McConnell hospitalized this morning, spox confirms to me

It doesn’t matter who’s in charge. FISA 702 can’t be renewed without real reforms. Case in point: Trump’s latest nominee for director of national intelligence was peddling election conspiracies just a few days ago.

Trump confirms in comments in the Oval just now that controversial acting nominee Bill Pulte WILL still serve in an acting capacity as DNI.

FISA certain to expire — existing concerns over civil liberties issues paired with Trump‘s appointment of a partisan attack dog with no national intelligence experience meant that an effort to extend it failed to get even a simple majority in the House (2/3s needed due to GOP procedural defections)

I know there is a lot going on but I did this story with my friend Ashley about how single-party, closed primaries are bad and anti-democratic and even some members of Congress agree they produce bad policy incentives:

happy to buy a stiff drink for the Meet the Press sound engineers on the president's interview

"Bluesky, briefly positioned in 2024 as the credible X alternative, has effectively collapsed as a competitive threat. US DAUs are down ~96% from January 2025, and the cross-app data shows users of Threads and X are using Bluesky less and less."

Ex-girlfriend alleges Platner knew that his Nazi tattoo was a Nazi tattoo. Platner, again, denies that.

inbox

hundreds of thousands of americans without a vote in congress, here's how we got here

The Post's voter guide is always helpful in getting the candidates on the record on big issues: Among other things, I noted McDuffie says he now doesn't support congestion pricing. He told @ggwash.org earlier this year that he did. www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/int...

Warner says Bill Pulte as acting DNI endangers FISA renewal. Matches Leader Jefferies comments yesterday. What looked to be actual momentum toward three year renewal seems to have stalled after unforced error by admin of naming Pulte right now, rather than waiting.

"i'm not saying yes, i'm not saying no" is just an iconic thing to tell a reporter. nice scoop @bobbyallyn.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/06/02/n...

This one is good. How closed and low turnout primaries create our hellscape unaccountable Congress Please read and share 👇👇

Carbon Leaf? I just don’t get it

Whereabouts of missing Rep. Tom Kean (R-N.J.) remain unknown, but he’s trading stocks again. From today’s @notus.com newsletter:

It's an important day, D.C.: Outside of the special election for an independent At-Large D.C. Council seat, you must be a registered Democrat, Republican, or Statehood Green Party member to vote in each party's June 16 primary. You can change your registration — but only through today, May 26!

“Helsinki hasn’t registered a single traffic-related fatality in the past year…Citing data that shows the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car’s speed from 40 to 30km/hr, city officials imposed the lower limit in most of Helsinki’s residential areas and city center in 2021.”

Sometimes things are messaging problems, sometimes they’re just problems. Trump asking lawmakers to standby while he unconstitutionally and unilaterally appropriates nearly two billion to pay money to the insurrectionists who tried to kill them is the latter.

Gallrein wins over Massie in one of the most closely watched races in the country, per AP. With 72% of the vote in, it's 54-45 -- a much bigger margin than I think many were expecting

Trump has vanquished Rep. Thomas Massie — the Republican leading the fight to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Trump’s chosen challenger, Ed Gallrein, defeated Massie in his district’s GOP primary. (h/t Kentucky Public Radio's @sylviaruthg.lpm.org )

I did this story -- it's about how we set the rules helps to determine who wins

The Supreme Court's recent ruling threatens the power of racial-minority voters in Voting Rights Act cases about not just Congress, but also at least 17 state and local governments, NPR finds. n.pr/4wBi07o

Byrd bath boots ballroom? Byrd bath boots ballroom.

Nicholas Hoult is the Austin Butler we deserve

Design legend Margaret Calvert is 90 today. Look at that cake! If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it. One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her. Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG) Cake by: mybaker.co

I'm on Up First this morning, listen wherever fine podcasts are sold.

I was on the NPR Politics Podcast today, you can listen here:

Well the kind of avoid driving off the cliff! ericm.cd/articles/congress-fi...

the first chief of the Washington Metro Transit Authority to truly romanticize his own life

House Republicans just moved ahead on funding DHS. They had to hold the five minute vote open for five hours to find consensus. It appears most members were looking for concessions on something unrelated.

can anyone with access DM me Elon Musk's Q score change between 2016 and now?

"This is all just a fraction of the violence endemic to American life. Just as an example, guns are the single leading cause of death for U.S. kids. I think it's really important to think of Saturday's violence at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in that context."

Some shrimp news out of the Rules committee just now.

Anyway. I’m glad nobody was hurt and I’m sure the journalists who attended the WHCD will not center themselves and their personal experiences and instead remain focused on holding the powerful accountable and informing the people about their government.

UK gonna need the mother of all sous vides if this AMOC thing collapses, that's my Take

Do you think the national guard would walk my dog since they're circling the neighborhood already?

While The Times had two reporters covering the event but the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.

will continue to update:

Biggest journalism news of the weekend

More coverage coming next week, follow along -- ☁️ bluesky feed for sickos: @stories.ericm.cd 🛜 RSS feed for nerds: ericm.cd/feeds/eric_m... 📨 email list for normies: ericm.cd

Gauged ears coming next season