SHUTDOWN BREAKDOWN

Democrats are furious over the defection of their own Senate moderates, who joined a GOP plan to end the shutdown. The move sends a “terrible” message, Sen. Bernie Sanders warned.

• Just one week ago, a string of Democratic electoral victories left the party faithful clinking glasses and giddily looking forward to more wins in next year’s midterms. Suddenly, Dems are back in the soup. News that a handful of moderate Senate Democrats joined with Republicans last night in a vote to reopen the government sent shockwaves through the party’s rank-and-file. Even President Donald Trump had recently admitted that the shutdown was hurting his side!

• Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) blasted the Dems who folded. “What those eight people are saying is, ‘We’re not prepared to stand up and take on Trump and the Republican Party…. We think Trump is too strong,’” Sanders told the What A Day podcast in an interview to be released early Tuesday. “I think that’s a terrible message.”

• In exchange for moving to reopen the government, Senate Republicans promised a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies — although there’s no guarantee it will pass. The deal also requires the Trump administration to rehire the federal workers fired since the shutdown began, and bars the firing of additional federal workers through the end of January. (The House would also need to approve the deal, and Trump would have to sign it, before the shutdown ends.)

• Sanders dismissed the promised Senate vote on Obamacare subsidies as “a totally bogus gesture.” He predicted that House Speaker Mike Johnson will simply let the measure die, without a corresponding vote in the House. “You can win the [Senate] vote here by 100 to zero, and people can jump up and down, [but] it’s going no place. Period.”

• Some political commentators argued this fight was still, overall, a win for the left: The longest shutdown in history took place on Trump’s watch, and Democrats made Republicans look terrible on multiple issues, including health care and tariffs. Scores of Democrats, however, remain livid — including even the daughter of one senator who crossed her party.

• “Clearly we had different approaches here,” Stefany Shaheen, who is running for Congress in New Hampshire, told the New York Times, after her mother, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-NH), voted to open the government. “I can’t speak for her. I think she did what she believes is right.”

What a difference a week, and a vote, can make.

• After Dems swept Tuesday’s elections, lawmakers felt like they had a mandate to push back against Trump. “The energy is very palpable and real,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told What A Day at Crooked Con on Friday. “We have to continue to earn it and stand up strong, because people want fighters. They don’t want people who cave.”

• Even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who isn’t exactly known as a resistance icon, bashed the moderate senators’ decision: “We can’t let a handful of random senators take us off track.”

• “We are gaining more and more support,” Sanders added, citing last week’s elections. “Yesterday’s vote was a real step backwards... we’ve got to continue the fight or else people lose faith.”

Perhaps the most troubling aspect for Democrats: This vote reignited infighting, just as Trump and Republicans were starting to feel the pain.

SKY SIGH

Donald Trump is encouraging air traffic controllers to resign, as Americans’ worry about flight delays ahead of Thanksgiving.

Trump railed against air traffic controllers who took time off (when they haven’t been paid for 41 days). More than 2,500 flights were canceled today, following a record number of cancellations yesterday. What’s more, delays could continue even if the government reopens soon.

“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off … I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “You didn’t step up to help the U.S.A. against the FAKE DEMOCRAT ATTACK that was only meant to hurt our Country. You will have a negative mark, at least in my mind, against your record.”

Trump encouraged those air traffic controllers to resign without severance, even though the U.S. has long struggled to hire and retain enough controllers. “If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so, with NO payment or severance of any kind! You will be quickly replaced by true Patriots.” I’m not so sure about that!

The bizarre public shaming underscores how much the shutdown has rattled Trump, who recently complained that Republicans were getting the blame. It didn’t help that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy claimed yesterday that flights would “slow to a trickle” in the coming weeks.

WHAT ELSE?

Donald Trump pardoned 77 people who helped him attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The list includes disgraced former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and two lawyers who helped create a strategy to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results. Reminder: Trump can only pardon away federal charges, and not state indictments.

On that note, Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell is planning to seek a commutation from Trump, according to documents released by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. If Trump agrees, Maxwell could be set free long before her 20-year prison sentence for her role in sex trafficking minors wraps up. Could this be why Maxwell was so complimentary about Trump during her secretive interview with Trump’s emissary from the DOJ? Nah, that can’t be it.

Trump welcomed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to the White House today, marking the first-ever official visit by a Syrian president. It’s a big deal for al-Sharaa, the country’s interim leader who once had ties to al-Qaeda and a $10 million bounty on his head. This dude was once captured by American forces in Iraq, and now he’s shooting hoops with the leader of U.S. Central Command. Life is full of twists and turns, I guess!

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy may be trying to fool Americans into believing he isn’t crazy, but his longtime allies are still as nutty as ever: “God is an anti-vaxxer,” Del Bigtree, one of his former top advisers and a leader of an anti-vax group, told RFK Jr. supporters over the weekend. Okay then!

Sorry, carb lovers: Italian pasta may soon disappear from American grocery stores because of Trump’s tariffs, which could amount to a rate of 107 percent on Italian imports of the greatest comfort food ever devised by humankind. Tony Soprano would like a word with you, Mr. President.

Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson doubled down on his bizarre claim that he was violently attacked by a demon in his sleep. “I couldn’t breathe … I have claw marks on both sides, right and left side on my ribs, and they’re bleeding,” Carlson said, noting that he sleeps with four hunting dogs. Yeah man, It must’ve been a demon!

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE EMAIL…

An appeals court affirmed that the Trump administration must fully fund federal food assistance benefits (SNAP) this month. The Trump administration is now asking the Supreme Court to allow it to keep full SNAP payments frozen during the shutdown. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but honestly I can’t believe how hard they are fighting to make sure people go hungry! A Supreme Court ruling is now expected on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court rejected a request to consider overturning its stance on same-sex marriage. “The Supreme Court made clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others does not come without consequences,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a statement.

Commanders fans loudly booed Donald Trump when he attended alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson a football game last night. When Trump addressed the crowd, he literally read the words: “I [and state your name] do solemnly swear.…” Okay, President State-Your-Name. Yeah, the lights may be on, but nobody’s home.

A Reagan-appointed federal judge quit his job to speak out about the danger that the Trump administration poses to America. “The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out,” Mark L. Wolf wrote in The Atlantic. “Silence, for me, is now intolerable.”

Plastic surgeons in Washington, D.C. are reporting a surge in clients requesting “Mar-a-Lago face” treatments. Just like Trump’s policies, people in MAGAworld want a maximalist appearance: “We’re seeing people who want to look like they had something done,” said one surgeon who works with Trump insiders. Here’s the Wikipedia for this horrific trend, or you could just look at DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s face.

Walking for 10 or 15 minutes a day can help middle-aged and older people become less likely to develop heart disease, compared to shorter walks throughout the day, according to a new large-scale study.

Remember that mysterious fedora-wearing man pictured outside the Louvre heist? It turns out that he’s actually a 15-year-old Sherlock Holmes enthusiast named Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux. “When the picture was taken, I didn’t know,” said Pedro, who was visiting the museum with his mom. “I was just passing through.” Why was he dressed like that? “I like to be chic … I go to school like this,” he said.