by Steve Benen | Nov 12, 2026 | Congress, Maddowblog, White House
For congressional Democrats interested in pursuing the many controversies surrounding Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., there’s a foundational challenge: where to start.
That said, two Democratic senators are moving forward with an investigation into whether Kennedy lied to Congress about his reason for a 2019 trip to Samoa, and there’s reason to believe they’re pulling on a worthwhile thread. The Associated Press reported:
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in a letter Wednesday to Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit group known for anti-vaccine activism that was formerly chaired by Kennedy, that they were starting an investigation.
The lawmakers asked the group for a broad range of documents related to Kennedy’s Samoa travel, his 2024 presidential campaign and his Senate confirmation process. The letter also requested all communications between the group and federal government officials since President Donald Trump’s second term began in January 2025. The senators gave the group a deadline of Dec. 4 to comply.
Note, Wyden and Alsobrooks are currently seeking the group’s voluntary cooperation with their inquiry. If, however, Kennedy’s former organization declines to provide the requested information, it’s likely to face a congressional subpoena early next year, when there’s a Democratic majority.
The underlying controversy has been simmering for a while. In fact, MS NOW reported early last year on the difficult and painful questions surrounding Kennedy’s efforts in Samoa years before he became a powerful White House Cabinet secretary. Hawaii’s Democratic governor, Josh Green, a former emergency medical physician, said before Kennedy’s confirmation that he’d treated Samoan measles patients in 2019 and blamed Kennedy personally for preventable deaths.
During that confirmation fight, Kennedy repeatedly
by Steve Benen | Nov 12, 2026 | Congress, Justice Department, Maddowblog, White House
In the closing weeks of the midterm election cycle, Donald Trump struggled to formulate a closing argument, but the president had plenty to say about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Indeed, after the president ordered his administration to target the Minnesota congresswoman, federal agents seized the laptop, cellphone and passport of a sitting member of Congress based on highly dubious evidence. Soon after, Trump began falsely telling voters that “the Democrat [sic] Party has conceded her seat” and she will no longer be permitted to serve in Congress. In late October, he went so far as to claim she’d been expelled from the House.
None of this reflected reality in any way, and Omar, who’s long denied any wrongdoing, soon after won re-election by a 60-point margin in her Minneapolis-area district.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the administration’s ongoing investigation into the congresswoman, but in the meantime, we’re continuing to learn more about the scope of Team Trump’s efforts. The New York Times reported:
Federal prosecutors filed a felony charge earlier this year against a man who briefly served as a bodyguard for Representative Ilhan Omar in what his lawyer described as an unusual gambit to obtain incriminating information about the lawmaker. […]
[Bruce Rivers, the lawyer for the bodyguard, Abdullahi Mohamed] said that prosecutors spent months trying to turn the bodyguard into an informant to bolster their case against Ms. Omar. In a move he described as shocking, Mr. Rivers said that prosecutors repeatedly told him and Mr. Mohamed that the investigation into Ms. Omar was “100 percent being run by 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” the address of the White House.
Rivers, a veteran
by Steve Benen | Nov 12, 2026 | Maddowblog, White House
To a degree unseen since Watergate, Democratic officials and candidates emphasized government corruption as a central issue in the midterm elections. It proved effective: Polls showed voters prioritizing corruption in ways that likely caught Republicans off guard.
There’s no great mystery as to why: Donald Trump’s corruption was so uniquely brazen that it helped the issue break through for the electorate. As writer Brian Beutler summarized a few weeks before Election Day, in reference to the president, “He isn’t just more corrupt than most politicians; corruption is his raison d’être. This isn’t just ‘government corruption’ to be reformed away. It’s a GOP crime spree.”
After Democrats were able to capitalize on the backlash to widespread corruption, the party took the obvious next step: It started making plans to use Congress’ oversight authority to investigate years’ worth of wrongdoing.
This, by all appearances, has sparked widespread panic in the White House and throughout the Republican administration — according to whistleblowers, at least one Cabinet agency has begun destroying documents, in the hopes of keeping them from lawmakers — and the president himself appears to be increasingly anxious about the potential for sunlight on activities he has long preferred to keep in the shadows.
To that end, Trump spent the first weekend after the midterms accusing the incoming Democratic majority of being “extortionists” who deserve “imprisonment,” and ordering his Justice Department to “look into” the Democrats’ “totally illegal” plans to conduct routine oversight.
The Republican used his social media platform on Thursday morning to publish a series of related missives, each of which was rooted in the idea that it’s his Democratic opponents who are actually corrupt.
by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Maddowblog
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Rare evidence of progress: “Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war, envoys said Wednesday as two days of U.S. mediated talks concluded, but they announced no major breakthrough on ending the conflict that began after Moscow’s full-scale invasion nearly five years ago.”
* In related news, White House efforts to redeliver for the Kremlin are hitting a snag: “President Trump’s efforts to supply the U.S. with Russian diesel have yet to result in any new imports into the country, as several fuel tankers bound for America shifted course following difficulties finding buyers willing to accept the controversial cargoes.”
* Has the administration considered being less deferential to Russia? “U.S. officials will head to Moscow in person Thursday to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to give his ‘blessing’ to allow European representatives to join future peace talks for Ukraine.”
* A welcome ruling: “A federal appeals court barred the Trump administration Tuesday from accessing extensive LinkedIn chat records between multiple journalists and scores of their confidential sources as part of a national security leak investigation, arguing the government’s request would ‘deal a damaging blow’ to First Amendment freedoms.”
* The plaintiff celebrated these developments, though given the potential pitfalls, the reactions were probably unwise: “A federal judge on Tuesday said President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC over a misleadingly edited clip of a speech can go forward, but threw out Trump’s unfair trade practices claim against the broadcaster.”
* The fight over the arch is ongoing: “President John F. Kennedy’s family sued Tuesday to block President Donald Trump’s triumphal arch, saying the
by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, Crime & Courts, Maddowblog, White House
There are all sorts of reasons Democrats are thrilled to take back control of the Senate, but near the top of the list is the power over the confirmation process: From executive branch roles to judicial nominations, a Senate majority makes all the difference.
This isn’t lost on Donald Trump. “Very important for the U.S. Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges,” the president wrote to his social media platform earlier this week. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The message did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. The Washington Sun reported:
President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans started a rush Tuesday to confirm as many judicial nominees as possible before they lose their majority in January, including the announcement of three new nominees.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance four judicial nominees to the Senate floor, teed up more committee votes on six other pending bench picks and held a confirmation hearing for another four.
The fact that this is happening is notable in its own right, though it’s also worth emphasizing how it’s happening: As HuffPost reported, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the outgoing chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “ditched a number of the panel’s standard practices” this week. From the report:
In the committee’s first hearing since the GOP’s drubbing in the midterm elections, Grassley signaled plans to hold nomination hearings this week and next week, violating the panel’s bipartisan practice of holding such hearings no closer than two weeks apart.
The Iowa Republican added two judicial nominees to next week’s hearing whose questionnaires were returned to the panel just 10 and 14
by Steve Benen | Nov 11, 2026 | Congress, elections, Maddowblog
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* As Sen. John Fetterman’s support among Pennsylvania Democrats collapses to embarrassing depths, the question about whether he would face primary rivals became a foregone conclusion months ago. The better question is how many primary rivals the senator is likely to face.
Earlier this week, Ahmed Moor, a Philadelphia-based writer and entrepreneur, helped get the ball rolling, kicking off his 2028 Senate race, though he’s likely to have plenty of company. Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean acknowledged Tuesday that she’s considering a Senate run of her own, and Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio said he’s giving the race “serious thought.”
* The Senate Republicans’ leadership for the next Congress was elected Tuesday in a closed-door meeting, and outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Thune was easily chosen to serve as the next Senate minority leader. He will be joined by Wyoming’s John Barrasso, who will be the Republicans’ minority whip; Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, who will serve as the GOP conference chair; West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, who will serve as the Republicans’ policy committee chair; and Oklahoma’s James Lankford, who will be the GOP conference vice chair.
* As for the party’s campaign committees, the National Republican Senatorial Committee will be led by Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, while Rep. Brian Jack of Georgia will chair the National Republican Congressional Committee.
* The incoming Senate Democratic majority’s leadership appears increasingly murky: While it was widely assumed that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would continue in his role, MS NOW reported that Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen has begun reaching out to his Democratic colleagues about a possible challenge.
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