This is the online version of From the Politics Desk, a daily 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, Bridget Bowman files a dispatch from Texas on how the final stretch of the Democratic primary for the Senate is shaping up. Plus, Andrea Mitchell explores President Donald Trump’s options in Iran.
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— Adam Wollner
Democrats want a fight. In Texas, they’re divided over how — and whom — to fight next.
By Bridget Bowman
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats may be divided over whether state Rep. James Talarico or U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett should be their party’s Senate nominee. But they agree on one thing: They’re itching for a fight.
And whoever wins next week’s Senate primary will provide some clues about exactly how Democrats want to go about it — and whom they want to focus on.
As Talarico addressed hundreds of supporters packed into an event center last week in North Austin, one of his loudest applause lines came as he took aim at his fellow Democrats.
“If you hate politics and you’ve never voted before, you have a place in this campaign. If you have voted for Democrats but you’re tired of D.C. Democrats’ always folding, you have a place in this campaign,” he said.
“And if you voted for Donald Trump but you are fed up with the extremism and the corruption in our government, you have a place in this campaign,” he added.
A few days later, Crockett addressed around 200 supporters gathered at City Cathedral Church in Conroe, where she chided her party for having tried too hard to appeal to Republicans in 2024.
“I’m not saying that Republicans are not welcome, because the fights that I’m waging, they are for everyone,” Crockett said. “But I also think that it is truly only fair to the Democratic base to double down and say, ‘I am a Democrat, and I am going to fight for those principled things like raising the wage,’ which, again, helps everyone, right?” she said.
Talarico and Crockett have put forth competing visions for the Democratic Party as it searches for a path after a deflating 2024 loss to Trump — and as Democrats try to win their first statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years.
One looks to energize voters across the political spectrum in a fight against a “corrupt” political and economic system. The other looks to energize Democrats’ core supporters in a fight against Trump. And conversations with nearly 30 Democratic voters in Texas in recent days reveal that they are still divided over which path to follow and which will lead to a victory in November.
Read more from Bridget →
More from Texas: Sen. Ted Cruz endorsed against a fellow Texas Republican in Congress, backing state Rep. Steve Toth over Rep. Dan Crenshaw ahead of next week’s primary, Ben Kamisar reports.
TK
Where Trump goes from here on Iran
Analysis by Andrea Mitchell
President Donald Trump’s longest-ever State of the Union speech clocked in at 1 hour and 47 minutes. But he devoted only four minutes to explaining his rationale should he decide to use the extraordinary military firepower he has assembled in the region against Iran.
With his negotiators, son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff, set to hold what could be critical Iran talks in Geneva tomorrow, Trump said last night of Iran’s suspected nuclear program, “We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again and are, this moment again, pursuing their sinister ambitions. … They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: We will never have a nuclear weapon.”
He went on to say, “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy, but one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.” Iran denounced his comments as “big lies.”
Last weekend, Witkoff said Iran was “probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material” of 60% — which would be a dangerous threshold. Neither he nor Trump explained the contradiction with Trump’s claim immediately after the U.S. struck Iran in June that the U.S. had “obliterated” its nuclear program.
As a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has long insisted it has a sovereign right to a peaceful civilian nuclear program. But after Trump withdrew in 2018 from the multinational agreement negotiated during Barack Obama’s presidency, Iran later began enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, according to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
U.S. officials never fully accounted for what had happened to Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium in the bombings. Days afterward, Trump said at a NATO summit that the bombs had buried the stockpiles “30 stories down.” And he said the U.S. had “hit them so hard” that Iran did not have time to move its stockpiles. Still, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said his agency had had warnings Iran might have moved the material elsewhere in Iran before the U.S strikes.
Last night, Trump for the first time accused Iran of another provocation — “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.” NBC News reported today that the Defense Intelligence Agency expected that Iran could develop space-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) 10 years from now if it decided to develop such a program.
Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed Congress’ top national security leaders on Iran. It is not known whether they were given classified details about a potential Iranian ICBM decision.
If diplomacy fails, Trump is expected to target Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, believed to be responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of protesters. Arab states told NBC News that they are urging Trump in case of a U.S. strike to defend them — and 40,000 U.S. troops in the region — by taking down Iran’s missile program. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is pressing for more drastic action: toppling Iran’s regime.
Although Rubio told the Senate recently that Iran’s regime is weaker than it has ever been, he said replacing Tehran’s entrenched government would be complex. It is widely viewed as a much more challenging objective, requiring a longer, sustained campaign given the chaos that could follow.
Today’s other top stories
- Breaking news: Cuban officials said a Florida-registered speedboat violated their territorial waters, kicking off an armed confrontation with Cuban border guard troops in which four people on the vessel were killed. Read more →
- Epstein saga: The Justice Department has not released summaries and notes from three interviews the FBI conducted with a South Carolina woman who alleged that she was a sexual assault victim of Jeffrey Epstein and also made sexual abuse allegations against Trump, according to an NBC News analysis of the Epstein files and information provided by a source familiar with the investigation. Read more →
- Vote watch: A senior Department of Homeland Security official said on a call with state election officials that immigration agents will not show up at polling places this year. Read more →
- In the hot seat: Dr. Casey Means faced tough questions from senators at a confirmation hearing to be Trump’s surgeon general about her stances on vaccines, contraception and antidepressant use during pregnancy. Read more →
- SOTU fallout: Trump said Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan should be sent “back from where they came” after they shouted at him during his State of the Union address. Read more →
- One-on-one: In a rare meeting amid a partial government shutdown affecting her agency, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., this afternoon. Ramirez’s office said she pushed for a shift in tactics from immigration agents. Read more →
- On the docket: Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., plans to force a House vote next week on her resolution to release sexual misconduct and harassment reports involving members of Congress. Read more →
- The Fourth Estate: A federal magistrate judge rescinded the Trump administration’s ability to examine data seized from a Washington Post reporter last month. Read more →
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.
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