Thursday, November 20, 2025
Good morning, and welcome to RedState's "Morning Minute" — a brief glimpse at which stories are trending at the moment and a look ahead at what the day may bring. Consider this your one-stop shop for news to kickstart your day.
TOP O' THE MORNIN'
Red-Hot at RedState
Historical, my arse. Just because it’s venerable doesn’t mean it’s sacred. It’s a dirty old ugly building in serious need of a revamp. Hopefully, this is just a temporary delay.
Punchbowl reports that Rep. Crenshaw viewed the punishment as "unfair" because the incident was "blown out of proportion." And the congressman continued that defense in a series of posts on X.
"Me and another member did a toast with Mexican generals and apparently a staffer got offended," he dismissed. "That’s the story with a clickbait title to get people to sign up for PunchBowl News, a liberal media outlet."
'Fasten Your Seatbelts': We've Got the Dissent in the Texas Redistricting Case...and It's a Doozy
First off, when an opinion starts off quoting Bette Davis (or rather, the character she played in All About Eve), you know you're about to get an eyeful/earful.
Trending Across Townhall Media
Gun Owners of America Learns Gag Orders Makes Strange Bedfellows
If GOA is unable to speak with material handed to them directly by the DOJ, even if it wasn't intentional, then what about a reporter who finds out that the government is funding an illegal arms trafficking network via drug sales in our inner cities? Just to name one completely random and not at all historical example.
Dissent: '...the Most Blatant Exercise of Judicial Activism That I Have Ever Witnessed'
The dissent then walks through changes made in every district and why they were made and how the drawing of each one was meant to ensure no Republican lost a seat. It was, in short, purely political.
No Republican has been mayor or held city clerk, treasurer, or similar roles in decades. There isn't a single registered Republican on the city council. Everybody knows that Chicago is the most reliably Democratic big city in the country, with Republicans basically shut out of the municipal government for most of a century. Not even San Francisco can match that.
We Had the Best of Times and Now These Are the Worst of Times
Accept it. Don't let it break you down. Losing is part of winning. That's just how it works. And it sucks, but the answer is to get used to it, get to work, and get through it.
Name Game: Dem Jasmine Crockett’s Two Epsteins Debacle Ends in a Dumb Double Down on CNN
She thinks we’re as ignorant as her voters.
WHAT'S ON TAP?
Today on Capitol Hill...
Thursday promises to be another busy day on the Hill, with multiple meetings/hearings set, including:
- House Homeland Security, Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee — “Securing Global Communications: An Examination of Foreign Adversary Threats to Subsea Cable Infrastructure”
- House Small Business — “Made in the USA: How Main Street is Revitalizing Domestic Manufacturing”
- House Foreign Affairs, South and Central Asia Subcommittee — Export Control Loopholes: Chipmaking Tools and their Subcomponents
- House Energy and Commerce, Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee — Daylight and Destinations: Examining Time, Travel, and Tourism
- Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — Hearings to examine the future of retirement
- House Foreign Affairs, Africa Subcommittee — President Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern—CPC”: A serious, well-founded wake-up call
- House Veterans' Affairs, Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee — Improving Outcomes for Disabled Veterans: Oversight of VA’s Medical Disability Examination Office
Wednesday saw Republican Rep. Tim Burchett (TN-2) calling out the Swamp and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) vowing to end shutdown shenanigans.
READ MORE: 'Dadgum': Tim Burchett Reveals a Far More Appropriate Nickname for 'the Swamp'
White House What's Up
Wednesday evening, President Trump announced that he had signed the bill to release the Epstein files.
READ MORE: New: Trump Announces He's Signed Bill to Release Epstein Files
On Thursday, President Trump is set to receive his intelligence briefing in the late morning. In the afternoon, he'll meet with Freed Israeli Hostages and their Families in the State Dining Room.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing at 1:00 PM Eastern.
Keeping Up With the Cabinet
Sec. Interior - Doug Burgum — Burgum recently announced that the administration is "restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent."
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) November 19, 2025
Full Court Press...
There were several rulings of note on Wednesday, including:
- ✅ Chicago Headline Club v. Noem (immigration enforcement) — 7th Circuit Court of Appeals GRANTS admin's motion for stay pending appeal.
- ✅ State of Oregon v. Trump (National Guard deployment) — 9th Circuit Court of Appeals GRANTS partial administrative stay (as to district court injunction against federalization of guard).
But the one that really got tongues a-waggin' was the scorching dissent filed by Judge Jerry Smith in the Texas redistricting case.
READ MORE: 'Fasten Your Seatbelts': We've Got the Dissent in the Texas Redistricting Case...and It's a Doozy
MORNING MUSING
We know the vote to release the Epstein files was nearly unanimous in the House (427-1). On Wednesday, another measure passed 426-0. That one? The vote to repeal the Arctic Frost provision added into the amended continuing resolution passed by the Senate last week. And I don't blame them.
The senators who learned their phone records were surveilled by Jack Smith's team in connection with the Arctic Frost investigation are rightly incensed about it. There should be some available recourse to them for it. And if that requires legislation in order to overcome various immunities that typically protect officials like Smith and his team, then fine.
But it doesn't need to be part of an appropriations bill, and it doesn't need to offer that recourse purely to senators. There were House members surveilled, too. And conservative organizations. The provision in question smacks of Swampiness.
If the measure has merit — and I believe it does — why not offer it as a standalone measure? Are the Dems going to filibuster that, too? I mean...they might, but that's the way to handle it, rather than tucking it into an appropriations bill the way it was done.
So now the question becomes: What's the Senate going to do with H.R. 6019? Will it follow the House's lead and agree to repeal it? Or will the new bill get a frosty reception in the upper chamber? We'll be watching. 🥶
LIGHTER FARE
This is totally something my Daisy would do...
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 19, 2025
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