******************************************************************************** __ __ ___ ____ _ _ ___ _ _ ____ _ _ ____ ____ _ _____ _____ | \/ |/ _ \| _ \| \ | |_ _| \ | |/ ___| | | | | _ \| _ \ / \|_ _| ____| | |\/| | | | | |_) | \| || || \| | | _ | | | | |_) | | | |/ _ \ | | | _| | | | | |_| | _ <| |\ || || |\ | |_| | | |_| | __/| |_| / ___ \| | | |___ |_| |_|\___/|_| \_\_| \_|___|_| \_|\____| \___/|_| |____/_/ \_\_| |_____| https://morningupdate.org ******************************************************************************** US Politics -- Tuesday, October 6, 2026 © 2026 Morning Update. All rights reserved. Episode: https://morningupdate.org/us-politics/episodes/us-politics-tuesday-october-6-2026-2026-10-06/ Feed: https://morningupdate.org/us-politics/feed.xml ******************************************************************************** Maya: Good morning, and welcome to US Politics for Tuesday, October sixth, twenty twenty-six. I'm Maya. Devon: And I'm Devon. Here's what's moving in American politics this morning. Announcer: Support for this Morning Update is generously provided by Titanium Invoice, a founding sponsor of the Morning Update network. titaniuminvoice.com. Maya: We start at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska, where President Trump set off a firestorm on Monday night. Talking about the war in Iran and rising gas prices, the president told the crowd it was, quote, a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, end quote, and then added, quote, they can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego, end quote. Devon: California's leaders erupted. Governor Gavin Newsom called the president, quote, deranged and dangerous, end quote, and said he has directed the state's threat assessment center to monitor the situation in case foreign actors interpret the remarks as an invitation. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the comments dangerous, and San Diego's mayor said his city is not, quote, collateral damage, end quote. Maya: The White House pushed back hard. Communications director Steven Cheung said the, quote, media freakout, end quote, was not rooted in reality, and that the president was clearly stating American cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran had not been stopped. According to Reuters, the president was arguing that Americans should accept higher fuel prices as the cost of stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Devon: Why it matters: with the midterms exactly four weeks away, both parties are seizing on moments like this. Newsom, widely seen as a possible twenty twenty-eight Democratic presidential contender, has positioned himself as one of the president's chief antagonists, and this exchange is already all over the airwaves. Maya: Speaking of the press, the White House's fight with the media escalated on Monday. According to CNN, the White House barred Politico from traveling on Air Force One to Nebraska, even though it was Politico's turn to serve as the print pool reporter. Devon: The backstory: on September eighteenth, President Trump announced he was banning Politico, CNN, and M S NOW from the White House. The three outlets sued on September twenty-first, and a federal judge, Timothy Kelly, issued a temporary restraining order restoring their press badges. But the White House argues the order covers the White House grounds, not the travel pool or the Oval Office, and it has repeatedly kept CNN off the plane too. Maya: Here's the remarkable part, according to CNN: the White House offered Politico's seat to other news organizations, and they uniformly declined to take it. So there was no primary print pool reporter on the trip at all. A hearing on a longer preliminary injunction is scheduled for Thursday. Devon: Story three: the president reversed course on those taxpayer-funded television ads. After bipartisan criticism, Trump announced on Monday that he and his super PAC, MAGA Inc., will pay for the campaign-style spots going forward, instead of using federal money. Maya: The numbers here are striking. According to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact, the government has already spent more than ten million dollars airing the ads, and Democratic lawmakers say twenty million dollars in Homeland Security funds were transferred for the effort. NBC News reported the money came from funds allocated to Customs and Border Protection. The White House says it will not reimburse the money already spent. Devon: To the courts now. The Supreme Court opened its new term on Monday with a major case: Suncor versus Boulder County. ExxonMobil and Suncor are asking the justices to throw out a lawsuit from Boulder, Colorado, seeking damages for harms caused by climate change. Maya: According to Reuters, nearly sixty state and local governments have filed similar suits, so a ruling for the oil companies could end many of them. Justice Elena Kagan compared Boulder's case to the tobacco lawsuits of the nineteen nineties, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted decades of precedent treating interstate pollution as a federal matter. With Justice Samuel Alito recused, Justice Amy Coney Barrett could be the deciding vote. Devon: And on the campaign trail: one of the most competitive House races in the country took center stage today. Republican Representative Tom Barrett and Democratic challenger Will Lawrence debated in Michigan's seventh district, which the Cook Political Report rates a toss-up. Maya: According to the Detroit Free Press, Barrett touted his votes to end or limit the war in Iran, while Lawrence blamed him for inflation and high gas prices. Barrett also hammered Lawrence over old social media posts, including a twenty twenty-one post about former Senator Joe Manchin. With control of the House on the line, this district could help decide the majority. Devon: That's your US Politics briefing for this Tuesday morning. We'll be back tomorrow with more. Maya: Thanks for listening. Have a great day.