What to know today
- TEXAS REDISTRICTING FIGHT: The Texas state House briefly reconvened this afternoon amid a nationally watched clash over the GOP majority’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional lines. Republican lawmakers voted to approve civil arrest warrants targeting the dozens of Democrats who fled the state, blocking Republicans from proceeding with their plan.
- E.U. TARIFFS: The European Union announced it will delay tariffs on U.S. goods by six months while both sides implement their trade agreement. The tariffs President Donald Trump placed on imports from countries around the world take effect this week.
- INDIA TARIFFS: Trump said on Truth Social this morning that he plans to increase tariffs on India because of its purchases of Russian oil.
- S.C. GOVERNOR'S RACE: GOP Rep. Nancy Mace announced a long-expected bid for governor of South Carolina, entering a crowded primary field.
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Sen. Elissa Slotkin says it's time for Democrats to play 'offense' against Trump
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a town hall tonight that Democrats need to come up with an "economic war plan" to counter Trump's agenda and "not just constantly play defense."
The event in Benton Harbor — Slotkin's only town hall of the August congressional recess — was held before a supportive crowd of seniors and largely focused on Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts, the economy and the future of the Democratic Party.
Slotkin warned that she was likely to oppose a government funding bill in September unless the legislation restored health benefits cut under Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law known as the Big, Beautiful Bill.
In an interview after the town hall, Slotkin said she thinks Democratic leaders are too old and out of touch.
Voters "want to see a new generation of leadership," she said, citing Zohran Mamdani's campaign as the Democratic nominee in the New York mayor's race.
"They don’t see themselves in, in elected leadership," Slotkin said of young voters. "And that’s why some of the youngest members of elected leadership get a ton of energy and enthusiasm around them, because it’s like, oh, that person understands my issues. You know that person doesn’t use a flip phone, that person is like up, understands technology and the changing economy."
Pam Bondi orders grand jury probe of Obama administration review of 2016 election
Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed Justice Department prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation of whether Obama administration officials committed federal crimes when they assessed Russia’s actions during the 2016 election, a senior Trump administration official said.
The move comes after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard claimed at a White House news conference last month that top Obama administration officials carried out a “treasonous conspiracy” against Trump. Gabbard said she was sending criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
A former senior Justice Department official condemned the move as “a dangerous political stunt.” And a former senior national security official pointed out that multiple past reviews, including ones conducted by Republicans, found no such crimes.
“There’s no logical, rational basis for this,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
Marjorie Taylor Greene urges Trump to commute George Santos' sentence
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said on social media tonight that she had sent a letter to the Justice Department urging Trump to commute the sentence of disgraced former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.
“I wholeheartedly believe in justice and the rule of the law, and I understand the gravity of such actions,” Greene wrote in a letter to the pardon attorney's office that she posted on X. “However, I believe a seven-year sentence for such campaign-related matters of an individual with no prior criminal record extends far beyond what is warranted.”
Asked in a Newsmax interview last week about a pardon, Trump said that Santos had "lied like hell" and that he was "100% for Trump." Trump said he had not been asked to pardon Santos.
Santos reported to prison last month to begin serving a seven-year sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to charges of wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering that prosecutors said were part of a yearslong scheme.
Santos was first elected to Congress in 2022, flipping a House seat, and was expelled in late 2023.
Nebraska Republican discusses firing of BLS chief at town hall
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., tonight discussed Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics just hours after the release of a jobs report that showed a slowdown in hiring.
Flood said he did not know the situation well and that “there’s always two sides to every story,” while noting he might have made a different decision than Trump.
“If all that person did was get the data out there, if all that, and I don’t know that’s the case, but if that’s all they did, I would not have fired her,” Flood said of now-former commissioner Erika McEntarfer.
Some Republican senators reacted to McEntarfer's dismissal Friday by saying they would oppose Trump's actions if she had overseen the release of accurate figures. The White House is now searching for a replacement.
White House searches for a new BLS chief with ‘credibility’ and ‘experience’
White House officials began the week scrambling to find a permanent replacement after Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, following a weaker-than-expected July jobs report and drastic downward revisions of employment for the prior two months.
Steve Bannon, a senior White House adviser in Trump’s first term who is influential with the MAGA wing of the GOP, is pushing hard for E.J. Antoni, the chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. Antoni, a contributor to the Project 2025 policy rubric, has been a longtime skeptic of BLS data. On Bannon’s podcast last week, Antoni called for McEntarfer to be fired shortly before Trump pulled the trigger.
In an interview with NBC News this afternoon, Antoni said he had not been contacted by anyone in the White House about the job. West Wing officials were “still running traps” on candidates for the Senate-confirmed position Monday, one White House aide said.
The White House did not return a request for comment on whether Antoni is under consideration.
Nebraska congressman asked about Epstein files at town hall
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., said he is in favor of releasing the Epstein files after being asked at a town hall about covering up their release.
“Let’s be very clear. At the next pro forma session of the Congress, you’ll find my name as a sponsor and a resolution from the House Rules Committee to release the Epstein files to protect the victims and not re-victimize them again,” Flood said.
Flood added that he supports Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the House Oversight Committee, issuing a subpoena to Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before Congress.
“I support Jamie Comer, who is the House’s Oversight Committee chairman, subpoenaing Ms. Maxwell later this month to come testify in Washington. I am for the release of those records,” Flood added.
Comer last week postponed Maxwell’s deposition until at least October to let the Supreme Court decide next month whether it will review her case. The deposition had been scheduled for Aug. 11 at a federal prison, not on Capitol Hill.
GOP Rep. Mike Flood booed at town hall in Nebraska
Audience members attending a town hall for Republican Rep. Mike Flood in Lincoln, Nebraska, tonight began booing and jeering Flood shortly after the event started.
Flood kicked off the town hall by talking about Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” focusing on health care implications for Nebraskans. When he told the crowd there is a work requirement to receive health care, many attendees booed him.
The crowd also chanted “tax the rich,” which Flood addressed. He argued that a Democratic plan to raise taxes on the high-income households would hurt businesses and employment. His response did little to quell backlash from audience members.
The Nebraska Democratic Party encouraged people to attend tonight’s event with Flood, who is no stranger to contentious town halls. He was grilled in May over his support for the House version of the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Trump administration bars trans women athletes from ‘extraordinary ability’ visas
The Department of Homeland Security will update visa policies to prevent transgender women from traveling to the United States to participate in elite women’s sporting events.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidance today intended to bar trans women athletes from obtaining “extraordinary ability” visas to compete in female sports, the conservative news website The Daily Wire first reported. The guidance builds on an executive order Trump issued during the early weeks of his second presidency that was intended to bar trans women from competing in female sports.
The guidance doesn’t use the word “transgender” or refer to trans women; rather, it refers to “male athletes” who seek to compete in women’s sports.
Matthew Tragesser, a spokesperson for USCIS, said in a statement that the agency is “closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women.”
India calls Trump's threat of new tariffs 'unjustified and unreasonable'
India responded to Trump’s announcement that he intends to raise tariffs on the country for purchasing oil from Russia, calling his move “unjustified and unreasonable.”
India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the United States and Europe have unjustly targeted the country for importing Russian oil, arguing that it did so only because traditional oil supplies were diverted to Europe after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The statement went on to blast Europe and the United States for continuing to trade with Russia.
“In this background, the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable. Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” the statement read.
Epstein victims blast Justice Department over lack of transparency
Two victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, ripped the federal government for appearing to be more concerned with protecting the financier's wealthy friends instead of them.
The government is “asking to release these transcripts, exhibits, etc., of which the victims are not privy to while they have concluded that there is nothing more to see on the files they hold. Yet no one has seen them, but them. I am beside myself,” said one victim, who sent a letter to the federal judge weighing the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury testimony in cases involving Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The victim, who was not named, said, “I am not sure the highest priority here is the victims, justice for the victims or combatting child exploitation, or at least I do not feel this way.”
“If there was justice for the victims we would see some kind of accountability for the years they allowed this horrible human being, if you can call him that, to prey on underage and young girls,” the victim said.
In a separate filing, a second Epstein victim wrote in a letter to the court and the U.S. government: “I am not some pawn in your political warfare. ... Why not be completely transparent? Show us all the files with only the necessary redactions! Be done with it and allow me/us to heal.”
The person called for victims' attorneys to be allowed to review any redactions.
The victim also slammed the Justice Department's recent questioning of Maxwell, who's serving a 20-year prison sentence. The government, the victim wrote, "did not and does not even care to know our truth. They would rather ask a convicted imprisoned sex trafficker/abuser for information.”
The Justice Department declined comment.
Trump ordered the Justice Department to seek the release of "pertinent" transcripts after a joint Justice Department/FBI memo released last month said that there was no evidence to charge other people and that no further information about the case would be released. The finding was met with furious backlash from Trump supporters, who had been assured there would be transparency in the case.
