As the dust settled on the 2026 midterm elections, a number of stories were published noting that states now fully under Democratic control include enough electoral votes to make the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact a reality. To review, this is the plan, devised in the aftermath of 2000 presidential election, that would allow an end run around the electoral college. A sufficient number of states agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote regardless of how their own voters voted in that particular state. Once a sufficient number of states agree, it’s done. The effect of the electoral college disappears even as its architecture remains.
Earlier this evening, I was exchanging notes with TPM Reader NH and I told him this: “I’ve had a very hard time today trying to put all of this into a coherent whole. Part of me thinks you’ve got a bunch of highly questionable stuff happening, at least semi-corrupt, very questionable behavior on NVIDIA’s part vis a vis China, some intentional slow-rolling from Commerce for very questionable reasons. And a lot of it is at least loosely known to a lot of people. Then the Times publicly confirms the relationship and U.S. assumption that Alice Huang is a spy. And then everyone runs for cover — even though a lot of the stuff surrounding that relationship was at least semi-known. I don’t know if this is a plausible way to look at it. But in a way I’m not sure she even needs to exist for a lot of this stuff to happen?”
As I’ve noted, these leadership challenges don’t mean a lot if they don’t include abolishing the filibuster. This afternoon Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who just announced what remains a fairly longshot challenge to Chuck Schumer, says he supports getting rid of it.
“My personal opinion is that we need democracy in the United States Senate and that means allowing ultimately a majority of senators to answer the call of the American people, so that means 51 votes … My personal view has been all along that the filibuster is an anti-democratic — small “d” — provision. It’s not in our Constitution. It was put in there by senators to enhance their power over the power of the people.”
As you can see he’s framing this as his personal view. But that goes without saying. As I explained, a parliamentary leader isn’t a “decider,” as George W. Bush famously put it. He or she steers where their caucus wants to go. So it’s not a matter of him saying I will do this when I’m leader. But him pretty unequivocally supporting it is a big, big deal.
This is just a general observation. When I first started following the NVIDIA scandal, I had the sense that Jensen Huang was either duped by these cut-out companies sending NVIDIA chips (physically or virtually) to China, or perhaps he was beguiled by Alice Huang, the suspected Chinese spy. But it’s very hard to square that basic take with the various reports we’re seeing.
The attempt to pin the NVIDIA-Huang spy scandal on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is galloping forward. Earlier today Treasury Scott Bessent went on CNBC and squarely laid the blame on Lutnick for slow-rolling and loosely enforcing export controls on NVIDIA chips. This is no different from the accusations we’ve been hearing about from unnamed sources in numerous reports. But going public and laying blame on CNBC is a whole ‘nother thing. This Journal article goes deeper into the specifics of the accusations, Lutnick’s apparently fairly close relationship to Jensen Huang and other details of this internal administration battle.
TPM’s Untitled Live Show (Name TBD) returns today at 1 p.m. ET. If you think you’ve read all there is to be said about the Nvidia boss’ sex scandal, resignation and the ways in which it makes the Trump administration look wet behind the ears, just wait.
I hope you’ll join Joe, Hunter, Derick and myself this afternoon on YouTube. Come Huang out.
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