Morning Report is The Hill’s a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here.
In today’s issue:
▪ A ‘moving and powerful’ speech
▪ Trump set to address the UN
▪ White House stands by Homan
▪ Voters to fill vacant House seat in Arizona
When she took the stage to deliver her husband’s eulogy, Erika Kirk followed multiple Cabinet members, top White House officials, key MAGA media personalities and the vice president.
Still in the throes of grief, wiping tears and speaking in a soft voice, Kirk told the world she forgave her husband’s accused killer, citing Jesus’s words as he was being crucified.
“On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them. For they not know what they do.’ That man. That young man. I forgive him,” she said, as tears rolled down her face.
The moment rippled through the NFL stadium of tens of thousands of mourners gathered for Charlie Kirk‘s memorial and among the millions more tuning in on live streams and TV.
Erika Kirk burst onto the national scene in the worst of circumstances — her husband’s assassination — but friends who eulogized him Sunday acknowledged the influence she is likely to have for years to come as she takes the reins of her husband’s political organization and seeks to advance his legacy.
Turning Point USA’s board unanimously elected Erika Kirk as the group’s new CEO and board chair last week, putting her in charge of a massive organization concentrated on spreading conservatism to younger voters. It was a move the board said Charlie Kirk wanted in the event of his death.
“She gave an incredibly moving and powerful speech, one that will stay in the minds of Turning Point-interested and Turning Point-curious Americans,” one Republican consultant told The Hill.
Erika Kirk pledged Sunday to make Turning Point even bigger than it already was, saying everything her husband built will be made “ten times greater” through efforts to carry on his memory.
The outpouring of support and encouragement from Republicans up to and including President Trump, who embraced Kirk on stage Sunday, suggest she is likely to find success in her mission.
Trump has credited Turning Point with helping shore up his support among young voters across the country for his win in the 2024 election, and the group is widely expected to play a role boosting Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms.
And the Kirk family’s particularly close ties to Vice President Vance, the most likely heir apparent to Trump after his second term, all but ensure Erika Kirk will continue to play a key role in the conservative movement and GOP politics for years to come.
The Wall Street Journal reported some progressives are already concerned Erika Kirk could further expand Turning Point’s reach to young women and that the left isn’t “ready.”
The GOP consultant said they expect an “outpouring” of emotional and financial support in the 2026 midterms but the long-term impact will be the main question, while acknowledging a “symbiotic relationship” between Turning Point and Vance.
Despite Charlie Kirk’s supporters rallying around Erika, she now faces a significant challenge in heading a national organization that Charlie co-created more than a decade ago while also raising two young children.
“Erika, we love you, we support you, and we will always be here for you,” Sergio Gor, a top Trump aide overseeing personnel who was tapped for an ambassadorship, said during his speech at the memorial.
▪ Washington Examiner: Erika Kirk turns grief into mobilization for young conservative women.
▪ Newsweek: “Turning Point USA sees huge donations, chapters spread after Kirk killing.”
Smart Take with Blake Burman
Trump is in New York City today at the United Nations, his first time at the U.N. in his second term. Foreign affairs will likely dominate the day, but back in D.C. the president will soon have another issue before him: a potential government shutdown.
Th president is expected to meet later this week with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). This meeting will be a first as well in the second term, which shows the potential gridlock at the moment.
In Trump’s first term, there were several notable on-camera spectacles in the Oval Office between Trump and Democratic leaders. We don’t yet know how the Thursday meeting will shape up, but it very well could set the tone for other major bipartisan meetings as this second administration unfolds.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
1. Trump signed an executive order Monday declaring the antifa movement a domestic terrorist organization. Critics have expressed concern the president could use this and other actions to crack down on left-leaning groups.
2. The Supreme Court agreed to reconsider its 90-year-old precedent allowing Congress to provide certain federal agencies with a degree of independence from the White House, a test of Trump’s expansive assertion of executive power.
3. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has signed a bill restricting residents to use the bathroom aligned with their gender assigned at birth in certain public spaces, including public schools and universities.
Leading the Day
TRUMP AT THE UN: Trump on Tuesday is set to address the United Nations General Assembly for the first time during his second term as the international community faces a litany of pressing issues.
A busy agenda awaits the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly, with two major wars raging in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, and neither having a clear end in sight. Meanwhile, Russia has appeared to be pushing the boundaries on NATO territory with incursions over the airspace of two members this month.
First, Russian drones crept into Polish airspace during an attack on Ukraine before Polish forces, with help from NATO partners, shot them down almost two weeks ago. The incident alarmed NATO members as the most significant violation of NATO airspace since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
The Kremlin said the drones’ entering Poland was unintentional, but NATO leaders rejected that explanation and maintained it was a provocation.
Another incident occurred on Sunday as Estonia reported three Russian fighter jets flew into the country’s airspace. The Estonian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the U.N. Security Council would meet Monday to discuss “this breach of territorial integrity.”
The incursions are notable given Article 5 of the NATO charter, which considers an attack on one member country an attack on all, potentially leading to a much wider conflict with Russia.
This will mark an early test for Mike Waltz, who was just confirmed as U.N. ambassador at the end of last week. He condemned the jets’ incursion into Estonian airspace in remarks at his first U.N. Security Council briefing Monday.
“And I want to take this first opportunity to repeat, and to emphasize, the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory,” he said, adding Russia “must urgently stop such dangerous behavior.”
But the table has already been set for some divisions among the U.S. and its European allies, as several are recognizing a Palestinian state in tandem with the assembly meeting this week.
France formally recognized a Palestinian state on Monday at the start of the meeting, joining the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal, all of which gave recognition on Sunday. A few others like Luxembourg and Malta are also expected to grant recognition this week.
While the moves are mostly symbolic, they threaten to drive a divide between the U.S. and Israel and an increasing number of their European allies. Israel has become more and more isolated over the past two years amid mounting criticism of its handling of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the countries’ recognition of a Palestinian state as rewarding Hamas for its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the country that killed 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage.
The U.S. doesn’t recognize a Palestinian state and has generally taken the position that recognition would be part of negotiations for a peace agreement. But the Trump administration has taken a harder stance, expressing opposition to a Palestinian state and considering it counterproductive to ceasefire talks.
How Trump addresses both issues will be on top of mind for his fellow world leaders and other observers around the globe.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Laura Kelly have five things to know ahead of Trump’s address.
▪ Politico: “No one’s laughing at Trump at the UN this year.”
▪ Wall Street Journal: “How French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia turned the tide on Western support for a Palestinian state.”
KIMMEL RETURNS TONIGHT: Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is set to return to air tonight after a nearly weeklong suspension and firestorm surrounding comments he made about Charlie Kirk.
Disney, which owns ABC, the network that has aired “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for more than two decades, said in a statement that it took Kimmel off the air to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for the country” but that he would be back Tuesday.
Kimmel’s return comes just more than a week after the comments he made on an episode of his show in which he accused conservatives of using Kirk’s death to try to score “political points” and compared Trump’s mourning of his longtime ally to how “a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish.”
The comments spurred widespread conservative backlash, including from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who called for Kimmel to be punished and urged stations not to air his show.
After Nexstar Media Group, the largest owner of local stations in the country that also owns The Hill, announced that it wouldn’t air Kimmel’s show on its ABC affiliates, Disney said it was suspending Kimmel. The decision received mixed reactions, with some conservatives slamming Kimmel’s comments as insensitive but others like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) expressing concern about government censorship.
Trump praised the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show, taking it a step further in suggesting that networks shouldn’t be allowed to be overwhelmingly critical of him.
But plenty rallied to support Kimmel, including his fellow late-night hosts, who satirically heaped praise on Trump in line with the president’s calls for more positive coverage. Hundreds of celebrities, including actors, musicians and comedians, signed a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union declaring their support for Kimmel.
Still, Kimmel won’t yet return to all stations, as Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is the second-largest owner of local stations in the country, said its stations would preempt Kimmel on Tuesday night.
Sinclair said discussions with ABC are “ongoing” as it considers Kimmel’s possible return to their airwaves.
Viewers are waiting to see how Kimmel will address the controversy, his comments and where his show will go from here.
▪ The Hill: John Oliver calls for viewers to cancel Hulu, Disney+ accounts over Kimmel suspension.
▪ The Hill: Zohran Mamdani cancels WABC News town hall over Kimmel suspension.
HARRIS LAUNCHES BOOK: Former Vice President Kamala Harris conceded she might have been “too cautious” in not choosing former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate during the 2024 race.
Harris made the acknowledgement during an interview Monday night with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to launch her book tour for “107 Days,” which publishes Tuesday. Excerpts about Buttigieg and others have already sparked pushback.
Maddow asked Harris about the excerpt in which Harris said she felt she couldn’t pick Buttigieg as her running mate because a ticket with a Black woman and a gay man would have been politically risky. Buttigieg has told Politico he was “surprised” to hear about Harris’s thinking.
“I think Pete is a phenomenal, phenomenal public servant. And I think America is and would be ready for that. But when I had to make that decision with two weeks to go, and maybe I was being too cautious,” Harris told Maddow.
Harris said the decision made her “very sad,” but she felt the stakes were too high. She pointed to the relatively short period of time she had to decide while noting she might have been overly cautious.
Other sections of the book have also yielded some criticism of her.
Democrats don’t seem necessarily eager for Harris to come back into the public sphere at a time when the party is trying to rebuild and move on from its disappointing November.
“Salt, meet wound,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill’s Amie Parnes. “Couldn’t come at a worse time for our party.”
Harris will likely continue to be in the news for weeks as she embarks on a book tour throughout the fall.
Although she publicly backed former President Biden’s ill-fated reelection campaign, she called the decision from him and former first lady Jill Biden to seek another term “recklessness.”
Harris told Maddow that she as vice president was also “reckless” not to say anything to Biden about not running for another term.
“When I talk about the recklessness, as much as anything, I’m talking about myself,” Harris said Monday night, adding she was worried about coming off “as being completely self-serving” if she urged Biden to reconsider his bid since it would position her to run.
She also commented in the book on another one of her possible running mate choices, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).
Shapiro pushed back on Harris’s claim that he was more interested in his own role in a possible administration than helping her win. He maintained his past statement that the decision on whether he would be the running mate was a personal one for both of them.
He told Stephen A. Smith that Harris will need to explain why she didn’t raise concerns about Biden sooner.
Harris on Monday also avoided saying whether she is considering another presidential run in 2028, telling Maddow, “That’s not my focus right now.”
She previously ruled out running for governor of California next year as she said she wanted to spend some time out of public office.
▪ Axios: Harris calls Biden’s Gaza response “inadequate.”
AUTISM REPORT: Experts are raising doubts about the validity of Trump’s announcement linking the use of acetaminophen to autism after months of his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vowing to find possible causes.
Trump said on Monday that pregnant women shouldn’t take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, for pain relief. The announcement is particularly impactful because Tylenol has been considered one of the only over-the-counter pain medications considered safe for pregnant women, The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi report.
Trump and Kennedy said the Food and Drug Administration would start updating labels on acetaminophen and notifying doctors that Tylenol can be “associated with a very increased risk of autism.”
But top medical organizations pushed back on the administration’s conclusion, insisting that evidence doesn’t show acetaminophen is tied to causing autism.
“Despite recent unfounded claims, there’s no clear evidence linking prudent use to issues with fetal development,” the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists said in a statement ahead of Trump’s announcement.
The president of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine said the “weight of scientific evidence” that acetaminophen use during pregnancy is tied to autism or ADHD is “inconclusive.” Major medical societies do recommend that pregnant women consult a doctor before taking acetaminophen.
Kennedy has made finding an explanation for a significant increase in the number of cases of autism a personal mission in his capacity leading the country’s health agencies. But experts have generally said the increase in number of reported cases is a result of better awareness and diagnosis criteria rather than an actual increase in cases.
One near-certainty is that the announcement will likely increase scrutiny of Kennedy and his oversight of the agencies after already facing pushback over the controversies surrounding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When & Where
The president will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York City at 9:50 a.m. He will then participate in various meetings with world leaders throughout the day before returning to Washington, D.C., this evening.
The House will convene at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session. It is not conducting business this week because of the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
The Senate will not meet Tuesday. It will next convene for a pro forma session on Thursday at noon.
Zoom In
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS HOMAN: The Trump administration is defending border czar Tom Homan following reports that he accepted $50,000 in cash last year in exchange for promising to direct government contracts to certain individuals.
Homan already rejected the MSNBC report as “bulls—,” and the White House is now coming to his defense.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied the report, saying Homan never accepted the $50,000. She called it “another example of the weaponization” of Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) against one of Trump’s supporters.
“Mr. Homan did absolutely nothing wrong. And even the president’s Department of Justice, even Kash Patel’s FBI, looked into this just to make sure,” she said. “They had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this, they found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing.”
“The White House and the president stand by Tom Homan 100 percent because he did absolutely nothing wrong,” she added.
MSNBC reported that internal documents and multiple people involved in the investigation indicate Homan accepted the money last September from FBI agents posing as businesspeople.
The FBI and DOJ were waiting to see if Homan tried to direct contracts to them once Trump took office, but the probe was closed under the Trump administration, the outlet reported.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that agents and prosecutors found “no credible evidence” of wrongdoing.
But Democrats have expressed outrage and are demanding answers.
“Did Trump’s DOJ shut down this bribery investigation? Was it Attorney General Bondi or FBI Director Patel? The act was caught on camera. The administration must turn over the tapes to Congress,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a post on the social media platform X.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called it a “corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.”
Reuters also reported on Monday that Homan accepted the money and was being investigated as part of a bribery probe, based on two sources familiar with the matter.
Elsewhere
ARIZONA SPECIAL ELECTION: Voters are heading to the polls in the Grand Canyon State on Tuesday to vote in a special election to fill a congressional seat vacated by the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
Grijalva, a longtime progressive leader of the Democrats who served for more than two decades in the House, died in March at the age of 77 after a battle with cancer. The race to succeed him will pit his daughter, former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva (D), against small business owner Daniel Butierez (R).
Grijalva is considered a heavy favorite to win the election in the solidly left-leaning 7th Congressional District. But The Hill’s Caroline Vakil reports on a few unknown aspects of the race for observers to watch on Tuesday night and in the days and weeks to come.
Democrats will be hoping that Grijalva can outperform their party’s performance last November as an indication of improved enthusiasm heading into the elections this year and the midterms in 2026. The party has regularly outperformed their 2024 mark in special elections throughout this year, giving them a reason to hope after disappointing defeats in November.
Presuming Grijalva wins, her victory would also further narrow the Republican majority in the House to be 219 Republicans to 214 Democrats. That would allow Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to only lose two Republican votes on controversial legislation if all Democrats vote against it.
That has particular importance as a possible government shutdown looms at the end of the month.
▪ The Hill: “Trump’s bitterness with Schumer increases odds of shutdown.”
Opinion
Charlie Kirk memorial underscores tensions between radical grace and radical politics, writes The Hill’s Chris Stirewalt.
Democrats are picking the wrong shutdown fight, writes political analyst Nate Silver in The New York Times.
The Closer
And finally … Pop singer Harry Styles put his athletic abilities on display on Sunday when he completed a marathon in Berlin, Germany, in less than three hours.
The former One Direction singer-turned-solo artist competed under a pseudonym, Sted Sarandos, and his participation in the race wasn’t publicly revealed until after, The Associated Press reported.
The outlet reported that Styles completed the race in 2 hours, 59 minutes and 13 seconds. A local German paper reported that Styles had been seen previously running in Berlin in preparation for the race.
The AP reported that Syles competed among more than 50,000 other participants in what’s considered the fastest marathon track in the world.
