Spanberger voting-rights letters sent to dead felons amid ballot access push

2026-10-05 14:06:16 EDT / Fox News

Families say deceased relatives got notices encouraging them to re-register through Virginia’s online voter registration

By Charles Creitz, Fox News

Published October 5, 2026 2:06pm EDT

Deceased Virginians with felony convictions are reportedly among those receiving voting-rights restoration letters under Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who announced in July that she had restored voting rights to 66,000 people with felony convictions.

The notices come as Virginia separately implements a federal court ruling that sharply narrowed which felony convictions can trigger disenfranchisement, while voters this fall will decide whether to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights upon release from incarceration.

“I’ve been a lawyer for 27 years and in every minute of my career, when you were convicted of a felony, you lose your voting rights. The way you get those back is you have to petition the governor and then the governor can review your case and determine whether the civil rights of a convicted felon should be restored,” Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson told Fox News Digital on Monday.

Anderson, who shared posts showing letters from Spanberger and her administration sent to families of deceased recipients, said the situation is “one or the other” — either Richmond is not vetting who receives the restoration notifications or its vetting is not thorough enough to catch deceased recipients.

SPANBERGER SPARKS OUTRAGE AFTER SNEAKILY ENDING YOUNGKIN-ERA WOMEN’S SPORTS PROTECTIONS

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks during a “Defend the Vote” rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 2026, coinciding with the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 “March on Washington” rally for civil rights.(Ken Cedeno/AFP via Getty Images)

“The order specifically says that they’ve reviewed [each] case individually, right?”

He noted that Virginia has online voter registration and questioned whether an unscrupulous relative who received one of the notifications might try to register their dead relative to vote.

“These dead people clearly aren’t petitioning the governor to get their civil liberties back… they’re restoring every single felon’s civil disabilities without anybody even asking. And that’s concerning, especially when they’re dead.”

Virginia resident Howard “Skip” Lambert posted a July 1 restoration notice signed by Spanberger and an Aug. 31 notification from her administration addressed to a redacted relative, informing the recipient that their voting rights had been restored.

The July letter said that after the relative had been convicted and sentenced, Spanberger’s office “completed review of the particulars of the individual’s case.”

Anderson pointed to that line as evidence of vetting.

Lambert’s letter went on to say the relative would have their civil rights — except for the ability to transport or possess firearms — restored effective July 1.

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR ABIGAIL SPANBERGER QUIETLY ROLLS BACK YOUNGKIN’S PLANS TO PROTECT GIRLS’ SPORTS

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405360067112

Abigail Spanberger slammed after admin ends women’s sports protection proposal

In the ensuing letter from Secretary of the Commonwealth Candi Mundon-King, the relative was notified that Spanberger had restored their right to vote and serve on a jury and was encouraged to re-register to vote at the online “Citizen’s Portal” via a QR code.

Lambert wrote that he was upset by the mailings, saying the recipient was his daughter, who died in 2024. He also confirmed that she had a felony conviction.

“Interesting this letter arrives as early-voting begins… yet the provided official order is dated July 1,” he said on Sept. 24. “Just because cash doesn’t change hands doesn’t mean the governor isn’t trying to buy votes.

Reached by phone Monday, the Fredericksburg-area resident confirmed to Fox News Digital that the documents were authentic and that the recipient was his daughter.

“I do have a question of timing in the letter I believe my daughter voted in the previous election where it was Hillary and Donald Trump — because she had had her rights restored then,” he said.

Around the time of that election, former Democratic Gov. Terence McAuliffe attempted a mass restoration but was rebuked by the Virginia Supreme Court, which ruled that he did not have the authority to take such an action affecting an estimated 206,000 Virginians, according to NPR.

Another woman, Peggie Young, posted a similar set of documents addressed to her “dear BFF, Peter Breton.”

“I have his ashes. Is this perhaps how voter fraud begins. I’m so confused,” she said, adding that she also received the letter only on Sept. 29.

Young could not immediately be reached.

The federal case began in 2023 as King v. Youngkin, when disenfranchised Virginians sued then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin and other state officials, arguing that Virginia’s blanket felony ban conflicted with the federal Virginia Readmission Act of 1870.

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signs executive orders.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

U.S. District Judge John Gibney Jr. ruled in January that Virginia could disenfranchise people only for 11 common-law felonies recognized in 1870. After rejecting the state’s effort to map those offenses onto a broader list of modern crimes, Virginia ultimately narrowed automatic disenfranchisement to murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

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The Department of Elections is separately notifying roughly 235,000 Virginians whose convictions no longer disqualify them from voting. Those court-driven notices are distinct from the Spanberger restoration orders received by Lambert and Young, which state that the governor’s office reviewed each recipient’s case before restoring multiple civil rights.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger’s office and ELECT for comment.

British Airways flight drops 27,000 feet en route to Chicago and returns to London

October 5, 2026 2:15 PM EDT / CBS News

By Sarah Lynch Baldwin

A British Airways flight started descending 27,000 feet about 30 minutes after it departed London on Monday en route to Chicago, according to flight data.

A spokesperson for British Airways said there was a technical issue and that the aircraft later landed safely.

The jet had dropped to 9,000 feet from 36,000 feet over a period of several minutes, tracking data from FlightAware shows. It appeared to be a controlled descent.

The plane turned around over Ireland and circled for a few hours, data shows, apparently to burn off fuel. It later landed back at Heathrow Airport Monday evening local time.

“Customers disembarked the aircraft normally and our teams are working to get their travel plans back on track as quickly as possible,” the airline spokesperson said.

Amanda Forssell and Sarah Ploss contributed to this report.

Russia plays down plague fears and denies lab accident, says scientist died of “pneumonia of unknown origin”

2026-10-05T12:30:00-0400 / CBS News

By
Ramy Inocencio

Ramy Inocencio is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in London, covering Europe and the Middle East. He joined the Network in 2019 as CBS News’ Asia correspondent, based in Beijing and reporting across the Asia-Pacific, bringing two decades of experience working and traveling between Asia and the United States.

Read Full Bio

Updated on: October 5, 2026 / 12:32 PM EDT / CBS News

Russia’s government played down concerns Monday sparked by media reports that a female scientist in Siberia might have died of exposure to the plague after a lab accident.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that the state health watchdog known as Rospotrebnadzor was the “lead agency with expertise in this area,” and he urged Russians to “listen to official information” from its “highly qualified professionals.”

The researcher who died has been identified by the Russian reports as Darya Shipilova, 28, who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute more than 2,500 miles east of Moscow.

Russian media initially reported that she broke a test tube containing plague bacteria in late September, came down with severe pneumonia and then died of her illness on Oct. 1.

The plague bacterium referred to by the reports is yersinia pestis, the same one that caused the Black Death that swept across Europe in the mid-1300s, killing an estimated 25-50 million people. That pandemic, often referred to as the bubonic plague, was spread by fleas living on rodents and other animals in close proximity to — and in the same grim sanitary conditions as — people.

The pathogen, if untreated, can cause swelling, fever and death.

A microscopic image shows the yersinia pestis bacteria, which causes plague infections in humans. RUSLANAS BARANAUSKAS/SCIENCE PHO/Getty Images

Shipilova, according to Russian media, died from the pneumonic plague, which is caused by the same bacteria but attacks the lungs and causes a fever and a cough that can turn bloody. Pneumonic plague can be transmitted from person to person, unlike bubonic plague, and can also be fatal.

The head of Russia’s eastern Republic of Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, initially said Shipilova died of the plague in a post on the state-backed messaging app MAX. He later edited the post to add the word “possibly,” according to an independent regional Russian media outlet that operates in exile, Lyudi Baikala (People of Baikal).

He was not the only Russian official to walk back their words on the story.

Local officials initially warned people not to visit the town of Shelekhov, where the scientist was hospitalized and later died, citing “unofficial information” about a human plague case.

The post was deleted less than two hours later, according to both Lyudi Baikala and Astra, another independent news website.

Since then, Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, has said it carried out “anti-epidemic measures” that included testing nearly 200 people who had come into contact with Shipilova.

The agency said some people had tested positive for colds or COVID, but that no pathogens causing dangerous infections were found. It also said there had been no accident at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, and it attributed the scientist’s death to “pneumonia of unknown origin.”

Speaking with reporters on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the reports of a suspected plague case in Russia were not cause for alarm, but “for focus.”

“We know what we know, obviously, about whatever the Russians have provided,” he said. “It seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected, and there’s concern that that, you know, could have spread.”

But Rubio said, given “very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia,” he did not believe it was “cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus, and a cause to just keep an eye on it, and we’re doing that.”

Jennifer Jacobs contributed to this report.

CNN’s top 10 Senate seats most likely to flip, explained

2026-10-05 1:03 PM EDT / CNN

By Manu Raju and Arlette Saenz, CNN

Published 1:03 PM EDT, Mon October 5, 2026

CNN’s top 10 Senate seats most likely to flip, explained

Inside Politics

On “Inside Politics,” Arlette Saenz and Manu Raju talk through changes to CNN’s ranking of the top ten Senate seats most likely to flip. Saenz explains the decision to add Kansas to the list, telling Raju, “there is a potential that this is a lot more competitive than people may have predicted.”

3:46 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/video/cnn-senate-race-rankings-october-ip

Biden’s ‘anti-MAGA task force’ sparked internal alarm across DOJ, new report shows

2026-10-05T14:09:45-04:00 / Fox News

FBI and DOJ officials raised concerns about politicization and First Amendment rights as the task force was assembled

By Robert Schmad, Fox News

Published October 5, 2026 2:09pm EDT

DOJ probes alleged Biden-era crackdown on parental rights, internal emails revealed

Fox News correspondent David Spunt details the Justice Department’s probe into alleged Biden-era government weaponization against parents. Internal emails from October 2021 show senior DOJ officials expressed discomfort with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo concerning threats against school board members, calling it ‘stupid’ and suggesting an ‘Anti-MAGA Task Force’ renaming. The National School Boards Association later apologized for its initial letter.

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The Biden administration’s effort to combat alleged threats against school boards amid a wave of heated parent protests triggered sustained internal resistance within the Justice Department and FBI, documents released by the DOJ show.

“Five years ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued an infamous memorandum at the urging of the National School Boards Association and White House officials, directing the FBI and United States Attorneys to consider looking for a federal hook to prosecute parents exercising their right to free speech,” Blanche posted to X on Monday, when the DOJ released the “Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools.”

“Along with the report, we’ve released hundreds of exhibits and emails that make official and verify what many Americans had guessed: the Garland DOJ worked hand in hand with WH officials and the National School Boards Association to chill free speech and parental rights while they threatened to prosecute parents and label them domestic terrorists,” Blanche added.

In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to coordinate with federal, state and local law enforcement over what it described as an “increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools,” amid escalating clashes involving parents at school board meetings.

TRUMP DOJ REPORT LAYS BARE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S ALLEGED ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland delivers a statement at the Department of Justice on April 26, 2021, in Washington, DC.(Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images)

Garland’s memo drew significant internal pushback across the Justice Department and FBI, with officials raising concerns about politicization, First Amendment protections and whether there was a sufficient federal basis for intervention, according to the Justice Department report released Monday.

The memo followed throngs of parents protesting at school board meetings over dissatisfaction with how gender and race were being taught in classrooms and COVID-19-era learning restrictions, prompting the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to appeal to then-President Joe Biden for federal assistance and warn that some actions surrounding the protests “could be equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Some of the internal messages detailed in the Justice Department’s report released Monday had been disclosed previously and reported on by Fox News Digital. In one message sent before Garland’s memo went public on Oct. 4, 2021, a deputy assistant attorney general said the operation — and proposals to link it to the DOJ’s election crimes work — looked so politically motivated that Garland “might as well rename the damn thing the Anti-MAGA Task Force.” The DOJ’s Public Integrity Section chief, meanwhile, called the proposal “stupid.”

An FBI counterterrorism official later raised concerns about the label “domestic terrorist” potentially being applied to everyone who “oppose school board actions,” while a DOJ Civil Rights Division attorney noted that much of the activity in question could be protected under the parents’ First Amendment rights.

DOJ LAWSUIT TARGETS ALLEGED SCHOOL ‘SECRET GENDER TRANSITIONS’ POLICIES THAT KEEP PARENTS IN THE DARK

A woman holds a sign as Loudoun County School Board members vote to enact Policy 8040 during a school board meeting at the Loudoun County Public Schools Administration Building on Aug. 11, 2021 in Ashburn, Va.(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Multiple DOJ officials noted that the problem at hand appeared to fall primarily within the jurisdiction of state and local authorities and questioned whether there was a sufficient federal basis to intervene, according to the report.

Internal dissent over the effort continued as the memo was implemented following its Oct. 4, 2021, release and during the resulting fallout.

On Oct. 5, 2021, an FBI lawyer claimed that the DOJ issued the press release accompanying the memo without coordinating with the bureau. The Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, the agency’s largest operational division, stated that “we were all caught off guard by this announcement,” which was “unilaterally pushed by DOJ.”

As the DOJ began assembling its task force, objections persisted.

BLISTERING REPORT EXPOSES HOW NATIONAL K-12 GROUP’S DEI AGENDA IS TRICKLING DOWN TO LOCAL SCHOOLS

Angry parents and community members protest after a Loudoun County School Board over critical race theory.(Evelyn Hockstein via Reuters)

The Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ’s National Security Division stated that he didn’t “see the need for a task force like this” and that the Justice Department doesn’t “start a narrowly focused task force every time some group believes they are the subject of threat.”

Later that month, the Department of Homeland Security circulated a brief linking the threat level facing educational workers as tied to heightened opposition to masks, vaccines and critical race theory. An FBI counterterrorism official slammed the threat assessment guidelines as a “politically charged paper,” expressing his desire that the FBI not collaborate.

NSBA ultimately apologized for the language used in its letter to then-President Joe Biden seeking federal assistance, including action by the Justice Department and FBI.

“The obligation of the Justice Department is to protect the American people against violence and threats of violence and that particularly includes public officials,” he said of the memo.

Some school board officials did receive online and written threats in 2021, a fact supporters of Garland’s approach cited in defending the Justice Department’s response.

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Arnold & Porter, the law firm where Garland now serves as a partner, did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Monday.

Supreme Court wrestles with energy companies’ bid to block major climate-change lawsuit

2026-10-05T13:54:09-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-climate-change-energy-companies-boulder-colorado-arguments/

Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday grappled with a complex dispute involving an effort by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, to hold energy companies accountable for the effects of global climate change.

Eight of the court’s nine justices heard nearly two hours of oral arguments in the case Suncor Energy v. Commissioners of Boulder County. Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case, the Supreme Court said last week.

No reason was given for Alito’s decision to sit out the case. His financial disclosure for 2025 shows that he had individual holdings in two energy companies, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. Alito did not report holding individual stocks in either Exxon Mobil or Suncor Energy, the two companies that Boulder filed its lawsuit against in 2018.

Alito’s recusal leaves open the possibility that the Supreme Court deadlocks 4-4 in the case. That outcome would mean the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court would stand, allowing Boulder’s case to proceed.

Boulder’s dispute against Exxon and Suncor remains in its early stages. At issue before the Supreme Court is whether the lawsuit can proceed or is barred by federal law. The high court also asked lawyers for both sides to address whether it has jurisdiction to review the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision.

Demonstrators outside the Supreme Court building on Oct. 5, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Finn Gomez / Getty Images

In questions to both Kannon Shanmugam, who argued on behalf of Exxon and Suncor, and Sarah Harris, the principal deputy solicitor general, Justice Brett Kavanaugh repeatedly said that four of the Supreme Court’s decisions dating back to 1972 make clear that interstate air and water pollution are matters of federal law.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, because we’ve said this multiple times and Congress, presumably when doing the Clean Air Act and doing the Clean Air Act amendments, has relied on this court’s precedents establishing that this kind of pollution is a federal-law matter, unless Congress speaks otherwise,” he said.

The Trump administration is backing Exxon, the nation’s largest oil company, and Suncor, which operates two oil refineries in Colorado, in the case. Boulder’s lawsuit, Harris said, “egregiously exceeds” constitutional limits of state authority.

“Interstate air pollution is an inherently federal area, and Congress hasn’t authorized this suit in the Clean Air Act,” she said.

But Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stressed that the Supreme Court’s review is “premature.”

“It feels like we don’t really know enough to be confident that the theories that you are proposing are actually applicable here,” she told Harris.

Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor and Exxon

The lawsuit from the city and county of Boulder is one of dozens filed by states and local governments against energy companies in state courts that seek money damages for past and future harms that they allege are caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which has led to global warming.

Boulder alleges in its suit that Exxon and Suncor’s conduct has caused or contributed to climate change, which has in turn forced the city and county to confront extreme heat, larger and more frequent wildfires and damage to the ecosystem, among other issues.

The city and county raised several claims under state law and argued that the energy companies’ production and allegedly deceptive marketing of fossil fuels has led to “unchecked” use of their products that has caused a rapid rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Exxon and Suncor attempted to move the case to federal court, but that effort was unsuccessful. The companies also asked the Boulder County District Court to dismiss the case on the grounds that federal law foreclosed the claims against them. When the state court denied that request, the companies asked the Colorado Supreme Court to step in.

The state’s high court sided with the city and county of Boulder, and Suncor and Exxon appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s arguments

Shanmugam, who argued on behalf of Exxon and Suncor, told the justices during arguments that the Constitution and the Clean Air Act preclude claims that seek to address the harms caused by interstate greenhouse-gas emissions. He also warned that efforts like Boulder’s to secure relief from the effects of air pollution undermine the government’s control over foreign affairs.

Shanmugam called Boulder’s lawsuit an “unprecedented effort” to use state law to regulate global conduct, which is not allowed under the nation’s constitutional system.

“A state does not have the power to regulate out-of-state conduct based solely on attenuated effects on the state,” he said.

Shanmugam warned that if Boulder’s lawsuit is allowed to go forward, 90,000 municipalities could file similar challenges and “have the ability to make national and international energy policy by asking juries to impose catastrophic damages on selected fossil-fuel producers.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, too, noted that if Boulder prevails before the Supreme Court, local governments in every state will file their own lawsuits similar to Boulder’s.

“How would you think that will work out on the ground?” he asked Kevin Russell, who argued on behalf of Boulder.

Russell stressed that even if Boulder’s case can move forward, more litigation over the specifics of the suit will follow.

But Roberts also said there are other instances where the Supreme Court has allowed state-court lawsuits involving issues with wide impacts to go ahead.

“There are a lot of familiar situations where conduct outside of a state has broad effects from other states and all that, and yet we allow state courts in a particular state to bring litigation that affects that, whether it’s a mass tort sort of thing or maybe complaints about operations of the internet,” the chief justice said. “I guess I’m not quite sure what makes this situation different from all those other ones where we’ve allowed them to proceed in state court.”

Justice Elena Kagan, meanwhile, said the case against the energy companies appears similar to lawsuits brought against tobacco companies in the 1990s and pharmaceutical companies in response to the opioid epidemic.

“This is chapter three,” she said, noting that state claims against those companies could proceed.

But Kavanaugh said later that “this court has consistently said that air and water pollution are different in our federal enclaves.”

Lawyers for Boulder city and county are urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal on the grounds that it does not have jurisdiction. If the justices opt not to, they say the Colorado Supreme Court decision should be upheld.

“Since the founding, states have had the power to provide tort remedies for injuries occurring within their borders, even when the conduct causing those injuries occurred elsewhere,” Russell told the justices.

He also argued that Congress “stands at the ready” to intervene and enact federal law that preempts “unreasonable state laws.”

“This litigation is not an attempt to solve climate change; it merely asks that petitioners bear their fair share of local costs incurred in part because of their tortious conduct,” Russell wrote in a filing.

He also told the justices that Boulder did not sue for emissions, which are regulated by the Clean Air Act, but over allegedly deceptive marketing and production, which that law does not regulate.

“It is not an effort to reduce emissions,” Russell said. “Under our deception theory, they can continue to produce as much fossil fuels as they like and contribute to as much air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, as the market will bear when consumers are properly informed about the consequences of that decision.”

A decision from the Supreme Court is expected by summer of 2027.

Trump is clearly trying to buy votes with taxpayer money

2026-10-05T16:20:50.571Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/trump-taxpayer-money-midterms

President Donald Trump is ramping up his efforts to use taxpayer money and resources to help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections.

And it’s not at all subtle.

At last month’s Republican midterm convention, he severely pushed the envelope by promising every adult US citizen $5,000 if Republicans hold both the House and the Senate. That was already stunning — to offer voters money for a specific outcome. But Trump has only continued pushing the envelope since then.

Over the last 10 days, he has run more than a dozen different government-funded ads that are geared toward promoting himself and his supposed accomplishments.

Last week, Trump held two separate White House events in which he made exaggerated promises about major economic projects in key states holding crucial Senate races.

Also last week, the administration sent $500 checks to nearly 1 million Obamacare recipients.

By Friday, the administration apparently found yet more money to send out: $90 for around 20 million senior citizens to help pay for their Medicare Part B premiums.

And in recent days, Trump has re-upped his $5,000 pitch on social media and featured it prominently at rallies in Alabama and Oklahoma.

Any one of these examples would be controversial on its own. But the combination and the details make the intent unmistakable:

• His promised $5,000 checks are explicitly part of a quid pro quo in which he’s trying to compel voters to give him the outcome he desires. And even some on the right have labeled it a “bribe.”
• Despite the administration’s claims that the ads are public service announcements and are “very clearly not campaign ads,” they bear virtually no resemblance to past PSAs. And at least one of them is quite literally a campaign ad run by Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Some Republicans have also criticized this, with outgoing Sen. John Cornyn of Texas saying it’s “not even a close question” that the ads are inappropriate.
• Both of the economic projects Trump announced — in Alaska and Iowa — were quickly revealed to be far less iron-clad than his pitch made them sound.
• Trump has now sent or floated giving Americans direct payments in three different ways, all with just weeks to go before the election.
• Trump’s $500 checks to Obamacare recipients come with a politicized letter from him promoting his administration’s anti-fraud efforts and attacking the Biden administration, which the letter claims “overcharged you.”
• The stated purposes behind both the $500 and $90 payments are highly suspect. Experts dispute that Obamacare policyholders were wrongly overcharged. And the $90 payments to seniors come from the $2.2 billion Medicare Improvement Fund, which the Congressional Budget Office says is supposed to be used “to make improvements to Medicare’s hospital and medical insurance programs.”

In other words, Trump is mining whatever direct benefits he can muster from his official job to pump up himself and Republicans ahead of the midterms.

And if that sounds uncharitable, it’s worth recalling what Trump himself has said about such things.

He repeatedly accused the Biden administration of trying to buy votes even when the proximity to the election wasn’t as obvious and the money was appropriated by Congress.

In 2023, he accused Biden of buying votes by using congressionally appropriated funds to do infrastructure projects.

“He goes around saying, ‘We’ll build a bridge. We’ll build whatever you want,’ you know – trying to buy votes,” Trump said in December 2023.

And in both 2023 and 2024, Trump painted Biden’s efforts to cancel student loan debt through executive action as part of a similar effort. He even called it “corrupt.”

“We have a crooked president. We have a corrupt president, very corrupt,” Trump said in June 2023. “But this was a way of trying to buy votes. That’s all it was.”

The question from there is: Will Trump’s efforts help his cause?

There are reasons to doubt they will.

The ads have real money behind them, judging by the fact that there are so many of them and that they are being run during expensive time periods like NFL games. But they could seemingly backfire by putting a president that Americans overwhelmingly dislike front and center in the campaign.

The $90 and $500 payments are real money. But the former is a small amount, and the latter will go to only roughly one of out every 200 eligible voters.

And Americans appear skeptical that they would ever actually get the $5,000 checks. A CNN poll last month showed 77% said it was “not too likely” or “not at all likely” that they would get the money as promised if Republicans hold both the House and Senate.

And those who believed it were overwhelmingly those who approve of Trump; just 11% of his disapprovers thought it was even “somewhat likely.”

(Indeed, Americans are right to be skeptical. The more than $1 trillion cost of such payments would balloon the deficit and risk spiking inflation. It’s also pretty evident that Congress would have to sign off on them, and even if Republicans are united on the payments — which they’re not — it would require Democratic votes to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.)

And it appears voters might judge Trump negatively for even making the promise. The CNN poll showed Americans said 64%-36% that it was not a “worthwhile” use of federal government money, while a Reuters-Ipsos poll showed registered voters said 66%-18% that it was “inappropriate” for Trump to make such a promise.

However, if even a small percentage of voters finds themselves compelled by Trump’s handouts or his promises of major projects in Alaska and Iowa, that could matter on the margins.

But regardless of the political impact, a big consequence here is that Trump is obliterating the line between official business and party politics.

Emerging tech has new Army leaders warning troops can’t ‘AI’ their way to victory on the battlefield

2026-10-05T14:36:20-04:00 / Fox News

Acting chief Gen. Christopher LaNeve shared the US Army’s modernization shifts amid a rapid surge in tech usage and threats

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Published October 5, 2026 2:36pm EDT | Updated October 5, 2026 2:39pm EDT

Expert warns US bureaucracy and ‘old regulations’ leave nation vulnerable to drone threats

Bureaucratic red tape and outdated regulations are preventing U.S. security agencies from deploying effective counter-drone technology, said Brett Velicovich, a former U.S. Army special ops intel analyst.

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Amid a rapid rise in technological developments, the U.S. Army’s new leadership is looking to pull back on using artificial intelligence and other tools it feels forced the branch to transform too much all at once.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army vice chief serving as acting chief of staff, outlined on Monday how he hopes to narrow the service’s sweeping modernization push after years of experimentation with drones, artificial intelligence and other emerging technology.

“There was a lot, a lot of motion,” LaNeve told a small group of reporters. “It was almost like everything was being transformed at once.”

“You can’t AI yourself to be the best maneuver brigade commander out there,” LaNeve said.

The Army Transformation Initiative pushed new technology rapidly into formations and encouraged experimentation across the board. Army leaders credited that effort with accelerating change but acknowledged Monday that its breadth created enormous activity across the force.

Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army nominee, during his Senate confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2025.(Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

INSIDE AMERICA’S LASER REVOLUTION AS THE MILITARY NEARS BIG BATTLEFIELD BREAKTHROUGH

The branch is now preparing to unveil “How the Army Fights,” a new framework intended to turn years of experimentation into a more focused set of decisions about what technology the service will prioritize, where it belongs in Army formations and how the force will organize and spend for future wars.

“The Army cannot and should not modernize everything at once,” the new blueprint states. “The answer is focused modernization.”

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer said experimentation through the technology push produced necessary learning, but insisted that the service had reached a point where it needed to “drop the chalk line and actually start making some decisions.”

Those decisions include which technologies warrant investment, where they belong in Army formations and which theaters take priority — with the service acknowledging it cannot afford to transform everything simultaneously.

Army leaders aren’t yet saying what will fall by the wayside.

Asked what was being left “on the cutting room floor” as the service narrows its focus, LaNeve said, “I’m not sure we’re prepared to say what we’re cutting out now.”

But one investment is moving unmistakably to the front of the line.

During a training mission in May 2017, the Army’s Global Response Force successfully used the En-route Mission Command system developed by PM Tactical Network to enable real-time joint intelligence, communications and collaboration capabilities on a flight from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to New Mexico.(U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Zachary Jacobson, 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade)

“If you ask me what my number one modernization priority would be, I would say command and control,” LaNeve said.

The shift is unfolding amid a broader leadership shake-up at the Army.

Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle took over after his predecessor, Dan Driscoll, resigned last month following months of reported friction with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, who had earlier ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a close Driscoll ally who helped lead the service’s transformation push.

Telle, a former Trump White House aide, was tapped days later to lead the Army in an acting capacity and was publicly praised by Hegseth as “strong and whip smart.”

In his first press interview since taking the job, Telle described “How the Army Fights” as a way to impose greater coherence on the service’s modernization efforts as technology rapidly changes the battlefield.

TRUMP NAMES ADAM TELLE ACTING SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOLLOWING DAN DRISCOLL’S RESIGNATION

That battlefield is envisioned as one in which troops operate alongside autonomous systems and under persistent drone surveillance, while AI helps commanders sift through massive amounts of sensor data and identify targets in “seconds and minutes rather than hours.”

The Army also wants autonomous systems taking on some of the most dangerous jobs that are currently performed by soldiers — this includes reconnaissance, resupply and breaching enemy obstacles.

But Army leaders are resisting the idea that advances in drones and AI have diminished the importance of traditional ground forces.

“Autonomous systems enable Soldiers to destroy and disrupt, but they can never replace the human judgment, leadership, and physical presence of Soldiers required to control the land and consolidate gains,” the blueprint states.

Army leaders are resisting the idea that advances in drones and AI have diminished the importance of traditional ground forces.(iStock)

The Army is drawing heavily from recent conflicts, including Ukraine, Gaza and the India-Pakistan conflict, while building the new framework around its most demanding potential adversary: China.

HTAF identifies China’s People’s Liberation Army as the “pacing threat” and says the Army must organize, train and equip against it with the same institutional focus Cold War-era leaders brought to the Soviet Union.

The blueprint also assumes a future major war could reach much closer to home. It warns the U.S. homeland can no longer be treated as a sanctuary, with adversaries potentially using cyberattacks, sabotage and drones to disrupt the ports, airfields and other infrastructure needed to deploy American forces.

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For Telle, the challenge is fitting rapidly evolving technology into a coherent Army rather than chasing every new system that emerges.

He compared individual weapons and technologies to ornaments on a Christmas tree.

“How the Army Fights is really the tree to hang those ornaments on,” Telle said.

Trump won this district by 10 points. This Democrat thinks he can win it by winning back Latinos

1:20 PM EDT, Mon October 5, 2026 / CNN Politics

Manu Raju, CNN

Trump won this district by 10 points. This Democrat thinks he can win it by winning back Latinos

Inside Politics

Johnny Garcia is facing off with Air Force veteran Carlos de la Cruz in Texas’ newly-redrawn 35th Congressional District. He tells Manu Raju that the economic struggles created by tariffs and the war in Iran will bring Latinos swinging back towards the Democratic Party this year. “Here is south central Texas, being able to make it to Sunday to afford your barbacoa and Big Red means a whole lot.”

3:30 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/politics/video/inside-politics-johnny

Trump is sending ACA and Medicare checks. Are they enough to cover rising healthcare costs?

2026-10-05T15:59:07-0400 / CBS News

By

October 5, 2026 / 3:59 PM EDT / CBS News

President Trump is sending checks to millions of Medicare and Affordable Care Act enrollees, with the White House describing the efforts as helping to “lower costs” for seniors and families. But experts say the payments may do little to offset rapidly rising healthcare expenses.

On Friday, Mr. Trump announced on Truth Social that his administration this month will send checks of about $90 to more than 20 million Medicare participants in the program’s Part B plans.

That announcement followed the White House’s Sept. 10 statement that $500 checks would be sent to about 1 million people who enrolled in an ACA plan this year through federal exchanges administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The payments, described as refunds for overcharges, are for people who didn’t receive ACA insurance subsidies.

“President Trump is delivering on his promises to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on the special interests that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans,” the White House said in an Oct. 2 statement about the Medicare checks.

While the payments will help defray some of the healthcare costs paid by senior citizens and ACA-enrolled households, the money may not go far enough, health policy experts said. Americans cite healthcare costs as one of their top financial concerns, with almost 30% saying they’ve skipped or postponed healthcare treatments in the last year because of costs, according to polling from nonprofit health policy research organization KFF.

“A plan to lower healthcare costs is welcome, but President Trump’s proposal to provide a one-time $90 payment to some Medicare beneficiaries will likely go unnoticed by most seniors,” Max Richtman, CEO of the nonpartisan National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, told CBS News.

The White House said Mr. Trump is taking action to lower healthcare costs for millions of Americans.

“President Trump is enabling Americans to take control of their health by putting money directly back in the hands of Medicare patients,” White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster said in a statement to CBS News. “In addition to guaranteeing discounted prices on prescription drugs through his Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing agreements, distributing $500 Obamacare Refund checks and increasing price transparency across the board, President Trump is delivering on his promise to lower costs for American patients by putting them first and taking on the special interests that have used the status quo in Washington to raise healthcare costs for Americans.”

Mr. Trump has also promised $5,000 “dividend” payments to every U.S. adult if Republicans retain electoral control of both the House and Senate after the November midterms. Some economists and other experts have raised doubts about the feasibility of the payments, as they would require Congress to authorize more than $1 trillion in spending and could reignite inflation.

The Trump administration began sending the ACA checks on Sept. 30, while the Medicare checks will be sent starting in early October.

Higher Medicare Part B premiums

Premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers medical services such as doctor visits, outpatient care and preventive screenings, rose by more than $200 annually in 2026, and are forecast to rise by another $79 next year, according to June projections in the Medicare trustees’ latest annual report.

That means the $90 check could fall short of covering the increased costs that seniors are already paying this year alone for their Part B plans, according to Juliette Cubanski, vice president and director of the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF.

“Receiving a one-time payment of $90 under this new plan from the Trump administration could be helpful, but it may not stretch very far when people are staring down higher costs for gas, heating their homes this coming winter, putting food on the table, keeping up with their mortgage payments,” she said.

Rising ACA costs

Meanwhile, the $500 ACA check isn’t likely to cover rising costs for people who get their health insurance through the program’s marketplaces, said Cynthia Cox, senior vice president and director of the ACA program at KFF.

The average premium for enrollees rose by $780 this year, up 58% from 2025, according to a KFF analysis.

ACA plan costs have risen sharply in 2026, partly due to the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, which Congress allowed to lapse in December. Those tax breaks had helped lower premium costs for millions of middle-class Americans.

“People this year are paying significantly more than they were paying last year for health insurance on the individual market,” Cox told CBS News. “It’s going to help some people, certainly — getting a $500 check is better than not getting a $500 check — but for most people it won’t cover their full increased costs.”

A more effective method to lower healthcare costs would be to restore the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, Brian Keyser and Natasha Murphy of the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank that supports the ACA, wrote in a Sept. 17 blog post.

Millions left out

About 40 million Medicare Part B recipients don’t qualify for the $90 payment, while about 18 million ACA enrollees won’t get a $500 check, enrollment data for the programs shows.

The $90 checks will go to seniors enrolled in Part B under traditional Medicare who don’t pay income-related premiums or receive premium assistance from Medicaid. Seniors who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans are also excluded from the checks, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Medicare check is reminiscent of President Trump’s proposal to send a $200 drug card to help seniors with out-of-pocket drug costs before the 2020 presidential election, Cubanski said.

While that plan never got off the ground, it was also timed just before an important election. The new Medicare payments, to be disbursed by direct deposit, are set to arrive only weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon and ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, on Saturday called the $90 checks an “attempt to bribe the American public.” But experts said the payments may barely register for some seniors.

“There’s a question whether many of these payments might go unnoticed,” Cubanski added. “People with Medicare get lots of mail from insurance companies and others trying to market plans during the open enrollment season, so this letter might get caught up in all the other mail that people are receiving.”

Edited by Alain Sherter

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/the-economy-is-the-top-issue-for-americans-ahead-of-the-midterms/

The economy is the top issue for Americans ahead of the midterms

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