Alexander Willis

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) opened a speech on the Senate floor Saturday by complaining about having to work on a Saturday, while also endorsing President Donald Trump’s proposal to take the billions of dollars earmarked for Obamacare and send them directly to Americans.

“So here we are on a Saturday… beautiful outside,” Graham mused as he opened his remarks on the Senate floor.

The Senate is working a rare Saturday session in an effort to bring about an end to the ongoing government shutdown, now in its 39th day, the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Graham, however, was apparently not pleased about the rare weekend work, but did voice full support for an unorthodox proposal floated by Trump earlier in the day.

On social media, Trump announced that he would be recommending Congress to sign off on a multibillion dollar payout directly to Americans, and to do so with funds earmarked for Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The ACA lies at the heart of the dispute that kicked off the government shutdown more than a month ago, with Democratic lawmakers refusing to back any spending bill that didn’t include an extension to ACA subsidies, which are set to expire this year and cause 4 million Americans to lose health insurance, and increase ACA premiums by 114% for millions.

Republicans have refused to support extending the subsidies, and on Saturday, a growing number of GOP lawmakers are now backing Trump’s alternative.

“Mr. President, in case you're listening out there, I think you've come up with a good idea – count me on board,” Graham continued. “To my colleagues on this side, this is a fight worth having; to my Democratic colleagues, let's open up the government, act like adults, and see if we can get this problem in a better spot.”

Graham is not the only lawmaker to back Trump’s proposal: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also voiced support for the idea on social media Saturday, writing that she “totally” agrees with the plan.

President Donald Trump issued a stern demand to Senate Republicans Saturday, telling them they “must blow up the filibuster,” while also insisting that Democratic lawmakers were “cracking like dogs” out of fear amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Trump has increasingly demanded that Senate Republicans eliminate the filibuster – a procedural Senate rule that allows a bill to be blocked if it receives less than 60 votes – as a way to advance his agenda, which includes passing legislation to eliminate “transgender for everybody” and institute more tax cuts.

“The Democrats are cracking like dogs on the Shutdown because they are deathly afraid that I am making progress with the Republicans on TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Whether we make a Deal or not, THE REPUBLICANS MUST ‘BLOW UP’ THE FILIBUSTER, AND APPROVE HUNDREDS OF LONG SOUGHT, BUT NEVER GOTTEN, POLICY WINS LIKE, AS JUST A SMALL EXAMPLE, VOTER ID (IDENTIFICATION). Only a LOSER would not agree to doing this!”

Republicans, however, have remained skeptical at the idea, with some voicing fears that doing so could open the door for Democrats to advance their own policy agendas should they regain the majority in Congress.

Trump has managed to sway some Republican senators, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who recently told Raw Story that he was in support of anything Trump wanted. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has also backed Trump’s efforts, writing on social media this week that senators must “blow up the filibuster.”

A new bombshell report revealing new details about Jeffrey Epstein and his international influence has led one MAGA lawmaker to suggest the House may remain in recess through 2026 to avoid drawing more attention to the revelations.

According to a report Friday from Drop Site News, Epstein had helped broker a defense agreement between the West African nation Côte d'Ivoire and Israel, a revelation uncovered from recently leaked emails of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

“This might keep the House out of session throughout next year,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in a social media post on X Saturday, referencing Drop Site News’ reporting.

The House has been in recess since September 19 after members passed a funding bill that the Senate has failed to pass, largely due to disagreements on health care policy.

While House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has the ability to reconvene the House at any moment – even amid the ongoing government shutdown – he has refused to, with some critics arguing his hesitancy stems from wanting to avoid a vote on an Epstein-related piece of legislation.

That legislation is a discharge petition filed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), which, if approved, would compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Epstein. The petition requires 218 signatures to force a vote in the House, and thus far has received 217. An Arizona Democrat that was elected to Congress last September has pledged to sign the petition, but has not been sworn in by Johnson, who now faces a lawsuit over the delay.

Drop Site News has also previously reported that Epstein helped broker a security cooperation agreement between Mongolia and Israel, as well as helped establish a backchannel for Israel to communicate with Russia amid the Syrian Civil War.

Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, and was well-known for his close ties with powerful figures, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and a slew of entrepreneurs and celebrities, including Woody Allen and Bill Gates.

A significant number of President Donald Trump’s supporters may have reached their “breaking point” as costs continue to climb, according to a new poll from Politico published Saturday.

The poll found that the “typical” Trump supporter would be willing to pay $65 more per month in taxes if it meant supporting the president’s agenda. After the Democratic sweep in this week’s elections, however, Politico’s Jessica Piper argued that Trump’s policies – which some critics have blamed for the rising costs of goods and energy – had officially gone too far for Trump voters.

“The POLITICO Poll results are a reminder that — while many of Trump’s supporters have a reputation for intense loyalty — they also have a breaking point,” Piper wrote. “And Tuesday’s election results suggest that despite Republican voters’ willingness to pay a literal price for Trump’s policies, the Trump agenda to date may have pushed voters too far.”

Trump’s tariff policy in particular has seen the cost of goods soar, with Americans bearing the cost of the tariffs by as much as 55%, NBC News reported. Energy prices have also soared, increasing twice as fast as inflation since the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to the Trump administration’s war on clean energy, and in spite of Trump’s pledge to slash energy prices “by half within 12 months.”

The Democratic candidates that clenched victory this week all ran on the issue of affordability, signaling an appetite among voters for politicians pledging to lower cost-of-living expenses. The messaging proved so successful that Trump himself has launched a new push to target affordability, while decrying Democrats’ attempts to advocate for affordability a “con job.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) announced Friday that he had officially petitioned the Justice Department to open a criminal probe in the anti-war activist group Code Pink, and on Friday, was met with scorn from the organization’s co-founder and critics.

Cotton sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Friday officially asking that the DOJ investigate Code Pink for providing “material support to foreign terrorist organizations,” citing the group’s work with the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which itself is alleged to have ties to the leftist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization.

Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink, fired back at Cotton over his request to have the DOJ investigate her organization.

“Omg. You are such a nut case,” Benjamin wrote in a social media post on X Friday. “Did your AIPAC babysitter write the letter for you?”

Benjamin was making reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful political action committee that lobbies on behalf of a strong U.S.-Israeli relationship, and continued U.S. funding for Israel. She was also making reference to a past comment from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) who claimed that every Republican lawmaker had an “AIPAC babysitter” that wields enormous influence over them.

Cotton, who’s received more than $1.3 million from the pro-Israel lobby, has been a staunchly pro-Israel lawmaker, having supported legislation to criminalize boycotting Israel, condemned pro-Palestinian protests as “little Gazas,” and encouraged Israel to escalate its military siege on Gaza, saying “as far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza.”

In his letter, Cotton also argued that Code Pink may be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which mandates that individuals or groups publicly disclose that they work on behalf of foreign entities, citing the group’s funding from an American activist that allegedly has ties to China.

AIPAC has has drawn its own scrutiny related to FARA, with Massie having called for the lobbying group to register under the law as a foreign agent, which would force the organization to adhere to far stricter legal and compliance burdens, including required disclosures on communications with lawmakers and officials.

Benjamin’s response to Cotton’s announcement was not the only attack he received over the announcement.

“God you guys are so pathetic,” wrote Jenin Younes, the national legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, in a social media post on X Saturday. “Code pink is an antiwar organization, and its founder, Medea Benjamin, is Jewish. We should investigate you for treason for terrorizing Americans at the behest of a foreign country.”

Another X user, “Terig,” who describes themselves as a “human rights activist,” blasted Cotton for what they argued was an attempt to infringe on Code Pink’s First Amendment right.

“Maybe the Senate should reread the First Amendment,” they wrote. “Speaking for peace isn’t treason, it’s a constitutional right. Not everyone who criticizes war is ‘Chinese’ or antisemitic. Dissent is democracy, not disloyalty.”

An Arizona Democrat who was elected to Congress in September but still hasn’t been sworn into office is gaining new support from Republican lawmakers as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces growing scrutiny over an alleged attempt to block the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.

“We're all hoping that Speaker Johnson is going to read the tea leaves and get to work, swear me in so we don't have to go seek judicial support in him doing his job, but that's where we are,” Adelita Grijalva, who won her election on Sept. 23 and has since launched a lawsuit to force her swearing in, told MSNBC Saturday.

Grijalva and others have accused Johnson of delaying her swearing in to avoid the passage of a discharge petition that would compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The petition, which currently has 217 signatures, needs 218 signatures to force the House to vote on the matter — and Grijalva has pledged to sign it.

Grijalva told MSNBC’s “The Weekend” that a growing number of Republican lawmakers have joined her cause, however, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who told CNN recently that Grijalva “should be sworn in.”

“If I were Republican, I would have been sworn in already – I think everybody knows that,” Grijalva said. “And we've had several Republicans come out and say, 'it's crazy, she should have been sworn in a long time ago.'”

Johnson has said that he would swear Grijalva into office once the government re-opens. However, the House has held several meetings amid the ongoing shutdown – known as “pro forma sessions” – in which Grijalva could have been sworn in, she argued.

“There have been over 10 [House] pro forma sessions that I could have easily been sworn in,” she said. “Speaker Johnson painted himself into a corner with saying [he] won't swear [me] in until [the government] re-opens, [and now] I'm stuck in this box that he created.”

On her legal case against Johnson, Grijalva said that a judge was recently assigned to the case, and that the lawsuit may be expedited as early as next week. Asked whether she had any confidence that Johnson would even adhere to a court order should a judge rule in her favor, Grijalva said that she didn’t.

“I think that he'll dig his heels in,” she said. “But let's be real, this administration, it doesn't really matter what court decisions come down, what the rule of law is, they get to make their own decisions, that's sort of what their [modus operandi] has been, and so it is very frustrating.”

President Donald Trump made a stunning announcement Saturday in recommending that Congress sign off on a multibillion dollar payout directly to Americans as an alternative to funding government health care subsidies that have divided lawmakers amid the ongoing government shutdown.

“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

Now on its 39th day, the government shutdown was sparked over disagreements over whether or not to fund an extension for Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026, resulting in an estimated 4 million people losing health insurance and premiums increasing by 114% for Obamacare enrollees.

The shutdown has resulted in a lapse in food assistance payments for 42 million Americans, including 16 million children, and significant disruptions to air travel as air traffic controllers continue to work without pay, among other things.

And, while some experts have anticipated Trump caving to Democrats’ demands out of fear of political backlash, Trump’s new proposal would see Obamacare gutted entirely, and instead, send the hundreds of billions of dollars directly to Americans.

“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” Trump wrote. “Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!”

Political strategist and policy advisor Basil Smikle made a bold prediction Saturday that President Donald Trump will end up caving to Democrats in the ongoing government shutdown fight as it stretched into its 39th day.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) have reportedly been opposed to Trump meeting with Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to discuss a pathway to re-opening the government, with the shutdown having been sparked over disagreements on health care policy.

“One of the reasons why Thune and Johnson didn't want the president – still doesn't want the president to meet with Jeffries and Schumer is because they're afraid that Trump will make a deal with Schumer and Jeffries on the Obamacare subsidies,” said MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart Saturday.

“Do you think that next week, we're going to see the president get involved and make a deal with those two?”

Smikle said that he believed it was “more likely than not” that Trump would end up caving to Democrats’ demands, and largely due to the political blowback he and his party may receive from millions of Americans losing health care coverage and having premiums more than double.

“I think it's more likely than not at this point because [Trump] can sense the tide turning,” Smikle said. “Everything that Republicans have tried to do, they didn't think Democrats would last this long, and they have.”

The dispute centers around funding for Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Democrats have refused to back any funding measure that doesn’t include an extension of the subsidies, which, if allowed to expire, would see nearly 4 million Americans lose health insurance and premiums for Obamacare enrollees increase by 114%.

Smikle also predicted that Democrats would hold strong in refusing to re-open the government without securing funding for the subsidies to be extended, arguing that if Democrats voted to re-open the government without getting the subsidies extended, they could face their own political backlash.

“If the Democrats make any deal, if they can't go back to the voter and say 'we brought your prices down,' that's a problem,” he said.

Convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell gushed over her special privileges in prison recently in a series of letters to her family and attorney, NBC News reported Saturday.

“I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderlands looking glass,” Ghislaine wrote to her relative in a letter dated Aug. 8. “I am much much happier here and more importantly safe. So yes everyone can breath a sigh.”

The letters were obtained by NBC News from the House Judiciary Committee, which has launched multiple probes files related to Epstein. Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, and is alleged to have run a blackmail operation targeting powerful figures, including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton.

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in procuring sex-trafficking victims for Epstein, and was initially serving her sentence in a maximum-security prison in Florida. Shortly after reporting revealed new details about Trump’s relationship with Epstein, however, Maxwell was quietly transferred to a minimum-security prison in Texas, a transfer that ran afoul of Justice Department policy as it relates to sex offenders.

And yet, even as Maxwell enjoys the cushier conditions at the low-security prison, she’s been entitled to special privileges not afforded to other inmates, something Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) described as “VIP treatment.”

“They are even delivering her meals to her and NO inmates is allowed to prepare her meals,” wrote one inmate at the Texas prison, according to emails obtained by NBC News.

Maxwell has also received special treatment as it pertains to the Supreme Court case where justices weighed in on her petition to be released, a petition that the justices ultimately threw out. In a letter to her attorney, Maxwell said that the prison warden had worked in tandem with her legal council to expedite filings on her behalf for the Supreme Court, special treatment that one criminal defense attorney described as highly unusual.

“That’s a rare occurrence,” said Patrick McLain, a criminal defense attorney who’s represented women at the Texas prison, speaking with NBC News. “It would be like the head of a large corporation of a manufacturing plant regularly having contact with people on the assembly line.”

In response to Maxwell’s mail being published, her attorney, David Oscar Markus, lashed out at outlets for their coverage.

“That’s tabloid behavior, not responsible reporting,” Markus said in a statement, NBC News reported. “Anyone still interested in that kind of gossip reveals far more about themselves than about Ghislaine. It’s time to get over the fact that she is in a safer facility. We should want that for everyone.”

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ripped into Republicans this week for seemingly turning a blind eye to a controversial pardon signed off on by President Donald Trump that critics have labeled as blatant “corruption.”

Last month, Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, a Trump ally and cryptocurrency billionaire who was convicted of having facilitated billions of dollars’ worth of transactions tied to child-sex-abuse material and drug trafficking. The 21st-richest person on earth, Zhao had also helped enrich the Trump family by more than $1 billion.

During an interview on “60 Minutes” earlier this week, Trump claimed to not know who Zhao was, something that Scarborough struggled to comprehend in his show.

“If I understand, the [Trump] family got a $2 billion investment from this guy, is that correct?” Scarborough said. “And this guy undermined American national security by helping terrorist groups like Hamas move terrorist money around, is that what the president is saying, [that] he had no idea he was pardoning a guy that was helping Hamas move terrorist money around?”

Jonathan Lemire, MSNBC correspondent and political commentator, affirmed Scarborough’s reading of the situation, claiming “everything” Scarborough said “is right.”

“Yeah, the autopen strikes again, I guess!” Lemire said. “It's either he doesn't know – which is preposterous – or, of course, he does know, and he simply thinks that denying it on national television is a better look for him.”

Scarborough went on to criticize Republican lawmakers for their past fixation on the son of former President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and his alleged involvement in corruption scandals, such as the White House’s auctions of his paintings.

“Here we have the same people that melted down for years over that [but are] cool about Qatari jets, $2 billion in cryptocurrency, Trump meme coins... the things that they freaked out, melted down [over] and investigated are 1/1,000, if that, of [Trump’s controversial decisions],” Scarborough said.

“South Park wouldn't even touch this because it would be such a stupid, stupid parody of what actually the Republican Party has become!”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy demonstrated Friday that he either was unaware of the highly-publicized demands of Democratic lawmakers amid the ongoing government shutdown, or feigned ignorance about the matter during a Fox News appearance.

Having reached its 38th day on Friday, the ongoing government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. It began on Oct. 1 after Democrats refused to support a spending bill that did not include an extension of government subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

Despite Democrats’ demands in the shutdown fight being widely publicized for well over a month, Duffy said Friday that he was unaware what the fight was about.

“What are we fighting over? What is the issue that Democrats want addressed?” Duffy said. “It'd be one thing if we knew that, that would be fine, but I don't know what the fight is over! And the American people are being used as leverage.”

Duffy’s complaints come as his agency slashed air traffic by 10% on Thursday to relieve pressure from understaffing, with at least 35 air traffic control sites facing severe shortages due to air traffic controllers having gone without pay since mid-October. He warned last weekend that flight delays and disruptions would worsen significantly should the government not reopen soon.

Duffy took his complaints to Fox News, but in doing so, continued to insist he had no idea what the dispute among lawmakers was even about.

“I think it's unfair that the American traveler is being held hostage and used as leverage for a fight that I can't figure out what it's about!” Duffy continued.

Democrats have made clear what their demands were since well before the shutdown commenced on Oct. 1, citing concerns about rising health insurance costs for millions of Americans should ACA subsidies not be extended.

Fox Business’ Stuart Varney sounded the alarm Friday as markets fell again, warning of mounting fears over sky-high valuations of artificial intelligence companies, which some critics have described as a “bubble” that could burst at any moment and rattle the U.S. economy.

“I want to check futures this Friday morning: where are we going? Heading south!” Varney said. “[Dow Jones Industrial Average] is off 150, NASDAQ [Composite] is down 150 points.”

The stock market slid for the second consecutive day Friday amid concerns over mass layoffs and AI, heading for what CNBC described as a “big weekly loss.”

Much of that concern is over AI companies spending billions of dollars towards research and development with no clear path to profitability, with OpenAI in particular raising alarm after recent comments from its CEO about the federal government being the “insurer of last resort,” hinting that taxpayers may be forced to bail AI companies out should they collapse financially.

“That drop on the NASDAQ, down 450 yesterday, down again today, that's got everybody worried about the air beginning to come out of the AI bubble,” Varney said.

However, Varney’s guest, portfolio manager Adam Johnson, tried to quell Varney’s fears.

“We are not in a bubble!” Johnson said. “To be perfectly clear, the S&P is trading at 23 times, NASDAQ trading at about 32 times. For context, in previous bubbles like in 2000 and 2009, those multiples went as high as 80 times Stuart, so we're nowhere near bubble territory.”