Wall Street Journal: “The MAHA-MAGA marriage is tenuous—and one reason is the frailty of Kennedy’s political apparatus. Most of the donors who gave last cycle to boost Kennedy and later his alliance with Trump are missing in the midterms.” “Allied MAHA super PACs and nonprofits have spent far less than the $100 million promised, dropping […]

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.” — Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“President Donald Trump pushed back Saturday morning against reports he was considering replacing the White House press briefing room with an indoor swimming pool but said he was considering moving media ‘to a less obnoxious location,'” NewsNation reports. Said Trump, on Truth Social: “There is a Fake News report out there that I am going […]

“President Donald Trump insisted his job approval is somehow actually 60% as polling has shown he’s one of the least popular presidents going into the midterms,” Mediaite reports. Said Trump: “I don’t believe I could be beaten by anybody.” The Polling Dashboard shows Trump’s approval at just 35%.

Politico: “Transunion, a consumer credit reporting agency, found in a 2024 study that 22- to 24-year-olds in Gen Z had higher average credit-card balances, higher average auto-loan balances and higher average personal-loan balances than millennials of the same age a decade earlier, even when adjusted for inflation. Gen Z borrowers also had higher delinquency rates […]

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Cubans seeking ‘positive change’ to work with the CIA, the latest ploy in the growing efforts from the Trump administration to remove Cuba’s communist regime from power,” CBS News reports.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.” — Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

“Local election officials in Mississippi have made changes to 138 polling places since the 2024 election, including moving the location for 112 precincts, closing 21 precincts and opening five new precincts,” the Mississippi Free Press reports. “Statewide, there are now 16 fewer precincts than there were two years ago due to consolidations.”

“In last week’s Georgia Senate debate, Democrat Jon Ossoff accused Republican congressman Mike Collins of calling for immigrants to be thrown to their deaths from helicopters, referring to a social media post Collins sent in 2024,” CNN reports. “Collins didn’t address the accusation directly and instead pivoted to immigration enforcement and criticized Ossoff.” “But it […]

“A Republican woman in a campaign commercial gave a grave warning about Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate in one of Iowa’s most competitive House districts,” the Washington Post reports. Said city councilwoman Shellie Flockhart: “When it comes to our kids, Sarah is just plain dangerous.” “Flockhart pleaded guilty to charges related to child endangerment […]

“I got completely deluded… Like I so overstated my power that it was embarrassing. He didn’t care what I thought at all. And you know, why would he actually?” — Tucker Carlson, quoted by the Financial Times, on his soured relationship with President Trump.

“Vivek Ramaswamy is switching to a 30-second version of the attack ad featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent in the Ohio race for governor,” NBC News reports. “The original minute-long version debuted this week and sparked widespread and bipartisan backlash. It’s not uncommon for there to be 60-second and 30-second versions […]

“Progressive House members and candidates are taking a stark turn away from what they describe as ‘performative’ efforts to impeach President Trump,” Axios reports. “This is a drastic shift in tone from Trump’s first term, when progressives were some of the loudest voices in favor of impeachment.”

“The U.S. government has put employees on heightened alert across the Middle East and moved to reduce personnel levels at embassies and consulates because of intelligence showing Iran is in the advanced stages of planning attacks against Americans,” the New York Times reports. “Intelligence officials raised alarms to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a […]

“White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers, as Trump allies press the administration to protect lower-ranked officials from prosecution and other legal challenges, according to two sources familiar with the conversations,” the Washington Sun reports. “While President Donald Trump has publicly discussed issuing pardons for top aides and issued […]

“There is nothing the next Congress can do about the level of prices. They will remain very high.” — Former Obama economic adviser Jason Furman, quoted by the Washington Post.

CNBC: “Nearly 55% of MAGA supporters want companies to keep developing advanced AI while Congress works on regulations, versus 27% who favor a pause. But only 29% would support a data center within 10 miles of their home, while 40% oppose one. Among all Republicans and Republican-leaning voters — not just those who identify themselves […]

“Senior Democrats are tempering their expectations about how big of a House majority they might win, as both parties see a tightening battlefield,” Politico reports. “The latest rounds of internal polling from both parties from the middle of October show GOP candidates gaining ground in the Midwest and narrowing races in a key Colorado seat […]

David Graham: “American politics is saturated with cash, and each election cycle seems to set new spending records—and yet, with the midterms in the home stretch, neither party thinks it has enough money. The irony is nearly as rich as the biggest donors.”

New York Times: “In total, since taking office again, Mr. Trump exempted 202 facilities in 39 states and Puerto Rico from clean-air regulations that were going into effect. Some were among the country’s worst industrial polluters, including chemical manufacturers, copper smelters and coal-burning power plants. About 3.3 million people live within three miles of at […]

New York Times: “The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit pre-emptively challenging the certification of Alaska’s Senate election if the Republican candidate narrowly loses. But election law specialists said the litigation lacked any legitimate legal basis.” Said law professor Richard Pildes: “It is one of the weakest election lawsuits I’ve ever seen. It should have […]

Aaron Blake: “Any campaign that involves Donald Trump is bound to get pretty ugly. The 2024 campaign was marred by the now-president and now-Vice President JD Vance falsely claiming Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets.” “But the 2026 campaign is getting really ugly — especially on the Republican side.” “Morality aside, the question […]

“We’ll take care of Cuba on the way back from Iran.” — President Trump, quoted by NewsNation.

“Vivek Ramaswamy is ending his run for Ohio governor the same way he launched himself onto the political scene four years ago — with a bet that voters will reward him for a never-back-down bombast that mirrors President Donald Trump’s instincts,” CNN reports. “But interviews with voters over three days following the release of the […]

“Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton warned Friday that Iran has ‘substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel’ abroad, with plots to kill Americans reaching ‘advanced stages’ in the Middle East and other countries,” CBS News reports.

“Former President Barack Obama is hitting the trail on Saturday for his first campaign rallies of the midterm elections, putting him directly counter to President Trump, who is set to speak at a rally in the evening,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Obama’s return to rally stages in Ohio and Michigan sets up a […]

“Hoping for a win before the midterm elections, the Trump administration is increasing pressure on Mexico to expand its cooperation against cartels, with an eye toward joint operations with the United States,” the New York Times reports. “In recent weeks, U.S. officials have delivered a memo proposing a path to potentially having U.S. security personnel […]

“The most explosive advertisement of the midterm elections has split Republicans and again posed the question of what is fair game for campaign attacks in American politics,” the New York Times reports. “In the days since the leak of the ad from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, many fellow GOP politicians […]

“Ukrainian drones connected to the Pentagon-funded Starshield satellite network have flown at speeds near 250 miles an hour for the first time since the system was throttled last week, Ukraine’s defense minister announced on Saturday,” the New York Times reports. ”It was the first sign that the speed restrictions, which have hampered crucial drone operations, […]

“Democrats have a hefty advantage in national polls. President Trump is playing defense, campaigning through deep-red corners of the country that he won by overwhelming margins just two years ago. And assumptions that Democrats will win control of Congress have become conventional wisdom in many quarters, from longtime political observers to social media to the […]