they pay nothing. All of these networks are all crooked as hell. You saw that with ABC.”

Nearly two years later, the pushback has — finally — begun.

Here are some of the other news threads I’m pulling today, all over the map in communities big and small:

1) Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) is preparing for a campaign appearance with Trump tomorrow, to sure up support in her runoff for the GOP US Senate nomination against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC). The appearance will be held in Myrtle Beach.

Graham and Norman have agreed to postpone a planned forum that was initially scheduled for tomorrow, to accommodate Trump’s travel schedule.

Here’s headline in Spartanburg this morning.

Meanwhile, Democratic US Senate nominee Dr Annie Andrews is seeking to emphasize Graham’s gaffe at a debate on Tuesday, in which Graham stumbled mightily on a question about national defense in the Far East.

Andrews has circulated the clip of Graham on social media, arguing “Darline Graham Nordone is asking for six years as South Carolina’s senator — during wartime — yet has the gall to tell voters ‘national security isn’t her thing.” “South Carolina deserves better.”

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DRmqCHXMx/

Andrews spoke with DAY AHEAD and said she’s concerned that Graham’s team will pivot and not accept any debates in general election

Andrews says Graham “is not ready for primetime.”

Graham attempted some damage control on FOX News late last night. She argued, “I tripped up on one question… regarding Taiwan. I don't speak politician. I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about boys in girls sports.”

We’ll see how that works. The runoff election is Tuesday.

1a) While we’re talking about South Carolina, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is shifting the South Carolina 1st Congressional District into its more competitive “red to blue” program, signaling newfound optimism in winning the seat of outgoing Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)

The Democrats have nominated Nancy Lacore and are emphasizing her “outsider” credentials in this anti-establishment wave. The campaign committee touts Lacore’s background, saying “She served our nation for 35 years in the Navy, beginning as a helicopter pilot and culminating as a three star admiral and the Chief of Navy Reserve where she led more than 60,000 sailors. Twice deployed as she raised her six children, Nancy is now running for Congress to bring the same common-sense leadership and integrity she learned in the Navy to clean up Washington.”

Lacore posted this message today, not-so-subtly referencing Darline Graham’s gaffe:

In a further sign of a Democratic aspirations, the DCCC will also shift the following GOP-held races into the “red to blue” program today.

• Florida 13th, which is held by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL)

• Virginia 5th, where former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) has new polling show him within range of Rep. John McGuire (R-VA)

• Kentucky 6th - Democrats are eyeing the GOP seat, held by departing Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who’s running for Senate

2) “Ballroom Watch” resumes today at the Supreme Court. The Court has less than 48 hours to potentially overturn a lower appeals court ruling that will halt the above-ground work on the Ballroom by the end of the day tomorrow.

Trump is again touting the security upgrades in the project. At the White House on Wednesday, he argued, “It’s going to have a drone-proof roof. And you’re going to have on top of the roof drones, many drones, which will protect Washington DC and will protect the White House. Very important.”

That is not the issue before the court, however.

The lower courts agreed to allow the underground, security work to proceed. It’s the work on the ornate ballroom itself that must be halted by the end of tomorrow.

Why? The courts have ruled that Trump unlawfully circumvented Congress is launching the Ballroom project. (Congress must approve such things first, per the district and appeals courts)

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States has filed a brief with the Supreme Court. Note what they argue on page 8: Trump and the White House “insist they will keep building—no matter what anyone says.. More astonishing is Petitioners’ declaration that they are on the brink of a fait accompli. They tell this Court that because the ballroom is being built with the type of concrete used ‘in nuclear power plants,’ it will soon be ‘virtually impossible to deconstruct.’ That striking admission decides this application. Absent an injunction, Petitioners candidly contend that if the ballroom were ‘ordered to be taken down, or even altered, by the court, there would be no way to do so.’ That is the essence of irreparable harm.”

3) Checking the numbers this morning: Trump’s decision to build a new White House helipad is going to cost at least five million dollars. He’s making the case that the upgrade to the White House grounds makes the space more suitable for visits by other heads of state.

Trump said, “This will be much better for state arrivals. And in fact, instead of being on grass, now they’ll be using that almost like a table. They can have events on it. They can have people go there for cocktails and then walk to the ballroom after that’s finished.”

I checked some updated numbers provided by sources inside the National Park Service.

Looks like the Park Service will be allotting more money to Trump’s helipad project this year than they’ve set aside for each of the following national parks/attractions.

• Gettysburg National historic site

• Olympic Natl Park

• Glen Canyon

• Bryce Canyon

Some National Park Service employees are wondering why Trump isn’t leaning on donors to help pay for some of the $30 billion in deferred maintenance at federal parks nationwide.

4) I’m watching the home stretch to the Sept. 1 primary in Massachusetts, where the 2026 political “youth movement” will be severely tested.

The top of the ticket includes a whopper of a Democratic fight. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), 80, is fighting for the nomination for re-election to the Senate. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), 47, is surrendering his US House seat in an effort to wrest the nomination from Markey in a very blue state.

Here’s this morning’s Boston Globe

Moulton is an Iraq war veteran who is making the case for a “change election.” In a message Wednesday, he argued, “Voters are sending a clear message across the country: they want next-generation leaders who are willing to challenge the party establishment. It’s time for new energy, urgency, and accountability in the Senate.” Speaking of the Boston Globe, Moulton won their endorsement.

Markey is touting his support from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)

Here’s the image from this latest YOUTUBE campaign video

In a post this morning, Markey tries to outflank Moulton on healthcare issues. Markey said, “Our health care system is broken. We need to pass Medicare for All. Let’s send progressives to the Senate to get it done.”

I’m also keeping tabs on the final days of the primary in Massachusetts’ 8th Congressional District, where Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) is trying to fend off a younger challenger.

Lynch has been in Congress for more than two decades, is a former state representative and a former union ironworker.

His primary challenger is Patrick Roath, who was part of a forum with Lynch in Weymouth earlier this month. Boston.com reported, “Roath emphasized the age difference between himself and Lynch throughout the forum, framing himself as part of a younger generation ready to bring creative solutions to Washington. He decried the Trump administration’s ‘extremist’ agenda and spoke about how that threat necessitates a new kind of proactive leadership.”

5) We’ll see a whole bunch of statements today from elected leaders in Washington about the national debt. We’ve hit a brutal milestone, as the debt has exceeded $40 trillion.

The Wall St. Journal this morning acknowledged, “The breakdown of federal spending shows why meaningful cuts are so difficult. The vast majority of the government’s spending goes to programs that promise benefits to individuals, such as Social Security and Medicare. Trimming these would likely anger many voters. Meanwhile, rising debt means higher interest payments, which aren’t optional either.”

6) Bay City is the battleground community in the battleground state of Michigan. It’s as “purple” a region as you can find on the map. So I’ll note the midday event by Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) today. She’s touting the event as a press conference to highlight the “White House’s chaotic domestic manufacturing policies.” She’ll note plans by SK Siltron to close its manufacturing plant in Bay City, eliminating approximately 140 jobs.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) will join the event.

McDonald Rivet is one of the handful of Democrats who represent Congressional districts in which Trump prevailed in 2024. She’s going to take the opportunity to jam Trump and the GOP as she hits the homestretch of her first re-election race. (Democrats are very bullish on her prospects)

7) DATA CENTER WATCH: Add Dallas to the list of communities considering a tightening of rules and restrictions on data center development.

Dallas has eclipsed other regions of the country as a giant in the data center industry.

But now the city council is considering tightening rules. Environmental groups, concerned homeowners and community activists appear to have made inroads with local elected officials.

Here’s the Dallas Morning News front page:

8) Even before Trump and RFK Jr’s recent claims about childhood vaccines, vaccine hesitancy was flourishing alarmingly in parts of America.

A new Centers for Disease Control report shows some disheartening trends on vaccinations of kindergarten students.

I sifted through the new state-by-state data. The trend is pretty damn clear in Idaho.

KBOI-TV in Boise reports this morning: “In Idaho, however, MMR and DTaP vaccination rates for kindergartners are at 75%, 10% lower than any other state for the MMR shot, well below the 95% recommendation aimed at preventing outbreaks.

Exemptions are also rising. Nationally, exemptions have reached an all-time high of more than 4 percent. In Idaho, the exemption rate is up to a record 17.5 percent.

Comparing Idaho’s 2025-2026 numbers with the 2019-2020 school year, the MMR and DTaP vaccination rates dropped 14%. The exemption rate rose 10 percent, from 7.5% to 17.5% in those same six years.”

Check for your state’s data here;

https://www.cdc.gov/schoolvaxview/data/index.html

9) Congress remains deeply concerned with how the Trump Admin. Is blocking access for Members of Congress to I.C.E. facilities and other detention centers. A new US House bill from Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) would “prohibit the Secretary of Homeland Security from preventing Members of Congress, or employees accompanying a Member, from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens, and for other purposes.”

Here’s the bill:

10) Virginia kiddos have returned to school. (Some went back as early as August 3) Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is going to tout the new budget which has emphasized education. Spanberger, who is 8 months into her term, will emphasize this facet of her first year, “Two billion new dollars in public education funding — the largest investment in Virginia’s history. Teachers and school support staff are getting a four percent raise, and other public employees are getting a 3.5 percent raise this year and again next year.”

This morning’s paper in southwest Virginia notes a little bit of a rebound in Spanberger’s poll numbers, which had drooped in her earliest months in office.

https://cardinalnews.org/2026/08/18/new-poll-shows-spanberger-approval-rating-has-rebounded-is-it-right/

Busy day ahead. I’ll see you on SUBSTACK LIVE at 10am eastern with Pete Dominick, who has been a contributor and host on SIRIUS XM for many years. Pete’s a former stand-up comic and an engaging show host. We’ll dig into how Trump’s rock-bottom poll numbers are a potential gravitational pull against fellow Republicans who are on the ballot in November.