Brawling in the ring at Sunday’s UFC fight came with a show of Republican unity, as congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson turned up to watch the event on the White House lawn.
But outside the Octagon and behind the scenes, another fight was brewing over reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which expired Friday night.
It’s part of a final summer stretch before the nation’s 250th birthday, with splashy celebrations colliding with national security fears. While leaders in Congress want to re-up the spy powers authority and move on to other things, the sucker punches keep coming.
You can’t control the “timing of White House announcements,” Thune told me during a sit-down interview last week, and that rang true again on Sunday.
“I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it,” President Donald Trump posted on social media, referring to the GOP’s sweeping voter ID and election overhaul package.
