Congress
Senate Dems protest committee vote to advance Trump’s judicial pick
Emil Bove’s nomination to serve as a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is headed to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in protest.
The panel voted Thursday morning with only Republican support to advance Bove’s nomination, as every Democrat abstained from recording a vote either way. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) shouted over the proceedings as the roll was called, imploring colleagues to continue debate and accusing committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) of failing to follow Senate rules.
All Democrats, barring Booker, left the hearing room during the votes to advance Bove and other nominees pending before the committee.
“This lacks decency. It lacks decorum. It shows that you do not want to simply hear from your colleagues,” Booker said. “This is us simply trying to rush through one of the most controversial nominees we’ve had under this presidential administration.”
Booker shouted through the votes for a number of other judicial nominees, before ultimately following his colleagues out of the room.
Grassley argued the Republican-led committee’s conduct had precedent. He said that, in November 2023, Democrats proceeded with a vote on two judicial nominees put forward by President Joe Biden, despite Republican protests to continue debate.
But Bove, the former criminal defense attorney to President Donald Trump who is now principal associate deputy attorney general, has come under scrutiny after a whistleblower complaint from a former Department of Justice employee alleged that he had suggested defying court orders for the administration’s deportation agenda.
“He has been trailed by a history of complaints, long predating his affiliation with President Trump about his temperament, his poor judgment and lack of candor in front of the court,” said Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois. “Think of it: We’re talking about a judge for life.”
Democrats earlier this week asked to have the whistleblower at the center of the allegations against Bove testify before lawmakers before holding a vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. Grassley rejected the request, saying he had reviewed the materials from the whistleblower and his office had investigated the allegations. He said he found them unconvincing and decided there was no reason to delay Bove’s nomination.
Durbin also questioned Thursday whether Bove was involved in the Justice Department’s decision not to release files in the case against disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019. In recent days, Democrats have sought to juxtapose Trump allies’ promises of transparency around the Epstein case with the DOJ’s decision to withhold release of further materials. Their campaign has sought to exploit division between Trump and his MAGA base, which has long championed conspiracies around a cover-up of the Epstein files.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has become the de facto swing vote on the judiciary panel amid his announcement he won’t seek reelection next year, opted to advance Bove’s nomination, despite recently saying he would not support nominees who have supported the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
As a senior Justice Department leader, Bove played a role in the agency’s dismissal of staffers who had worked on cases tied to the Capitol attack during the Biden administration. Tillis, however, fiercely defended his decision to support Bove and emphasized he would not support any nominee who had specifically endorsed violence against Capitol police officers.
“Does anybody really believe that, if I was convinced that Bove had made any statements condoning the violent acts against Capitol police officers, that I’d be voting for him?” Tillis said during Thursday’s committee meeting. “Just ask Ed Martin whether or not that’s a red line.”
Tillis objected to Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, citing his defense of Capitol rioters and his comments around the attack. The senator’s decision to oppose Martin on those grounds effectively tanked his confirmation chances, with former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro nominated as Trump’s second choice for the job.
“The fact of the matter is, I can’t find one piece of evidence where he said that the violent acts against police officers were okay or condoned,” Tillis said of Bove. “If you find it, let me know.”
But Democrats also decried Bove’s nomination by pointing to his involvement in the dismissal of corruption charges against Eric Adams, which coincided with the New York City Democratic mayor’s decision to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement activities at the Rikers Island jail. Lawyers at the Justice Department resigned over the episode amid accusations that Adams had entered into a quid pro quo.
The judiciary panel also voted Thursday to proceed on a number of other nominations, including Pirro, who has been serving in that role in an interim capacity.
Congress
Trump apparently shares Tom Cotton’s phone number in push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
President Donald Trump appeared to share Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number in a Saturday morning social media post imploring the Arkansas Republican to get behind a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
“Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
The president has spent months personally pushing Senate Republicans to end the practice that sees Americans change their clocks twice a year, cementing more sunlight hours in the evening for all twelve months of the calendar. Cotton, whom Trump called “a friend of mine” in the Saturday post, has long argued that making daylight saving time permanent would leave children, farmers and other early risers in the dark for hours on winter mornings.
One of Trump’s key selling points on Saturday: the PGA tour.
“The PGA TOUR, as an example, needs more Daylight in the afternoon in order to finish their Tournaments,” he said, attaching a letter from PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp endorsing the bill. ”Likewise, regular Golfers, Tennis Players, Hunters and, perhaps most importantly, Farmers who want more Daylight to play or work.
A Blue Light News call to the cellphone number went to voicemail. A spokesperson for Cotton did not respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The current version of the bill was introduced in the House in January 2025 by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) leading the Senate version. The legislation would make daylight saving time permanent across most of the country, ending the twice-yearly clock changes. The legislation has been stalled in the Senate since July.
The president encouraged supporters of the bill, dubbed the “The Sunshine Protection Act,” to call Cotton to “let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.”
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he publicly gave out the personal cellphone number of then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham after the South Carolina Republican criticized him. Trump, who came to count on Graham as a reliable Senate ally after he won the presidency, revisited the moment during Graham’s funeral in July, acknowledging that sharing the number was something he “shouldn’t have done.”
Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.
The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.
The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.
“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”
Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.
He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.
“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.
Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.
Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”
Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.
Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.
“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”
Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.
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