Airlines say they are ready to ramp up to full flight operations once they get government clearance.
President Donald Trump signed a bill to reopen the government late Wednesday night. Aaron Schwartz / Bloomberg / Getty Images
Despite a polarized, partisan political environment, most voters who consider themselves a member of a party say they have a close friend on the other side of the aisle, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
However, Democrats in the poll were less likely to say they have a close, cross-party friendship, the results show.
More than 8 in 10 Republicans (82%) said they have at least one close friend who is a Democrat, while a little over 6 in 10 Democrats (64%) are close friends with a Republican — a gap of 18 percentage points.
That difference is most pronounced among voters who are most loyal to each party and more ideological.
Read the full story here.
The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is highlighting the party’s success last week in swing and red counties that voted for Trump in 2024, arguing it can build upon off-year election results in the upcoming midterms, the party chairman wrote in a memo published today.
Pennsylvania Democrats pointed to substantial victories in three judicial retention races as well as downballot elections in 15 counties, including key swing counties like Bucks, Erie, Luzerne and Northampton, as well as wins from traditionally Republican areas like Lancaster and Beaver counties.
“This is bad news for the Pennsylvania Republicans who have completely embraced Trump and the most unpopular elements of Washington politics — from higher costs and taxes, to rampant corruption and attacks on our democracy,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair Eugene DePasquale wrote in a memo. “Whether it’s Stacy Garrity, Doug Mastriano, Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan, Scott Perry, or Brian Fitzpatrick, the GOP candidates up in 2026 have championed an agenda of chaos and high prices, and they will be held responsible for it with Pennsylvania voters.”
Democratic judges won by 3 to 15 points in Beaver, Berks, Columbia, Cumberland, Lancaster, Luzerne, Montour, Pike, Union, Washington and Westmoreland counties — all places Trump has won three times — in last week’s off-year elections (elections that have been more favorable to Democrats in recent cycles).
Some of those counties will host competitive U.S. House races next year that will be key to determining congressional control, with DePasquale going after GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Scott Perry, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie in the memo.
After the longest shutdown in American history, the federal government is slowly beginning to reopen, but challenges persist at airports across the United States with the FAA still forcing airlines to slash six percent of flights ahead of the Thanksgiving travel rush. It comes as federal workers are still waiting on paychecks. NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez reports for “Today.”
A top housing official in Trump’s administration has referred California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal probe, based on allegations of mortgage and tax fraud related to a Washington, D.C., home, according to a person familiar with the referral.
He is the fourth Democratic official to face mortgage fraud allegations in recent months.
Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged in a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday that Swalwell may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents.
The matter has also been referred to the agency’s acting inspector general, this person said.
“As the most vocal critic of Donald Trump over the last decade and as the only person who still has a surviving lawsuit against him, the only thing I am surprised about is that it took him this long to come after me,” Swalwell said in a statement to NBC News.
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Vance said during an interview that aired last night that he will speak with Trump after the midterms about a potential 2028 presidential bid.
During a Fox News interview, Vance said he remains focused on his role as vice president, but would discuss the matter with Trump after midterms.
“We’re going to do everything that we can to win the midterms, and then after that, I’m going to sit down with the President of the United States and talk to him about it. But let’s focus on the now,” Vance said.
Trump has previously said that Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be his top picks in 2028.
Vance said in the interview that if Rubio decided to run “we can cross that bridge when we come to it,” and that viewing Rubio as a rival “would be ridiculous.”
Democratic Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s ploy to hand-pick his successor for his Illinois seat has sparked a war of words between congressional Democrats. The divisions come at the exact time the party is trying to unify behind issues like health care, affordability and releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.
On Wednesday night, just as the House was prepared to vote to reopen the government, a fellow Democrat, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state, took to the floor and ripped into Garcia, sparking shock and outrage from many of her Democratic colleagues. Both are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Gluesenkamp Perez, known as MGP on Capitol Hill, offered a House resolution disapproving of Garcia’s actions this fall when he filed paperwork to run for reelection in 2026, then announced he was retiring after the filing deadline. Meanwhile, his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, had filed her own paperwork to run for the seat just hours before that same Nov. 3 deadline, ensuring that she would be the only Democrat on the ballot running for that deep-blue Chicago-area seat. The two are not related.
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First-term Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell conceded his re-election fight to progressive activist Katie Wilson yesterday, handing another victory to leftist Democrats around the country frustrated with unaffordability, homelessness, public safety and the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Harrell, a centrist Democrat who previously served three terms on the City Council, led in early results. But Washington conducts all-mail elections, with ballots postmarked by Election Day. Later-arriving votes, which historically trend more liberal, broke heavily in Wilson’s favor, adding to a progressive shift to the left nationally.
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Two women who say they were sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein urged Congress to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files on the accused sex trafficker, whose powerful friends included President Donald Trump.
Liz Stein and Jess Michaels made these comments during an interview with NBC News yesterday, where they were joined by freshly minted Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Moments after she was sworn in on Wednesday, and with Stein and Michaels looking on, Grijvala provided the crucial 218th signature needed to bypass GOP leaders and force a floor vote on the issue.
“We need the American people to not stop putting the pressure on,” Michaels said. “We can’t stop putting the pressure, because it’s only one tiny victory.”
Read the full story here.
The federal government is now back open, but the impacts could last for days or longer including at America’s airports. NBC News’ Ryan Nobles reports.
The White House is urging federal agencies to send paychecks to employees out “expeditiously and accurately,” a senior administration official told NBC News.
Some federal workers, including at the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management and the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs, are expected to get paychecks as soon as this weekend, the senior official said.
Other departments, including Education, State, Interior, Transportation and some agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA and the Social Security Administration, could get their backpay by Monday, the official said.
Still others, including Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Treasury and DOJ, could receive their checks by the middle of next week, the official said.
The Smithsonian has announced it will reopen several museums today, including the Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum and its 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.
NBC News