The Brief | Schumer Just Endorsed the Nazi Tattoo Guy
Plus: the longest DHS shutdown in history finally ends, SCOTUS forces Louisiana to redo its map, and MAHA bags a pesticide win in the farm bill.
Scrolling after my workout this morning, I saw this video of Hasan Piker, champaign communist extrodinair, campaigning in Philly for Chris Rabb and leading the crowd in a DSA chant. Peek the hammer-and-sickle t-shirt and PFLP headband in the crowd.
I have a sense that people do have a full understanding of what the DSA is and how it functions, and that they expect their candidates to “co-govern” with their organization on behalf of their constituents' interests. So I wrote about it.
I really encourage you to read it and share it!
In today’s Brief:
Janet Mills bows out, leaving the Democrats’ Senate hopes in Maine pinned on a Hamas-praising guy with a Totenkopf chest piece.
The 76-day DHS shutdown is finally over. ICE was never affected.
The Supreme Court torched Louisiana’s congressional map and the state just yanked its May primaries off the calendar.
MAHA forced 280 House members on the record over Bayer’s pesticide liability shield. The shield lost.
Quick Rundown: Iran’s 60-day clock runs out, Trump on the bulletproof vest question, and more.
The Democrats Just Coronated the Nazi Tattoo Guy
Janet Mills, the two-term Maine governor and Schumer’s hand-picked recruit to take down Susan Collins, suspended her Senate campaign Thursday. The reason she gave: she couldn’t raise the money. The real reason: a 41-year-old oyster farmer named Graham Platner was beating her by close to 40 points in the polls and her donor base was bleeding out.
Within an hour, Chuck Schumer and the DSCC announced they’d “work with the presumptive Democratic nominee Graham Platner.” That nominee, in case you’ve missed the past six months of news, is a man who:
Walked around Maine until last fall with a Totenkopf SS death’s-head tattoo on his chest. He says he got it drunk in Croatia in 2007 and didn’t know what it was. He covered it with a Celtic knot in November.
Graham Platner for Senate@grahamformaineYears ago I got a skull and crossbones tattoo with my buddies in the Marine Corps. I was appalled to learn it closely resembled a Nazi symbol. I altered it yesterday, into something that isn't deeply offensive to my core beliefs. I am very sorry to all of you who had to7:57 PM · Oct 22, 2025 · 7.74M Views8.63K Replies · 1.25K Reposts · 16.5K LikesWrote on Reddit that women worried about sexual assault should “take some responsibility for themselves and not get so f*cked up they wind up having sex with someone they don’t mean to.”
Praised Hamas in 2014 and called himself a “longtime fan” of an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who’s blamed Israel for the JFK and Charlie Kirk assassinations.
Said this week on camera he wants the Trump administration “not to function” because everyone in the White House should be “hauled under subpoena.”
Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ruben Gallego, and Martin Heinrich are all in. Schumer (who is Jewish) is in. The DSCC is in. The party that spent a decade telling you Republicans were Nazis is now spending millions to elect a guy with an actual Nazi tattoo.
Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine Thank you all for believing.
Susan Collins, the only Republican senator from a state Kamala Harris won, opened the general with a direct line: “Chuck is trying to cover up Democrats’ bad ideas by attacking others. His approach is like trying to cover up an outrageous tattoo. You can paint over it, but we all know what’s underneath.”
Maine has 965,000 registered voters and 36 percent of them are independents. Platner won the primary with about half the registered Democrats in the state. The general is a different animal. Commentary’s Seth Mandel put it cleanly: “One need not be Jewish to understand that Nazis are bad. The moral failure here is the Democratic Party’s, not a single constituency.”
The class that spent a decade calling every Republican a Nazi can’t find a single Democratic senator willing to denounce a candidate with a Nazi tattoo.
The 76-Day DHS Shutdown Is Over (ICE Was Never Affected)
President Trump signed the bill Thursday afternoon, ending the longest shutdown of a federal department in U.S. history. The House passed it by voice vote less than an hour after leadership announced they’d take it up. Speaker Mike Johnson had been sitting on the Senate’s bipartisan version for over a month, then folded once the White House warned that DHS payroll would dry up by the first week of May.
The bill funds the Coast Guard, TSA, FEMA, Secret Service, and CISA through September 30. It does not fund ICE or Border Patrol. Republicans are running those agencies on a separate three-year reconciliation track, which Trump wants on his desk by June 1.
Here’s what most coverage is burying: ICE and CBP were paid the entire shutdown. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act funded them last year. So the 76 days of “Trump’s shutdown” hammered TSA agents scanning your bags, the Coast Guard pulling people out of the water, and FEMA. Democrats happily defunded those agencies for ten weeks while pretending they were “fighting for the homeland.” Over 1,000 TSA agents quit during the standoff.
Democrats wanted policy concessions on ICE: bans on face masks for agents, warrant requirements for immigration arrests. They got nothing. Schumer collapsed. Hakeem Jeffries called the immigration enforcement work the “violent Republican mass deportation machine.” Save the quote. It’s coming back on a campaign mailer this November.
SCOTUS Killed Louisiana’s Map. Louisiana Killed Its Own Primary.
In Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Wednesday that Louisiana's congressional map unconstitutionally relied on race to draw a second majority-Black district. Justice Alito wrote the opinion: "That map is an unconstitutional gerrymander, and its use would violate the plaintiffs' constitutional rights." The ruling tightens what states can and can't do under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and other Southern states with similar racial-gerrymander cases are paying very close attention.
Louisiana is doing what the Court told it to do: stop using a map the justices declared unconstitutional. Within 24 hours, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order suspending the May 16 House primaries until July 15 or until the legislature passes a new, compliant map. Senate primaries still go forward. Absentee ballots have already been cast in the suspended races; Secretary of State Nancy Landry says those won’t be counted.
Democrat activist attorney Marc Elias has already filed suit calling the suspension voter disenfranchisement. A federal appeals panel issued an order suspending the primaries until new maps are drawn, which the AP’s legal experts called premature.
The math the legacy press won’t print: under the post-2020 map, Louisiana sent five Republicans and one Democrat to D.C. Under the Callais-rejected map, it sent four Republicans and two Democrats. Florida just approved a new GOP-friendly map this week on its own track. The midterm map is shifting under everyone’s feet, and Callais hands Republicans a sharper tool the next time a Section 2 case lands in front of these justices.
MAHA Just Forced 142 Republicans on the Record for Bayer
The House passed the 2026 farm bill Thursday morning 224-200. Before that, Anna Paulina Luna ran an amendment to strip a provision that would have shielded Bayer/Monsanto from lawsuits over Roundup’s glyphosate. The amendment passed 280-142, with 73 Republicans crossing over.
The killed provision would have blocked states and courts from holding pesticide companies liable for failing to warn about cancer risks the EPA doesn’t formally recognize. Bayer is currently paying $7.2 billion in settlements over Roundup-cancer claims. The Trump White House argued for Bayer at the Supreme Court this week in Monsanto v. Durnell. RFK Jr., the supposed MAHA standard-bearer, defended the administration’s pro-glyphosate position earlier this year.
The mom caucus and the House Freedom Caucus split with chemical-industry Republicans, and 142 Republicans went on the record voting to protect Bayer over American families. Luna pulled no punches: “I have a little boy, and the amount of articles I have seen on pesticides and herbicides popping up in children’s products (to include organic) is very bad.”
The Supreme Court could still hand Bayer the same shield through Monsanto v. Durnell. But the legislative version is dead, and 142 Republicans now own that vote. Pull the names if your district fits the issue.
Quick Rundown
Iran war “terminated” before the 60-day clock. The Trump administration told reporters Friday the Iran war is officially over before hitting the War Powers Act deadline. Quiet exit. Don’t expect a victory parade. Oil markets are still rattled.
Trump on the bulletproof vest question. After the attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (yes, that happened), a reporter asked the president if he’d start wearing one. Trump: “I don’t know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier.” Vanity, even now.
Daily Wire@realDailyWireHow does he do it? 😂 REPORTER: "Is there talks about you potentially wearing a bullet-proof vest?" TRUMP: "I don't know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier."8:28 PM · Apr 30, 2026 · 54.3K Views24 Replies · 118 Reposts · 1.95K LikesCassidy in the crosshairs over Trump’s surgeon general pick. Bill Cassidy is taking MAHA fire over the surgeon general swap. He’s up in 2026. Watch this one.
Nebraska becomes the first state to impose Medicaid work requirements under last summer’s GOP bill. The Hill reports the rollout is rocky. Other red states are watching closely before they pull the trigger.
Trump fumes as Powell plots a Fed future. Jerome Powell is signaling he won’t go quietly when his term ends, and Trump is publicly furious. The Fed independence fight has another round to go.
Let’s Talk About It
The DSCC just made a guy with a literal Nazi tattoo and a Hamas fan history their Senate nominee, and Chuck Schumer (who is Jewish) is funding him. If this isn’t the line, where is it?
Trump on the bulletproof vest: “I don’t know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier.” Most on-brand presidential quote of the year so far. Agree or disagree?
Drop your takes in the comments. See you Monday. Stay nosy.
The Brief publishes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Forward to someone who needs to understand what’s actually happening.
Kapo is now all in on Hamas and Nazis