Good morning. Cooler with more of those darn gusty winds today and a high around 58. Clear with a low near 38 overnight. The Capitals visit Pittsburgh this evening. You can find me on Bluesky, I’m @abeaujon.87 on Signal, and there’s a link to my email address below.
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I can’t stop listening to:
Micky Dolenz, “Oh Someone.” I love Dolenz’s work with the Monkees as much as the next weekday morning newsletter writer for a regional lifestyle publication, but I have a soft spot for the bananas records, like this one, that he made for MGM after the Prefab Four broke up. Dolenz plays the Birchmere tonight.
Take Washingtonian Today with you! I’ve made a playlist on Spotify and on Apple Music of my daily music recommendations this year.
Here’s some administration news you might have blocked out:
Shutshow: The Trump administration announced yesterday that it plans to cut flight traffic by ten percent in dozens of markets around the US due to the government shutdown, which enters day 37 today. (Washington Post) FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said he and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy were trying to get ahead of a deteriorating situation with regard to air traffic controllers, who must work without pay and are increasingly calling in sick. (AP) National Airport, which is favored by lawmakers, is among the airports that will be affected. (ABC News) Republicans said travelers would blame Democrats. (Politico)
But that theory of the case took a big hit Tuesday night: President Trump alarmed Republicans at a meeting on Capitol Hill yesterday, when he disrupted their messaging, saying the shutdown had been “worse for us” than for Democrats. The President’s aides also “recognize that skyrocketing health care premiums will hurt Republicans.” (Punchbowl News) Indeed, Democrats feel emboldened by the thumping they administered to the GOP in off-year elections Tuesday night, which “bolstered the faction in the party insisting that senators dig in and force Republicans to accede to their demand for an extension of key health insurance subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans.” (Politico) Many on the GOP side “are privately signaling they’re prepared to break with Trump if he doesn’t allow Republicans to negotiate on an extension of the Obamacare insurance subsidies Democrats are demanding.” (Politico) Republicans now think there won’t be a deal this week. (Axios) Trump again tried to get Republican senators to nuke the filibuster. No sale—unsurprising a day after electoral results didn’t go the GOP’s way. (MSNBC)
More pain: Several departments and agencies said in court filings yesterday that they intend to go through with the small percentage of shutdown-inspired layoffs Trump ordered not affected by a court order blocking them. (Federal News Network) A US Army website suggested soldiers in Germany could avail themselves of local food banks and a version of the Too Good to Go app to continue eating during the shutdown. That guidance has since vanished. (404 Media) US Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma suggested in a letter to OPM Director Scott Kupor that the agency would not be able to continue paying for federal workers’ health insurance. OPM said it will continue to pay premiums. (Government Executive)
Drub hub: Mikie Sherrill‘s blowout gubernatorial win in New Jersey was a miss by pollsters, who predicted a tight race. They underestimated Abigail Spanberger‘s win in Virginia by five points, too. Pollsters say it’s difficult to forecast the “expected electorate” in off-year contests. (WSJ) A “White House ally” tells Politico that Trump now faces a problem similar to the one that bedeviled Joe Biden: insisting that “America was on the upswing while people were struggling to make ends meet.” (Politico) Trump’s political director, James Blair, said the President will begin to focus on affordability next year. (Politico) Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin insisted the results—which included a sweep of top offices and a large Democratic swing in the House of Delegates—weren’t a referendum on his tenure, an argument that might be hard for him to make to voters in Republican presidential primaries. (Virginia Mercury) Look at all these blue arrows. (PBUMP.net) Republicans in California sued to block the state’s new Democratic gerrymander. (NYT)
Supreme alarm bell: The US Supreme Court “appeared skeptical Wednesday that President Donald Trump has legal authority to impose tariffs on a vast range of goods from nearly all countries, signaling the justices could strike down or sharply limit the administration’s signature economic policy.” (Washington Post) It would be odd to “see a Supreme Court that is this deeply unpopular with the public step in and bail out a president that is also deeply unpopular with the public — particularly on a highly salient public policy initiative that Americans themselves know and largely oppose.” (Politico) Meanwhile: A magistrate judge in Alexandria chastised federal prosecutors in the case Trump dialed up against James Comey over how DOJ is treating material it seized from Comey that may be privileged. (Politico)
The war on Chicago: Armed federal agents removed a teacher from a daycare in front of students in Chicago yesterday. “A video shows them taking the worker out of the daycare while holding her arms behind her and at her sides, with screaming and shouting audible.” (Block Club Chicago) Parents in Chicagoland are worried about the effect tear gas, which federal agents have deployed aggressively in town, is having on their kids’ lungs. (NBC News) A Border Patrol agent bragged about his shooting skills and took his vehicle back to Maine after he shot a woman in a confrontation last month, her attorney said. (Chicago Sun-Times) A federal judge ordered changes be made to the Broadview, Illinois, ICE detention center after hearing arguments that it was inadequate to hold people for numerous days. (Chicago Sun-Times) An ICE agent is accused of drunk driving after he left that facility and crashed into a hedge. The “administration repeatedly has referred to drunken driving as a justifiable reason for non-citizens to be detained and deported.” (Chicago Sun-Times)
Administration perambulation: VA Secretary Doug Collins selectively enforced Trump’s executive order to yank collective bargaining rights from federal workers, attorneys argue in a lawsuit. (Government Executive) Trump has dithered on military action in Venezuela, and “basic questions, such as whether the goal is to remove [President Nicolás] Maduro or compel him into concessions, remain undecided.” (WSJ) The IRS appears to have killed Direct File. (Federal News Network) Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said he “made a mistake” when he defended Tucker Carlson‘s interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Roberts said he would resign but that he’d rather work on cleaning up his mess. (Washington Free Beacon) Marjorie Taylor Greene is reportedly thinking of running for President. Greene called the report “baseless gossip.” (NOTUS) Trump got skunked by the Nobel committee, but FIFA, the morally challenged organization with which Trump is close, will award its own peace prize in Washington next month. Gosh, I wonder who might receive it. (NYT)
Recently on Washingtonian dot com:
• A peek inside Official Washington’s reliance on the autopen—the first commercially successful version of which was invented in Alexandria.
• The new book by DC’s Stefan Fatsis explores the world of lexicographers at a boom time for online look-ups that’s also a moment of great peril for companies that produce physical dictionaries.
• Attention, history buffs: A house owned by John and Jacqueline Kennedy, a civil war hospital, and another house once owned by Alexander Graham Bell are all on the market.
• Photos from our Most Powerful Women reception last week.
Local news links:
Sandwich guy trial: Sean Dunn‘s defense attorney questioned how an airborne hoagie could have hurt a federal agent who was wearing body armor, especially when that agent apparently treasured a gag gift: a “patch featuring a cartoon of Dunn throwing the sandwich with the words ‘Felony Footlong.'” (NBC News) The grinder in question “somehow both exploded on his chest in a spray of mustard and onions but also landed intact on the ground still in its Subway wrapper,” Dunn’s lawyer noted. (Molly Roberts/Bluesky) The case has gone to the jury. The panel was deadlocked last night and will return to work today. (WUSA9)
• Virginia Delegate Carrie Coyner, the Republican who shared Attorney General-elect Jay Jones‘s text messages, lost reelection. (WUSA9) Northern Virginia accounted for 88 percent of Spanberger’s vote total. (InsideNoVa)
• In the wake of Trump’s crackdown on DC and vast federal cuts, “Some developers said they are having trouble raising money for D.C. projects, while investors said they are becoming more cautious about the city.” (Bisnow)
• Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Robert McElroy will undergo cancer surgery. (WUSA9)
• Alex Ovechkin scored his 900th goal. (NBC4 Washington)
Thursday’s event picks:
• The Alexandria Film Festival starts today.
• The HBCU First LOOK Film Festival opens at Howard University.
• Casamara Rooftop’s new Après Ski pop-up arrives alongside cooler temperatures. (We’ll be in the 40s next week!)
See more picks from Briana Thomas, who writes our Things to Do newsletter.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
