House Speaker Mike Johnson said he plans to hold a vote next week on whether to order the Justice Department to release all the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Billy Edmonson voted for Trump in 2024 because of his stances on border security, gun rights and the economy. One year after casting his ballot, Edmonson is finding it difficult to make ends meet.
“Everything’s already so expensive. … That’s the worst thing about his presidency so far, is he promised things coming down and prices are not coming down. I make more money than I’ve ever made in my life right now, and it has, financially, been a struggle,” said Edmonson, a 35-year-old construction worker from Missouri.
Edmonson recalled that Trump promised to start lowering prices on his first day in office.
“It just doesn’t seem like there’s been a whole lot of focus on, ‘Hey, let’s get these prices down.’ It’s just been like, ‘Hey, prices are high because Biden did this.’ It’s like, well, Biden’s not in office anymore,” said Edmonson, a self-described independent, later adding, “It’s personally frustrating.”
Edmonson is not alone. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of registered voters, including 30% of Republicans, said in the recent national NBC News poll that Trump has fallen short of their expectations on the cost of living and the economy. After being one of the big reasons why Trump won a return to the White House in 2024, Trump’s performance on the economy has become one of the big drags on his second term.
Read the full story here.
The group Airlines for America, which includes airlines like American Airlines, Delta and United, released a statement calling for a long-term solution to make sure air travel isn’t hurt in the future by political disagreements.
“We implore Congress to ensure future funding bills do not allow aviation to become collateral damage in Washington’s policy debates,” the trade group said in a statement.
Airlines for America pointed to a $5 billion FAA fund that the group says “could be used to pay air traffic controllers during future shutdowns.”
“We ask Congress to consider legislation that would implement a long-term solution,” Airlines for America said.
Federal workers, including air traffic controllers, went unpaid during the shutdown. Last week, the Trump administration announced that flights would be cut to reduce strain as the shutdown dragged on.
Speaker Johnson said the House will vote next week to repeal a provision slipped into the bill to end the shutdown that would allow senators to sue the government for potentially millions of dollars if their data is obtained without their notification.
Johnson said he was “shocked” and “angry” when he learned about the provision, which would uniquely benefit eight Republican senators, whose phone records — but not the contents of their calls or messages — were found to have been accessed as part of the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Read the full story here.
Speaker Johnson defended Republican lawmakers’ handling of the Epstein files and said “more is to come” as the House is set to vote next week on releasing more of the files. After a weeks-long delay, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., yesterday secured the signatures they need to bypass GOP leaders and force a floor vote to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files in its investigation into Epstein.
The Smithsonian has announced it will reopen several museums tomorrow, including the Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum and the National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia, which houses planes and space artifacts.
Other museums and the National Zoo are set to reopen on a “rolling basis by Monday,” the Smithsonian’s website said.
Trump can’t seem to escape Jeffrey Epstein. All summer, the Trump administration tried to brush back questions, including from allies, around its handling of the late financier’s case. The issue quieted down for over the past few weeks, with the government shut down and Congress preoccupied.
But it reemerged yesterday, just as the shutdown is set to end. The latest twist comes at an inopportune time for Trump, with the president already in the midst of criticism from longtime supporters over his economic rhetoric and policy proposals in the wake of Republican candidates being routed in last week’s off-year elections.
Read the full story here.
When acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan walks into federal court here in Virginia this morning, it will be Halligan — not the criminal defendants she hopes to prosecute — at the center of the court’s attention.
Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both frequent targets of Trump, filed separate motions in their respective cases, arguing that Halligan is unlawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney and therefore the indictments against them should be thrown out. In a rare joint hearing, attorneys for Comey and James will argue this together before U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, who is traveling up from the District of South Carolina.
Read the full story here.
Multiple federal agencies have told their employees to report to work today, according to three administration officials. The directive came before Trump signed a short-term funding bill last night.
Government workers at the Health and Human Services Department, Department of the Interior, Housing and Urban Development Department, and Department of Justice were all advised to come in on Thursday, regardless of when the measure was signed.
Read the full story here.
NBC News