12:30 Report is The Hill’s midday newsletter. Subscribe here.
Happy Friday! What a beautiful fall day it is. ☀️
In today’s issue:
• Flight cancellations begin
• Senate tees up 15th shutdown vote
• Stefanik runs for governor
• Suspicious package makes 7+ ill
• What Trump privately says about Mamdani
• White House guest faints
⛔ GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
Airport bars are going to have a busy weekend:
It’s Day 38 of the government shutdown.
More than 1,000 flights across the country have been canceled today as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deals with air traffic controller staffing shortages amid the government shutdown.
Starting today, the Department of Transportation has begun to cut 4 percent of flights, eventually ramping up to 10 percent of canceled flights if the shutdown continues. A former FAA administrator warns that airport problems will “compound” if the shutdown persists.
Randy Babbitt said on NewsNation’s ‘The Hill’: “Controllers are not interchangeable. You know, you can’t — somebody who’s working the approach control facilities at the New York traffic area is not interchangeable with someone who’s an in-route controller. Those are different jobs,” Babbitt said. “And so they’re going to have to get everybody spun back up, get people back to work, and I think it’s going to take several days, and then the carriers are going to have to restore their scheduling of aircraft, their crews.”
The Senate is expected to hold its 15th funding vote, which is likely to fail. But what makes today’s vote different is that if it advances, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is planning to tweak the bill text and attach a three-bill spending package to sweeten the deal for Democrats.
Why it’s expected to fail: Democrats don’t trust President Trump’s motives. They don’t believe he will extend health insurance subsidies or stop firing federal employees.
➤ HOUSE STAFFERS ARE FEELING THE PAIN:
The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi spoke with House staffers about working without pay for more than a month so far.
From one staffer, speaking anonymously: “We’re hosting our family at our house, and so it’s like, are we going to be able to do everything that we wanted to do when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner if I didn’t get my paycheck?”
From another staffer: “My wife and I just got married in June, and I had to dip into some of the money that we had set aside from our wedding to help cover our daily expenses, which is not ideal.”
Read Kochi’s reporting: ‘House staffers feel the pinch of a historic shutdown’
➤ ELISE IS APPLYING FOR HER NEXT JOB:
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) formally announced she’s running for New York governor next year, challenging incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).
Remember: She’s had a year of highs and lows. Trump nominated her for United Nations ambassador but then yanked her nomination because House Republicans’ margins were too tight and he needed her to remain on Capitol Hill. She had given up her No. 4 leadership slot as House Republican Conference chair when she was nominated, but she returned to leadership when Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appointed her as chairwoman of House Republican leadership.
🩺IN THE WHITE HOUSE
We left off right before the most eventful part of the event happened:
A White House guest fainted during President Trump’s weight loss drug price drop announcement Thursday, causing the event to be cut short.
People in the room helped the man to the ground while Trump watched. Reporters were quickly escorted out of the room.
Who was the man?: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt identified him as a representative of one of the health care companies. She said in a statement that he is OK.
A photo for the ages: Agence France-Presse (AFP)’s Andrew Caballero Reynolds captured a stunning photo of the collapse. 📸 See the photo
➤ TIDBIT
During Trump’s announcement, he paused to ask Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick if he takes weight loss medication. “Not yet,” Lutnick told Trump. 📹 Watch the clip
📰 OTHER NEWS
Suspicious package leaves 7 people sick:
At least seven people fell ill after a “suspicious package” was delivered to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday, CNN reports.
“Several people were transported to the on-base Malcolm Grow Medical Center after the package was opened, which contained an unknown white powder, three sources familiar with the investigation said. … Investigators are also assessing political propaganda that was included in the package.”
No one has been hospitalized due to the incident.
Keep in mind about Joint Base Andrews: That’s the military base right outside of Washington, D.C., where Trump frequently travels through.
Read more: What we know about the incident
What Trump privately thinks of Zohran Mamdani:
In public, President Trump bashes New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D) as a communist and an extremist. But The New York Times’s Tyler Pager reports that in private, Trump says Mamdani is a talented politician. He has also referred to Mamdani as “slick and a good talker.”
Read Pager’s reporting: ‘Trump vs. Mamdani: The Showdown to Come’
➤ QUICK HITS
— Washington’s “sandwich guy,” the man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent, has been found not guilty by a jury. Omg, this line from CBS News: “To laughs from the crowded courtroom, [Agent] Lairmore said he ‘could feel it through his ballistic vest’ and it ‘exploded all over’ him. He said he ‘could smell the onions and mustard’ on his uniform and even had an onion string hanging by his police radio later that night. The fast-food mustard, he said, stained his shirt.” Read more
— The New York Times reports that continuous fetal monitoring is responsible for “unnecessary” c-sections. Read: ‘The “Worst Test in Medicine” is Driving America’s High C-Section Rate’
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has been beefing with Republicans over the past several weeks. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, she pushed back on Trump’s claim that grocery prices are falling. “Affordability is the problem,” she said, arguing grocery and energy prices are high.
➤ MORE READS:
The New York Times: Unexplained Hegseth Firings Unsettle the Pentagon’s Top Brass
The Washington Post: We followed four Americans as they navigated a week without SNAP
The Wall Street Journal: Here’s Where Trump’s Multiracial, Working-Class Coalition Is Fraying
The Atlantic: Democrats Have a New Winning Formula
The Washington Post: Second woman says U.S. Anglican Church archbishop sexually harassed her
COMING UP
The House is out. The Senate is in. President Trump is at the White House with the prime minister of Hungary. (All times EST)
Noon: The Senate meets. 📆Today’s agenda
3:30 p.m.: Trump leaves for Mar-a-Lago.
🐝 INTERNET BUZZ
🍫 Celebrate: Today is National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day.
🌑 Wow, this image is wild: A Japanese astronomer captured two flashes that lit up the moon. “The two incidents were a reminder that the moon is not so much the serene orb we clearly see in night skies a few nights a month but rather a noisy battleground constantly gaining new craters,” The New York Times’s Robin George Andrews writes. 📸 See the footage
👋 AND FINALLY…
The weekend is almost here, so let’s dial up the vibes. Watch this happy guy and just try not to smile.
