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Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz’s ‘effective altruism’ network tied to AI regulation push

2026-09-15T12:50:31-04:00 / Fox News

Coefficient Giving says it’s on track to commit more than $1 billion to AI-related grantmaking in 2026

By Preston Mizell Fox News

Published September 15, 2026 12:50pm EDT

Facebook billionaire’s ‘effective altruism’ movement accused of driving AI regulation push

Policy analyst Parker Thayer argues that billionaire Dustin Moskovitz and the ‘effective altruism’ movement are backing an organized push for sweeping AI regulations through coordinated advocacy and media efforts.

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Concerns about artificial intelligence spelling doom for the human race are being linked to a “cult-like” philanthropy movement known as “effective altruism” supported by billionaire Democratic megadonor and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, according to a policy analyst.

In response to former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon’s resignation announcement on X, Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher at Capital Research Center in Washington D.C., went viral as he raised questions about whether the resignation was part of a broader network that aims to influence lawmakers and AI policy.

“I resigned from Anthropic today,” Coxon’s post read. “I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.”

Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook Inc., speaks at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 12, 2011.(Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Thayer quoted the post in a response that received interaction online with top lawmakers in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“This post looks like the start of a VERY sophisticated and well-funded PR operation to get support for Democrats to regulate AI into oblivion,” Thayer posted. “The post is punchy, quotable, it almost seems professionally written. The first three accounts to quote tweet it all do so within 15 minutes of the initial posting.”

Thayer echoed claims made by White House AI advisor David Sacks that AI fears are overblown and potentially based on political motives.

“I think this is becoming a panic,” Sacks told CBS News correspondent Jo Ling Kent. “We’re in an election season, and there is an incentive for political actors to try and amplify the fear. And I think this is a moment to really calm down a little bit and look at the issue rationally.”

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Coxon told Fox News’ Bret Baier last week that we are “on the doorstep of tremendous discoveries,” but are running in too quickly. He emphasized the need for moderation.

President Donald Trump has said that any governor or local government official should want to welcome the construction of AI data centers. Meanwhile, there are growing voices, including from within the GOP, protesting the current data center development landscape.(Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images; Sarah Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Baier asked Coxon if the issue could be figured out.

“I think definitely. I think if we actually try instead of submitting to the inevitability of a doomed race or a hubristic gamble, then we can solve it,” he said. “The problem is not unsolvable.”

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Coxon said he was acting alone when deciding to voice his concerns about the direction of AI, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Fox News Digital sat down with Thayer to ask about his theories concerning the coordination behind Coxon’s “sophisticated” resignation, which was in turn met with a slew of national television interviews and immediate notoriety. Almost overnight, Coxon’s post became a major point of policy debate spanning across political parties and politicians, including President Donald Trump and socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Thayer did not offer a theory for which individuals or groups might have coordinated with Coxon, who has denied such claims. But Thayer said the “AI doomerism movement” is associated with “effective altruism,” a philosophy he described as “cult-like.”

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According to the Centre for Effective Altruism, the movement is defined as a “project that aims to find the best ways to help others and put them into practice.”

But Thayer noted that while the philanthropic movement may sound high-minded, Silicon Valley elites and members who donate and support “effective altruism” may have much more direct political goals in mind.

Thayer did not have evidence that any individuals or groups connected to the effective altruism movement provided public relations or other support for Coxon’s post about his resignation.

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Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna have been leading financial backers of organizations associated with the “effective altruism” movement.

The couple founded Coefficient Giving, formerly known as Open Philanthropy, and remain its “main funders,” according to the organization. Tuna serves as its president.

Coefficient Giving says its artificial intelligence work has expanded rapidly, with $168 million committed to AI safety, security and field-building in 2024 and $351 million in 2025 — a combined $519 million. The organization says it is on track to commit more than $1 billion to AI policy advocacy in 2026.

Cari Tuna leads the couple’s charitable foundation and is going about trying to figure out how to give that money away to maximize its impact. She’s taking a very scientific approach and has tons of spreadsheets and has interviewed more than 300 people ranging from Bill Gates to Brookings scholars and doctors in Burma.(Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

In a 2021 grant application description, the organization cited that it seeks “to fund programs and events in a variety of areas of interest to Coefficient Giving — including effective altruism, global catastrophic risks, biosecurity, AI for epistemics, forecasting, and other areas.”

Moskovitz, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of roughly $10 billion, contributed more than $50 million to support the Biden-Harris campaign from 2020 to 2024, including $46.89 million to the Future Forward PAC, which served as the main fundraising vessel for the failed presidential campaign.

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On Monday, the Department of War Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering posted to X: “Americanism, not effective altruism. The United States will continue to be AI DOMINANT!”

As for the reasoning behind “effective altruism’s” commitment to the artificial intelligence policy space, Thayer said the fearmongering technique is comparable to the climate change narrative that has been traditionally peddled by the Democratic Party.

“They basically just say kind of in the same vein as climate change activists like Al Gore used to, they kind of just make bombastic doomsday projections without citing really a whole lot of easily discernible evidence and just expect us to trust their expertise,” Thayer explained.

“First, they got you scared of the data centers based on a bunch of sketchy arguments about water pollution supposedly, and supposedly raising your electric prices, which don’t seem to actually be true,” he added. “And now they’re getting you scared of the actual AI that the data centers are being used to launch.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks to reporters following a meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 2026.(Anadolu via Getty Images)

Thayer said that if AI critics were truly afraid of a potential doomsday scenario, they would be advocating for the extinction of artificial intelligence altogether. Instead, he says that it is a tactic to increase the government’s power over the industry while also acting in their own interest so “that they’re the only ones who are allowed to build it.”

In an opinion piece published in Medium in 2024, Moskovitz noted that he was concerned about the potential risks AI poses, saying that a potential doomsday “situation may develop extremely quickly.”

“Contrary to the popular narrative about effective altruists working in AI, my interest in mitigating the potential risks isn’t rooted in specific predictions about the far future, but rather simple concern about the next few decades, when I and the people I care about are still alive to care about what happens,” he wrote.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, said a meeting at the White House to discuss AI policy could happen before the end of this week or the next. Trump also weighed in on the AI outlook in a post to Truth Social on Monday.

[image_12]Video

“The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by “Climate Change.” That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they’re on to the next one.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to Moskovitz, Coefficient Giving and Coxon for comment.

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news.

Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon agree on AI at ‘pro-human’ gathering

2026-09-15T19:37:30.134Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/politics/sanders-bannon-ai-threat

A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.

Fears about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence have bent the American political spectrum to the point that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont, appeared on the same stage as Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser and MAGA fundamentalist, at an event in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

While the two did not appear onstage together, they spoke just moments apart at the Pro-Human Assembly to call for urgent action to rein in AI.

Both men see what Bannon called a “Cold War moment.” And both raised concerns about the benefits of AI being concentrated among a small number of tech billionaires, while the American public is left to grapple with its risks and pitfalls.

The event came as debate heats up around how to handle the serious risks presented by AI, which some experts and leaders believe could be existential, but which President Donald Trump has called a “hoax.” Rogue AI hacking incidents and AI companies’ own reports about misuse of their tools have added to the fears.

Sanders raised concerns that AI will wipe out jobs, create a “mass surveillance state,” compromise people’s well-being and jeopardize the integrity of elections.

Bannon similarly warned about the impact of AI on an American public that largely did not ask for it. He said Americans “are not going to be supplicants” to AI or AI companies, whom he accused of trying to form a cartel to control the technology.

Both Bannon and Sanders want to put the brakes on the development of superintelligence — an agreement that is notable on its own. But it was clear from their remarks that they diverge on how to move forward, illustrating a split that exists all around Washington.

Sanders has proposed legislation that would give the US government a direct stake in AI companies through a one-time 50% tax on their value to create an American sovereign wealth fund and a law to ban superintelligence that could subvert human control.

Bannon, by contrast, said laws take too much time. He wants President Donald Trump to use executive action to gin up some kind of regulatory agency, although he shared no specifics on what that could look like.

Sanders talked about working with other countries because this is “humanity’s problem,” encouraging Trump to draw up a treaty with China when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. But Bannon said a treaty would take too long and give dangerous power to China; he called instead for barring Chinese nationals from US universities and labs.

Comparing the AI race to the nuclear arms race, Sanders pointed to US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev putting aside differences to form a nuclear disarmament treaty.

“With the survival of humanity at stake, they found a way to sign that treaty,” Sanders said.

Moments later, Bannon gave a very different history lesson.

“Our father and grandfathers,” he said, “stood up to the Soviet Union, and the first thing in standing up to them was to cut them off.”

There should be no deals or agreements with China, Bannon said.

Sanders, who did not mention Bannon, argued that Trump’s ignorance of AI issues is embarrassing. Bannon acknowledged that he and Sanders have very different views of Trump. “We’re trying to raise above partisanship, and we have to,” he said.

While the two advocated for very different approaches to controlling AI, their level of agreement is notable.

Neither Sanders nor Bannon has any faith in AI companies’ CEOs. Sanders demanded that they stop pouring money into US elections; Bannon said they cannot be trusted.

Organizers with the Future of Life Institute said their “pro-human declaration” — which calls for measures such as an “off switch” for powerful AI systems — now has 1 million signatories, including the American Federation of Teachers, SAG-AFTRA and the online safety group Heat Initiative.

The larger alignment between Sanders and Bannon shows how political lines are being redrawn over how to handle the controversial issue.

At the heart of the debate is the question of whether AI development must be slowed to prevent catastrophic risks or if any delay could put the United States behind China in the race to highly powerful AI and blunt the technology’s economic benefits.

A chorus of top AI leaders have in recent days called for government and the corporate sector to implement additional guardrails and intentionally slow the pace of development to keep it from getting out of hand. Still, others in the industry question whether such calls stem, at least in part, from a desire to shape regulation in a way that could be friendly to certain companies.

Trump has called fears around AI a “hoax” in a call with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a live event on Monday. He has rejected the idea of additional AI controls, saying he wants the US to stay ahead of China. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also said that Congress shouldn’t rush to act. That’s despite a growing anti-AI push on the right, including from Bannon, who for months raised concerns about AI’s benefits to what he calls the tech “oligarchy.”

Democrats ranging from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to former President Barack Obama have called for swift action to rein in AI.

A June report from Pew Research Center found that 40% of US adults believe AI will be negative for society over the next 20 years, compared with just 16% who believe it will be positive and 31% who said it would be equally positive and negative.

The issue does not fall along traditional partisan lines. One thing to watch will be whether Republicans take the cue from Trump that efforts to rein in AI are part of a “hoax.”

Tuesday’s event was scheduled to include a wide range of speakers addressing how to shape AI to benefit humanity, including actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has raised concerns about AI’s impact on Hollywood and children, and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who has sought to develop recommendations and trainings for the use of AI in schools. One panel also included parents who say their children died by suicide after interacting with AI chatbots, a stark reminder that existing AI systems can already have stark consequences.

“When you are racing towards a cliff you don’t just ease up on the gas pedal. You hit the brakes,” Sanders said.

Senate fails to advance Clarity Act amid Democratic concerns about crypto bill

September 15, 2026 / 3:23 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The Senate on Tuesday failed to advance a sweeping cryptocurrency bill known as the Clarity Act, amid opposition from Democrats and a handful of Republicans.

In a 49 to 50 vote, the measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to move forward, with all Democrats and four Republicans opposing.

The bill would establish a regulatory framework for digital assets. Ahead of the vote on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune argued passing it would be the “next logical step” after Congress approved legislation last year to regulate a type of digital currency known as stablecoins. Thune said that landmark bill, known as the Genius Act, provided a “light-touch approach” to digital asset regulation, and credited it for the industry “moving in the right direction” in the United States.

Thune, a South Dakota Republican, noted that the Clarity Act distinguishes between the jurisdictions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission,two financial regulators that have split crypto enforcement in sometimes confusing ways, while ensuring that they work together to “harmonize the rules.” He also touted that the bill “ensures that companies can’t skirt securities laws that apply to other financial assets.” And he argued that it “protects the growing number of Americans investing in and utilizing digital assets.”

Thune touted the bill’s support from large financial institutions and law enforcement organizations, while nodding to bipartisan backing as senators have worked for more than a year to bring it to the floor. Thune cited more than 100 changes made to the bill at the request of Democrats, noting that the bill’s GOP sponsors released a final draft with more changes incorporated over the weekend. He said “the question now is whether Democrats will take yes for an answer.”

“This is a shared priority, for Republicans, Democrats and President Trump,” Thune said. “We’ve been working at it now for over a year. The only reason for this progress to end now would be if the Democrats choose politics over good policy. And now is not the time for political games.”

But the changes weren’t enough for Democrats. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts voiced opposition to the bill on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, saying she believes “we can get crypto legislation that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on — but not this bill. “

“This bill poses a massive risk to families, to our economy and to national security,” Warren said.

Warren said “we need crypto legislation that stops political self-dealing,” but she argued that the Clarity Act “would turbocharge Donald Trump’s unprecedented corruption.” She claimed “no one has more to gain personally from this bill than the president of the United States.”

At the center of the impasse is ethics language aimed at preventing officials from profiting off of the industry. But Democrats have argued that the latest changes to the bill don’t go far enough to prevent the president and his family from profiting off of their own crypto ventures.

According to financial disclosures, Mr. Trump made $1.4 billion in crypto-related income last year, including from his meme coin business and his family’s cryptocurrency firm.

Warren said in the latest version of the legislation, which the White House has greenlighted, Republicans included “a tiny little fig leaf that claims they’re doing something about corruption, but that is carefully written to make sure that it will not prevent Donald Trump from making his next $1.4 billion in crypto profits.” She argued that the new text guarantees Mr. Trump will “never, ever be held accountable under the law.”

Warren urged her GOP colleagues to come to the table and “negotiate a real, bipartisan crypto bill.”

Trump administration plans $2.8 billion munitions sale to Israel, sources say

By Humeyra Pamuk
September 15, 2026 6:02 PM UTC Updated 1 hour ago

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to sell to Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, which will ​include tens of thousands of highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs, ‌according to a U.S. official familiar with the sale.

The planned sale, which has been informally communicated to relevant congressional committees who weigh in on large ​arms sales, includes 20,000 MK 84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, the ​official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.

The Misinformation Monitor newsletter rounds up international misinformation narratives, with a “Real or Fake?” quiz in every edition. Sign up here.

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News of ⁠the package was first reported by the Washington Post.

The State ​Department and the Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to a ​request for comment.

U.S. public support for Israel has fallen since the Gaza war began in 2023, particularly among Democrats. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% ​of voters and 66% of Democrats believe the United States ​is too supportive of Israel, up from 16% and 20% when the question ‌was ⁠first asked in 2017.

The 2,000-pound bombs have been regularly used by Israel in Gaza as well as in Lebanon, drawing scrutiny from rights experts. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ​military campaign, according ​to Gaza health ⁠authorities. A U.N. inquiry determined that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a charge Isarel rejects.

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Israel ​calls its actions self-defense, after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 ​people ⁠and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its ⁠own ​strikes on Israel and Gulf states that ​host U.S. bases. U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed ​thousands and displaced millions.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by David Gaffen

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

GOP Rep Thomas Massie introduces 8 articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth

The Kentucky Republican accuses the Secretary of War of violating the War Powers Resolution in Iran and Yemen

September 15, 2026 2:20pm EDT / Fox News

Thomas Massie moves to impeach Pete Hegseth

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduces articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on the House floor on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026.

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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a resolution to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and read eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor Tuesday.

Massie formally entered a resolution to impeach Hegseth for “high crimes and misdemeanors” on the House floor for, among other things, allegedly violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973 in Iran and for his role in the operation that led to former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s capture and extradition.

The first three of the eight articles of impeachment Massie introduced accused Hegseth of violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973, arguing that Hegseth’s Department of War is “waging the Iran war despite no declaration of war, statutory authorization, attack on the United States, or imminent threat.”

His first article seeks to establish “that the war was unlawful from its inception.” The second article claims that Hegseth disobeyed Congress after both the House and the Senate directed the removal of troops from Iran. The third article claims that Hegseth is “continuing hostilities in Iran after expiration of the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day termination period and any potential 30-day withdrawal period.”

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U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduces a resolution to impeach War Secretary Pete Hegseth in connection with the U.S. conflict with Iran on Sept. 15, 2026.(House TV/Handout via REUTERS)

The fourth and fifth articles accuse Hegseth of refusing to minimize civilian casualties and engaging in extrajudicial killing, with the latter charge accusing Hegseth of “replacing maritime law enforcement with unauthorized lethal military targeting of suspected drug traffickers” during operations striking suspected narcotraffickers in the Caribbean Sea.

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Also related to military action in the Caribbean and South America, Massie’s seventh article accuses Hegseth of the “Kidnapping of a Sovereign Foreign Leader” for his role in Operation Absolute Resolve, the January mission in which U.S. Special Forces apprehended and extracted former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from Caracas. Massie’s article condemns Hegseth for doing so “without constitutional or legal authority.”

War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference on U.S. military action in Iran at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Mar. 2, 2026.(Brendan Smialowski/AFP/ via Getty Images)

Article six accuses Hegseth of using his authority to suppress the free speech of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., by retaliating against the senator for his video in which the senator joined a group of other lawmakers in a video which critics claimed encourage active military members to disobey lawful orders.

The final article charges Hegseth with carrying out unlawful orders in Yemen. The article “charges Secretary Hegseth with initiating Operation Rough Rider without congressional authorization or an imminent threat to the United States, while also violating war powers reporting requirements. It further addresses extensive civilian deaths and unlawful strikes on civilian objects, rescuers, and other protected persons.”

After reading out his articles for over an hour on the House floor, Massie closed out his introduction.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., arrives for a House vote on the funding bill to reopen the government on Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“In all of this, Secretary Hegseth abused the powers entrusted to him as Secretary of Defense by subordinating the constitutional limits on the use of military force and the laws governing the conduct of hostilities to his own policy objectives,” Massie said.

Massie also added that Hegseth “has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to civilians, the lawful conduct of United States military operations, the integrity and credibility of the United States Armed Forces and the Constitution, if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties, and the rule of law.

This, Massie said, “warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”

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Fox News Digital contacted Massie’s office and the Pentagon for further comment.

Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board votes to close institution immediately for renovations, source says

2026-09-15 15:26 EDT / CBS News

By Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter

Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Read Full Bio

The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted to immediately close the institution for renovations, a source familiar with the vote said, after President Trump and his allies on the board repeatedly warned of financial and physical ruin for the center if no action is taken.

Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge again blocked the board — which is chaired by Mr. Trump and composed of his Cabinet members and political allies — from adding Mr. Trump’s name to the building after he had previously ordered it to be removed.

“Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in his ruling.

Cooper’s ruling came in response to the board’s vote in August to add the inscription “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” beneath the Kennedy Center’s name on the building.

Last December, the board had voted to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” and added Mr. Trump’s name to the facade. Judge Cooper ruled in May that Mr. Trump’s name had been added illegally and ordered its removal. At the time, he also blocked the administration from closing the venue for renovations.

Since Mr. Trump’s name was removed, the exterior wall displaying the Kennedy Center’s name has been obscured by a tarp-covered scaffold.

Lawyers for the Justice Department argued in court filings in the lawsuit that the center’s “dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit” conditions and recent financial losses put the living memorial to President John F. Kennedy in a “financial and structural death spiral” that requires it to be closed for renovations.

Last year, Congress approved $250 million for the renovation project.

In a Truth Social post shortly after the board voted Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that construction would not begin on the center until after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules on a Justice Department appeal of Cooper’s earlier order barring the first renaming, with Mr. Trump’s name on the building.

“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he has raised $17 million so far in donations to send to the center to “keep it afloat.”

The source of the donations mentioned by Mr. Trump was not disclosed, and it’s unclear where the donations are going.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/doj-in-court-defend-kennedy-center-board-new-push-add-trump-name-building/

Thomas Massie pushes surprise impeachment vote of Pete Hegseth

2026-09-15T18:15:01.674Z / CNN

House Democrats were privately dreading a politically charged — but purely symbolic — vote on impeaching President Donald Trump triggered by one of their own members.

Then came something unexpected.

Just hours before that vote, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie surprised his colleagues with a push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a stunning act of intraparty warfare that deepens the rogue congressman’s rift with Trump and GOP leaders.

Massie’s push to impeach Hegseth, like the Democratic push to impeach Trump, is doomed to fail. Yet both votes have created headaches for their respective party leaders, neither of whom want to spend the final days in session before the midterms dealing with impeachment drama that exposes intraparty rifts.

Massie’s impeachment push — with dozens of pages of legal arguments — appeared to have been in the works for weeks. But he told reporters Tuesday that he did not inform party leaders of his plans to introduce the articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

Republicans do not want to watch Massie make history as the first member of Congress to try to impeach a Cabinet member of the same party — particularly after he lost his primary to a Trump-backed opponent this spring. And they’re furious he made the move without informing leadership, according to multiple sources.

“I didn’t give anybody heads-up,” Massie told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “When they found out I was doing the Epstein discharge petition, they canceled two weeks of Congress, and I think if they found out I was going to do this, they might have canceled even more days.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are irritated that their colleague — Rep. Al Green, who also lost his primary in May — is forcing the impeachment vote at a time when Republicans would otherwise be facing pressure on tariffs, gas prices and AI. Their moods lifted, however, once Massie took to the floor to announce his intention to force a vote to impeach Hegseth.

“Just when you think Al Green screws us, Massie turns around and gives it right back to the Rs,” one Democratic aide quipped.

Just ahead of a seven-week recess, the House is now confronting dueling impeachment headaches — both from members who won’t be in Congress next year and who have proved uncontrollable by party leaders.

The House is set to hold a vote to table — or block — the Trump impeachment resolution Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear when a vote will be held on the Hegseth impeachment measure, but it could take place this week. Party leaders must hold a vote within the coming days — unless they decide to send the House home early.

In his 34-page resolution, Massie argues that Hegseth has repeatedly abused the powers of his office in leading the US war with Iran, including carrying out unlawful orders and continuing to keep troops deployed without authorization from Congress.

Hegseth, he argued, “has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with his duties and the rule of law.” Massie spent multiple hours reading aloud his resolution on the House floor.

Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday defended Hegseth in light of the impeachment push, arguing that he “follows the law.”

“Secretary Hegseth is doing a phenomenal job, and the secretary of war doesn’t just go off and do things. So, he follows the law. And so the DOJ plays a role in that, and we play an active role in making sure the laws are complied with,” Blanche said while holding a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden.

The impeachment resolution touched on more than Iran. Massie also took aim at Hegseth for what he called the “kidnapping of a sovereign foreign leader” in Venezuela, referring to the capture of then-President Nicolás Maduro. He accused the Pentagon of kidnapping the nation’s leader “under the guise of narcotics law enforcement, though in actuality intended to assert U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil reserves.”

Democrats’ resolution, meanwhile, is less politically explosive for the party. Still, it requires a tricky calculation for the party in the minority.

The party has impeached Trump twice already when they held the majority in his first term. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team have been careful to keep their political focus on the rising cost of living. Democrats’ path back into the majority will need to come through battleground seats that Trump has previously won — and they do not want to alienate independent and GOP voters with impeachment rhetoric.

But Democrats also know their base detests Trump, with many voters eager to see him impeached a third time.

Jeffries and his leadership team said in a joint statement Monday night that they will vote “present” — rather than committing to an up or down vote — on a procedural measure related to Green’s impeachment push.

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” they said, noting the process requires “comprehensive investigative” work to lay out the evidence and convince the American public, which they said Green has not done.

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

FBI director insists new hiring standards on prostitution and bestiality were only meant to assist sexual assault victims

September 15, 2026 / 3:50 PM EDT / CBS News

FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday defended his agency’s decision to lower its hiring standards, after he faced a barrage of questions from incredulous lawmakers who demanded to know why engaging in acts of bestiality is no longer an automatic disqualifier for employment.

In a series of extraordinary exchanges with both Democratic and Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel insisted that several changes were made to ensure that victims of sexual assault or trafficking involving animals were not precluded from employment at the FBI.

“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked,” Patel told Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin during an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We did not want to make it an automatic disqualification for the FBI to consider you if you are a victim of these awful, heinous acts. They still have to go through the same rigorous standards and application process,” Patel added.

Tuesday’s hearing marked the first time that Patel has publicly addressed the new hiring standards related to prostitution, employment theft and bestiality, after CBS News first reported about them in August.

Previously, anyone who engaged in such conduct was automatically precluded from working at the bureau.

Now, a person can still be considered eligible in certain circumstances.

For prostitution, job candidates can still be hired as long as they have not hired sex workers or engaged in acts of prostitution three or more times and the conduct took place more than 10 years ago.

For employment theft, a person can be considered if the theft took place more than three years ago, and for bestiality, a job candidate can still be eligible as long as the acts occurred before the age of 18, multiple sources familiar with the changes previously told CBS News.

Sources previously told CBS News that the new eligibility requirements do not distinguish between candidates who were coerced into sexual activity with animals, as opposed to those who engaged in such acts willingly.

On the eve of the hearing, Democrats from the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Patel demanding a “full accounting” for why such changes were made and asked the bureau to provide “the number of applicants hired, extended conditional offers, or placed under case-by-case review since June 16, 2026, whose files would previously have been automatically disqualified, broken out by category of conduct.”

Lawmakers on Tuesday from both sides of the aisle repeatedly grilled Patel over the decision, with most of them primarily focusing their questions on the changes related to acts of bestiality.

“Tell me what it said before,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana asked, referring to the automatic disqualification for acts of bestiality.

“It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal side,” Patel said.

“Either side of what, the bestiality?” Kennedy asked.

“Yes,” Patel responded.

“So you disqualified the animal?” Kennedy responded.

“Well, we have great canines,” Patel said.

“I’m trying to understand why you did this,” Kennedy continued. “Why would you even get into bestiality?”

Patel told lawmakers that some FBI applicants were trafficked and forced to engage in “degrading acts” such as those involving animals, and the changes were meant to assist people in that category.

“Some of these individuals would go on to be law enforcement officers, who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI,” Patel said.

Patel also told Kennedy that the changes related to prostitution were meant to ensure that victims who were forced into the act were not precluded from employment.

“It’s not if you frequented a prostitute. It’s if you were a prostitute?” Kennedy asked.

“If you were, yes, the victim forced into it,” Patel responded.

The internal changes to the automatic disqualification, however, relate to both the solicitation and engagement of prostitution, sources previously told CBS News, and an FBI spokesperson also previously acknowledged that the changes might also apply to an applicant who admits to hiring a sex worker in a place where it is lawful.

Current and former FBI agents and legal experts familiar with the bureau’s hiring practices previously told CBS News they were deeply troubled by the changes, saying it is indicative of challenges the FBI may be having with recruiting new talent.

Several also said they were baffled by how the bureau was justifying the changes, noting that all applicants have an opportunity to disclose personal issues that could impact the results of their polygraph prior to taking the test, such as a history of sexual abuse.

Patel did not explain during the hearing why the bureau has lowered the standards for candidates who may have stolen in the past from their employers.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/kash-patel-defends-changes-fbi-hiring-standards-questioning-senate-hearing/

Kash Patel defends changes to FBI hiring standards during questioning at Senate hearing

(04:59)

Iran war expected to cause a spike in US inflation, according to budget watchdog

2026-09-15T18:06:48.945Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/15/politics/cbo-releases-iran-war-cost-estimate

The US war with Iran is expected to increase inflation for the first quarter of 2027, raising costs at a time Americans are growing more concerned about the economy, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday,

The CBO expects the Iran war to add roughly 0.5 percentage points to inflation during that period, a calculation that is largely driven by higher energy costs due to the conflict.

The office said, in a letter to Congress, that the projected spike was tied to the “inflationary pressures caused by the reduction in shipments of oil and natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz and disruptions to shipping through the Red Sea (which have intensified since CBO completed the analysis underlying this letter).”

On top of the impact on the US economy, the CBO estimates the war has cost approximately $38 billion through August 1. The estimate does not include the cost to repair US facilities damaged during the war, with most of the price tag coming from munitions expenditures, the office said.

“CBO estimates that the cost to replace the munitions expended through August 1, 2026, is $21.7 billion: $7.3 billion for the land-attack cruise missiles, $13.1 billion for the missile defense interceptors, and $1.2 billion for other munitions,” the letter said. “Replacing those munitions has been the largest single component of the costs incurred by DoD during the conflict, CBO estimates.”

The CBO estimates the war will continue to cost the US approximately $2 billion to $3 billion per month past August 1, with higher costs estimated during periods of escalated fighting.

But the CBO said it would not provide a full accounting of the war’s cost as requested by lawmakers given limitations in available data.

“The estimates that CBO was asked to produce for each category of costs are the result of separate analyses that reflect disparate data, methods, time periods, and magnitudes of uncertainty,” the office said. “Thus, the estimates for each category are not directly comparable or summable.”

The CBO estimate closely tracks what the Pentagon has told Congress, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth putting the cost at $37.5 billion through July 21 during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Defense Department’s estimates similarly do not include the cost of repairing facilities. In some cases, the US government may simply decline to rebuild assets that were severely damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks — in part due to cost considerations, sources previously told CNN.

Pentagon officials have publicly refused to say what they might rebuild and declined to respond to CBO’s request for information.

Pentagon comptroller Jules “Jay” Hurst III told reporters in April it was not clear how much it would cost to repair bases and facilities damaged in the war, “and part of it is we would assess what our posture should be in the Middle East.”

Hurst later added that the Pentagon does not “have a final number for what the damage is to our installations overseas,” and it depends “on how we decide to rebuild those, or if we do.”

The CBO also conducted an analysis of US stockpiles, and found that the war has significantly depleted munitions, including interceptor stockpiles. That assessment matches a Pentagon inspector general report released Monday that described a critical missile shortage.

Experts warn this could reduce the military’s capacity to respond to another major conflict. Rebuilding the US stockpile could take five years or longer, the CBO reported.

The CBO released these estimates in response to a request from House Democrats on the Budget Committee who have pressed for specifics on how much the US-Iran war is costing.

“Donald Trump’s disastrous war in Iran has already taken the lives of brave American servicemembers and left others wounded. Beyond that human toll, this nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs,” Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle, the committee’s ranking member, said in a statement to CNN.

NATO jets shoot down drone in Lithuanian airspace as Russia grows ‘increasingly reckless,’ Rutte says

September 15, 2026 8:56am EDT / Fox News

Two Italian Eurofighter Typhoons scrambled overnight and destroyed the drone, which officials say likely entered from Belarus

By Bradford Betz Fox News

Two Italian Eurofighter Typhoons operating under NATO command scrambled overnight and shot down a drone over Lithuania, marking the first time a drone has been downed in the Baltic nation’s airspace, officials said Tuesday.

The incident came less than a day after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned that strikes close to alliance territory would drive the 32-nation bloc to increase its support for Ukraine.

The drone was destroyed near the village of Pratkūnai, about 60 miles northwest of the capital, Vilnius.

RUSSIA PREPARING HYBRID ATTACKS ON NATO’S EASTERN FLANK, INTELLIGENCE WARNS

Lithuanian soldiers are securing the area where Italian fighter jets during NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission shot down a drone early morning near Pratkunai village, Kaisiadorys district roughly 60 miles northwest of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026.

“Last night, two Italian Eurofighters deployed on NATO Air Defence mission at Siauliai, scrambled and shot down a drone over Lithuanian airspace,” a NATO official told Fox News Digital. “The operation was coordinated through NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany. Investigations are ongoing together with national authorities.”

Lithuanian officials said the drone most likely entered from neighboring Belarus and remained in the country’s airspace for about 30 minutes before it was intercepted.

Lithuanian soldiers are securing the area where Italian fighter jets during NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission shot down a drone early this morning near Pratkunai village.(AP Photo)

Lithuanian Air Force Commander Antanas Matutis said the recovered drone was “likely” carrying explosives.

Authorities are examining the wreckage of the downed drone to determine its origin and purpose.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions along NATO’s eastern flank.

RUSSIA EXPOSES NATO WEAPONS GAP AS TOP COMMANDER WARNS ‘THE MATH IS NOT IN FAVOR OF THE WEST’

Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Rutte said strikes “close to NATO territory” showed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror.”

“Russia is growing increasingly reckless as it continues its terrible war against Ukraine,” Rutte said, while pledging to strengthen NATO defenses along its eastern flank.

Debris of what, according to the Lithuanian national crisis management centre, was a drone shot down by a NATO fighter jet, lies on the ground near Pratkunai village, Lithuania, September 15, 2026, in this screengrab from a handout video.(Lithuanian Army/Handout via Reuters)

In a separate incident Tuesday, Denmark said a Russian frigate fired flares toward a Danish military helicopter conducting routine surveillance over the Baltic Sea. Denmark summoned the Russian ambassador over the encounter.

Meanwhile, Russia continued drone strikes across Ukraine, killing three people in Kyiv, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, according to Ukrainian officials.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv remained ready to support de-escalation if the U.S. could ensure Russia was prepared to stop its attacks. Ukrainian forces also struck an oil refinery in Syzran and targeted a drone production facility in Taganrog, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues, and much more.