When the U.S. and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran over the weekend, some Democrats warned about the impact on energy costs. Now that those predictions have come to pass with an uptick in global prices for natural gas and crude oil, Democrats are pouncing — and Republicans are pushing back.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) started to set the tone for the GOP’s messaging Monday afternoon, saying he expected prices to return to prewar levels soon.

“I think that there will be, hopefully, a cessation of this in the not-too-distant future, at which time my assumption is that that’ll stabilize a bit,” Thune said. “Anything that happens in the Middle East seems to set off an increase in oil prices.”

Other Senate Republicans are also giving the administration some breathing room for the time being. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said that while fluctuating energy prices is worth watching, “it seems to be second-tier right now.” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) agreed it was “a little soon to be saying that this is going to be a major issue.”

Like a number of energy industry analysts, some Republicans are pointing to policies boosting domestic energy production as a potential cushion that could soften the impact of the price volatility. Indeed, other recent instability in the Middle East has not translated in major price spikes.

“We’ve worked hard to be more self-sustaining so that we don’t have this,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “We have the means to make our own supply. So I’m really not too worried about that.”

But Capito also conceded that voters could get frustrated if the war continues and their wallets start to feel the pinch.

“When they feel prices at the pump,” Capito said, “they don’t like it.”

It could become a difficult balancing act for the GOP in an election year that’s becoming all about affordability — especially as President Donald Trump warns of a conflict that could take weeks to resolve.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), during a floor speech Monday, said Americans “don’t want a war that raises the price of gas at the pump.”

“Trump is raising prices at home while razing countries abroad,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) posted on X. “In addition to untold casualties, Trump’s illegal war with Iran will lead to skyrocketing oil prices, and we know the Big Oil vultures are already circulating.”

The topic came up Monday during Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s briefing of congressional leadership on Capitol Hill, where he acknowledged that the administration knew energy prices would be affected as a result of the strikes. Rubio also said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent would manage a response to be announced Tuesday, but did not specify what the response would be.

The impact of the overseas turmoil on energy prices is likely to come up again Tuesday afternoon, when Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials return to Blue Light News to brief members of the House and Senate.

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the administration needs to do a lot more explaining.

“Is there a strategy? Is there a goal? Because right now, all of that seems missing, and in the meantime, we’re going to have American consumers paying very real costs with respect to energy,” Heinrich said.

Amelia Davidson, Nico Portuondo and Pavan Acharya contributed to this report.

The White House is trying to stave off a revolt on Capitol Hill against its military actions in Iran, as both chambers are set to vote on resolutions this week that would put guardrails on President Donald Trump’s unilateral use of military force.

Their first order of business: Bring administration heavies to Capitol Hill to discuss the rationale for strikes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on Blue Light News Monday to brief congressional leaders. He’ll be back Tuesday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and they plan to meet first with members of the Senate, then the House.

At this point, lawmakers on both sides are decrying a lack of details from the administration — including evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S. that would necessitate military action. But so far, it’s looking like Republican leaders will be able to avoid mass GOP defections on the war power votes being forced in both chambers.

When the Senate votes Wednesday on Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) bipartisan resolution that would prevent further attacks without congressional buy-in, Democrats will need to pick up at least five Republicans to secure adoption — given Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) expected opposition. Watch GOP Sens. Todd Young (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), who helped advance a Venezuela war powers effort last month and were noncommittal Monday when asked how they’d vote on Iran.

Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday he believes he has the votes to block Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) Iran war powers resolution in the House, which will hit the floor Thursday.

“The idea that we would take the ability of our commander in chief … to finish this job, is a frightening prospect to me,” he said.

— Pressure on DHS funding: Republicans have another job this week — build pressure on Democrats to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, citing a need to fully fund the agency amid heightened security risks following the strikes in Iran.

The House Rules Committee convenes at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon to tee up another vote Thursday on a DHS funding bill similar to what the chamber passed last month, with Republicans daring Democrats to vote against defending the homeland.

But there are no signs of Democratic surrender as the DHS shutdown enters Day 18 amid a stalemate over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda. Democratic leaders in the House are whipping against the vote, telling members there is “no new language to end the chaos caused by ICE in communities across the country.”

Expect more debate when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies in front of members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. These will be her first congressional hearings since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, which sparked the DHS impasse in Congress.

What else we’re watching: 

— Texas primary day: Leaders in both parties will be closely watching a slew of House and Senate races in Texas Tuesday night that could determine control of Congress next year. The biggest contests across the Lone Star State will be the Senate primaries. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett are vying for the Democratic nomination, while Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt are competing for the Republican nomination.

— Farm bill markup: House Agriculture will Tuesday evening begin marking up a farm bill years in the making — and some of the amendments under consideration will be more viable than others.

In the DOA category: Proposals from Democrats, including Reps. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), that would reverse GOP cuts to food aid spending that were enacted in last summer’s megabill. In the more likely category: Rep. Jim Baird (R-Ind.) plans to offer an amendment that would postpone new restrictions on hemp products by two years, which would be a win for the hemp industry resistant to further regulation.

Katherine Tully-McManus, Jordain Carney, Andrew Howard, Rachel Shin and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

Hillary Clinton was subpoenaed to testify about what she knew about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Instead, she was being asked to answer questions about “Pizzagate.”

A former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of State — not to mention a veteran of congressional grillings — warned lawmakers before her deposition in Chappaqua, New York, last week that she had no memory of ever meeting Epstein. She said early on in her closed-door testimony that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the person they should talk to.

But when several Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee weren’t getting answers about the political power couple’s ties to the late, disgraced financier — pivotal to their ongoing Epstein investigation — they turned to unfounded conspiracy theories regarding Democrats and sex trafficking at a popular District of Columbia pizza shop, along with what the government might know about UFOs.

Clinton was aghast in response to a series of questions from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) regarding the intersection between the “Pizzagate” theory — which centered around allegations that Democrats trafficked children — and the Epstein files, according to video of her deposition released Monday.

“I mean, really — I mean, I expected a lot of interesting questions today, but Pizzagate was not on my list,” she said, smiling.

The roughly six-hour deposition with the Oversight committee exposed all the partisan fault lines in the congressional Epstein probe. Members of the panel walked into two days of depositions with both Bill and Hillary Clinton sharing a bipartisan commitment to interrogate Epstein’s connections to some of the most powerful people — and left just as divided over the purpose of their work.

Neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton have been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. They have maintained that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

“Pizzagate,” said the Oversight Democrats in a statement on X, pointing to the exchange between Boebert and Hillary Clinton. “Embarrassing to spend time asking Secretary Clinton these questions.”

One major flare-up came when Boebert briefly derailed the deposition after it became apparent she leaked a photo of the closed-door deposition to an online far-wing influencer, who put it on social media.

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” said Clinton, slamming her hand on the table before leaving the deposition table altogether in a fury.

“I’m done with this,” Clinton said, as news emerged that Boebert had shared the photo. “You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home. This is just typical behavior.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) accused the former secretary of State as being “unhinged” in a news conference outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, where the deposition was being held.

And it appeared at times that GOP lawmakers wanted to get a rise out of their interview subject. A probing Mace asked how Clinton felt about seeing her husband in the files.

“I am not going to offer opinions or speculation about anything that I have no context for and was not there,” Clinton cooly responded.

When Mace asked about her relationship with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, she began speaking about her work with the former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald after many of his employees died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The two then shouted over one another, with Mace vocalizing her own alleged experience with sexual violence while Hillary Clinton defended her work as a New York senator around the aftermath of the Twin Towers’ collapse.

“You want to yell at me, that’s fine, but I’ll yell right back,” Mace said. “I’m doing the job that you would not do.”

Clinton seemed bored, if not annoyed, as Republicans took their jabs. She told Mace that the South Carolina Republican would “have a chance to talk to him tomorrow” — a line she said in variations several times in punting the questioning to her husband, who was scheduled to testify the next day.

“How do you feel about your husband being named in the Epstein files?” asked Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.).

“Well, I think it’s something that is unfortunate,” the former secretary of State responded. “And I’m sure that he will tell you that he wished he had not flown on Epstein’s plane.”

Bill Clinton said in his deposition he flew with Epstein on a few occasions as part of official business with the Clinton Global Initiative but never saw anything inappropriate. He also said he stopped traveling with Epstein once closer acquaintances began offering up their planes.

Hillary Clinton, who lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016, has maintained her status as a potent GOP foe despite. Throughout much of her political career, those across the aisle have sought to leverage various scandals to undermine her — from the 2012 attack on a U.S. government facility in Benghazi, Libya to her use of a private email server during her government service. She endured an 11-hour hearing in 2015 before a select House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.

The proceedings also gave Democrats ammunition to undermine the proceedings as partisan and politically motivated, with Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) at one point calling the deposition a “clown show.” But Democrats are also leveraging Trump’s relationship with Epstein for political gain, including by suggesting they could move to subpoena Trump should they take control of the House after the midterm elections.

“Democrats used most of their time to ask President Clinton questions about President Trump,” said a spokesperson for Oversight Republicans in a statement. “In doing so, President Clinton destroyed Democrats’ latest hoax against President Trump by stating twice he has no information that he committed any wrongdoing.”

Trump has not been charged with any crime connected to Epstein and has maintained he severed ties years before the financier’s 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Hillary and Bill Clinton were both subpoenaed by the Oversight panel as part of its investigation into Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving 20 years for her part in the sex trafficking crimes.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, the former president recalled meeting Epstein and recounted to investigators about how his former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who has since resigned from Harvard, connected the two men. Bill Clinton also questioned why his wife was coming in to testify given that she had “nothing to do” with Epstein.

The former first couple were initially reluctant to sit before House lawmakers, saying that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose but the process was instead designed to imprison them. With lawmakers threatening to hold them in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate, however, they agreed to sit and answer questions.

Many Republicans asked Clinton questions that were relevant and substantive. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) inquired about allegations that Epstein may have operated as some kind of spy and whether Epstein’s activity satisfied the requirements for human trafficking — explaining he wanted his panel to work to strengthen human trafficking laws.

In a press conference after the hearing, Clinton commended Comer for his “significant questions.”

But both Clintons, who had at one point said they were eager appear in public hearings, now appear to have no intention of coming back anytime soon.

“Oh, I’m not gonna do it again,” she told reporters after her deposition. “I think they could’ve spent the day more productively.”