Washington, DC

1. AI safety talks stall
2. White House AI meeting
3. Dem whip’s campaign plans
4. ICE shapes midterms
5. Smith faces Senate
6. US media freedom erosion

PDB: OpenAI scraps new model release

Trump announces America.gov … Canadian goods trade ban takes effect … Conference Board publishes consumer confidence data

Bipartisan AI safety talks stall out in Senate

The Senate’s bipartisan AI safety talks are at a standstill now, and there will be no committee action before the election, according to Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and the Democrat he’s working with, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Cruz said that while he wants to move forward, “we don’t yet have bipartisan agreement on that bill, so at this point, any markup would have to be during a lame duck. I’m frustrated by that.” Klobuchar said she is still talking to Republicans and hopes to “pass strong safeguards” on AI by year’s end. She blamed President Donald Trump and said his “opposition to common-sense, bipartisan guardrails has complicated the negotiations.” At this point, it’s unclear whether senators will even be able to introduce a bipartisan bill before the election. “Possibly,” Cruz said. “But that decision has not been made.”

— Burgess Everett and Ashley Gold

No AI czar ahead of CEO meeting

Trump’s plans for an “AI Force” and a new “AI czar” have yet to take concrete steps forward after more than a week. After Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent emerged as a frontrunner for the czar job, Trump shot it down, saying Bessent didn’t want the gig. Other names have been floated, such as Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor — but it’s not clear that naming a czar and putting together a task force are on the White House AI priority list right now, nor is it clear whether White House staffers had planned for Trump’s initial announcements. The ideas could come up in today’s White House lunch with Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and AI executives. Attendees confirmed by Semafor include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

— Ashley Gold

Clark’s cross-country midterm sprint

Congressional leaders are hitting the trail in the midterms’ final stretch. Next month, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark is planning a whirlwind tour of districts in California, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania, according to a spokesperson, a sprint that will bring her stops to 24 congressional districts since August and 48 events. Her travel plans — which at points include multiple districts in a single day — will incorporate all of the female frontline Democratic lawmakers and “red to blue” candidates looking to flip seats. She’ll focus on issues impacting families like affordability, healthcare, and childcare. Top Republicans are also making their final pitches to voters, with House Speaker Mike Johnson planning a 40-district tour, Axios reported. Democrats are confident they’ll be able to flip the House, though Republicans think their cash advantage will help them defy political headwinds.

— Nicholas Wu

Candidates grapple with anger over ICE

Mass deportations are continuing to rattle midterm campaigns, with Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall criticizing ICE operations in the state. ICE “needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall said after ICE raids in southwest Kansas — before the Trump administration defended the raids, which came over local protests. Meanwhile, in the New York City suburbs: Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who is defending his seat against Democrat Cait Conley, used a Monday night debate to shift the ICE discussion to the state’s Local Cops, Local Crimes law, which bars local law enforcement from coordinating with federal immigration authorities and which Lawler said was keeping violent criminals on the street. “I support any legislation that will end sanctuary jurisdictions in this country,” Lawler said, adding later: “If you want accountability for ICE, you should want accountability with respect to” crime victims.

— David Weigel

Judiciary Republicans to grill Jack Smith

Republicans will get another chance before the midterms to use their investigative powers to go on attack for Trump this morning, as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to grill former special counsel Jack Smith on Biden-era federal criminal probes into the now-president. The hearing is poised to focus on what Republicans say was Smith’s improper acquisition of communications from GOP members of Congress in the course of his Jan. 6 investigation, revelations Republicans on both ends of the Capitol are using to paint him as an overzealous prosecutor. The House Judiciary Committee released transcripts of closed-door interviews with other members of his team last week. If Republicans lose the House and Senate in November, this may be one of their last opportunities to use their majority powers this way; Democrats are readying a maelstrom of investigations into Trump and Republicans’ conduct should they take power.

Americans concerned over media freedom

Fewer Americans than ever believe the US media have a lot of freedom, according to new polling from Gallup. The statistic underscores the erosion of confidence in US press freedom — particularly among Democrats and independents — as Trump wages a battle against outlets he perceives as biased. Fewer than seven in 10 Americans polled over the summer say the media in the US has a substantial amount of freedom. A separate Gallup survey released today found that a third of US adults say they have a lot or a fair amount of confidence in newspapers, television, and radio reporting, an increase from the 28% low recorded last year. That bump in trust is driven by Republicans. Both polls were taken before Trump barred CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from covering the White House, a move that has since been temporarily paused by a federal judge.

Blindspot: Witkoff and Texas

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets.

What the Left isn’t reading: Trump envoy Steve Witkoff described a feeling of “hope and promise” after discussions on the sidelines of the UN last week, The New York Post reported.

What the Right isn’t reading: Texas Republican congressional candidate Bo French once called for public executions of Democrats, CNN reported.

White House

• President Trump “is willing to give Iran sanctions relief and release Iranian frozen funds in return for concrete Iranian steps regarding the nuclear program” (the president denied the report). — Axios
• Trump also denied that he’d offered to sell American weapons to China, but said the Chinese would “probably like to buy” them.

Congress

• The Senate HELP Committee will vote on President Trump’s FDA nominee, Heidi Overton, after the midterms.
• The Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate 77-22 but now faces an unclear path in the House.

Outside the Beltway

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a statewide disaster over fuel prices.

Business

• Chipmaker AMD is buying AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s company, World Labs, for $8.2 billion.
• Around 11 million US workers, about 7% of the workforce, may need to change jobs within the next decade because of AI displacement, a McKinsey report predicted.

Courts

• A federal judge ruled that FEMA cannot condition anti-terrorism funding on whether state and local governments comply with the Trump administration’s desired election rules.

National Security

• Many FBI personnel remain in the dark about whether their personal information was exposed in a major hack of the bureau. — NYT

Foreign Policy

• The Trump administration’s decision to allow importation of Venezuelan gold aligned the US with a corruption-plagued mining industry. — NYT
• The administration is revoking the visas of more than two dozen current and former Latin American officials and their families over corruption allegations. — AP

Technology

• In its IPO filing, Anthropic warns investors that its products may pose “existential risks to humanity.” — Reuters
• OpenAI scrapped the release of its next ChatGPT model over safety concerns. — WSJ

Health

• Vice President Vance and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are slated to speak at a MAHA summit today.
• After a summer of recalls, food safety is becoming a campaign issue. — KFF
• Disagreements with the Trump administration have hamstrung MAHA advocates’ efforts to define and regulate ultraprocessed foods. — WSJ