Today’s notice: Democrats’ investigations promise. The rising costs of MAGA merch. Who’s coming to Crooked Con. New McConnell-isms. Polymarket bets wrong. Don’t bet on House ethics reform this year.
THE LATEST
Promises, promises: “If Democrats win back the House, I’ll become Chairman — and I’ll have subpoena power,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said in an August small-dollar fundraising appeal. Gotta win first though, he went on, pleading for at least $5 with the promise of investigations galore to follow.
The Washington Sun’s Stephen Neukam pored over a plethora of fundraising emails to find that the promise to investigate Donald Trump’s administration, family deals and much, much more have been a huge part of the Democratic pitch for cash.
Trending
Stephen points out that the House Ethics Manual prohibits tying campaign contribution solicitations to actions taken or expected to be taken in a lawmaker’s official capacity. (“No comment,” said Tom Rust, staff director and chief counsel to the House Ethics Committee.)
There are also some political questions here: Leaning way into the party base’s dreams and fears is a time-honored part of grassroots fundraising. Just $5 and all your political enemies will be vanquished, allowing the light of truth to shine brightly for all time*.
(*all time = a year or so until the next cycle starts up.)
If Democrats do take control of the House, how much time should they devote to making good on that $5 promise? The Sun’s Alex Roarty reports on some exclusive polling from centrist Democratic group Third Way that suggests the answer is not that much. Some 27% of voters think Democrats “should prioritize investigating Trump for misconduct and impeaching the president if he has broken the law,” the poll found, while 68% said Democrats should “prioritize bringing down costs for the American people, not investigations and impeachment.”
But after firing up the base, what should Democrats actually do? “It’s not like if they don’t take any type of political advantage of this, the Republicans aren’t going to go, ‘Oh, this is really good oversight. We’re glad you’re doing this,’” Kurt Bardella, a senior comms guy for the Texas Democratic Party, told The Sun’s Manuela Silva. “Like, that’s not going to happen.”
Bardella is unique among Democrats in that he used to be the messaging guy for an orgy of House Republican Oversight investigations when he worked for Rep. Darrell Issa years ago. He said Issa also raised plenty of money with the GOP base off the promise of investigations, but he also remembers Issa not being singularly focused on Barack Obama. (Obama vets may remember this differently.) Bardella’s advice to Garcia: Investigate a lot of stuff, all over the place, to try to convince the public you’re not just in this for the fundraising dollars. “We went after so many things that weren’t partisan,” Bardella said. “Just good government shit.”
More: Trump’s $10B Suit Against the BBC Could Offer Jack Smith a Platform • North Carolina’s Mail-In Ballot Restrictions Will Remain Through the Midterms • Judge Says There’s ‘No Universe’ Where Tree Removal Isn’t Linked to Trump’s Golf Course Plans
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
MAGA hat-flation: Trump’s iconic red hat embroidered with “Make America Great Again” sold for $25 on DonaldJTrump.com when he first ran for president in 2015. On Jan. 6, 2021, it cost $30. Today’s version for sale on The Trump Organization’s online storefront retails for $55 — a 120% increase from 2015. (The hat is $40 on the president’s political site.) The Sun’s Nicole Belcastro combed through many MAGA items for sale and has charts — charts! — showing similar price hikes through the years.
First on The Sun: Rep. Ilhan Omar to appear at Crooked Con. The rising Democratic confab, centered around the empire built by the Pod Save boys, is adding a flurry of new speakers to the roster today, representing the differing and often squabbling sides of the party. Omar, whom the Trump administration is looking into deporting, will be there from the party’s left, as will prominent voices from the Democratic center. Sen. Chris Murphy and Reps. Robert Garcia, Sara Jacobs and Yassamin Ansari are also among the electeds who have newly signed on. The whole thing kicks off in D.C. two days after the midterms, so Democrats will be either in a great mood … or a really, really terrible mood.
FROM THE PREDICTION MARKETS
They didn’t predict this? On Sept. 30, Polymarket began allowing trades on whether the seven men accused in the Cornell fraternity case would be criminally charged with a felony sex crime by January 2027. Cue the outrage anyone could have expected, and then the surprising pushback: “Markets bring better, unbiased information about important events, in contrast to the disinformation we’re all drowning in,” Polymarket told Front Office Sports of the haters. What comes next? If you bet the walkback, congratulations, you have been around the block a couple times.
After The Sun’s Jeff Stein asked for comment on the Cornell listing, Polymarket reversed and removed it as an option. The company declined to comment on the change, though.
Inevitable knife-twist: Kalshi, Polymarket’s main competitor, said in a statement that it would not have allowed bets on the outcome of the case.
FROM THE HILL
What irks Mitch McConnell about Trump: The AP’s Michael Tackett is out with an updated version of his McConnell biography in paperback, which includes new interviews with the senator from Kentucky. Trump “seems to be very approving of monetizing his influence,” McConnell told Tackett. The former Republican Senate leader “could not abide Trump being portrayed as Jesus in social media posts,” Tackett writes. McConnell also said the president is wrong to publicly criticize the Supreme Court: “I don’t know what he expected,” McConnell said, “... They don’t report to him.”
Bonus annoyance: “The Department of Defense is the name of the organization,” McConnell said of Trump’s Department of War.
NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN
Ethics reform stalls out: You may recall that, approximately a million years ago in news time, the resignations of Reps. Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales amid ugly sexual misconduct allegations involving staff were going to force ethics reform in the House. The Sun’s Oriana González reports that in the intervening time, momentum behind reform has gone the way of the dinosaur. The two women spearheading the push, Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-New Mexico) and Kat Cammack (R-Florida), disagree slightly about their chances in the lame-duck session after the midterms. But Oriana reports that the feeling on the Hill is that there likely won’t be time for it.
More: Trump Administration Plans to Ban DeepSeek From Most Federal Agencies • Slotkin Said It Was a Call for Accountability. Conservatives Saw It as a Threat. • Trump Defends Waiving Russian Sanctions
NOT US
- Everyone Thinks They’re Going to Win, by Gabe Fleisher for Wake Up to Politics
- The 2028 Presidential ‘Shadow Primary’ Descends on the Midterms, by Evan Gorelick for The New York Times
- A Dead Woman’s Apparent Donation Adds to Scrutiny of Nevada House Candidate, by Natalie Andrews and Olivia Beavers for The Wall Street Journal
- State officials offered to store nuclear waste. Then residents found out. By Evan Halper for The Washington Post
Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of The Washington Sun Newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please sign up — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@washsun.com. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@washsun.com.
The newsletter was produced by Thomas Burr and Andrew Burton.
Authors
