Michele Tafoya joins the Senate fray, the AHA has a MAHA problem, Tulsi Gabbard rejects “bunk” whistleblower report, and more

Days before the Super Bowl, legendary sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya announced that she will enter a different arena — the race for the open seat in Minnesota.

This isn’t the first cycle Tafoya has toyed with running for office — but she told the Washington Reporter in an interview shortly after her campaign launched that “a lot of things have lined up, but primarily I looked at this situation and saw a major crisis of leadership.”

“The career politicians who have been running Minnesota got us to this place, and they are not coming to save us,” Tafoya said. The leading contenders on the Democratic side to succeed Sen. Tina Smith (D., Minn.) are a pair of career politicians: the Smith-backed lieutenant governor of the state, Peggy Flanagan, and Rep. Angie Craig (D., Minn.).

INTERVIEW INCOMING: Our editor-in-chief Matthew Foldi scored another interview with President Donald Trump — we’re going to roll out a special edition of the Washington Reporter featuring a series of articles Foldi wrote about his latest conversation with the 47th president. HISTORY MADE: President Donald Trump celebrated one year back in the White House following his historic 2024 comeback earlier this week. Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.), the House GOP’s Conference Chair, hosted another media row that the Washington Reporterwas on-site for. Stay tuned for coverage of that! 2026 WATCH: Austin Rogers, the general counsel to Sen. Rick Scott (R.,…

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) is introducing legislation that would allow the Secretary of Transportation to withhold funding from states that do not comply with federal immigration law.

The Enforce Immigration or Lose Transportation Act, obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter, would also empower the Department of Transportation (DOT) to audit states and issue regulations to ensure compliance with federal transportation and immigration laws. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has made holding blue states accountable a priority.

“States that don’t comply with federal immigration laws don’t just endanger their own citizens, they put the whole country at risk,” Cotton said of his new legislation. “My bill ensures that these states don’t receive another dime of federal transportation funding until they cooperate with federal immigration authorities.”

One of Washington’s most powerful health care lobbies has repeatedly positioned itself in opposition to President Donald Trump’s ambitious health care agenda: the American Hospital Association (AHA).

“In effect, the AHA [has] functioned as an auxiliary of the Democratic National Committee,” a GOP source told the Washington Reporter.

Long a dominant force in health policy debates, the AHA has emerged as a counterweight to several of the administration’s reforms.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is pressing the Senate to move on legislation that would require states to obtain an individual’s documentary proof of citizenship before registering them to vote in federal elections.

The bipartisan SAVE Act passed the House over 300 days ago, and the RSC’s Rep. Brandon Gill (R., Texas) previously wrote to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), the chair of the Senate Rules Committee, urging the upper chamber to take up the legislation.

Now, Gill’s fellow members explained to the Washington Reporter why they think such a move is necessary.

The office of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) rejects a report about a whistleblower complaint that alleges DNI Tulsi Gabbard limited the distribution of a classified report for political reasons and that a legal office in the intelligence community (IC) did not refer a potential crime to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for political reasons.

One senator who viewed the complaint against Gabbard described it as “bunk.” Gabbard’s team, led by press secretary Olivia Coleman, described the whistleblower complaint as a “classic case of a politically motivated individual weaponizing their position in the Intelligence Community, submitting a baseless complaint and then burying it in highly classified information to create 1) false intrigue, 2) a manufactured narrative, and 3) conditions which make it substantially more difficult to produce ‘security guidance’ for transmittal to Congress.”

Gabbard’s team points to a conclusion from the Biden-era Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG), which looked into the whistleblower’s allegations against Gabbard, and determined that they “did not appear credible.” This is “a fact that [the Wall Street Journal] conveniently buried 13 paragraphs down,” Coleman said.

Legal experts with close ties to the Trump administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) hosted a seminar to discuss “Open Banking” — the complex policy under the Dodd-Frank Act that determines how consumers can connect their banking data to budgeting apps, payment programs, and a wide range of financial tools.

Todd Zywicki, a law professor at George Mason University who worked closely with President Donald Trump’s transition team, joined Paul Watkins, an alum of the first Trump administration’s CFPB, in a panel moderated by executive director of Consumers’ Research (CR) Will Hild. The event was hosted by the Federalist Society.

“Who controls your financial data and who decides how it can be used?” Hild opened the discussion by asking. “This has become one of the most consequential policy questions of the digital banking era. As Americans increasingly rely on fintech apps, digital wallets, and online banking tools, Section 1033 of the Dodd Frank Act has emerged as a flashpoint in the debate over whether consumers truly own their financial information or whether control remains concentrated in the hands of large banks.”

The fraud that has taken place in Minnesota is “morally repugnant,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said during his latest hearing, from his post as chair of the Senate’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights.

During his latest hearing, entitled “Somali Scammers: Fighting Fraud in Minnesota and Beyond,” Cruz featured David Hoch, the journalistic partner of Nick Shirley.

“There are few crimes more morally repugnant than stealing from vulnerable children,” Cruz said during the hearing. “Every dollar stolen is a meal not eaten, a doctor’s visit missed, and a future diminished. Child welfare fraud plunders our children’s potential and erodes our nation’s future. And disturbingly, at the start of this new year, America has learned that this kind of looting was not occurring in some distant or lawless place, but in the heart of America’s Midwest.”

A coalition of leading Senate Republicans is pressing the administration to treat the ongoing influx of illicit Chinese-made vaping products as both a national security and criminal threat, warning that the devices go far beyond public health concerns and now intersect with espionage, money laundering and cartels.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, GOP lawmakers, including Sens. Steve Daines (R., Mont.), Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), called out what they describe as a “flood of illicit Chinese e-cigarettes” entering U.S. markets with minimal oversight. They point out some devices can connect to users’ cellphones, potentially collecting sensitive data and creating vulnerabilities that could be exploited by the Chinese Communist Party or criminal networks.

The lawmakers wrote that the devices “have the capacity to initiate data breaches or malware infections” and warned that “given the interconnected relationship between Chinese industry and state intelligence services…the targeting of U.S. military personnel with these devices raises profound national security concerns.” They also stressed that “the magnitude and consequence requires a comprehensive strategy and response” from federal agencies to counter illicit entry and distribution.

When a rural hospital closes, it rarely makes national headlines, but it quietly reshapes the future of an entire community. Emergency rooms go dark. Expectant mothers are forced to drive hours for care. Seniors delay treatment until manageable conditions become life-threatening. Jobs disappear. And once a hospital closes, it almost never reopens.

In a state like Alabama, where rural and small urban communities form the backbone of the economy, this is not an abstract policy debate. It is an urgent challenge.

The good news is that Alabama is better positioned than almost any state to meet this moment, thanks to President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB).