October 10, 2025

Good Friday evening. In this edition: Mike Pence and Rahm Emanuel kick off the premiere episode of C-SPAN's "Ceasefire."

• Plus, federal workers, China tariffs, NDAA and AstraZeneca.

C-SPAN's Ceasfire

The first episode of C-SPAN's new show "Ceasefire" debuts tonight, featuring former Vice President Mike Pence and former Obama Chief of Staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

• The series, hosted by Politico's Dasha Burns, seeks to foster civil discourse at a time of heightened partisanship in the nation's capital and around the country.

Mr. Pence and Mr. Emanuel delivered, having a congenial conversation that covered a wide range of topics, including the government shutdown, Gaza peace deal and the future of their parties.

• "Rahm and I have different agendas and different policy prescriptions, but I think we are living in a time when a lot of the rewards go to what I think is more performance art than policy," Mr. Pence said. "Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility, and maintaining the ability to find things that we can agree begins with civility."
  
  
• "We disagreed on things, but we didn't see this as Braveheart, Hunger Games, where we were going to try to kill each other," Mr. Emanuel added. "There's nothing about China that scares me. What scares me about the future is division in America, the fact that we see each other as enemies, not as Americans. Mike and I disagreed about 99.9% of the things, but I never doubted his commitment to the country and his commitment to public service."

Both leaders said President Trump deserved credit for getting Hamas and Israel to agree to the first phase of his peace proposal.

• "I have no problem saying it. President Trump deserves credit here. Some in my party won't say that. He does," Mr. Emanuel said. "I also think it accrues to America's benefit."
  
  
• "I'm grateful for Rahm speaking plainly about giving President Trump credit here," Mr. Pence added. "The president's relentless pursuit for peace here, and that of his team, I think is to be commended."

The two also reminisced about their time in Congress together, as well as a bet Mr. Pence made with Mr. Emanuel's son on whether President Obama would win Indiana in 2008.

• "He owes my son $10 from a bet … and he has never paid!" Mr. Emanuel joked.
  
  
• "I lost the bet," Mr. Pence acknowledged, and later offered to pay Mr. Emanuel after the show.

Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary under President Trump, and Faiz Shakir, senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), also join a panel discussion afterward to give their insider perspective on the week's top political stories.

Watch the episode at 7pm and 10pm ET/PT on C-SPAN.

• Also catch this interview with Ms. Burns about what you can expect to see on the series.
  
  
• Sneak peek: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) will be the guests for the next episode.

In other news…

• The Trump administration began firing federal workers as the government shutdown stretched into a tenth day, a sharp departure from how past administrations have handled previous shutdowns. "The RIFs have begun," Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, posted on social media. It's unclear how many workers received the "reductions in force" notices, but an OMB spokesperson said the layoffs would be "substantial."
  
  

• President Trump said he will impose a 100% tariff on all products from China in response to curbs Beijing announced this week on its exports of rare earth minerals, which he labeled "sinister and hostile." The S&P 500 shed 2.7% on the day while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 3.6%.
  
  

• The Senate voted 77–20 on Thursday night to approve the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense programs and policy bill, before leaving town until Tuesday. The House passed its version last month and the two chambers will now have to reconcile the differing versions.
  
  

• The White House announced it has struck a deal with AstraZeneca for the pharmaceutical giant to sell its drugs to Medicaid patients at the lowest price offered in other developed countries. It's a similar agreement to the one announced last month with Pfizer.

For your radar…

• Word for Word will be off Monday but will return on Tuesday. Have a great holiday weekend!

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