Why Fetterman is courting Republican donors

Plus: A clash in the Senate  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | September 30, 2026     Hello there. Congressional committee hearings have always featured an element of grandstanding, but in the social media age, when bite-sized clips can be shared within minutes, they have become gladiatorial. Today we cover an awkward moment at a hearing on Tuesday as Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt went looking for his own viral clip, and got one. We also dive deep into a story about how Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is turning to Republicans for campaign cash. IN TODAY’S BRIEF Americans without surgeons A Pentagon breach Tom Cruise’s awards bait Google’s aggressive AI push Fetterman’s Republican outreach Hegseth cutting generals A Senate faux pas         READ THIS FIRST Millions of Americans live in a county without a surgeon Halfpoint Images—Getty Images In medical emergencies, time matters. Seeing a surgeon soon after your appendix has ruptured or you’ve been in a car accident can mean the difference between life and death. But more than a third of U.S. counties have no general surgeons, according to a new analysis published Sept. 28 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.  While many people assume that surgeons primarily perform elective procedures, many surgeons in rural communities serve multiple roles, says Dr. Thomas Tsai, medical director for health policy research at the American College of Surgeons and a co-author of the study. In that way, “access to surgeons is the keystone for the broader rural health care ecosystem,” he says. The study provides yet another data point that rural health care is in trouble in the U.S. It found that 38% of counties—home to roughly 15 million Americans—have no general surgeons, and 30% have no surgeon across 12 different specialties. —Alana Semuels Read the full story here.          SPONSORED The Farmer Who Traded Herbicides For Robots After his father developed Parkinson’s, founder Clint Brauer began questioning agriculture’s dependence on herbicides. That question led to BOTONY, a robotic farming system designed to enable a more regenerative approach to farming.  Now, investors can join in Greenfield’s next phase of growth through its live Reg A+ offering. Invest Alongside 2,600 Shareholders This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Please read the Offering Circular and related disclosures before investing. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.         IN THE NEWS What to know about the Pentagon breach affecting millions Samuel Boivin—NurPhoto/Getty Images A reported months-long breach in the Defense Department’s human resources database exposed the personal information of millions of military personnel and those related to them, including their Social Security numbers and job details. A Pentagon official confirmed to TIME Tuesday that some 2.76 million “living individuals” and 294,000 “deceased individuals” have been affected by the breach at the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).  The breach was first reported by defense-focused news publication Military Times on Thursday, citing a breach notification letter to a person whose information was in the affected files. It remains unclear what particular files were accessed and who was behind the incident. The Defense Department official told TIME that individuals whose personal information were accessed had been notified by mail. The length of the breach and the amount of personal information exposed present a security risk for many personnel linked with the department, and some experts say it makes other security compromises, like phishing attempts, easier for bad actors. —Chad de Guzman Read the full story here.         WORTH YOUR TIME Tom Cruise bloviates his way through the aggressively unfunny Digger Warner Bros. Pictures The reviews are in for Tom Cruise’s latest movie, Digger, and to describe them as “mixed” would be generous. TIME’s film critic Stephanie Zacharek describes the film as “reverse-engineered awards bait.” “Digger, the eighth feature film from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is pure, empty-headed trickery, a drab-looking gewgaw with a million moving parts and nothing to say, even if it desperately claws at profundity every minute,” she writes. “Greed is evil! Big oil is killing the planet! Human beings are in a pickle! You can believe all these things are true and still find Digger pathetically unpersuasive; it’s so thematically clumsy, even within the ostensible razzle-dazzle of its filmmaking, that it comes off as liberalism’s worst enemy. If human civilization really is nearing its end, assaultive bores like this one aren’t helping.” Read Stephanie Zacharek’s full review here.         THE CONTEXT How Google is quietly turning millions of people into AI users Matteo Della Torre/NurPhoto—Getty Images If you’ve used Google to search for something over the last few months, you may have noticed that the experience has changed. If you ask certain questions, an AI overview will pop up, followed by another search bar that encourages you to “Ask Anything.” Click on that, and you suddenly find yourself conversing with a chatbot in Google’s AI Mode interface. This pathway has resulted in millions of people—who never intended to use AI in the first place—unwittingly becoming acclimated to a new chatbot reality. Google Search usage hit an all-time high this year, and much of that activity involves AI. Google’s AI Mode has racked up more than 1 billion monthly users, the company says, a figure rivaling the estimated 1 billion monthly active users of ChatGPT in May, according to Sensor Tower. By aggressively implementing AI tools into its dominant search engine, Google is arguably doing more to bring AI into people’s everyday lives. In the process, the company is already transforming how users and content creators behave online. —Andrew Chow Read the full story here.          SPONSORED The best in influencer marketing. And you’re invited. Get ready for Return on Influence Festival '26. An entire day dedicated to influencer marketing with speakers running some of the best programs in the world. October 21, 2026, 10 am - 5 pm ET. Save your spot now         IN FOCUS Fetterman turns to GOP donors for campaign cash Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Every political party has its rebels, the members who refuse to fall in line and make a virtue of going their own way. Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has spent much of the past two years antagonizing his own party, is taking that rebellion a step further: He is now asking Republicans for campaign cash. In recent weeks, Fetterman has sent fundraising appeals through email addresses associated with Republican candidates, including “info@gopsquad.com.” One message vowed, “I’m always going to reject Socialism and the Anti-American way of life,” and urged recipients to help Fetterman “stand with America” and “reject the extremes.” The same address has been used to solicit support for President Trump’s voting restrictions and other Republican causes. The emails appeared under other Republican-linked domains, too. It’s unclear who owns the lists or what arrangement Fetterman’s campaign has with them. The experiment is the latest manifestation of Fetterman’s rightward turn since entering the Senate in 2023. Once a progressive backed by Bernie Sanders, he has become a vocal critic of the left, a staunch supporter of Israel, and a frequent ally of Republicans. He regularly appears on Fox News and in September addressed the Republican Party’s midterm convention, where he attacked the “extremes of socialism” and took a swipe at Sanders. The shift has coincided with a collapse in his fundraising. Fetterman raised roughly $76 million before winning his Senate seat, but took in about $7.4 million during his first two years in office and less than $2 million since the start of 2025. He has not said whether he will seek reelection in 2028, though he has suggested that he is raising money with a campaign “as the possibility.” Fetterman insists he has “no path as a Republican.” Yet he voted with Trump and Republicans on 26% of Senate votes in 2025, the highest rate among Senate Democrats. Pennsylvania Republicans now view Fetterman more favorably than Dave McCormick, the state’s actual Republican Senator, while nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania Democrats view him unfavorably. Asked at the Texas Tribune Festival in September why he had not left the Democratic Party, Fetterman said: “Because I’m a lifelong Republican.” He immediately realized he had misspoken. But these days, the Pennsylvania Democrat has given Republicans plenty of reasons to wonder. —Nik Popli Read the full story here.         ONE NUMBER 20% Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will announce plans to cut the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20% during a speech to service members on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Pentagon officials. SOURCE: WALL STREET JOURNAL         A VIRAL MOMENT Hawks or Hawkeyes? Watch an awkward moment during a Senate hearing Tuesday, when Republican Senator Eric Schmitt suggested that former special counsel Jack Smith of perjured himself after he denied being at an Atlanta Hawks game. Watch the video to see what happens next.         SPONSORED 200+ Proven Ways to Make Money With AI in 2026 The next wave of millionaires will be people who figured out how to make AI work for them. The window to get ahead is still open. But not for long. Here are 200+ proven ways to make money with AI in 2026. Sign up for Superhuman AI, the free daily newsletter read by 1M+ professionals, and get instant access to all 200+ ways to profit from AI this year. Claim your free list       Linked In this addictive word-association game, find the steps that will unite two seemingly unrelated words in just four moves. PLAY NOW       ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME IDEAS Flying Doesn’t Have to Be This Miserable POLITICS  Trump Rolls Back Fuel Economy Standards. Will Cars Really Get Cheaper?       More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +HEALTH MATTERS +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Subscribe to TIME Email us: thebrief@time.com Received this from a friend? Sign up here Connect with TIME   PRIVACY POLICY     © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe