Welcome to the net model of From the Politics Desk, a night publication that brings you the NBC Information Politics group’s newest reporting and evaluation from the White Home, Capitol Hill and the marketing campaign path.
Completely satisfied Monday, readers! In right this moment’s version, NBC Information reporters in Austin, Boston, Chicago and Washington deliver you the most recent from the redistricting standoff in Texas, after Democrats fled the state to disclaim Republicans a quorum to maneuver ahead with laws. Then, our group in Washington digs into the fallout from President Donald Trump’s dismissal of the top of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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— Scott Bland
Redistricting conflict escalates in Texas after Democrats scatter, denying state Home a quorum
By Ben Kamisar, Natasha Korecki, Ryan Chandler and Adam Edelman
The Texas state Home briefly reconvened this afternoon amid a nationally watched conflict over the GOP majority’s plan to redraw the state’s congressional lines, with Republican lawmakers voting to approve civil arrest warrants concentrating on the handfuls of Democrats who fled the state, blocking Republicans from continuing with the plan.
The majority of the 50-plus Democrats who left the state are in Illinois, the place they’ve been welcomed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker. Others are in Boston and in Albany, New York, the place Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, in response to Texas, is pushing for a change in state legislation to permit redistricting in future years.
There, past the attain of the state sergeant-at-arms and the Texas Division of Public Security, the warrants could have little sensible impact. However again dwelling, the Democrats face mounting fines, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening besides the Democratic lawmakers from workplace or ship legislation enforcement to pressure them to return to the state.
As a result of Home enterprise requires a quorum, 51 out of the state’s 62 Democratic Home members can, by remaining out of state, forestall the Republican-led state Home from transferring ahead with laws.
The absences disadvantaged the Home of its quorum, a actuality confirmed rapidly after legislators gaveled on this afternoon.
Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows admonished the handfuls of Democrats who fled the state as having “deserted their publish and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to characterize.”
Democrats have decried Republicans’ redistricting transfer as an influence play and criticized them for transferring on the redistricting invoice earlier than having responded legislatively to the devastating floods this summer season that killed greater than 100 folks in Kerr County, outdoors San Antonio. In the present day, Burrows shot again by arguing that Democrats are delaying their potential to maneuver on different legislative priorities, like addressing the floods.
Democratic state Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, talking yesterday night after she arrived at a information convention at a strip mall about 30 miles west of Chicago, mentioned the redistricting invoice is going on solely as a result of Trump is “afraid of the citizens subsequent November.”
White Home searches for a brand new BLS chief with ‘credibility’ and ‘expertise’
By Jonathan Allen, Katherine Doyle and Peter Nicholas
White Home officers started the week scrambling to discover a everlasting substitute after President Donald Trump fired Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday, following a weaker-than-expected July jobs report and drastic downward revisions of employment for the prior two months.
Steve Bannon, a senior White Home adviser in Trump’s first time period who’s influential with the MAGA wing of the GOP, is pushing exhausting for E.J. Antoni, the chief economist on the conservative Heritage Basis. Antoni, a contributor to the Venture 2025 coverage rubric, has been a longtime skeptic of BLS knowledge. On Bannon’s podcast final week, Antoni referred to as for McEntarfer to be fired shortly earlier than Trump pulled the set off.
In an interview with NBC Information this afternoon, Antoni mentioned he had not been contacted by anybody within the White Home concerning the job. West Wing officers are “nonetheless working traps” on candidates for the Senate-confirmed place, one White Home aide mentioned.
The White Home didn’t return a request for touch upon whether or not Antoni is into consideration.
Trump yesterday mentioned that he plans to announce a choose in the next three or four days.
“It’s going to need to be any person that has large credibility and expertise,” mentioned a senior White Home official who famous that Trump would possible take heed to the ideas of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Nationwide Financial Council Director Kevin Hassett and Stephen Miran, the chair of the Nationwide Financial Council.
Hiring such an individual might doubtlessly be a problem for Trump. In ousting McEntarfer, he baselessly claimed that jobs numbers are topic to political manipulation — “RIGGED as a way to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” he mentioned — elevating the specter {that a} new commissioner wouldn’t launch numbers that made Trump look unhealthy.
“I discover it so exhausting to imagine that your common particular person hears Trump fired somebody as a result of he claimed that they manipulated knowledge and whoever he’s changed them with goes to provide reliable knowledge,” Kathryn Anne Edwards, an unbiased financial guide and host of a podcast referred to as The Optimist, mentioned.
🗞️ In the present day’s prime tales
- ⏸️ Placed on pause: The European Union introduced it’ll delay a plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. items because it continues commerce negotiations with the Trump administration. Read more →
- 📈 Euphoria on Wall Road: The American Eagle-Sydney Sweeney “nice denims” controversy has brought on the model’s inventory to skyrocket — due to President Donald Trump. Read more →
- 🏈 Going for it: Former faculty soccer coach Derek Dooley launched his bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. Read more →
- 🗳️ 2026 watch: Rep. Nancy Mace, who has at instances damaged along with her personal GOP leaders and infrequently courted controversy, launched right this moment a long-expected bid for governor of South Carolina. Read more →
- ❌New restrictions: The Division of Homeland Safety will replace visa insurance policies to forestall transgender ladies from touring to the U.S. to take part in elite ladies’s sporting occasions. Read more →
- 👤Within the shadows: By the point Susie Wiles took the stage on the Florida Republican Occasion’s largest occasion of the 12 months, it was clear who the star of the present was — and, equally as vital, who was not. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. In the present day’s publication was compiled by Scott Bland and Dylan Ebs.
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