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In today’s newsletter:
▪ RFK Jr. set for grilling on Capitol Hill
▪ Tech CEOs head to White House
▪ Epstein victims push for disclosures
▪ Trump to speak with Zelensky
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face tough questions today from senators who worry his management of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a vaccine skeptic has spawned national confusion and raised the stakes for public health.
President Trump, who frequently praises the secretary and the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, shows no signs of reining in his iconoclastic Cabinet pick. Kennedy has rejected some evidence-based medical research as well as mainstream disease experts who for decades have championed the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
The secretary needs to “restore public trust,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday as he predicted “hard questions” today from fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee. Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and member of the panel, voted for Kennedy’s confirmation but has pushed back against the secretary while stepping carefully ahead of his reelection bid next year.
Kennedy is a former lawyer who has asserted without scientific evidence that autism is linked to vaccines, said childhood inoculations can safely be optional, and criticized the money and influence of pharmaceutical companies, such as those that joined forces with the government during the pandemic for Operation Warp Speed in Trump’s first term.
Lawmakers are expected to ask Kennedy about his recent firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez after she refused the HHS chief’s invitation to resign a month after senators voted 51 to 47 to confirm her for the role.
Monarez’s pushback against Kennedy’s efforts to assert control over federal vaccine guidance is at the center of the fight. Several top CDC leaders resigned over Kennedy’s push to oust the director, and they went public with their concerns. Current and former HHS staff are also calling for the Cabinet member to resign.
Former officials criticize Kennedy for firing all the members of an influential CDC panel that makes recommendations on vaccinations. He replaced them with his own choices, some of whom are known anti-vaccine activists. He slashed $500 million in mRNA vaccine research and announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is limiting this fall’s COVID shot approval without a prescription to people 65 and older and those with underlying medical conditions.
Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) released a report this morning detailing the “unmitigated disaster” of Kennedy’s leadership to date.
Trump, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, said two months later that the speedy development of coronavirus vaccines was a major achievement. But conservative resistance in key red states to nationwide lockdowns, masking and months of evolving public health protocols during the pandemic created political dilemmas for the president with his base.
“I would say that because somebody’s supportive of, or in favor of, vaccines is not disqualifying for that job,” Thune said of the CDC. “Obviously, he’s got to have people in these positions that have some stability and hopefully command the trust of the American people.”
The evolving split between public health experts and the Kennedy-overhauled HHS, including the FDA, sparked rebukes of the administration from scientists and medical doctors who are advising parents with children and others to confer with physicians about vaccines rather than accept muddied federal guidance they insist could cost lives.
Amid the federal upheaval, three Democratic-led states — California, Oregon and Washington — announced Wednesday they are banding together to review scientific data and make their own vaccine recommendations. Governors of the states in a statement called the CDC “a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science.”
▪ The Hill: Schools prepare for the worst as RFK Jr. reshapes the vaccine landscape.
NO MANDATES: Florida on Wednesday announced it plans to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren, rejecting decades of public health advice and protocols long followed by states to safeguard populations from outbreaks of communicable diseases.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a physician, said of vaccine mandates that “every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” he added on Wednesday. “Your body is a gift from God.”
Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and formerly a cardiovascular surgeon before shifting to television and politics, told Fox News he supports the Sunshine State’s plans to lift all vaccine mandates.
FIRST IN THE HILL: Trump today will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for the first event in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden.
According to an invite list obtained by The Hill, guests will include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, among others. The gathering will take place after CEOs and tech leaders attend a White House AI event hosted by first lady Melania Trump.
SPOTTED at a U.S. launch party at Ned’s Club in D.C. Wednesday night for British right-leaning TV channel GB News: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump political adviser Jason Miller (the trio spoke on stage), White House communications director Steven Cheung, deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka, multiple current and former Cabinet members and GOP lawmakers, and more than 500 others. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage headlined the event hours after testifying on Capitol Hill.
Smart Take with Blake Burman
Here’s a question that you might hear more of in the coming weeks: Will former President Clinton provide testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee?
Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton, were part of a high-profile, bipartisan group subpoenaed by Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) in the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
I interviewed the chair last night, and he told me he has yet to hear back from the Clintons.
“We’ve heard from everybody on that list except the Clintons,” Comer told me. “They’ll have to answer that subpoena, so they have a few more days before he’s supposed to show up. I believe it’s in a couple of weeks. But we will hear from them, and I do expect them to testify.”
Only five presidents, including President Trump, have ever received congressional subpoenas. We will learn more in the coming weeks if Clinton takes a stand against the need to testify, or if the committee gets its wish.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
1. Harvard University temporarily won a major legal victory while contesting the Trump administration’s freeze of $2.2 billion in federal grants, a federal judge ruled.
2. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ended deportation protections for some Venezuelans, the administration’s latest effort to strip Temporary Protected Status after a series of court losses.
3. Trump is asking the Supreme Court to rescue his tariffs after an appeals court struck down the bulk of the levies last week. The tariffs remain in effect as the Justice Department appeals.
Leading the Day
EPSTEIN FILES: Republican rebels on Wednesday ramped up the pressure on their own party to force the Trump administration to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, hosting victims of the late sex offender at the Capitol, where they delivered harrowing pleas for Congress to act.
The dramatic demonstration seemed to leave most Republicans unmoved, however, and GOP leaders stepped up their own efforts to defuse the Epstein controversy by approving an alternative bill designed to bolster an ongoing investigation by the House Oversight Committee.
The measure was unveiled on Tuesday as a clear alternative to a bill from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to require the Justice Department to release Epstein-related material, which GOP leaders and the White House are hoping to quash.
“The only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing,” said Anouska De Georgiou, one of the survivors.
Massie’s discharge petition would force a floor vote on legislation requiring the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release virtually all its files on the investigation into Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. It needs 218 House lawmakers to vote yes. Because all 212 Democrats are expected to endorse it, supporters need six Republicans. Four are currently on board.
Massie spoke to his Republican colleagues on Wednesday at a meeting to make the case that the DOJ cannot be trusted to release all relevant information without legislation.
“What’s clear is they’re not redacting just to protect victims; they are redacting to protect reputations,” Massie said. “Some of those people are probably innocent, but some of them are most certainly guilty.”
▪ The Hill: Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is demanding the DOJ inspector general’s office launch an investigation into the quiet transfer of Maxwell from a correctional facility in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
OUR OWN LIST: Six women who say they were trafficked by Epstein or Maxwell on Tuesday implored the federal government to release more documents related to the case.
“A lot of us survivors know we’ve been compiling lists of our own, and we have so many other survivors,” Epstein accuser Lisa Phillips told NBC News in an interview. “Please come forward, and we’ll compile our own list and seek justice on our own.”
Epstein survivor Haley Robson made a direct plea to the president at Wednesday’s press conference.
“These women are real, we’re here in person. To say that it’s a hoax is just not — please humanize us,” Robson said. “I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, to see us for who we are and to hear us for what we have to say. There is no hoax. The abuse was real.”
Shortly after the press conference ended, Trump referred to the push for the Epstein files to be released as a “Democrat hoax.”
▪ The Hill: Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said the panel will compile its own Epstein “list,” a tally of powerful figures related to the deceased sex offender and financier.
▪ The Hill: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she got “a lot” of pushback from the White House over supporting the Epstein discharge petition.
SHUTDOWN WATCH: Lawmakers are moving closer to a government shutdown as Republican leaders reject calls to meet with Democrats and instead propose moving a government funding bill through the regular committees of jurisdiction.
Democrats on Wednesday warned that if the House tries to jam them again with a partisan stopgap, there will be a shutdown.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Wednesday that Democrats are willing to negotiate bipartisan bills but warned “if House Republicans … go a different route and try to jam through a partisan CR without any input from Democratic members of Congress,” they may not have enough Democratic votes to keep the government open.
“That is a Republican shutdown,” she said. “There is no reason for Republicans to walk away from this table, not after the progress we made this summer.”
▪ The Hill: Keep track of the divisions among lawmakers in the appropriations process. Consensus remains MIA.
▪ The Hill: Senate Republicans are coalescing around a plan that will allow them to confirm scores of Trump’s nominees “en bloc” as they look to skirt around the nomination blockade put up by Democrats and amid lingering frustrations on their own side.
▪ The Associated Press: Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) on Wednesday said the Navy restored his retired rank of rear admiral, overturning a 2022 demotion that followed a scathing investigation that found major issues with his behavior while he was the top White House physician.
Where & When
The House will convene at 9 a.m.
The Senate will meet at 10 a.m. The Banking Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for White House Council of Economic Advisers Director Stephen Miran, nominated for a seat on the Federal Reserve.
The president will host a dinner on the newly renovated Rose Garden patio at 7:30 p.m.
Zoom In
EMPIRE STATE INTRIGUE: White House advisers have reportedly discussed the possibility of giving New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) an administration job as a way to clear the field in November’s mayoral election.
The goal, The New York Times reports, is to help clear the field and give former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who is also running as an independent, a better chance at defeating Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee.
Politico reports Adams was offered a position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in exchange for ending his reelection campaign.
Adams’ team denied the reports to Bloomberg News, saying that “at no time did [the mayor] ask for — nor was he offered — a job at HUD.”
Adams is running as an independent following a series of federal indictments. The DOJ moved to dismiss the charges in February, and the case against him was dropped in April.
Cuomo allies and New York real estate executives have been searching for ways to undercut Mamdani’s rise. The 33-year-old State Assembly member is a self-described democratic socialist who they fear will negatively impact the city’s business climate.
They have discussed potentially offering Adams a public or private sector job to encourage him to drop out, the Times reported.
Mamdani, meanwhile, netted the endorsement of former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who wrote in an op-ed in the New York Daily News that Mamdani is “relentlessly challenging the status quo of deepening unaffordability.”
He praised Mamdani’s calls for “bold sweeping action,” including a rent freeze, universal child care for children up to 5 years old and free city buses.
▪ The Hill: Independent New York City mayoral candidate Jim Walden dropped out of the race, urging unity to defeat Mamdani.
FEDERAL DEPLOYMENT: Trump declared he will send the National Guard into Chicago, setting himself up for a bigger legal challenge and riskier political move compared with his crackdown in Washington, D.C.
Trump doesn’t have Home Rule authority in states like he does D.C., and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) has warned the president against deploying the National Guard. The power struggle also comes with political risks for Pritzker and other Democrats in how they handle Trump after the D.C. federal crime crackdown gave the president something to tout.
▪ The Washington Post: House Republicans are weighing a slate of legislation that would overhaul criminal justice policies in D.C. and further restrict home rule.
▪ The Hill: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) signed an order this week authorizing coordination between local police and federal forces extending beyond Trump’s declared emergency.
▪ The Hill: Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of a federal deployment into New Orleans to quickly eradicate crime there.
▪ The Hill: Here are 10 cities with the highest murder rates.
DEMOCRATS TO WATCH: Democrats are looking to Illinois and Maryland as the next blue states to hit back against Republican redistricting efforts.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has said all options are on the table, while Pritzker has said he is not inclined to engage in partisan redistricting but said Democrats would think about how to counter GOP efforts if they spread to other red states.
Redistricting could be perceived as a litmus test for potential 2028 Democratic hopefuls following California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) spike in popularity following his redistricting effort.
While the 2028 presidential election is still more than three years away, Newsom is making the kind of name for himself that could lead to front-runner status. Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons told The Hill’s Amie Parnes that Newsom’s name is coming up more than anyone else in recent weeks, particularly outside the political sphere.
“A lot of Dems think this might be the time for a more traditional choice and Newsom fits the bill,” Simmons said. “They just want a winner. They have this mindset of ‘Let’s just win and we’ll sort out the politics later.’”
▪ NOTUS: Former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu (R) is considering running for Senate again to replace retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D).
▪ The Hill: In Texas, abortion politics got more complicated for the Lone Star State and especially for states that support abortion rights as the Texas Senate late Wednesday passed legislation that allows private citizens to sue makers and providers of abortion pills in and outside Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is expected to sign the measure, known as HB7.
Elsewhere
EUROPEAN ALLIES: Trump pledged to stand with Warsaw “all the way” during a meeting with Poland’s conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, at the White House. Nawrocki unexpectedly won Poland’s presidential election after running a campaign under a Trumpesque slogan of “Poland first, Poles first.”
During the meeting, Trump announced he will speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today, a White House official confirmed.
“I’m having a conversation with him very shortly and I’ll know pretty much what we’re going to be doing,” Trump said Wednesday.
Trump won’t be the only world leader speaking with Zelensky: Some 30 Western leaders, including the “Coalition of the Willing,” today will discuss security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal with Russia.
▪ The Washington Post: Russia fired more than 500 drones and two dozen missiles at Ukraine overnight into Wednesday.
GROUND OFFENSIVE: Israel’s expanding military operation in Gaza has killed at least 287 people in the three days since a group of world-leading genocide scholars declared Israel is committing genocide in the besieged enclave. The Israeli military is expanding its ground operation in Gaza in an effort to capture Gaza City.
Most of the enclave’s population of 2 million has been displaced, and the majority face famine conditions as humanitarian aid remains scarce.
Opinion
This is the moment we find out if Trump is for real, by Oren Cass, columnist, The New York Times.
Save the Federal Reserve’s independence by splitting the agency, by Michael W. McConnell, guest essayist, The Washington Post.
The Closer
And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! We’re eager for some smart guesses about odd White House headlines.
Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and kkarisch@thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.
Then-President Obama took flak from the media when he appeared at a White House press briefing wearing what color suit?
1. Navy
2. Red
3. Tan
4. Green
In 1992, then-Vice President Dan Quayle misspelled what word while at an event at a school in Trenton, N.J.?
1. Potato as “potatoe”
2. Tomato as “tomatoe”
3. Broccoli as “brocolli”
4. Lima beans as “lime beans”
Social media accounts aim to predict U.S. military activity by tracking a spike in orders of what food near the Pentagon?
1. Hot dogs
2. Pizza
3. Burgers
4. Milkshakes
President George H.W. Bush’s dog, Ranger, put on weight while living in the White House. In a memo instructing staff not to feed Ranger treats, what did the president compare his dog to?
1. A buoy
2. A beach ball
3. A blimp
4. A balloon
