Burgess Everett

“Out of an abundance of caution, I wanted to try to make sure we didn’t have a very expensive Senate race with one of those three possibly in it,” Daines said Tester responds: “I don’t believe that, as none of us were running. He f–ked his own party”

Exclusive: Daines says his stunning exit was designed to avoid ‘a very expensive’ race The Montana Republican sat down with Semafor to talk about the backstory behind his sudden, field-clearing retirement from Congress.

BACKSTORY: in interview Sen. Steve Daines says he closely worked with White House to coalesce behind Kurt Alme, avoid a primary and withdraw from race at last minute to block Democrats Tester, Bullock or Schweitzer from running. Alme didn’t even know White House was vetting him

Exclusive: Democrats face their own test on Trump’s Iran war A war powers vote is shining a light on how differently the opposition talks about the conflict.

How should Dems talk about the Iran war? Sen. Heinrich: "The more clearly you can say this seems like a really stupid f*cking idea. I think the more people will appreciate what you’re getting at.”

www.semafor.com/article/03/0...

@nicholaswu12.bsky.social

Senate blocks Kaine War Powers resolution on Iran, 47-53

Fetterman no, Rand Paul yes

The Senate War Powers Vote on Iran is falling almost completely down party lines except for Paul a yes and Fetterman a no. Past GOP supporters on these votes like Collins and Murkowski were nos

it's locked at 47-52 as the Senate waits on Cornyn to return from Texas

Bernie Sanders on Iran: “The war is unconstitutional. The war is illegal. My impression is that according to Mr. Rubio, this war was the fulfillment of a 40-year dream by Mr. Netanyahu to get the United States to support an attack on Iran. We have massive needs in this country"

Republican senators pray Trump pushes Paxton out of the Texas Senate race If the state attorney general faces Democrat James Talarico, it “becomes more expensive, and it’s at-risk,” the former NRSC chair said.

Hard to overstate how much Republican leaders want Trump to endorse Cornyn. Haven't seen anything like it before. They are legit worried Paxton could cost them

Daines: “I’ve chatted with some significant donors that have great pause getting behind Ken Paxton. These are strong Republicans.”

Sen. Schumer says results in Texas are a “step forward in our quest to win the Senate”

“Talarico is a great candidate, and we can win Texas. It's tough, but if anyone can do it, it's him”

Schumer had Texas as a TBD on his potential list of battleground states

"which is why the president could weigh in and it would be enormously helpful”
-Says Talarico beating Crockett is match-up that's "better for Democrats, but the matchup that's that's good for us is John Cornyn at the top ticket”

Senate Majority Leader Thune says he talked to Sen. Cornyn this morning about his race and that it was a "good night" for him leading Paxton

-He plans to "emphatically" make the case to President Trump for an endorsement
- says "not helpful" to have GOP primary while Dems picked nominated Talarico

YouTube video by Seth Bodnar Code

Senate map news: Seth Bodnar is launching a campaign against Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., as an independent.

youtube.com/watch?v=OGid...

Daines leads early polls over Bodnar in a state where Democrats once held both Senate seats

www.montanarightnow.com/elections/fi...

Republicans watch the clock on Trump’s Iran war While his party largely supports a conflict that polls show Americans are cool to, the more time passes, the worse it could get.

New: Republicans REALLY want the Iran war to be short. Many not want to have to vote on authorizing it in 60-90 days and are worried people will sour on it. Trump says it'll be over in 4-5 weeks but there's some skepticism. WH official says "we're not the Bushes"

www.semafor.com/article/03/0...

Senate will take its Iran War Powers vote tomorrow

War Powers resolution gives Trump admin 60 days to conduct operations in Iran (+ 30 days of withdrawal time) before triggering congressional authorization vote

Leader Thune: "I would certainly hope that that would be a sufficient amount of time to complete the mission"

At the moment we expect the briefers on Iran on Capitol tomorrow to include: Sec. Rubio, Sec. Hegseth, CIA head Ratcliffe and Gen. Caine

w @nicholaswu12

Graham Platner picks up second U.S. senator endorsement in crucial Maine race Platner faced early controversy over social media posts and a tattoo. His Democratic opponent, Gov. Janet Mills, has the support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York).

Gallego endorses Platner in Maine per Liz Goodwin

The split as of now ->

Platner: Gallego, Heinrich, Sanders
Mills: DSCC (Gillibrand/Schumer), Cortez Masto

www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Democrats see Iraq echoes in Trump’s Iran war The party that swept to power in Congress by campaigning against Middle East wars 20 years ago sounds confident that history will repeat itself.

Talked to Sen. Kim this afternoon about the Trump/Bush echoes on Iran as Dems try to build a 2006-style blue wave

He told me that voters will reject the Iran strikes and "want a focus on affordability. And they really have no tolerance for this type of action after what we saw in Iraq"

Trump sidelines Republican Congress on Iran strikes Democrats are calling for votes on war powers, but all signs point to the GOP going along with Trump’s latest foreign intervention.

GOP leaders essentially signed off on action in Iran this week, it's clear to Trump Congress won't block him. Congressional atrophy on war power continues unabated ...

www.semafor.com/article/02/2...

Dems now drawing clear parallels between Trump and Bush

Sen. Andy Kim: “Americans don’t want to go to war with Iran. By launching strikes, President Trump has made the same dangerous and foolish decision President Bush did a generation ago"

Senate Panel Passes Authorization For Force Against Syria The Foreign Relations Committee votes 10-7 to authorize the use of force against Syria for its use of chemical weapons.

Congress is really becoming an afterthought on decisions of war at this point, strikes on Syria in 2013 were the last serious attempt by Capitol Hill to weigh in on the issue

www.npr.org/sections/the...

Sen. Kaine on Iran strikes: "The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers Resolution to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran. Every single Senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action.”

Exclusive: FEMA disaster relief fund nearly empty, officials say The Trump administration is amping up pressure on Congress to pass a DHS funding bill.

FEMA's disaster relief fund is running low on money amidst the DHS shutdown, per two Trump administration officials.

Democrats say Trump admin withheld FEMA funds when government was open, spent them when it was closed

Sen. Murray: “transparent political ploy.”

www.semafor.com/article/02/2...

Exclusive: Moreno moves to lock down the Senate GOP campaign chief race for 2028 The first-term Ohioan is a man in a hurry, leveraging strong relationships throughout the party to make a decisive play.

GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno moves to lock down the Senate GOP campaign chief race for 2028

www.semafor.com/article/02/2...

The main reason Thune isn't pursuing the talking filibuster approach for SAVE America Act is it requires lockstep GOP unity on endless amendment votes. He said there's "clearly not a unified position among Republicans in the Senate”

"There isn't support for doing that at this point"

Schumer dismisses UNH poll showing Platner way ahead of Mills in Maine primary (and Platner beating Collins)

"Polls come and go ... we're going to win in Maine and frankly Mill is the only Democrat that's won statewide that's in the race"

Trump piles orders on Congress, but wants nothing on tariffs The State of the Union featured no shortage of to-dos for Republican lawmakers who could soon lose unified control of the Hill.

@nicholaswu12.bsky.social

www.semafor.com/article/02/2...

Talked to some Dems about Trump's Capitol Hill asks

Banning institutional investors from buying SFH? Warren: “All talk and no action"

Going after Democrats after saying end the shutdown Shaheen: "The way you get an agreement is to negotiate a compromise. And clearly he’s not interested in that"

SOTU fundraising news -

DNC official tells Semafor it had its best day of the cycle and third best day all time for digital ads fundraising around Trump's state of the Union

"The more Americans watch Trump's State of the Union the more they're giving to the DNC to elect Democrats"

Sen. Britt says Democrats and Republicans are still talking about how to reopen DHS, which has been shutdown for 11 days

Sen. Cornyn on Rep. Tony Gonzales: “I’ve got my own race to run. I’ll let the speaker deal with that”