National security & Congress @Politico | Signal: Mark.312 | [email protected]
Washington, DC
Joined July 2012
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🚨🚨SCOOP: A shipment of F-35 fighter jet parts was rerouted to Hong Kong this summer — then vanished.
Congress and DOD are investigating, amid the possibility that China may now have access to the highly-classified program.
W/ @audrey_decker9
politico.com/news/2026/09/18…
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said Thursday he had concerns about Elon Musk’s influence over national security matters after Ukraine was blindsided by a disruption of a satellite communications service developed by Musk’s SpaceX.
politico.com/live-updates/20…
Mark Satter retweeted
scoop: SpaceX declined to offer Falcon for three future Space Force missions, and no other company offered to fly them either — an early sign of the launch crunch politico.com/news/2026/10/22…
Mark Satter retweeted
New: I got a tip a little while ago about a shadowy Pentagon entity called "TSO" with a lot of money and a desire for offensive hacking tools.
Turns out TSO is a new DoD agency. And it does a lot more than hacking.
w/@JackDetsch and @paulmcleary
politico.com/news/2026/10/22…
New: Senate Foreign Affairs Democrats will instruct private U.S. companies involved in Trump's diesel deal with Moscow to preserve documents for potential future investigations, per a Senate Dem aide.
SFRC will raise liability issues with the companies.
Mark Satter retweeted
A small group of US national security officials has been discreetly advising state governments/congressional lawmakers on how to prepare for the possibility the Trump admin will attempt to interfere in the midterms.
A scoop, by @noahjrobertson
Gift link wapo.st/4z2uENE
New: Furious over Trump’s Ukraine moves but powerless to stop him, Congress is freelancing.
Some threaten to jam his lame-duck agenda. Others held an emergency call with Zelenskyy. A third camp is pitching a limited deal with Kyiv.
W @LeoShane
politico.com/news/2026/10/19…
New: A Democratic wave in November would decimate Trump’s plans for a $1.5 trillion defense budget — and his signature programs.
W/ @LeoShane @connorobrienNH
politico.com/news/2026/10/15…
Breaking: The execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will NOT be live-streamed, says Trump.
Reverses a previous statement from Hegseth that drew broad bipartisan blowback.
Mark Satter retweeted
Merrill College students know their rights as journalists.
"Cat Murphy is a master's student at the University of Maryland, credentialed as a reporter for our Capital News Service and doing the job we teach our students to do. Cat recorded openly in a public space alongside other news outlets, and that is her legal right," Dean Rafael Lorente (@DeanLorente) said. "I'm proud of how she handled herself in a difficult situation."
Mark Satter retweeted
BREAKING: Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells @piersmorgan he has been betrayed by Trump, that Elon Musk and the US deliberately cut off Starlink and people are being killed as a result
“This is not the right side of history,” he says. “It is a pity that we are losing a strong partner”
On Musk and Starlink he says: “This decision will bring a lot of human losses. Of course, people will die”
“I am sure they knew what they
did, absolutely. Because it was 1am at night, Starlink was blocked by SpaceX and the United States”
“It’s not just about attack. It’s also about defending life. So people were killed because, not enough destroying, not enough
interceptors, including interceptors with Starlink, which didn't work. Of
course.”
Asked if he’s angry with Musk, Zelenskyy says: “Yes, I think he is not right. It's a big mistake.”
Mark Satter retweeted
Astonishing reporting day. Trump announces deal to allow sale of Russian diesel even as Ukrainian negotiating team, flanked by Europeans and NATO, arrived in Miami and as his own GOP chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee was in Kyiv. My latest politico.com/newsletters/nat…
What looks like hundreds of trees being cut down at East Potomac golf course right now, as it’s packed with golfers on a Saturday morning.
Mark Satter retweeted
Trump called Putin here's his readout
No mention of Russia's escalating shadow war against NATO allies in Europe or stepped up bombing campaign against Ukraine.
A Russian drone hit a Ukrainian kindergarten in attacks just yesterday
GOP lawmakers who have pushed back on this include:
- Sen. Tillis
- Sen. Curtis
- Rep. Austin Scott
And now VP Vance tells reporters he wouldn't watch the livestream if it happened.
New: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s surprise plan to livestream the military’s execution of the Fort Hood shooter has drawn blowback from both sides of the aisle.
With @connorobrienNH @LeoShane
politico.com/news/2026/10/09…
Vance says he will not watch the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan if it's livestreamed.
“But what I try to remind people is, this is a guy who committed, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11, the people that he was meant to treat, the Army soldiers that he was meant to treat for mental illness and other problems, he took them at their most vulnerable and gunned down these people where they lived."
“Now that said, I mean, look, if it's through livestream, I'm not going to be watching it.”
New: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s surprise plan to livestream the military’s execution of the Fort Hood shooter has drawn blowback from both sides of the aisle.
With @connorobrienNH @LeoShane
politico.com/news/2026/10/09…