Dan Kunsman

Also, Staff Director, Senate Republican Whip

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

Bio line never misses.

[Manu Raju @mkraju]

Just asked Chuck Schumer if the rise of DSA is good for Dems.

“Look, we are a big tent party, and being a big tent party is a strength, not a weakness,” he said

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

🤦‍♂️

[Holiness @F1BigData]

Lewis Hamilton exceeded the pit lane speed limit by 0.1 km/h

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

Plus 12 zyns it says. Probably.

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: American Heart Association reveals drinking up to five cups of coffee per day may lower the risk of stroke, heart failure & type 2 diabetes.

[Mike Fragoso @mike_frags]

lol Collins is such a beast that the Democrat Leader needs to respond to her personally. How embarrassing.

[Sen. John Barrasso @SenJohnBarrasso]

I am deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend Senator Lindsey Graham. My prayers are with his family and all who loved him.

Lindsey represented South Carolina and America with pride and determination. He guided the Senate through our toughest battles while Chairman of both the Judiciary Committee and the Budget Committee. He carried the day with his mission clarity and steadfast leadership.

All of us in the Senate will miss his quick wit and infectious laughter. The Senate will never again see anyone quite like Senator Lindsey Graham.

[Logan Dobson @LoganDobson]

all worse than Platner was polling ~a week ago, lol

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

😂

[Mike Fragoso @mike_frags]

The way you know it’s true is the coordinated spending limits.

[Rob Myers @RobLMyers]

Amazing how they can decide to finish behind the safety sometimes... #F1 #BritishGP

[Mike Fragoso @mike_frags]

“What the hell happened with Nina Totenberg?” Here’s my theory and why it matters. (Article at the end.) 1/10

[Mark Isakowitz @MIsakowitz]

Proud to announce my new book, Wisdom in the House of Mourning: Kaddish, My Father, and Me. Foreword by my friend @dansenor. Published by Wicked Son.

For the last several years I have been writing the story about my father’s journey from Auschwitz to America, and my own from grief to growth. I am excited to share it.

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

Wall Street Journal
GOP Unity @KimStrassel —When It Matters : This Congress (which began in early 2025) has already featured six Senate vote-a-ramas. Here’s the win-loss tally for those six sessions: 135 Democratic amendments offered, 135 Democratic amendments defeated.

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

Senate Democrats solely own intelligence shut down. As well as the inevitable consequences.

[Andrew Desiderio @AndrewDesiderio]

New: Senate barreling toward FISA 702 deadline without a path to unlock Dem votes

Schumer tells us: “If the goal is to make FISA harder to pass, appointing a political loyalist like Bill Pulte to lead the intelligence community is exactly how you do it”

Short of removing Pulte, Trump could name a permanent DNI nominee. But R’s have no idea if that could happen this week

Thune has spoken with Pulte but the FHFA has had very little formal interaction with the Hill otherwise

https://t.co/tQcX6gwrYZ

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Sen. John Barrasso @SenJohnBarrasso]

President Trump forced Iran to the table through a position of American strength. His bold actions have cut the legs out of Iran in terms of their military and their economy.

We need to make sure that they never get a nuclear weapon. A big part of this is also opening up the Strait of Hormuz. That'll make America safer as well as give us better stability with oil prices long term.

Any deal must be enforceable and verifiable because we know Iran cheats.

[Burgess Everett @burgessev]

With full attendance and Fetterman opposed to it, this will fail on the next vote absent further GOP defections. Rs will need full attendance for reconciliation anyway

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

“They don’t even have a LinkedIn page(!)” might be the most dc statement of all time. Real shocker he’s a big bike lane guy.

[Joe Flood @joeflood]

the company Trump hired to paint the Reflecting Pool does not seem qualified for the job https://t.co/rOAysQXfIP

[Dan Kunsman @dankunsman]

😂

[Manu Raju @mkraju]

Just asked Schumer if he misread the Maine electorate in backing Janet Mills. “We are going to take back the Senate and win Maine,” he told me, not answering directly

[Burgess Everett @burgessev]

Senate Dem progression over past year on blocking Israel arm sales: 15 to 27 to 36 to 40. (out of 47 member)

Sen. Barrasso arguing to Rs to keep the pressure up on Dems, seeing Schumer as isolated in the Dem Caucus and Bernie as leading Dems on Israel

https://t.co/6i7F2bmuj4