The reverend's run  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Good Friday morning.  We're kicking off today with some nastygrams you won't want to miss.  Read on, and get in touch.  —  FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) lashed out in private texts …

US adds disappointing 29,000 jobs and unemployment ticks up to 4.2% in September  —  U.S. employers added a disappointing 29,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked up last month, the government reported Friday, a month before voters go to the polls in pivotal midterm elections …

Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing  —  Rufo often gets treated as a “respectable” conservative.  His latest podcast episode — framing Indian-Americans as a problem in need of solving — is more evidence that he shouldn't be.

Who was behind a $250K mystery donation to super PAC backing Ken Paxton?  —  Last year, a super PAC supporting Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton received a $250,000 donation from a man calling himself “Paul McLaren,” a supposed “entrepreneur” living in Plano, Texas.

Trump Tourism Effects  —  In the past day or two on social media I kept seeing this graph from a Semafor story on the declining volume of international visitors to the United States.  —  It seems to show, and was being remarked on as showing, that the second Trump administration …

Hochul Names Letitia James as Special Prosecutor in Cornell Case  —  Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the New York State attorney general to investigate allegations by a former Cornell University student that several men sexually assaulted her.  —  Gov. Kathy Hochul has named Letitia James …

How The GOP's Signature Law Is Fueling One Of Its Biggest Political Problems  —  Republicans are scrambling to deal with a data center boom they cheered on not long ago.  —  WASHINGTON — When Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, they knew Democrats would hit …

JD Vance Says Black, Socialist Candidate for Senate Doesn't ‘Belong in America’  —  A New Chapter in Vance's Effort to Police Who's American  —  JD Vance visited Florida yesterday, stumping for candidates in races that for a few cycles have been safely red.

Top GOP group pauses Senate spending in N.C., goes up in Kansas  —  Senate Republicans' top super PAC is making a tactical change, pausing its ad campaign in North Carolina's Senate race and launching a new one in Kansas.  —  Senate Leadership Fund is plowing seven figures into Kansas …

White House Officials Told the DOJ to Delay Action on Abortion Ahead of the Midterms  —  The White House has instructed the Justice Department to move slowly on any abortion-related actions ahead of the midterm elections, The Washington Sun has learned.  —  In a series of discussions …

“Strange bedfellows”: Bernie Sanders, Florida Dems and a benchmark $250k donation … It's a relative pittance in the Sunshine State — but the check signals a big political shift. … But political changes and financial need have brought the two together like never before:

Friday (10/2) News Roundup: Trump “Is Not Well”; Russ Vought, “Shadow President”; Hegseth Needs to Be Impeached ASAP  —  DOJ “Trying to Recast Richard Nixon as the Victim of Watergate”; National outrage over Cornell rape case, barbaric botched execution  —  Here are a few international …

A “Who You Gonna Believe?”  Election  —  If you're arguing, you're losing.  Trump is arguing.  —  They're still doing it!  Click on any White House press release and the image above pops up.  The tone-deafness is almost surreal.  Even if you're a Trump loyalist who really believes …

MLB drops proposal to host a baseball game at Grand Teton National Park  —  After The Washington Post reported on the proposal, local leaders sent letters to the Trump administration and the MLB commissioner expressing strong opposition.  —  SummaryLoading...

The mendaciousness of the latest DOJ attack on judges  —  Ahead of PN's 5th anniversary next week, we're offering paid subscriptions at the special yearly rate of $40 (or about 16¢ per edition).  This newsletter is only possible thanks to the support of paid subscribers.

Who's calling for the Trump administration to send federal agents to polling places?  —  Right-wing media personalities have pushed for the Trump administration to send federal agents and the military to polling places and interfere with vote counting, but voting rights groups are pushing back

MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson sued for defamation over ICE ride-along videos calling protesters ‘terrorists’  —  Johnson accompanied top DHS officials last year to an ICE protest, where he pointed out “left-wing terrorists” for his millions of followers across social media.

Here's Who Democrats Want to Impeach Next  —  As Democrats have grown more hopeful that they might win control of the U.S. Senate, congressional investigators have gathered regularly in a conference room in the office of Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, who is on track to lead the body's key oversight committee if they do.

Not To Alarm You, But Trump's Brain Is Melted  —  Just how bad has Donald Trump's leadership been for the Kennedy Center's financial health?  CNN reports that, after Trump slapped his name on the building late last year, donation pledges plunged more than 100 percent compared to the previous three-month period.

Democrats push for a bigger majority that would alleviate headaches for Hakeem Jeffries  —  Democrats are making moves to try to secure a big enough House majority to sideline blocs of both progressive and moderate holdouts who could cause constant headaches for Hakeem Jeffries if he becomes speaker next year.

Vance talks 2028, Ted Cruz and a tough midterm climate that could factor into his future  —  In an interview with NBC News, Vance said he is cautiously optimistic that Republicans' numbers are improving even as concerns about the war and gas prices take a political toll.

Democrats Rake in $833 Million Through ActBlue Ahead of Midterms  —  The Democratic fundraising organization ActBlue raised $833 million for the party's candidates and causes in the third quarter, a record amount that will help narrow the financial advantage the GOP enjoys with big donors …

How Low Can Trump Go?  —  Donald Trump's job-approval numbers have steadily eroded throughout his second term as president.  Per the Silver Bulletin polling averages, he hit his highest second-term job-approval number of 52.4 on January 23, 2025, three days after his inauguration.

Big Oil and Gavin Newsom's perilous, winding road  —  Gavin Newsom swept into office as a Tesla-driving Democrat who rejected donations from the oil industry and touted his plans to end the “fossil fuel era.”  —  Once in power, he put the state on track to ban the sale of new gas cars …

Michael Lewis on the Lone Security Guard Who Resisted DOGE  —  In an exclusive excerpt from ‘Blockers,’ the inside story of the high-stakes D.C. standoff where security chief Colin O'Brien fought off DOGE operatives.  —  COLIN O'BRIEN was the chief security officer at the United States Institute of Peace.

How Local Police Get Paid Big Money for Just a Few Immigration Arrests  —  Department of Homeland Security gives local agencies as much as $2 million for each arrest in a nationwide task force  —  Doddridge County Sheriff Clinton Boring committed his department to work on behalf …

Democrats regain ground on voter registration in key states after steep post-2024 drops  —  An NBC News Decision Desk analysis of voter file data in seven states found that Democrats managed to reverse or slow their registration decline over the past year.  —  After having suffered massive …

Kennedy Center moves to sell all of its Steinway pianos  —  This story has been updated to include comments from Democracy Defenders, Mr. Lewis.  —  Photos show piano movers rolling massive Steinway grand pianos through the red-carpeted halls of the Kennedy Center this week …