Good morning. I’m Thom Hartmann.
Republican senators are warning the fallout from Trump re-igniting the Iran war could sink Trump’s agenda in Congress. CBS News’ hapless leadership turned its Fourth of July special into a three-hour embarrassment. Susan Collins’ entire re-election strategy just fell apart after Graham Platner dropped out of the race. And Congress’ Epstein investigation is about to hit its one-year mark with no end in sight, as more names keep surfacing with every deposition.
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Republicans Say Trump’s Agenda in ‘Big Trouble’ After He Relaunches Iran War
This summer, Donald Trump spent weeks trying to keep Senate Republicans in line as the Iran war dragged on. He barely managed to quiet growing defections during a tense meeting with Republican senators just before the July 4th recess.
But on Wednesday, Trump suddenly declared the tenuous ceasefire dead. Hours later, U.S. Central Command announced new strikes on Iran were already underway.
That single decision blew up months of careful planning by Republicans. GOP leadership hoped to pass the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act next week, along with $67.1 billion in new Pentagon spending. Now both of those bills are in serious jeopardy.
Democrats are already united against funneling billions into a war Congress never authorized. Even some Republicans are getting nervous. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri consistently voted against Iran war powers resolutions, saying Trump should get a chance to strike a peace deal. But Hawley and others also want the war to end, as it’s rapidly driven up gas prices for their constituents since February.
One Republican senator candidly told The Hill the emergency Pentagon package is “in big trouble.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota would prefer to pass the defense spending bill through regular appropriations instead of through the messy budget reconciliation process. But that plan is in limbo given that Mitch McConnell, who chairs the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, is still in the hospital. He’s been there since June 14th, and almost no one knows his diagnosis or whether he’s even capable of coming back to the Senate anytime soon.
Additionally, the war remains deeply unpopular. A recent Financial Times and Focaldata survey found only 31 percent of respondents think the conflict has made the country stronger, with only 36 percent of those surveyed approving of Trump’s performance as president.
This fight will likely dominate Capitol Hill through the midterms, dividing Republicans while uniting Democrats. And Americans on both sides have repeatedly said they’re against waging more wars overseas. They want our tax dollars spent here at home.
Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution gives Congress alone the power to declare war, and the founders wrote it that way because they’d watched kings bleed whole nations dry on a whim. When a president can restart a war on a Wednesday afternoon and then dare Congress to pay for it, we’re not living under that Constitution anymore.
CBS Insiders Say Bari Weiss Turned the Network’s July 4 Special Into a Trainwreck
CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil didn’t have the best holiday weekend. His three-hour primetime special from the National Mall, which the network dubbed “The Great American Block Party 250,” fell apart after a thunderstorm forced an evacuation of the Mall and delayed Trump’s speech.
Dokoupil ended up off the air for a third of the broadcast. Network insiders say he and co-anchor Nischelle Turner stood in the rain for an hour waiting for word from CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. One CBS employee called it “amateur hour” in comments to the New York Post.
While Dokoupil and Turner waited out the storm, backup anchor Kelly O’Grady ran the show from the network’s Washington studio, as meteorologist Rob Marciano chimed in with occasional weather updates from New York.
By the time Dokoupil and Turner gave up on the Mall and joined O’Grady in the studio, almost two hours of the special had already aired without them.
Staffers were reportedly mortified at how the debacle unfolded. Nearly 100 people worked long hours on getting the broadcast together. CBS executives nonetheless sent out a congratulatory email afterward celebrating the broadcast. One insider told the New York Post “it would have been better if they said nothing,” and noted that everyone else in the newsroom already knew the broadcast was a total fiasco.
The Post’s sources attributed the failed broadcast to CBS leadership, from Dokoupil’s own executive producer all the way to Bari Weiss. One network employee called the CBS newsroom a “rudderless ship.”
The special quietly disappeared from Paramount+ and CBS’ streaming platforms shortly after. A network spokesperson dismissed it as a licensing issue. But this wasn’t the only stumble over the weekend. The day before the July 4 episode, the show mistakenly aired an image of Kanye West instead of Sean “Diddy” Combs during a segment on a potential presidential pardon. The mix-up was scrubbed from later broadcasts, but CBS insiders called it a symptom of inexperienced newsroom leadership in way over their heads.
Edward R. Murrow stood on a stage in Chicago in 1958 and warned his own industry that television would end up as nothing more than wires and lights in a box if the people running it lost their nerve. He said it at CBS, about CBS, and nearly seventy years later the network that made him is proving his point in prime time.
Susan Collins’ Entire Reelection Strategy Just Fell Apart
Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins’ re-election plans just collapsed overnight.
Her campaign has planned on having Democrat Graham Platner as their general election opponent in November. Platner had plenty of baggage Collins’ campaign could pick apart, and the senator’s opposition research team had spent months working on their attack plan, hoping Platner’s scandals would dominate election coverage and let Collins easily coast to a sixth term.
But Platner just suspended his campaign following allegations of sexual assault, which he denies. And just like that, Collins’ entire strategy went belly-up.
Without a deeply flawed opponent to run against, the race snaps back to the issue Collins has so far avoided: she’s a Republican running in a state that’s sick of Trump and consistently votes for Democrats in almost every other race.
One GOP operative confided to Politico that Collins hoped to skate on her Trump problem by leaning into Platner’s baggage. Now she’s going to face an entirely Democrat, most likely one with a clean record.
Platner’s internal polling reveals just how much Collins needed him to stay in the race. He was apparently trailing her according to numbers from his own campaign. But three other Democrats who lost last month’s gubernatorial primary were either tied with Collins or ahead of her. Logger and former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson was one of those candidates, but he’s now one of the leading candidates to replace Platner on the ballot.
Now, Collins has to rebuild an entire opposition research file from scratch, while Trump continues to be an albatross around the neck of Republican candidates across the nation.
Collins told the country in 2018 that Brett Kavanaugh understood Roe to be settled law, and four years later he joined the majority in Dobbs that erased it. She’s had eight years to answer for that vote, and the only strategy she had left was hoping Maine would be too busy looking at somebody else.
Trump’s Epstein Problem Getting Worse with No End in Sight
The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation is about to turn one year old, and there’s still no finish line in sight.
Democrats on the committee are making clear their work has only just begun. Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico called it the Trump administration’s Watergate, and she intends for every person connected to Epstein to testify under oath.
Republicans, including Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, are admitting the American public will never feel fully satisfied no matter what the committee’s final report reads. Comer had hoped to finish depositions by August. But nearly every interview produces another name that could reveal more information.
So far, more than a dozen people have testified before the committee. No testimonies have led directly to new criminal charges. But the list of powerful people forced to answer questions is impressive: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, billionaire investor Leon Black and tech mogul Bill Gates are some of the biggest names. Both Black and Gates admitted they knew about Epstein’s criminal past while continuing to maintain a relationship with him.
Former Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen also gave Congress two new names tied to potential misconduct. Both men have denied any wrongdoing. Leon Black was hit with fresh subpoenas mid-interview, forcing him back before the committee.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi also revealed just how disorganized the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files really was. Her former deputy, Todd Blanche oversaw the release, and he’ll likely get hit with tough questions about the Epstein files during his Senate confirmation hearing next week.
Representative Robert Garcia of California, who would chair the Oversight Committee if Democrats retake the House in November, noted the Epstein investigation already forced former President Bill Clinton himself to testify under oath, and that this could open the door to Trump himself eventually being called before the committee.
Not everyone believes this process is helpful. Outgoing Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky called the whole thing a diversion, and maintains that real accountability should come from actual DOJ prosecutions, rather than more hearings. Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee compared the committee’s pace to that of glaciers, and said he’s not optimistic there’s a satisfying ending waiting at the end of the investigation.
In 1912 a House committee hauled J.P. Morgan into a hearing room and made the most powerful banker in America answer questions under oath, and not one prosecution ever came of it. What came of it was the Federal Reserve Act a year later, because once the country got a look at how the money moved, it couldn’t unsee it.
That’s your Thursday morning rundown. Trump blew up his own ceasefire and left Congress scrambling to fund a war it never approved. CBS’ leadership bungled a national broadcast and patted themselves on the back. Susan Collins now has to defend her own record again after her scandal-plagued opponent pulled out of the race. And America’s richest and most powerful men are now having to answer for their relationship to the world’s most notorious child sex trafficker.
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Here are a few stories you may have missed:
Maine Democrats Reveal Process to Select Platner’s Replacement. After Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner dropped out of the race in the wake of sexual assault allegations (which he denies), more than 100 Maine Democrats have voted to hold a nominating convention in which a new nominee will be chosen by party leaders and volunteers. Potential candidates include former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and two-term Maine Governor Janet Mills, who previously dropped out of the Democratic primary.
Republican Congressman Says He Doesn’t Know if Mitch McConnell Is Alive. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) recently told reporters that he’s unsure whether former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is still breathing, and says more Republicans should be asking questions about McConnell’s health since his June 14 hospitalization. Stutzman added that McConnell’s constituents in Kentucky deserve answers about the status of their senior U.S. senator. Gov. Andy Beshear (D) has also called for McConnell’s staff to be transparent about the 84 year-old senator’s health.
French National Team Used ICE Deportation Jets for World Cup Travel. France’s national men’s soccer team reportedly used Global Crossing Airlines for at least three flights when traveling for World Cup matches. That same airline was chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than half of deportation flights between 2024 and 2025. France star Kylian Mbappé is one of the most outspoken professional athletes, and consistently opposes far-right politicians.
Family of Houston Man Killed by ICE Demands Answers. This week, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three who had no criminal record. Prior to him being shot, Salgado Araujo — who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years — was picking up workers on his way to his construction job. His son, Ronaldo Salgado, is demanding a full investigation into his father’s death. The Department of Homeland Security maintains Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” against agents, which was the same explanation the agency gave for the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this year.
