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10 Minute Drill
Monday Rundown: Iran’s fickle dealmaking; Zohran’s Joker Impression; Early Voting data in Virginia
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The ceasefire in Iran is on shaky ground after a trying weekend with the Strait of Hormuz. We're going to look at some final early voting data heading into election Day in Virginia. There's a number of major things going on in the Senate this week. A creepy video from Zora and Mamdami and what it means, and a number of other stories that we're going to preview in another Special Monday rundown. 10 minute drill.
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Everybody get up.
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Get up. The story of America is the story of an adventure.
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I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you.
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We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.
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If you've been paying close attention to Iran, you've likely felt a bit of whiplash. So have the markets. You'll remember on Friday, President Trump announced that there was a deal to unequivocally open the Strait of Hormuz. That after several days of the United States taking away Iran's main point of leverage by patrolling and blocking any Iranian ships from coming in and out of the strait, Iran had agreed to finally open the strait. Markets loved it. We saw major stock market gains in the Dow and the nasdaq. We also saw oil prices plummet, which was an incredibly positive thing. However, over the weekend, that deal seemed to fall apart with Iran saying that they were no longer keeping the strait open and that the IRGC navy would be blocking any transit coming in and out that they had not authorized. They even went as far as firing on an Indian ship.
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SEPA Navy. SEPA Navy. This is motoring. As you gave me clearance to go. My name second on your list. You gave me clearance to go. You are fighting. Now let me turn back.
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One challenge that the Trump administration is facing here, that we'll get into a little bit more later this week, is the difference between negotiating with the Iranian civilian leadership and the irgc, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the group that acts like terrorists and has said their navy is going to be the group that patrols the strait. President Trump has lashed out, saying we will not allow Iran to blackmail us. Wanted to close up the strait again, you know, as they've been doing for years, and they can't blackmail us. And then on Sunday night, the United States announced they had taken custody of a ship that was ignoring commands as a part of the blockade of the strait. Motor vessel Tosca motoveseltosca. Vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire. They fired on it and disabled the engine room. All of this crazy activity going into a week where we're expecting to have peace talks in Pakistan, likely led again by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Over in Virginia, it was a star studded weekend. Glenn Youngkin and Republicans hit the campaign trail to remind people why they should be voting no on the terrible gerrymandering nuclear option. Democrats brought in their heavy hitters. They had California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland Governor Wes Moore, which many noted was a valuable message to the people of Virginia. Gavin Newsom overseeing one of the most dysfunctional states in the country that has the number one outgoing migration, the number one state people are trying to leave. Whereas West Moore has gotten a lot of criticism in the last few months for a bridge rebuilding project that has not had a single nail hit but is ballooning in cost with a completion date that never seems to be arriving. And so having Gavin Newsom and Wes Moore was a valuable reminder to the people of Virginia of what's at stake here. Tim Kaine was on Sunday shows and stepped in it just a little bit. The state is relatively split with a left lean, but 90% of House members from Virginia being from one party.
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90% of Virginians are not Democrats. That's true. We're giving Virginians a chance to vote about whether they want to have a congressional delegation that will stand up against Donald Trump's tyranny.
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Many people pointed out that Tim Kaine's acknowledging there that Virginia is not a 90% democrat state even though they're trying to eliminate every Republican district that would make it a 90% democrat represented state. A lot of people have pointed out that it's little bit ironic to suggest that the only way to stop tyranny is to cancel out the votes of 40% of the state. But as Virginians prepare for Election Day, there's a number of key narratives they're continuing to watch. Chas Nunnicombe, the political scientist and pundit, has noted that there's a 3% advantage in the early voting for the no side, which is significantly better than what Republican turnout looked like in 2025. However, Republicans and the no vote side, which again is not just Republicans, there's a lot of independent voters, as Chaz and others have pointed out, a lot of high propensity voters, even higher income voters that normally vote Democrat are leaning towards no on this because the simple issue of unfairness. One challenge for the yes side and we'll get into it a little bit more on Tuesday. The yes side that wants to read, that wants to redistrict and gerrymander these maps has tried to make this a referendum on President Trump. The challenge for them, it's become a much bigger referendum on Abigail Spanberger, the least popular governor of Virginia in modern history, and her policy that have made people less safe while driving up taxes. People are largely seeing this as a referendum on the bait and switch from Virginia Democrats who ran on affordability in moderation and are trying to raise taxes and radicalize the left wing of the state. So again, going back to Gavin Newsom, the simplest argument for Republicans in the state is do not California our Virginia. The last point that's really seemed to resonate with people is the fact that just a few years ago, Democrats in Virginia said the only way to protect democracy in the commonwealth was to pass an independent redistricting commission. 65% of the state voted for that. They believed what Democrats had told them. Now, just a few years later, they're saying the only way to protect democracy from special interests is by pulling off a gerrymandering nuclear option that is funded almost exclusively by out of state special interests, including special interest groups that are funded by dark money. They're saying that's the only way to protect democracy. And people don't believe that. There's simply no credibility on the yes side. It is a pure partisan play and it will be closer than people expected. On Capitol Hill this week, two big things to watch out for. There has been a heated debate over FISA reauthorization. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This is a tool that our intelligence services rely on to surveil and get intelligence to carry out all sorts of operations. But it's become controversial because of the way that it has been used in the past, including on President Trump and during investigations into him, including Russiagate and other things like that. Last week, there was a lot of kerfuffle in the House of Representatives. President Trump has asked for a much longer term reauthorization to simply get this out of the way. And House Republicans, a number of them, suggested they didn't want to move forward without new major reforms to it, including things like requiring a warrant to be able to carry out wiretaps and things like that. Now it moves over to the Senate where there's likely going to be a short term patch and then a longer term debate over any possible amendments. But the other thing going on in the Senate this week that might end up being disrupted by that FISA debate, Republicans are preparing their reconciliation package. You'll remember reconciliation is the budgetary tool that allows the party in power to move things on a party line basis if they're focused on spending. We've talked about the fact that Republicans plan to get around the Democrat shutdown over DHS regarding ICE and Customs and Border Patrol is to pass a reconciliation bill that will fund ICE and CBP and then pass a regular bill to fund the whole rest of the Department of Homeland Security. That is expected to potentially be on the floor this week. But as we've discussed, there is a lot of other things going on and so we'll see where that one goes. Another story we're going to talk about this week is a theme we're seeing from a number of blue states. First, on tax day, Zoran Mamdami released a video spiking the football on a new plan Democrats in New York have to tax the rich. When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we're taxing. It was a very creepy video. It actually reminded me quite a bit of Heath Ledger's Joker from the Dark Knight. But you have to remember that Democrats simply see taxing as an accomplishment whether or not that tax dollar revenue actually goes to help anything. But the other story on a similar note is California Democrats trying another end run wealth confiscation to try and patch holes in their budget. We've talked a little bit about how California Democrats have chased away their tax base. The discussion they had about a wealth tax led to over a trillion dollars in wealth moving out of the state. Now they're facing a major budgetary shortfall. One way that a number of California Democrats want to patch that is a new tax. They call it a tax, but really it's a confiscation from some of the largest companies in the state. To fund their health care shortfall, they need to fund about $10 billion in a budget gap. The problem for them is that's about what they're spending on free health care for illegal immigrants through their Medi Cal system. So it will not be very popular to essentially confiscate money from companies that are hiring thousands of people in the state simply to pay for free health care for illegal immigrants while they refuse to do anything about the hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. Over the weekend, a number of high profile Democrats turned heads by attending a socialist gathering in Europe to rally against President.
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I am here as a United States senator, a member of the Democratic Party, and I want to bring you greetings as well from a nation that is in crisis. Donald Trump in our country is trying to end our democracy.
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That was Chris Murphy of Connecticut who went all the way to Barcelona to rally with many of his kindred spirit, actual socialists against President Trump. But the other person who joined him was Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz.
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We've got a feeble minded, trigger happy president who plunged us into a war where no threat was present with no clear objectives and no exit plan.
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There used to be a common agreement that politics ended at water's edge, but that is no longer a thing. But it still was a little bit surprising to see these Democrats go all the way to Spain to rally with socialists against President Trump while we are at war. We're going to discuss that a lot more later this week. There are a number of other major stories we're looking forward to getting into this week. The Supreme Court had a huge root ruling on energy last week that has the climate movement losing their minds. Clarence Thomas gave a huge speech on progressivism that really blew some people's minds as well. It's a huge month for crypto policy. We're going to talk a little bit about one of the most important bills relating to crypto and crypto access. We're going to talk a little bit about Senate Democrat primaries. Michigan had conventions over the weekend that turned a lot of heads with who the Democrat base is currently rallying around and so many other things. It is a huge news week. Please buckle up and join us for all of it. We are looking forward to it. Thanks for joining us on this Monday rundown. Please like subscribe, leave a review, tell your friends and don't miss any of it.