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The White House blocked Politico from Air Force One on Monday, and no other outlet would take its seat. The family of an Epstein victim appeared in a new campaign ad slamming their Republican congressman for refusing to meet with them. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis calls his vote to confirm Pete Hegseth the “biggest regret of my career.” And commercial fishermen who voted for Trump three times say diesel prices are so high they can’t afford to leave the dock.
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His rallies have been half-empty for weeks now, so at least the plane finally matches.
The White House denied Politico access to Air Force One Monday, the day the news organization was to serve as the lead print pool reporter for Trump’s trip to Nebraska. Every other outlet the White House asked to take Politico’s seat declined.
The Washington Post was already on the trip in a secondary print seat, and CBS was the television pool rep. Both organizations provided updates to the wider press corps during the trip, but stressed they were not replacing Politico.
The move is the latest in a fight that started September 18, when Trump announced he was banning Politico, CNN, and MS NOW from the White House. The three outlets took the administration to court, and Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a temporary restraining order requiring the administration to reinstate the journalists’ press badges.
Since then, the White House has repeatedly blocked CNN from traveling on Air Force One on days when it was CNN’s turn to serve as the television pool representative. Monday was the first time Politico was barred from the print pool in the same way.
A White House spokesperson told CNN on Monday that “traveling with the President of the United States aboard Air Force One is a privilege not a right.” It’s quite literally the first right in our Constitution.
Jeff Crank is for releasing the files the way your uncle is for quitting smoking
On Monday, Democrats released a campaign ad featuring the brother and sister-in-law of Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. The two blasted their congressman, Colorado Republican Jeff Crank, for not meeting with them and voting to keep the Epstein files sealed.
In the ad, Sky Roberts says his sister “spent her life trying to expose the truth.” Amanda Roberts then adds: “But our own congressman Jeff Crank refused to meet with us. Then, when he had the chance to expose the truth and release the Epstein files, he repeatedly voted to cover them up.”
Crank initially voted against releasing the files, and only backed the Epstein Files Transparency Act after Republican leadership endorsed it. In a statement at the time, Crank still claimed he has “consistently supported transparency and accountability regarding the business dealings, investigation, and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.”
Giuffre was among the first to publicly accuse Epstein of sex trafficking. Her lawsuit against disgraced former British royal Andrew Windsor helped bring international attention to the case.
Giuffre died in April 2025 at 41 at her home in Western Australia, in what her family called a suicide. In 2020, she had posted on Twitter that she was “in no way, shape or form” suicidal, and that if something happened to her, “do not let it go away.”
Thom Tillis has a lot of regrets, all of which he saved for the book tour.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said in a new book that the “biggest regret of my career” was voting to confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. He also wrote that he “should’ve stopped” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary.
Tillis wrote he can name at least 30 Republican colleagues who have “expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president’s actions in private.” But when reporters arrive with cameras and microphones, those same senators have nothing but positive things to say.
Tillis cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth on January 24, 2025, despite what he now admits were serious doubts about allegations of violence against women and excessive drinking. The vote brought the total to 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance broke the tie.
On Kennedy, Tillis wrote that he also has to live with his vote “and all the havoc Kennedy’s tenure has caused the country as a result.”
The book, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents, comes out Tuesday. Tillis announced last year that he would not run for reelection, joining the long tradition of Republican senators who find their conscience only after they need a book deal more than they need voters.
He took the bait three times and now he can’t afford to go fishing.
John Evich, a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska, has voted for Trump three times because he thought he would fight for his industry. These days, he can’t afford the diesel to leave the dock.
Diesel has soared to over $6 per gallon, up from less than $4 a gallon a year ago, driven almost entirely by Trump’s war with Iran. The U.S. commercial fishing fleet is almost entirely powered by marine diesel, and the price hike has been so severe that some fishermen are losing more money on gas than they’d make actually fishing.
The industry has also been affected by Trump’s cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA Fisheries, the agency’s office that manages commercial fishing, is facing a budget cut of more than 40% in the proposed fiscal 2027 budget.
Dissatisfaction among fishermen could create problems for Republicans in competitive races in Washington, Alaska, and Maine. Evich now says, “If somebody came along that was going to do a better job, I would vote for them in a heartbeat.”
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Trump Backtracks and Begs Republicans to Vote by Mail as Democratic Odds Improve. On Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social urging his supporters to use every available method to vote in the midterms, including mail, absentee and early voting. This is the same president who signed an executive order attempting to ban mail-in ballots and attempted to give the Postal Service authority to reject them. Last month, the Supreme Court blocked that effort, and the administration conceded in court that it had no evidence that mail voting fraud was even a problem. Trump also attempted to require passports to register to vote, which a federal court struck down, and he threw out the remaining commissioners on the Election Assistance Commission. This reversal comes as polls show the Democrats’ chances of taking both the House and Senate are improving.
** Senate Democrats Will Block Any Trump SCOTUS Pick if They Win the Majority.** Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told NBC News that one of the leading reasons Democrats want to retake the Senate is to stop Trump from filling the courts with ideological allies. The pledge comes days after Justice Samuel Alito said he thought about retiring this year and will consider the decision again in 2027, raising the prospect of a fourth Trump appointment. Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego was blunt about how Democrats should respond, saying the party needs to do exactly what Mitch McConnell did when he refused to hold a hearing for more than a year on Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono chuckled when asked if Democrats would entertain a Trump nomination, instead suggesting limiting each president to two nominations.
** States Are Buying Up Medical Debt for Pennies on the Dollar and Forgiving It.** A nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt is teaming up with state governments to purchase bundles of medical debt for about a penny on the dollar and then forgiving it. Last month, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky announced the state would spend $2.5 million to eliminate medical debt for 130,000 people, and Gov. Katie Hobbs of Arizona committed $10 million in unspent pandemic relief money to do so. Brittany Gurney, a mother from Mesa, Arizona, whose 14-month-old son had nine surgeries to correct a bowel obstruction in 2020, went years unable to pay her $15,000 hospital bill. Earlier this year, she got a letter telling her the debt had been forgiven, but didn’t believe it was real until the nonprofit confirmed it.
Virginia Begins Automatically Sealing Old Criminal Records Under Clean Slate Law. Virginia began automatically sealing some older criminal records this month under its new Clean Slate law. Getting a record sealed used to require hiring a lawyer and petitioning a court, which made it unattainable for most people until now. The new law puts that burden on the state. The Virginia State Police now review the records each month and forward eligible cases to the courts without anyone having to file anything. The process covers dismissed cases and minor misdemeanor convictions that are at least seven years old. An estimated 415,000 Virginians will qualify. According to research cited by the Clean Slate Initiative, people who have their records sealed experience average wage gains of about 23% within a year.