Overview

• President Trump told CBS’s Robert Costa that a shutdown looks likely and linked any funding deal to blocking undocumented migrants’ access to U.S. health care, even though current law already restricts such access.
• White House sources referenced a memo preparing for mass firings if funding lapses, and Sen. Rand Paul said courts have repeatedly upheld a president’s authority to dismiss executive-branch employees.
• Democrats pressed to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits before Nov. 1 to offset expected premium hikes, framing the issue as an immediate consumer cost problem.
• Following the resignation of the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. attorney, interim appointee Lindsey Halligan quickly secured an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, which Sen. Amy Klobuchar labeled a politicized “vengeance prosecution.”
• Costa reported Republicans characterize the president’s moves as accountability, and a DOJ inspector general report found no evidence of undercover FBI agitators on Jan. 6 despite renewed assertions to the contrary.