Sam Greenglass

But Flowers told me that this is actually really difficult to be that kind of facilitator in this era because of everything that we've talked about compared to the time that Shelby was serving in the Senate.

And that's in part because there's just trip wires everywhere.

You know, not only are you trying to maintain relationships with Democrats and your Republican leadership in the Senate, but you also have to deal with the White House, which sees kind of any little bit of criticism or break from the party line as disloyalty.

And on a topic so fraught like immigration, those possible hurdles are really everywhere.

And something I'm watching for is whether this dynamic changes at all once we get through the heart of primary season.

Do we start to see more Republicans, especially being willing to compromise and break ranks with the president and with their party once this threat of a primary challenge is behind them?

I'm Sam Greenglass.

I cover Congress.

Yeah, there was some back and forth.

But overall, I would say this was about what you would expect.

You know, we know this country is so divided politically.

And I think that was really just on full display in the chamber tonight.

There were just very few lines where we saw Republicans and Democrats standing and clapping together on really anything.

And then something else that stood out to me is, you know, we spend a lot of time covering tensions between the Congress, the executive branch, the Supreme Court.

And this is one of those few moments where you actually get to see all of those folks in the same room.

And we had this moment where, you know, President Trump is criticizing the recent Supreme Court decision on tariffs.

And you've got four of those justices sitting stone-faced just a few feet away.

And so I think this kind of encapsulates the moment that we're in in Washington right now and in the country.

I mean, I think the chances are probably slim or zero.

But, you know, this has been really the through line of so many of the stories we've covered about this Congress since Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer.