Washington, DC

1. ‘Target-rich’ Michigan
2. Iran says deal is close
3. Knives still out for Pirro
4. Crypto bill’s future
5. Max Miller split
6. Dems eye populist push
7. AI financial advice

PDB: Foodborne illness outbreaks widen

Senate panel votes on contempt of Fauci … Trump attends Team USA reception … State Dept to close five overseas posts

Republicans celebrate El-Sayed’s win

Abdul El-Sayed is the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, and Republicans think they finally got some good news. Sen. Tim Scott, R.S.C, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, said the progressive candidate’s record makes the race a “target-rich environment” for Republicans, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Now, Scott and other GOP honchos are licking their chops, with the Senate Leadership Fund likely to plow more money into a race where Republicans already enjoy a big spending advantage. “I would expect that we and others will double down our investments in Michigan, because this guy is uniquely unqualified and objectionable,” SLF’s executive director Alex Latcham said. Republicans can’t guarantee victory: This is Michigan, after all, and they haven’t won there since 1994. But they have the candidate they wanted, in former Rep. Mike Rogers — and the opponent they’ve been praying for.

Iran says deal nears ‘final stages’

President Donald Trump said he wanted to make a deal to end the Iran war “because I don’t want to kill people.” Iran and Oman are in the “final stages” of an agreement on a commercial route through the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran said. But dysfunction at the top of the Iranian regime is likely slowing talks: Iran’s president said on state TV Wednesday that interaction with the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “very difficult.” Khamenei was gravely wounded in a US strike and hasn’t been seen in months. Three factions are now competing for his approval: those who favor a deal at any cost, those who want talks but full control of Hormuz, and hardliners opposed to dialogue altogether.

Pirro still in trouble as Trump mulls her future

Trump isn’t the only one frustrated with his US attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, over her handling of Reflecting Pool cases. Others inside the administration are raising concerns about her, Semafor is told, after a contentious Oval Office meeting in which Pirro defended her decision to drop charges against an alleged pool vandal and passed blame onto Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, criticized Pirro publicly on Wednesday — and was seen as a proxy for those seeking her ouster. “At a time when she needs allies, after a year in the position, she’s treated too many people like she did Doug Burgum,” one person close to the president said. Pirro’s ability to leave that Oval meeting with her job bodes well for her, however, as does the fact that her critics are mostly “second-tier” Trump backers, as this person described it.

— Shelby Talcott

Crypto’s top legislative priority slips in Senate

The odds are growing longer that the Senate takes up the cryptocurrency industry’s top legislative priority before lawmakers head home for the summer. The industry needs a vote before November so it can deploy millions in political spending. But leaders have yet to line one up, as senators remain at odds on multiple fronts — including how the bill would rein in the president’s ability to profit from digital assets. The White House has “given us some feedback” on senators’ latest bipartisan ethics proposal, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. As it stands, “if we were getting out on schedule [this afternoon], I think [a vote] would be a moonshot at this point.” “But there’s still a chance if we’re going to be delayed, particularly if we have to go into next week,” Tillis added.

— Eleanor Mueller

Republicans split on Max Miller

Congressional Republicans are increasingly split on pushing out one of their own, controversial Ohio Rep. Max Miller, who faces domestic abuse allegations from a GOP senator’s daughter. And Miller’s recent media appearances to defend himself have not won him new allies. “When you watch those interviews, if you have ever had anyone in your life that has experienced abuse, they were eerie. But I stand with [Sen. Bernie Moreno], and supporting his daughter and his granddaughter, and hope that others will as well,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Semafor. She urged Miller to resign or forgo reelection. He’s missed the deadline to do the latter and trigger a special election; he says he’s still running. Britt spoke soon after Speaker Mike Johnson told Politico he’d wait on an ethics probe before weighing in. Democrats think Miller’s struggles make his reddish seat flippable in November.

— Nicholas Wu and Burgess Everett

Dem senators focus on economic populism

Democrats should use Congress’ August recess to lean into economic populism and take on corporate interests — not just “simply oppose Trump and his billionaire friends,” according to a memo by a quartet of progressives that was obtained by Semafor. “If Democrats are going to be the party of working people, we have to prove that we can be trusted to unrig the system by confronting the elites who are doing the rigging,” Sens. Adam Schiff of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and Tina Smith of Minnesota wrote in a memo to their colleagues. “It may feel safer to avoid these conflicts with an agenda that tries to please every powerful interest where the fight is defined solely against Trump.” Their advice comes as the Senate enters the heart of campaign season and prepares to leave town for the summer.

— Burgess Everett

Americans’ low confidence in AI financial advice

About 20% of Americans have recently used AI for financial advice, but their confidence in its expertise remains low. Fewer than one in three Americans have some or a great deal of confidence in the financial advice they get from AI, according to new polling by Gallup and Edward Jones — compared with 79% who have the same degree of confidence in financial advisers. There’s also a clear generational split when it comes to using AI for financial guidance, with one-quarter of respondents under age 46 saying they’ve used it while just 7% of boomers said the same. The most popular source of financial guidance in the survey, across generations, was respondents’ own internet research. More than half of boomers said they’d consulted a professional financial adviser in the last year, while far fewer members of Gen Z and millennials had (14% and 21%, respectively).

On Tuesday, September 15, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Dr. Emily Aaronson, Chief Medical Officer, Walmart; The Honorable Alex M. Azar II, 24th Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services; and Chris Butler, Vice President & Head of Drug Discovery, Isomorphic Labs, will join Semafor’s The Future of Health to unpack innovation and access of US healthcare.

From breakthrough therapies and AI-enabled care to the investments and policy decisions shaping the next generation of medicine, on-the-record conversations will explore how innovation can expand access, improve patient outcomes, and build a more affordable, effective healthcare system.

Sept. 15 | Washington, DC | Request Invite

Ridicule was the real winner in Michigan

El-Sayed’s narrow victory was the culmination of nearly a decade of work by left-wing activists who are not always active players in the Democratic Party. It was also a win for ridicule. Online Israel critics, whose numbers multiplied throughout 2026, humiliated El-Sayed’s opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich, for a speech she gave at a Hanukkah event in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — and mocked her for reasons beyond her stance on Israel. Last month, when I asked Stevens about the virality of the “Israel in my dreams” clip, she again reminded me of the context. “Broadly,” she said, “I think the internet isn’t the best place to have discourse around serious and emotional subjects.” It’s not. But her opponents weren’t trying to have a serious discourse. They were making fun of her, folding a serious argument (that Stevens was captured by her pro-Israel donors) into a silly one.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Democratic party should welcome opposing visions of its future. “What people don’t understand is that a big tent is a strength, not a weakness,” he said. “It’s how you build a majority.”

Playbook: “We’re gonna win this election whether we resolve the Iran situation before the election or not,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Axios: Billionaire philanthropist and Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein has a new book out on Oct. 6, Speaking of America, drawn from his long-running series of interviews at the Library of Congress.

White House

• In a departure from precedent, President Trump has repeatedly called Fed Chair Kevin Warsh for counsel since he took the helm at the central bank, including as