Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
In today’s edition, our Capitol Hill team explores why Democrats are feeling increasingly confident about their position in the shutdown fight. Plus, we take a look at what comes next after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
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— Adam Wollner
🚨Breaking news: New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who has clashed with President Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia, three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News. Read more →
Emboldened Democrats dig in on health care demands in shutdown fight
By Sahil Kapur and Scott Wong
Eight days into the government shutdown, Senate Democratic communications directors received a private briefing and a memo from pollster Geoff Garin.
The crux of the message: Stay the course because Democrats are winning the battle of public opinion.
“Voters continue to blame Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown,” said the memo, which was obtained by NBC News and featured new polling data conducted by Hart Research, with findings that are backed by other public national surveys on the shutdown fight.
It added that voters are siding with Democrats’ health care funding demands, that “Republicans are starting to feel the heat” on the issue and that the GOP’s political pain will worsen “the longer and more aggressively” Democrats litigate it.
Republicans need five more Democratic votes to break a filibuster and pass their bill to reopen the government on a temporary basis and buy time for a larger spending deal. On Thursday, the Senate voted again — for the seventh time — on that plan and a Democratic alternative. No senators budged.
Instead, Democratic leaders, emboldened and energized, are taking every opportunity to highlight their central demand: extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies to avoid health insurance premium hikes or coverage losses for millions of Americans next year. Insurers are already sending out notices of upcoming rate hikes in the mail, and bringing costs back down will get messy if Congress waits until the end of the year to act.
Republican leaders, facing a divided conference with many members who want to end the subsidies, are refusing to make any promises on the issue. Instead, they say, Democrats must vote to reopen the government, and then the two parties can discuss the subsidies.
The pivot to health care has frustrated House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
“They’re trying to make this about health care. It’s not. It’s about keeping Congress operating so we can get to health care. We always were going to. They’re lying to you,” Johnson told reporters.
“The health care issues were always going to be something discussed and deliberated and contemplated and debated in October and November.”
Read more →
Related: C-SPAN caller confronts Mike Johnson about shutdown effects, by Megan Lebowitz
Trump’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal sparks celebration
By Alexander Smith and Freddie Clayton
President Donald Trump’s announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire deal was widely welcomed by world leaders, the families of hostages and Palestinians who have endured more than two years of war.
But huge questions remain about whether Trump’s 20-point plan can successfully resolve the long-term future of the Gaza Strip, with uncertainty over its directive for Hamas to disband, as well as the governance of the shattered enclave.
The plan, which was mediated by Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, will also need formal agreement by Israel’s government. A spokesperson for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a ceasefire would then take effect 24 hours after the Cabinet agrees to the deal and hostages would be released after 72 hours.
Trump said a White House Cabinet meeting that he is planning to travel to Egypt for an official signing of the ceasefire deal. He also said hostages would be released “on Monday or Tuesday.”
There were celebrations in “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv, the culmination of two years in which families and friends of the remaining captives have angrily campaigned for their government to prioritize their loved ones over the continuation of the conflict.
They could be heard in video chanting “Nobel Prize to Trump” — a reference to the president’s long-standing ambition to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which is being announced Friday.
Trump also won praise from Democrats and Republicans alike on Capitol Hill.
“Right now, I am on tenterhooks, because the exciting prospect of this peace deal is monumental. Nothing like it in recent history, potentially, and there are a lot of people who deserve credit for it if it happens. President Trump is among them,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com