Up First from NPR - Hurricane Isaias Prep, Competitive Midterm Races, Trump's Media Ban In Court

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Communities along the Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast are preparing for Hurricane Isaias as officials warn of flooding, damaging winds and disruptions to weekend events.Democrats are targeting House districts President Trump won comfortably in 2024, while Republicans spend heavily to defend seats that would normally be considered safe.CNN, MS NOW and Politico are back in federal court challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict their reporters’ access to the White House.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Susanna Capelouto, Megan Pratz, Emily Kopp, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott.Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.(0:00) Introduction(01:51) Preparations For Isaias Storm(05:56) Competitive Midterm Races(09:36) Trump Media Ban In CourtSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Communities from Mississippi to Florida are preparing for hurricane ECIS. They're preparing for flooding and high winds. How much disruption and damage is the storm expected to cause? I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. Democrats are targeting House seats in areas President Trump won by double digits, and Republicans are spending big money to defend them. What's putting normally safe Republican districts in place? A judge temporarily stopped President Trump's attempt to ban news outlets he doesn't like from the White House.

That expires today, and the judge is hearing new arguments about what to do next. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day. Overnight, tropical storm Isayas became a hurricane. Forecasters say it will make landfall as early as tomorrow night near the Alabama Gulf Coast and Florida Panhandle. Communities are preparing for high winds and flooding. We reach WBHM's environmental reporter Laura Linahan in Birmingham, Alabama. Good morning, Lauren. Good morning. So what are the preparations looking like? Well, you know, they're used to hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, right? But it's been a pretty quiet hurricane season so far with El Nino in place. So areas from the Mississippi Gulf Coast all the way to the Florida Panhandle, especially along the coasts have been getting sandbags, boarding up windows, getting supplies from the grocery stores. The stores have been full with people's

stocking up on those hurricane supplies. They know that hurricane plan. And so for folks who are staying who have not had evacuation orders, they are definitely making those preps right along the coast, but it's also the inland communities. I mean, here in Alabama, the National Weather Service in Birmingham is forecasting two to four inches of rain and some stronger winds inland. So you could see the potential for folks already what they have been doing is securing their lawn furniture outside, but it's also October. So folks are having to secure their Halloween inflatables and decorations. But I also spoke with the Birmingham Humane Society,

and they've been asking people to donate crates because they are trying to evacuate their shelters ahead of the storm coming in. So they have room for animals to come up from the coastal shelters. Seems like there's a little bit of uncertainty, though, about what the path might be? So what about events this weekend? What are people planning to do if they have big events planned? Yeah, you know, down here in the deep south, a big concern is going to be football. So we have already seen some high school football games being rescheduled to either earlier in the day on Friday or even tonight. And then we also have that potential for Saturday. There is a big SEC football game in Tuscaloosa, the Alabama versus Georgia matchup. And President Trump is actually scheduled to attend. But he said yesterday that he is playing everything by ear based on what happens with Issa EES. So as of right now, kickoff is still set for Saturday night at 6.30 p.m.

Central time. And so what University of Alabama is doing is they're just continuing to monitor the storm. If it keeps that forward momentum, the worst impacts from the storm would be happening in the morning. Okay. What about oil refineries along the coast and platforms in the Gulf? Right. So we've seen some reports from the Marine Minerals Administration saying that as of Wednesday, non-essential personnel have been evacuated off eight production platforms. And that's roughly 2% of demand platforms in the Gulf. And roughly 19% of oil rigs have been evacuated. Now, this isn't anything unusual.

Anytime you have a tropical system in the Gulf, especially during hurricane season, this is the procedure they will follow. But of course, there is a question going forward. Okay, as Isayas moves through the Gulf, could we see an impact on oil prices if the storm gets really bad? And before we let you go, what are you hearing from state officials? Well, we have been seen several governors declare states of emergencies, and this is just basically so they can free up resources and stage equipment along the Gulf.

So they're going to be coordinating with shelters and sending out warnings as needed to the communities. And what I've seen is just really encouraging folks to be ready and pay attention to that forecast. Even now, with us being less than 48 hours out from East ISM, making landfall, there's still that potential for the forecast to change. And any little shift in the track or intensity can make a big difference on who will see impacts as we're less than 48 hours out from landfall. That's Laura Linnehan with WBHM in Birmingham. Lauren, thank you. And thank y'all. There are 435 seats in the U.S. House. Only a small number of them ever end up being competitive. This year, though, both parties are trying to expand the map. Here's how an aggressive redistricting push

changed the boundary lines for about 10% of Americans since the last election. An unpopular Republican agenda in Washington has shifted perceptions of which lawmakers may be vulnerable. Also, parties and donors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars. NPR political correspondent, Stephen Fowler, has been crunching the numbers, and he's with us now to talk about the state of play for the House. Good morning, Stephen. Good morning. So the Koch Political Report lists 43 House races. That's 1 in 10 as competitive. What types of districts are we talking about?

You've got places that were super close in 2024 that you would reasonably expect to be close again, like the handful of districts that say voted for Trump and a Democratic House rep or vice versa. There's districts like Iowa's first congressional district where the Republican won by about 800 votes in 2024 and California's 13th district decided by fewer than 200 votes. Michelle, all of that happened in a very different political environment than now where you've got an unpopular president, the midterm backlash, rising prices. a ton of anti-incumbency vibes from voters. So that's why you're seeing a whole lot more places on the board. So we mentioned redistricting where the parties, starting with the Republicans, gerrymandered boundary lines to make it easier for them to win. And then, of course, the Democrats responded.

Did that take races off the board? You might think so. But the level of unpopularity we're talking about, especially among Latino voters that backed Trump in 2024, it runs the risk of some of these new Republican-drawn lines ending up still electing Democrats, what's known as a dummymander, strategists in both parties I've talked to, say, to watch Texas and Florida in particular for that one. What else are Democrats and Republicans saying about the scope and scale of what they think is competitive?

Both parties have their target list of incumbents they want to defend and seats that they want to pick up. Between the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, there are 93 districts I counted on their target lists. Unsurprisingly, most of them on the Democratic side. About half of them are these red to blue districts that they flag that they hope to flip. Republicans have their own MAGA majority of nominees in open races or challenging vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Notable, though, on average, Trump won this batch of districts by about 8% in 2024,

which just highlights how deep in a conservative areas these competitive races have moved. But how much of those lists is actually about winning the district, versus, you know, fundraising and branding. You know that saying money talks? Well, some of these districts on the list have seen basically no money and no ads from either party. But you've got places like Kentucky's 6th district and Arkansas's second district, where Trump won by 15 percent that are seeing six and seven figure sums from Republicans trying to defend things. According to Ballotpedia tracking, these target lists usually only win about one in three times,

but also there's so much money involved. Ad Impact data says there's still a half billion dollars in ads coming between now an election day just in the House. So for both sides, it's like throwing a 50-pound Costco-sized box of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. That's some image there. That is, NPR Stephen Fowler, Stephen, thank you. Thank you. Three major news organizations are confronting the Trump. administration in federal court today over the president's efforts to ban their reporters from

the White House. CNN, MS now, and Politico say that's a violation of their constitutional rights. NPR media correspondent David Fulkenflict is covering the lawsuit and he's with us now. Good morning, David. Good morning, Michelle. So where do things currently stand? So in mid-September, President Trump did something he sort of kind of talked about doing for a long time. He banned reporters from those three outlets. He posts on truth social. He talked about it publicly. Here's a clip of what he had to say on that day. There's something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories. Now, if they want to write them, that's fine. But I don't have to let them into the people's house. In relatively short order, Michelle, the news outlets filed a lawsuit

here in federal court in D.C. And a judge institute what's called temporary restraining order saying, hey, you can't do that for now while I have a little time to think about these issues. But there have been points along the way in the week since. where the White House has flouted the order or done things that seem inconsistent. It's turned into a roller coaster, for example, for CNN, which has part of this pool of five major networks that aren't just showing up at the White House to cover the president, but actually get to cover him and tape it and share that footage with news outlets across the country. They bear the logistical obligations, but also bear the cost of doing that. And so they share it. And at times, CNN has not been allowed to be in the pool.

At times it has. And most recently CNN's been allowed, but hasn't been allowed into these smallish spaces like Air Force. force one. And what are the news organizations arguing? Well, the news outlets are arguing that the White House is trying to demonstrate that it has the right to decide where, when, and how they can cover the president at any given moment pretty much on a whim. And they say that's a violation of their First Amendment rights, that is their free speech rights. It is true that the president in the White House doesn't allow have to allow anybody on the grounds and give them credentials. Once they do, they can't withdraw them because they don't like the speech. That's the argument. And it seems

to be pretty settled law in cases, including a few in Trump's first term. And also, they're arguing this violation of their Fifth Amendment rights. That is, the president didn't warn them ahead of time that he was going to do this, didn't give them a process to appeal. That's called due process. And given all that, what is the White House saying about this? What's their argument other than that the president doesn't like these people? Well, they've said that these news outlets are publishing things that are untrue fake news in the term of the president, but also they're invoking now national security concerns. They're pointing to such coverage as questions of what, is in the bunker area below the new renovated ballroom in the east wing of the White House.

They say that's a national security question. They say that MS now's coverage disclosing that there's a leak investigation and do it in the story that was embarrassing for FBI director Cash Patel, that is, and other such things. And so they're saying national security and they're saying the executive sort of essentially outweighs the courts and a judge on this. And it's saying, look, we have had some court cases including at least preliminary ruling in a case involving the Associated Press in which we are allowed to prevent people from being able to go into smaller spaces like the Oval Office or Air Force One. So it's asking the judge to essentially dismiss all of this. It's saying we have the right to do

what we want. And how do you anticipate that this will be resolved? Well, today is the day in which this temporary restraining order will dissipate. So the judge is going to have to decide soon whether he offers this preliminary injunction saying, you can't do it anymore or whether he sets this for trial and says let's hold things in abeyance. That is. NPRMedia correspondent, David Follke. David, thank you. You bet. As you start your day-to-day, a reminder that sometimes the stories NPR covers are about the work we and so many other journalists do. Press freedom is a topic we're following closely, and at NPR, we believe a free press is a right for you, the public.

We are committed to holding power to account and bringing you news you need without fear or a favor. Because you're the engine behind this work. You make it possible. You contribute to your local station, and they keep reporters in the field, ensuring that you're, that public media is here to stay. The power to decide what's next for public media is yours. Head to donate.npr.org and thank you. Yeah, thanks. And that's up first for Thursday, October 8th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's up first was edited by Susanna Capiludo, Megan Pratt, Emily Kopp, Mohammed al-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziat Butch and Neo-Demas, and our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us tomorrow.