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Nov. 13, 2025, 6:05 AM ESTBy Kevin CollierA bipartisan group of former Federal Communications Commission leaders has petitioned the agency to repeal the policy the Trump administration invoked in discussions surrounding Jimmy Kimmel at ABC and in the investigation of “60 Minutes” at CBS.The group — which includes five Republican and two Democratic former FCC commissioners, as well as several former senior staffers — calls for eliminating the agency’s longstanding “News Distortion” policy. The policy, according to the FCC’s website description, allows the agency to sanction broadcasters if “they have deliberately distorted a factual news report.”The policy is not codified, but grew out of a standard used by the FCC to evaluate broadcasters. It was rarely invoked for decades until this year, when President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FCC, Brendan Carr, cited it in several high-profile disputes with networks his agency regulates.A representative for the FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the FCC, invoking the policy “must involve a significant event and not merely a minor or incidental aspect of the news report,” and that “expressions of opinion or errors stemming from mistakes are not actionable.” The petition was filed on Thursday by the Protect Democracy Project, a legal nonprofit “dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat.”Any interested person or group can petition a federal agency to create, adjust or repeal a rule, according to the Administrative Conference of the United States. But agencies are not required to use specific procedures when receiving or responding to petitions.If the FCC chair declines to act — for instance, by directing the FCC to invite public comment — Gigi Sohn, an advisor to the petition, said that would give the Protect Democracy Project a stronger basis for a lawsuit over the issue. Sohn was a longtime public advocate in telecommunications policy and counsel to Tom Wheeler, the chair of the FCC during President Barack Obama’s second term. She was nominated to serve as an FCC commissioner under President Joe Biden, but withdrew her candidacy after a wave of personal attacks. Sohn said that Carr’s use of the policy illustrates the risk of government overreach.“In the right hands, it could stop misinformation, disinformation, what have you. But the problem is, it’s never been used that way, and the FCC has other tools,” she said. “Right now, it’s being used as a cudgel. And this is not just about Chair Carr. This is about future chairs or commissioners who want to use this as a tool of censorship.”The petition cites several incidents that it says illustrate the policy’s potential for abuse.In February, the FCC invoked the policy in its investigations into CBS over allegations that the news program “60 Minutes” intentionally deceived its viewers with its editing of an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Before the investigation began, Trump sued CBS’s parent company, Paramount, for $20 billion over the interview. In July, the parties settled for $16 million.Paramount at the time was pursuing an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, which required FCC approval. The agency approved it later that month.In a September interview with conservative influencer Benny Johnson, Carr said that local ABC affiliates could be in violation of the News Distortion policy if they continued to air Jimmy Kimmel Live after the host’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.In the episode, Kimmel criticized conservatives as “doing everything they can to score political points” from the killing.Licensed broadcasters that aired Kimmel risked “the possibility of fines or license revocations from the FCC if [they] continue to run content that ends up being a pattern of news distortion,” Carr said.ABC suspended Kimmel a few hours later. The network reinstated Kimmel the next week after substantial backlash, including from conservatives who criticized Carr. Ted Cruz, R-Texas called Carr’s remarks “dangerous as hell“ and Rand Paul, R-Ky. said they were “absolutely inappropriate.” Carr later denied his comments were intended as a threat.“What I spoke about last week is that when concerns are raised about news distortion there’s an easy way for parties to address that and work that out,” Carr said at the Concordia media summit in September. “In the main, that takes place between local television stations that are licensed by the FCC and what we call national programmers like Disney. They work that out, and there doesn’t need to be any involvement of the FCC.”But the former FCC chairs petitioning for the policy reversal say they took the comments as a threat.“Wielding the news distortion policy, the FCC has already opened or threatened to open investigations against private broadcasters due to disagreements with editorial decisions or statements made in a comedic monologue,” the petition said. “Because the FCC has no legitimate interest in correcting or punishing what it considers to be slanted news coverage, the news distortion policy lacks a meaningful function.”U.S. law, rooted in the First Amendment, generally prohibits the FCC from engaging in government censorship of speech.The FCC’s jurisdiction is limited to broadcast organizations like network television and radio stations, and cannot police cable news, newspapers or online-only news outlets. The agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The petition says it is not designed to overturn the “hoax” rule, which bans broadcasters from deliberately presenting wholly false information about a crime or catastrophe without a disclaimer that it’s fiction.The signatories of the petition include: Thomas Wheeler, a Democratic chair appointed by Barack Obama; Rachelle Chong, a Republican commissioner appointed by Bill Clinton; Alfred Sikes, a Republican chair appointed by George H.W. Bush; Republican Andrew Barrett and Democrat Ervin Duggan, both commissioners appointed by H.W. Bush; Mark Fowler, a Republican chair appointed by Ronald Reagan; and Dennis Patrick, a Republican commissioner appointed by Ronald Reagan.Kevin CollierKevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 13, 2025

A group of former FCC leaders has petitioned the agency to repeal the policy the Trump administration invoked in discussions surrounding Jimmy Kimmel.

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Nov. 13, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Aria BendixOne of the most common viruses in the world could be the cause of lupus, an autoimmune disease with wide-ranging symptoms, according to a study published Wednesday.Until now, lupus was somewhat mysterious: No single root cause of the disease had been found, and there is no designated treatment for it. The research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggests that Epstein-Barr virus — which 95% of people acquire at some point in life — could cause lupus by driving the body to attack its own healthy cells.It adds to mounting evidence that Epstein-Barr is associated with multiple long-term health issues, including other autoimmune conditions. As this evidence stacks up, scientists have accelerated calls for a vaccine that targets the virus.“If we now better understand how this fastidious virus is responsible for autoimmune diseases, I think it’s time to figure out how to prevent it,” said Dr. Anca Askanase, clinical director of the Lupus Center at Columbia University, who wasn’t involved in the new research.In lupus patients, an autoimmune attack can result in extreme fatigue, joint pain and skin rashes. In rare cases, the disease may lead to fatal or life-threatening issues such as kidney damage, or weaken the immune system so the body can’t fight off infections.Scientists have long suspected a link between Epstein-Barr and lupus, but the exact connection had remained elusive. Dr. William Robinson, a co-author of the new study and chief of the division of immunology and rheumatology at Stanford University, said his new findings solve a major piece of that puzzle.“From our perspective, it’s the key, missing mechanistic link,” Robinson said. “We think it applies to all lupus cases,” he added. Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. are living with the disease.But Hoang Nguyen, assistant vice president of research at the Lupus Research Alliance, said it’s too soon to know if the mechanism is behind every case.“Although the evidence is intriguing and promising, more evidence is needed to demonstrate that the link to EBV applies to all lupus,” Nguyen said. The alliance is a private funder of lupus research and contributed grant funding to Robinson’s study.An infection withe Epstein-Barr virus does not necessarily cause symptoms, especially among children, though the virus is also the most common cause of mononucleosis (often referred to as mono).It’s primarily transmitted by saliva from kissing or sharing drinks, food, utensils or toothbrushes. After someone is infected, the virus lingers permanently in the body, where it usually remains inactive — though not always. The new study is not the first to tie Epstein-Barr to autoimmune issues. Past research has linked it to multiple sclerosis. Though not the sole trigger of MS, the virus may be part of a chain of events that leads to the disease. Robinson said a pathway similar to the one described in his new study could also lead to other autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease, but more research is needed to tease that out. Of course, the vast majority of people who contract Epstein-Barr do not go on to get lupus, MS or any other autoimmune disease. Robinson said it’s possible that only certain strains of Epstein-Barr trigger autoimmune reactions.To determine the causal link between Epstein-Barr and lupus, Robinson and his co-authors focused on B cells — white blood cells that help fight off infections. Even in healthy individuals, Epstein-Barr lies dormant in a tiny portion of B cells. But those virus-containing B cells are far more prevalent in lupus patients, who have a 25 times higher share of them, according to the new research.The study also highlights a type of protein called antinuclear antibodies, which bind to the nucleus of cells and are one of the hallmarks of lupus. The researchers found that Epstein-Barr infects and reprograms B cells to produce antinuclear antibodies that attack the body’s own tissue, thereby causing lupus.Robinson said the findings go hand-in-hand with some other theories about what causes lupus. For instance, scientists suspect that a person’s genetics or hormones can predispose them to the disease, as well. A study published last year in the journal Nature also found that people with lupus have too much of a particular T cell — another type of white blood cell — that’s associated with cell damage and too little of another T cell associated with repair. Robinson said the pathway described in his study could activate that T cell response.The new research points to a few potential options for lupus treatment, according to Robinson, who is the co-founder of two drug development companies exploring treatments for autoimmune diseases.Many of the current medications given to ease lupus symptoms, such as corticosteroids, broadly focus on reducing inflammation. Robinson said future therapeutics could specifically target B cells infected with Epstein-Barr.But an Epstein-Barr vaccine — several of which are in clinical trials — could someday stop infections in the first place.“Vaccination to protect people against ever being infected by EBV would be the ultimate, fundamental solution,” Robinson said.Aria BendixAria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.

- Latest News - November 13, 2025

The Epstein-Barr virus, one of the most common in the world, could be the cause of lupus, an autoimmune disease with wide-ranging symptoms, according to a study.

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Nov. 12, 2025, 6:27 PM EST / Updated Nov. 12, 2025, 9:09 PM ESTBy Kyle Stewart, Frank Thorp V and Sahil KapurWASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will vote next week to repeal a provision slipped into the bill to end the shutdown that would allow senators to sue the government for potentially millions of dollars if their data is obtained without their notification.Johnson said he was “shocked” and “angry” when he learned about the provision, which would uniquely benefit eight Republican senators, whose phone records — but not the contents of their calls or messages — were found to have been accessed as part of the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.When asked Wednesday if he knew about the provision, which was tucked into the bill to reopen the government, Johnson replied, “No, I found out about it last night.”“I was surprised. I was shocked by it, and I was angry about it, to be honest,” he said.The House passed the package to reopen the government later Wednesday, sending it to President Donald Trump to sign, and end the 43-day government shutdown.But Johnson vowed on X that House Republicans would introduce stand-alone legislation to undo the provision, adding that he will put it on a fast track to get a vote in the House next week. That process means it will need the support of two-thirds of House members to pass and move on to the Senate.Democrats and many House Republicans have been critical of the measure, which appears to apply only to senators and retroactively applies to data requests that were made on or after Jan. 1, 2022.Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., one of two Republicans who voted against the legislation, vented his frustrations with the process that led to the provision being included, and the fact that House Republicans were being asked to vote for the bill regardless.“That does nothing to change the fact that certain senators will get paid an additional $500k of taxpayer money. The Senate will never take up your ‘standalone’ bill,” he wrote on X in response to Johnson. “This is precisely why you shouldn’t let the Senate jam the House.”Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released an unclassified document in October showing that the FBI requested a review of phone data for eight Republican senators and one House member on Sept. 27, 2023.It is unclear who initially pushed for the provision. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., included it in a part of the package that will fund the legislative branch through September.Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the top Democrat on the subcommittee responsible for funding the legislative branch, said in a statement shared with NBC News: “I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour — with zero consultation or negotiation with the subcommittee that actually oversees this work.”“This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate,” Heinrich said.A GOP aide said the language was a member-driven provision but did not name which senators made the push, and they said that Thune did include the language at their request. Thune’s office declined to comment.“Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.A Democratic aide told NBC News that Schumer fought to make the provision prospective to protect his members from a corrupt and out-of-control DOJ under Attorney General Pam Bondi.But a Schumer spokesperson said later Wednesday that Schumer now supports Johnson’s effort to strip the language from the bill and will push for that in the Senate.The eight Republican senators whose phone “tolling records” were accessed were: Ron Johnson of Wisconsin; Lindsey Graham of South Carolina; Bill Hagerty of Tennessee; Josh Hawley of Missouri; Dan Sullivan of Alaska; Tommy Tuberville of Alabama; Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming; and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania also had his tolling records disclosed as part of the probe, but the provision in the government funding bill specifically focuses on senators.The “tolling data” would include who was called, when and the length of a call, but not what was said.The provision added to the government funding bill would require that senators be notified if their data is disclosed. If they aren’t — as the eight Republican senators were not — and they successfully sue, the court would be required to award “the greater of statutory damages of $500,000 or the amount of actual damages” for each violation.It would not apply if the senator was the target of a criminal investigation or if a court ordered that the notification be delayed.Graham, whose call data was accessed, said he favors the provision because it would “protect the Senate in the future, and it will also cover any Democrats in this Senate this term that may have something happened to them.”Graham said he “definitely” plans to sue under the provision if it becomes law.“I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” he added.Johnson didn’t indicate who was responsible for the provision but said he trusts Thune. “He’s a great leader, but some members got together and hoisted that upon — put it into the bill at the last minute. And I wish they hadn’t,” Johnson said. “I think it was a really bad look, and we’re going to fix it in the House.”The eight Democratic caucus members who voted for the legislation were Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Tim Kaine, D-Va.NBC News asked each of their offices whether they knew the language was in the bill when they voted for it, and whether they agree with Johnson that it should be stripped out.Durbin’s office said he didn’t know about the provision and supports repealing it.A Rosen spokesperson said, “Given that this provision was added at the eleventh hour, Senator Rosen strongly supports efforts in the House to strip it out from the bill.”A Cortez Masto spokesperson said the senator “had nothing to do with the decision to add this provision to the bill at the last minute, and she supports stripping it from the bill.”A Shaheen spokesperson said: “Senator Shaheen was not involved in adding this language.”A Hassan spokesperson said, “Senator Hassan strongly opposes this provision that was added to the legislation by Senate leadership at the last minute without her knowledge and supports action to reverse it.”“Can absolutely say that Sen. King wasn’t aware” of that provision, said a spokesperson for King.The others didn’t immediately return requests for comment.Kyle StewartKyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - November 13, 2025

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will vote next week to repeal a provision slipped into the bill to end the shutdown that would allow senators to sue.

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Nov. 13, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Bridget Bowman, Ben Kamisar, Alexandra Marquez, Juhi Doshi, Owen Auston-Babcock and Maya RosenbergBilly Edmonson voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 because of his stances on border security, gun rights and the economy. One year after casting his ballot, Edmonson is finding it difficult to make ends meet. “Everything’s already so expensive. … That’s the worst thing about his presidency so far, is he promised things coming down and prices are not coming down. I make more money than I’ve ever made in my life right now, and it has, financially, been a struggle,” said Edmonson, a 35-year-old construction worker from Missouri. Edmonson recalled that Trump promised to start lowering prices on his first day in office. “It just doesn’t seem like there’s been a whole lot of focus on, ‘Hey, let’s get these prices down.’ It’s just been like, ‘Hey, prices are high because Biden did this.’ It’s like, well, Biden’s not in office anymore,” said Edmonson, a self-described independent, later adding, “It’s personally frustrating.” Edmonson is not alone. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of registered voters, including 30% of Republicans, said in the recent national NBC News poll that Trump has fallen short of their expectations on the cost of living and the economy. After being one of the big reasons why Trump won a return to the White House in 2024, Trump’s performance on the economy has become one of the big drags on his second term. While a number of Trump voters told NBC News in January that they’d give Trump a relatively long leash to improve the economy, the new interviews suggest that for some he’s running out of slack.“It just doesn’t seem like there’s been a whole lot of focus on, ‘Hey, let’s get these prices down.’ It’s just been like, ‘Hey, prices are high because Biden did this.’ It’s like, well, Biden’s not in office anymore.”Billy EdmonsonTrump himself has cast doubt on surveys showing Americans are anxious about the economy, telling Fox News this week, “I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had.” NBC News spoke to 18 Trump voters who participated in the most recent NBC News poll and said Trump had not met their expectations on the economy to explore how this group was thinking about Trump and experiencing the economy — and whether they were still committed to supporting his party. None regretted their vote for Trump last year, in many cases because of a deep frustration with Democrats. A handful said they’d be open to voting for Democrats in the future, though most planned to keep voting Republican. When it comes to the economy, many said the pain they’re feeling is real.“He and his advisers claim the country is going well, prices are going down, the tariffs are doing wonderfully,” Susan, a 66-year-old retiree from Nevada, said of Trump. (Several interviewees declined to share their last name when discussing politics, with some citing the nation’s polarized political atmosphere.) “But when you go to the store, the prices are up,” she added. Navigating high pricesDuring and after his 2024 campaign, Trump not only promised to halt inflation but to bring prices lower after several years of post-Covid growth. That promise, made even though overall consumer prices essentially never decrease over time, cuts to the core of some of his voters’ complaints. “It’s always hard to bring down prices when somebody else has screwed something up like [President Joe Biden] did,” Trump said during a news conference in January, weeks before being sworn in. “We’re going to have prices down. I think you’re going to see some pretty drastic price reductions.” Jeremiah, a 48-year-old Republican from Utah who works in the aerospace industry, has voted for Trump each time he ran for president and backed him last year because he saw Trump as a change agent. But he said Trump’s handling of the economy so far has been “mediocre.” “I was definitely hoping to see a lot of prices come back down, like gas for your car, diesel, utilities, groceries. I was hoping to see it all come back down and level out at least, but it’s not. It just keeps getting worse,” Jeremiah said. “I have a 20-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter, and they can’t live on their own,” he later added. “My son’s a welder, and he makes $28 an hour, and he’s still not out on his own. Everything is just so overpriced. It’s ridiculous. When I graduated high school, I moved out and had a $300 a month apartment, piece of cake, 10 bucks an hour.” Edmonson, the Missouri construction worker, noted that he travels often for work. But motel and grocery prices have jumped, even for items like a can of soup, he said. And the high costs have him reconsidering his work on the road. “It’s almost getting to the point where it’s time for me to find something at home,” Edmonson said, later adding, “Because if I’m gonna sink, I might as well sink at home.” “I was surprised that the groceries haven’t went down. In fact, they keep going up.”Roxanne NovitPatty, a 70-year-old Republican retiree from Pennsylvania, blamed Trump for the country’s economic woes. Trump, she said, “has always been a very rich man. He’s never had to do anything his whole life. He’s never had to go shop. So, he has no idea what a true working person in their daily life has to do.” “I was surprised that the groceries haven’t went down. In fact, they keep going up. So that would be my biggest disappointment,” said Roxanne Novit, a 69-year-old retiree from Colorado and a self-described Republican. Susan, the Nevada retiree who is not registered with any party, said Trump’s handling of the economy “is not at all what I expected,” noting she was hopeful Trump would focus on “opening up mining and gasoline exploration.” “It seems like they’re moving a little slow on that because they’re spending all the time on the tariffs or making nice to the Chinese president or something like that,” Susan said. Giving him timeBut some voters were willing to give Trump some more time to turn things around, even among the subset who said they believe he’s fallen short. Overall, most Republicans still back Trump on the economy and other issues, according to the NBC News poll and other surveys.“I would like to see the economy turn up a little quicker, but everything takes time. You can’t expect it overnight,” said independent Robert Duran, 68, a retired law enforcement officer from Massachusetts. William Scheuer, a 68-year-old New Yorker, who said he voted for Trump in 2024 because he’s “old-fashioned” on things like social issues, agreed that Trump has been “falling a little short” on the economy, specifically noting prices. “Everything’s going up, it’s going up more than what the government is telling you,” he said, before adding he’s “confident [Trump] will” turn it around. “I would like to see the economy turn up a little quicker, but everything takes time. You can’t expect it overnight.”Robert DuranCraig Lovejoy, a 32-year-old Florida independent who works in pest control, said Trump is doing “better than many” presidents on addressing the economy. “I don’t think that one president will be all it takes to get things back on track, but I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Lovejoy said. Some voters were sympathetic to Trump’s tariff policies in particular, even as they were navigating higher prices. “The steak I used to buy that used to be like 40 bucks is now 80. I get it,” said Jason Olson, a 50-year-old small-business owner from South Carolina who typically backs Republicans. “And I know tariffs have raised prices on a lot of things as well. But I also understand the reason behind the tariffs are they want to bring industry back to the U.S.” Tim Fleming, a 42-year-old self-described libertarian who works in injection molding at a factory in Tennessee, agreed that Trump’s presidency has been “a little disappointing.” He raised frustrations about how Trump’s pledge not to tax overtime and tips was implemented as a tax deduction, so he and others won’t see the fruits of that until they file their taxes next year. “My overtime is still getting taxed; my bonuses are still getting taxed,” he said. “It was not what it was made out to be.” But he noted he believes he’s seen the direct fruits of Trump’s tariff push: the return of jobs in his county that had been offshored to Mexico. “The tariffs helped create a lot of jobs where I live,” Fleming said. Those comments come as the White House has tried to argue the administration is making important strides on affordability. “The president has done a lot that has already paid off in lower interest rates and lower inflation, but we inherited a disaster from Joe Biden and Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’re going to keep on working to make a decent life affordable in this country, and that’s the metric by which we’ll ultimately be judged in 2026 and beyond,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X the day after Election Day.Down on DemocratsWhile several Trump voters raised concerns about the economy and high prices, none of the voters, who are largely Republicans or independents, said they regretted their choice last year. “I wouldn’t change my vote, but I’m not happy,” said Elliot Muegge, a 32-year-old farmer from Oklahoma. Amanda, a 48-year-old postal worker from Missouri, said she still finds it difficult to make a budget because of high food prices. But, she said, she thinks former Vice President Kamala Harris “would have been worse.” “I wouldn’t change my vote, but I’m not happy.”Elliot MueggeA self-described conservative, Amanda said she would be open to supporting a Democratic candidate in a future election, but “not a progressive, more like an old-school Democrat.” A handful of Trump voters also said they would be open to supporting Democrats in the future, depending on the candidate. But others said backing a Democrat was off the table. “I think that they pander to friend groups and minorities and they look silly doing it. It’s fake,” Fleming, of Tennessee, said. “I haven’t found a single Democrat” that inspires trust, said Lovejoy, of Florida. Edmonson, the Missouri construction worker, said it could be years before he considers supporting a Democratic candidate, noting his strong support for gun rights. “They just don’t care about people in general. They want to say they care about people, but that — to me, all they want is, is votes,” Edmonson said, noting he is still frustrated with Trump. “I don’t feel like I can vote for a Democrat candidate,” Edmonson said. “I feel like I don’t have a candidate really.”Still, others who are open to backing Democrats warn that the economic angst coursing through the country — which Trump used to his advantage amid anger at the Biden administration in 2024 — could translate to political losses for Republicans. “Did he not promise the American people — Day 1 — that prices were going to go down? We are now in Month 11 and things continue to rise,” said Patty, the 70-year-old Pennsylvanian. While she said she regularly votes Republican, she’s split her ticket in the past, and she said she likes her state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro. “The Republican Party is in for a rude awakening, and I think it’s not a bad thing,” she added. Muegge, from Oklahoma, shared a similar sentiment about the economy hurting Trump’s political standing. While he doesn’t blame Trump specifically for the cost of living, he expressed frustration about how he “unfairly manipulates the markets with his social media presence.” He pointed to a recent conversation he had with his father, also a Republican. “He and I were having a conversation, and he said, ‘I hate Trump.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you do, too? I thought I was alone on this island,’” he said. “I don’t know if other people are saying that quietly behind their own closed doors and then pounding their chest in public,” he said. “I just don’t know.”Bridget BowmanBridget Bowman is a national political reporter for NBC News.Ben KamisarBen Kamisar is a national political reporter for NBC NewsAlexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.Juhi DoshiJuhi Doshi is an associate producer with NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”Owen Auston-BabcockOwen Auston-Babcock is an intern at NBC News.Maya RosenbergMaya Rosenberg is a Desk Assistant based in Washington, D.C.

- Latest News - November 13, 2025

Billy Edmonson voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 because of his stances on border security, gun rights and the economy.

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Nov. 13, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Gary GrumbachALEXANDRIA, Va. — When acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan walks into federal court here in Virginia on Thursday morning, it will be Halligan — not the criminal defendants she hopes to prosecute — at the center of the court’s attention.Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both frequent targets of President Donald Trump, filed separate motions in their respective cases, arguing that Halligan is unlawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney and therefore the indictments against them should be thrown out. In a rare joint hearing, attorneys for Comey and James will argue this together before U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie, who is traveling up from the District of South Carolina.Currie is hearing this joint oral argument session, not a judge from the Eastern District of Virginia, to avoid any potential intradistrict conflict of interest.Halligan, who was part of Trump’s legal team in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case but has no prior prosecutorial experience, was sworn in to the job as interim U.S. attorney in one of the nation’s busiest federal court districts on Sept. 22. That’s three days after Erik Siebert, the U.S. attorney who had been serving in the role since Jan. 21, resigned after being pressured to indict Comey and James.The indictments against Comey and James came after Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey, James and another of the president’s adversaries, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Comey and James both pleaded not guilty to their respective charges.“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” the president wrote in a Sept. 20 Truth Social post. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”According to federal statute, individuals may only serve for 120 days after being appointed U.S. attorney, unless confirmed by the U.S. Senate before then. The Senate had not confirmed him, but district judges of the Eastern District of Virginia exercised their own independent appointment authority to legally retain Siebert as an interim U.S. attorney beyond the 120-day limit.It is that 120-day limit that James and Comey’s attorneys argue should not start back at zero with the appointment of Halligan.“If the Attorney General could make back-to-back sequential appointments of interim U.S. Attorneys, the 120-day period would be rendered meaningless, and the Attorney General could indefinitely evade the alternate procedures that Congress mandated,” Comey’s attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wrote in a motion to dismiss the indictment against his client.Comey was charged in late September with making a false statement to Congress during a September 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Asked by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, about testimony he gave in 2017 asserting that he did not authorize the leak of information to the media about an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation, Comey said, “I stand by the testimony.”Trump first clashed with Comey during his first term over the then-FBI director’s handling of the federal investigation Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. Comey was fired in May 2017 and has been an outspoken critic of Trump since then.The Justice Department laid out in court papers that it believes the indictment of Comey — signed only by Halligan and unsealed days before the five-year statute of limitations expired — should survive this challenge to Halligan’s appointment regardless of what Currie decides, because of U.S. Code 3288, the statute that governs this very issue.“Whenever an indictment or information charging a felony is dismissed for any reason after the period prescribed by the applicable statute of limitations has expired, a new indictment may be returned in the appropriate jurisdiction within six calendar months of the date of the dismissal of the indictment or information,” the statute reads in part.This six-month grace period, legal experts tell NBC News, may be the DOJ’s key to a continued prosecution of the former FBI director. The bank fraud charge that James, who sued Trump and his businesses for fraud in 2022, is facing is well within the 10-year statute of limitations.Bondi has taken steps in recent weeks to shore up Halligan’s position.On Oct. 31, Bondi issued a formal order retroactively appointing Halligan to the position of “special attorney” within the Department of Justice as of Sept. 22 — three days before Comey was indicted — and wrote, “Should a court conclude that Ms. Halligan’s authority as Special Attorney is limited to particular matters, I hereby delegate to Ms. Halligan authority as Special Attorney to conduct and supervise the prosecutions” of Comey and James.”Halligan is also facing several Bar Association complaints in Florida and Virginia, filed by the left-leaning watchdog group Campaign for Accountability.“Ms. Halligan’s actions appear to constitute an abuse of power and serve to undermine the integrity of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and erode public confidence in the legal profession and the fair administration of justice,” the complaint says.Several other U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump are also facing legal challenges to their appointments.In late September, a federal judge in Nevada ruled that acting U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah should be disqualified from serving in that role due to violating the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.In August, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that Alina Habba was “not lawfully holding the office of United States Attorney” due to the 120-day interim appointment expiration, and that her actions since July as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey may be declared void.Gary GrumbachGary Grumbach is an NBC News legal affairs reporter, based in Washington, D.C.

- Latest News - November 13, 2025

When acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan walks into federal court here in Virginia on Thursday morning, it will be Halligan — not the criminal defendants she hopes to prosecute —.

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