White House Alarm Grows as Democrats Surge in Tennessee and ICE Detains Leavitt Family Member
White House alarm grows a Democrats surge in Tennessee. ICE detains Karoline Leavitt's family member. Republicans call for Steve Witkoff's firing over call with Russian aide.
Good morning, everyone, and happy almost Thanksgiving. I hope you are getting ready for some well-earned time with family and friends. Let me know your plans in the comments.
Today, I am following several major developments, including the ICE detention of a family member of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt who now faces deportation, as well as the mounting pressure on Donald Trump and Republicans ahead of next week’s high-stakes special election in Tennessee.
Trump is lashing out this morning on Truth Social, calling a respected New York Times journalist an “enemy of the people,” reviving the same divisive and dangerous language that has fueled threats against reporters across the country. He can attack the press all he wants, but it will not stop real journalism from doing its job.
ICE arrested Bruna Caroline Ferreira, the Brazilian mother of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew, with DHS labeling her a “criminal illegal alien,” while her attorney disputes that she has any criminal record and says she previously held DACA status and is seeking a green card; WMUR reported that Leavitt’s brother confirmed the arrest and said his 11-year-old son, who has lived with him since birth, maintains a relationship with his mother.
Republican concern is growing ahead of next week’s special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District as Democrat Aftyn Behn gains on the Trump-backed Republican in the race. Millions of dollars have flown into the race on both sides, and the President is now publicly urging Tennessee residents to get out and vote. Democrats see even a 10 point loss as a major win in a district that voted for Trump by 22 points, and Behn’s internal polling has her down 4 points.
This morning’s Emerson poll now how her down just two points:
Donald Trump attacked a journalist this morning as the “enemy of the people” for writing a story about how he is losing energy:
Kevin McCarthy warned that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s sudden resignation signals deeper GOP instability ahead of 2026, noting an unusually high wave of Republican retirements and highlighting Greene’s break with Trump after weeks of escalating disputes, including over the release of the Epstein files.
Senate Republicans are preparing a January hearing to attack federal auto-safety mandates once seen as untouchable, planning to argue that features such as automatic emergency braking systems and rear-seat child-reminder alarms don’t deliver proven safety benefits and instead inflate vehicle costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Kremlin said a leaked call between top U.S. and Russian officials was meant to undermine Ukraine peace negotiations, warning that a deal is not close despite Trump’s envoy preparing to visit Moscow; meanwhile, Trump downplayed the leak, insisted there’s no deadline for his evolving peace plan, and Kyiv expressed cautious optimism even as Moscow maintained its hard-line stance, per NBC News. Multiple Republicans have called on the Trump Administration to either fire Steve Witkoff or sideline him during the negotiations including Don Bacon (R-NE) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA):
Multiple Republicans have called on the Trump Administration to either fire Steve Witkoff or sideline him during the negotiations including Don Bacon (R-NE) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA):
Donald Trump brushed off any concerns about Witkoff’s call with the Russians just calling it part of negotiations:
The Justice Department revealed that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made the final decision to continue deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members despite a federal judge’s order to halt them, a move now central to potential contempt proceedings as the court presses to uncover why its instructions were ignored. I pulled the filing for you to read here.
The FBI is seeking interviews with six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a video urging military and intelligence personnel not to follow illegal orders after Trump accused them of “seditious behavior,” prompting the lawmakers to denounce the inquiry as political intimidation while legal and constitutional concerns mount over the investigation.
New ICE data show a more than 2,000% surge this year in detainees with no U.S. criminal record, who now make up nearly half of the record-high 65,135 people in immigration custody, underscoring that Trump’s mass-deportation push is sweeping up large numbers of non-criminal immigrants even as officials publicly claim the focus is on “the worst of the worst.”
A Guardian investigation revealed that the Trump administration’s internal legal justification for deadly boat strikes on Caribbean drug-running vessels hinges on a classified OLC opinion claiming “collective self-defense” of regional allies against cartel violence, a rationale that diverges sharply from Trump’s public framing of the strikes as an anti–overdose effort and relies on intelligence assertions that experts say lack publicly verifiable evidence.
The Justice Department is creating a Second Amendment Rights Section inside its civil rights division to investigate state and local policies that restrict gun ownership, implementing Trump’s directive to root out perceived infringements on gun rights, a shift critics say diverts the civil rights unit from its traditional mission and aligns it with conservative priorities.
Myanmar’s junta praised the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for about 4,000 Myanmar nationals in the US after DHS Secretary Kristi Noem telling the AFP that it is “safe” for them to return, even as UN investigators and rights groups warned of escalating atrocities, sham elections and ongoing civil-war violence that make repatriation dangerous.
Good news
Egypt became the 26th country to eliminate trachoma as a public health concern, achieving WHO-verified success after decades of surveillance, antibiotic campaigns, surgery programs, and sanitation improvements that reduced infection rates below elimination thresholds nationwide.
Two long-lost early organ pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, the Chaconne in D minor and Chaconne in G minor, discovered in the 1990s and only recently authenticated by Bach scholar Peter Wollny, were performed for the first time in 320 years at Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church, an event celebrated by Germany’s culture minister as a historic milestone for classical music.
