The Senate will vote on whether to take up a bill to pay federal workers who haven't been furloughed during the government shutdown.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the demolition of the White House East Wing to make way for Trump’s ballroom during the press briefing today.
“With any construction project, there are changes over time as you assess what the project is going to look like, and we’ll continue to keep you apprised of all of those changes,” Leavitt said.
A reporter noted that the White House said it didn’t submit plans for the ballroom to the The National Capital Planning Commission. Asked if the president can tear down anything he wants without any oversight, Leavitt said the commission has “ruled consistently, their general counsel has said, when it comes to phase one of this project, the tearing down of the current East Wing structure, a submission is not required legally for that.”
Asked why the White House didn’t inform the public that the entire East Wing would have to be demolished after Trump claimed the existing structure wouldn’t be touched, Leavitt said the situation changed.
“The plans changed when the president heard counsel from the architects and the construction companies who said that in order for this East Wing to be modern and beautiful for many, many years to come, for it to be a truly strong and stable structure, this phase one that we’re now in was necessary,” she said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned at the press briefing that if the government doesn’t reopen soon, there could be significant flight delays during the holiday season and a funding lapse for SNAP benefits.
“If the Democrats continue to keep the government closed, we fear there will be significant flight delays, disruptions, and cancellations in major airports across the country this holiday season,” she told reporters. “If Democrats continue to shut down the government, they will also be shutting down American air travel.”
She said the White House is in touch with air traffic controllers and airline associations about the possible issue.
Leavitt added, “If Democrats continue to hold Americans hostage, there will not be enough funds to provide SNAP benefits for more than 40 million Americans on Nov. 1. That is next week. Democrats are solely responsible for all of this unnecessary pain.”
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to laugh briefly and agree with a radio host who said during an interview yesterday that Zohran Mamdani would be “cheering” if “another 9/11” happened on his watch.
During an appearance on Sid Rosenberg’s “Sid & Friends In The Morning,” a radio show on WABC, New York City mayoral hopeful Cuomo lambasted Mamdani for lacking experience. Cuomo said the 34-year-old state assemblyman, the Democratic nominee and front-runner in the mayoral race, doesn’t have a track record of dealing with the type of crises that executive officers like mayors and governors face — and have faced in the past.
“That job is a scary job. You wake up as mayor, you wake up as governor, any morning there’s a prison uprising, there was just a mass shooting, there’s Legionnaires’ disease, there’s gonna be a fiscal collapse, Wall Street’s moving to doubt, any given morning there’s a crisis,” Cuomo said in the interview. “And people’s lives are at stake — God forbid another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?”
At this point, Rosenberg jumped in, replying: “I could, he’d be cheering,” with a laugh.
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Trump signed a pardon yesterday for convicted crypto executive Changpeng Zhao, who founded the Binance crypto exchange, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” Leavitt said. “In their desire to punish the cryptocurrency industry, the Biden Administration pursued Mr. Zhao despite no allegations of fraud or identifiable victims.”
Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after reaching a deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to charges of enabling money laundering at Binance, which he ran at the time. The U.S. also ordered Binance to pay more than $4 billion in fines and forfeiture, while Zhao agreed to pay $50 million in fines.
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House Democrats will return to D.C. next week, starting with an in-person caucus meeting on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
The House was last in session on Sept. 19, and Speaker Mike Johnson has said the chamber will only return after the government reopens. House Democratic leaders have routinely asked their caucus to be in D.C. during most of the shutdown, though this week they remained in their districts.
House GOP leaders have not brought their members back since the shutdown began, opting instead for conference calls.
The Trump administration announced the U.S. military carried out a new wave of deadly airstrikes on alleged drug smuggling boats yesterday, this time in the eastern Pacific. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for “TODAY.”
Senate Democrats, who are expected to reject a Republican bill later today that would pay federal workers who haven’t been furloughed, will present their own motion in an attempt to pay both furloughed and unfurloughed federal workers during the government shutdown and block the Trump administration from initiating more mass firings.
Democrats plan to present a motion to pass the bill unanimously. The motion is expected to fail as any senator can object to it.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is set to endorse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo ahead of the city’s mayoral election in November.
Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams, confirmed the news in a statement to NBC New York, “As spokesman for Mayor Eric Adams, I can confirm that the Mayor will endorse former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for mayor and intends to campaign alongside him. The time and locations for their joint appearances are currently being finalized.”
Cuomo and Adams, both longtime Democrats, each ran as third-party candidates in the general election against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a state legislator. But Adams dropped out of the race last month, saying in a nearly 9-minute video posted on X that he didn’t see a path to victory in this race.
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Records show developer Fred Daibes, who was jailed for bribing former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez with gold bars, hired a lobbying firm with close ties to Trump in an apparent attempt to get out of prison. WNBC’s Jonathan Dienst has the details.
The Senate will vote just after noon on whether to take up a Republican bill that would pay federal workers who haven’t been furloughed during the government shutdown.
The procedural move needs 60 votes for approval, meaning it would require some Democratic support and currently is expected to fail.
Democrats have expressed concerns that the measure could give the Trump administration some leeway to decide who does or doesn’t get paid or a provide it with a justification for not paying furloughed workers after the shutdown ends.
Referring to Trump, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said of the bill, “If you criticize him, you’re not essential, you don’t get paid. If you kiss his ass, you’ll be essential and you get paid. Once you give him the power to decide not only who shows up to work, but also who gets paid, it is a massive additional power, massive additional leverage that he has, and an opportunity for endless corruption.”
Russia reacted with outrage today after the United States sanctioned its two largest oil companies, the first economic punishments slapped on Moscow by Trump during his second term.
Experts said it remains to be seen, however, the extent to which this move may damage the Russian economy or Vladimir Putin’s war machine as Trump hopes to pressure Moscow to halt its assault on Ukraine.
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China’s Communist Party elite vowed today to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technology self-reliance, which it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States.
As expected, the Party’s Central Committee also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people’s livelihoods — long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritized manufacturing and investment.
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Trump said in an interview with Time magazine last week that if Israel annexes the West Bank, it would “lose all of its support from the United States.”
“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” the president said in the interview, which was published today. “It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”
Trump’s comments came before the Knesset voted yesterday to advance a bill to annex the already occupied Palestinian territory.
The president also said during the interview that he plans to visit the Gaza Strip, though he didn’t provide any details.
Before leaving Israel today, Vice President JD Vance condemned the Knesset‘s vote yesterday to advance a bill to annex the already occupied West Bank.
“That was weird. I was sort of confused by that,” Vance told reporters, adding that he had been told the move by Israel’s parliament amounted to “a symbolic vote.”
“Somebody told me that it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic,” Vance said. “I mean, look, if it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it.”
“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance continued. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy, and if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told reporters before he left for Israel last night that the vote could jeopardize the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Author Michael Wolff has sued first lady Melania Trump, charging that she threatened a $1 billion legal action against him to stop him from reporting and writing about her alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
“Mrs. Trump’s claims are made for the sole purpose of harassing, intimidating, punishing or otherwise maliciously inhibiting Mr. Wolff’s free exercise of speech,” said the suit, which was filed Tuesday in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.
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Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo clashed last night in the final New York mayoral debate, which put on full display their personal animosity and their array of disagreements over both city and national issues.
Throughout the 90-minute debate, Cuomo — the former Democratic governor running as an independent — called Mamdani, 34, a state assemblyman, a “kid” who would get knocked “on his tuchus” by Trump, a “great actor” and a “divisive force in New York” who brings “toxic energy for New York.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the Israeli parliament’s moves toward annexing the already occupied West Bank could imperil Trump‘s plan to end the conflict in Gaza.
Rubio was speaking before heading to Israel to help oversee efforts to maintain the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, and push forward peace talks on the next stages of the deal. He’s the latest senior U.S. official to do so after a flare-up in violence raised fears the truce could collapse.
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The Treasury Department announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sector after Trump confirmed that a planned meeting with President Vladimir Putin to discuss Russia’s war with Ukraine was off.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement yesterday. “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
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