Morning Brief: Gabbard Cleans House And Yanks Clearances, Texas Redistricts, Dems Hemorrhage Voters

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announces a massive overhaul of the intelligence community, slashing her agency’s size by almost 50% and revoking the security clearances of 37 officials. The Texas House passes a new GOP-drawn congressional map that is expected to net Republicans five more seats, following a chaotic end to a two-week Democrat walkout. Democrats are losing millions of registered voters nationwide as the party’s popularity hits record lows, according to a new analysis.

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Gabbard Slashes Spy Agencies, Revokes Clearances

Topline: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced a massive overhaul of the intelligence community on Wednesday, which includes cutting her agency’s size nearly in half and revoking the security clearances of 37 officials for abusing the public trust.

Dubbed “ODNI 2.0,” the plan will shrink the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by almost 50% by the end of the fiscal year, a move that will save an estimated $700 million annually. The overhaul, which was personally green-lit by President Trump, includes a 30-40% reduction in personnel.

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Gabbard also announced she has revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials for “politicizing and manipulating intelligence, or leaking classified intelligence without authorization.” The list includes officials who aided former DNI James Clapper in creating the 2016 Obama-era intelligence assessment on Russian election interference, a report Gabbard has called part of a “treasonous conspiracy.” Any of the 37 individuals who are currently employed by the U.S. government have been terminated, effective immediately.

In a separate announcement, Gabbard said she had successfully negotiated with the U.K. to get the country to drop its demand for Apple to create a “backdoor” into the encrypted data of American citizens, a move she said protects constitutional rights.

Texas Passes New GOP Map After Democrat Walkout Ends

Topline: The Texas House of Representatives passed a new Republican-drawn congressional map on Wednesday that is expected to give the GOP as many as five more House seats, ending a chaotic two-week standoff with Democratic lawmakers who fled the state.

After a two-week walkout, the protesting Democrats returned to the state capitol, allowing Republicans to pass the new map, which now heads to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk. The returning lawmakers were met with new rules requiring them to sign an “adult hall pass” to leave the chamber and to be assigned a police chaperon. The tense atmosphere was heightened on Tuesday by an active shooter threat made on social media against Republican lawmakers.

One Republican state representative dismissed the Democrats’ protest as “crocodile tears and bad, bad kabuki theater,” pointing out that Democrats have gerrymandered their own states for decades. During the walkout, former Vice President Kamala Harris called one of the protesting Democrats to praise her as a “hero of this moment.”

The national redistricting battle is set to continue, as Republicans in California have already filed a lawsuit to block Governor Newsom’s proposal to gerrymander his state’s map in retaliation for the new map in Texas.

Democrats Hemorrhage Millions of Registered Voters

Topline: The Democratic Party has lost millions of registered voters nationwide over the last four years while Republicans have seen significant gains, according to a new analysis of voter data that signals trouble for Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms.

An analysis by The New York Times of the 30 states that track party affiliation found that from 2020 to 2024, Republicans added more voters than Democrats in every single one of those states. All told, the GOP gained 2.4 million new voters while Democrats lost 2.1 million, a 4.5 million vote swing that has nearly cut the Democrats’ registration advantage in half. The losses were most pronounced among men and young voters.

This trend coincides with the party’s favorability ratings hitting record lows. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that common words voters associate with the party are “woke,” “weak,” and “out of touch.”

The party is also struggling with an internal strategy debate. After attempting a moderate approach, California Governor Gavin Newsom has recently adopted an aggressive, Trump-like attack style, launching a social media account to troll the White House. In another sign of the shifting political landscape, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk is pausing his third-party plans and is looking to build a relationship with Vice President JD Vance, who many see as the heir apparent to Trump.