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For the second time in eight days, a fighter jet was lost after falling over the side of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and into the Red Sea on Tuesday, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

There were only minor injuries after the two-seater, F-18 Super Hornet fell off the aircraft carrier as it was landing around 9:45 p.m. local time Tuesday (early afternoon East Coast time), the officials said.

The two aviators aboard ejected after the failed landing, in which the aircraft failed to catch the wire, known as a “failed arrestment,” one of the officials said.

Just over a week ago, another fighter jet was lost from the USS Harry S. Truman.

A Super Hornet, along with the tow tractor that was pulling it, fell off the deck of the ship on April 28, the office of the Navy Chief of Information in Bahrain said in a statement.

Tuesday’s incident is under investigation.

One official said that based on initial reporting, the failed arrestment happened when the tail hook failed to hook the wire that slows down the aircraft. The aircraft continued to accelerate toward the bow of the ship and went into the water, the official said.

The fighter jet that fell after trying to land Tuesday was an F/A-18F, the officials said. The fighter jet that fell as it was being towed on April 28 was a $67 million F/A-18E, the Navy said.

The April 28 incident happened after the jet “was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft,” the Navy said in the statement about that mishap. An investigation is underway, it said.

The Trump administration has terminated a federal advisory committee that issued guidance about preventing the spread of infections in health care facilities.  

The Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) crafted national standards for hand-washing, mask-wearing and isolating sick patients that most U.S. hospitals follow. 

Four committee members said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivered the news about HICPAC’s termination to members on Friday.  

A letter reviewed by NBC News — which members said the CDC sent out after a virtual meeting — states that the termination took effect more than a month prior, on March 31. According to the letter, the termination aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a reduction of the federal workforce.  

Four professional societies previously wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on March 26 asking him to preserve the committee amid widespread cuts to federal health agencies. The CDC and HHS did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Tuesday. 

Several of the committee’s web pages have been archived, meaning they are still available to view online but are no longer being updated.  

Some members now say they fear that its guidelines will be frozen in time, unable to evolve with new scientific research or the spread of drug-resistant organisms, which are a particular threat to hospitals. 

“At some point, when things need to change, the guidelines likely won’t change, and then people will be sort of flying by the seat of their pants,” said Connie Steed, a HICPAC member since 2023 and former president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. 

Dr. Anurag Malani, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America who joined HICPAC in January, said the committee was close to finalizing new guidelines for airborne pathogens before the termination. The guidelines, which had not been updated since 2007, included a controversial recommendation that would allow surgical masks in lieu of N95 respirators to prevent the spread of certain pathogens.  

“There was really a lot of important material in there, and I think a lot of lessons learned from Covid that helped shape those guidelines to put us in a better place than we were pre-pandemic,” Malani said.  

Jane Thomason, the lead hygienist at National Nurses United — a professional association for registered nurses that criticized the new mask recommendations — lamented the loss of the committee. HIPAC appointed Thomason to a work group last year.  

“While we had significant concerns regarding HICPAC’s make up and proposed guidance, the termination of the committee removes important public transparency,” Thomason said in a statement Tuesday. “Without HICPAC’s public meetings, there is no longer any public access to the process for drafting CDC guidance on infection control for health care settings. This further undermines safety for patients, nurses, and other health care workers.” 

According to the CDC letter from Friday, HICPAC has made 540 recommendations to the agency since its inception more than three decades ago — 90% of which were fully implemented. 

Malani said it’s important for those recommendations to continue so that infection control practices stay consistent across the country. 

“You’d want to avoid seeing state and local health departments try to figure this out on their own,” he said. 

Members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet said Tuesday that while they look forward to the United States’ co-hosting next year’s FIFA World Cup, they want to make sure foreign visitors don’t stay longer than they’re allowed.

The quadrennial tournament, which the United States will host alongside Mexico and Canada, is expected to attract millions of fans from dozens of countries. The Department of Homeland Security has indicated it’s ready to handle the influx of international travelers.

“Of course, everybody is welcome to come and see this incredible event,” Vice President JD Vance said at a World Cup task force meeting led by Trump that included several top administration officials, as well as Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, the world organizing body of soccer.

“But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise, they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem,” Vance said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has helped lead the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy echoed Vance’s warning.

“If you’re coming to see some soccer … go on a road trip. See America,” he said before he changed his tone. “Don’t overstay your visa. Don’t stay too long.”

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Of the tournament’s 104 games, 78 will be played in the United States, with the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Other match venues in the United States include Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and Miami.

Two factors could affect the number of tourists who travel to North America for the tournament next summer. For the first time in the World Cup’s 95-year history, it will be expanded to 48 teams. In recent years, only 32 have participated.

While the expanded format is expected to attract more tourists, Trump’s hard-line immigration policies may have a cooling effect.

Asked whether people who have taken part in pro-Palestinian protests should be concerned about attending the World Cup in the United States, Trump said: “I think people are allowed to protest. You have to do it in a reasonable manner, not necessarily friendly, but reasonable. Otherwise, Pam will come after you, and you’re going to have a big problem.” Attorney General Pam Bondi participated in Tuesday’s task force meeting.

Infantino has estimated that between the FIFA Club World Cup, which is being hosted solely in the United States this summer, and next year’s World Cup, the country will draw 10 million international tourists.

Noem struck a more inviting tone Tuesday than some of her administration colleagues. She cast the tournament as “an opportunity for the world to become a friendlier place.”

“We will take care of their documentation and travel documents, and it will go smoothly. And we will make sure that they can come and enjoy and bring their families and friends and make memories together,” she said.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A Kentucky woman was in a sticky mess when she found stacks of boxes containing lollipops on her front doorstep. The surprise delivery was ordered by her young son while he played on her phone.

Holly LaFavers says she tried stopping 8-year-old Liam’s Amazon order for about 70,000 Dum-Dum suckers before the treats arrived, but it was too late.

Amazon had already delivered 22 cases to her home.

“He told me that he wanted to have a carnival, and he was ordering the Dum-Dums as prizes for his carnival,” LaFavers said. “Again, he was being friendly, he was being kind to his friends.”

The surprise got worse after a quick check of her bank account. She owed about $4,000 for the order.

“When I saw what the number was, I just about fainted,” LaFavers said.

Then she found out that eight more cases from the order were unaccounted for, she said. After a trip to the post office, those cases were returned to sender, she said.

Her efforts to get a refund took a bit more time, but she got her money back.

“After a long day of working with the bank and talking to a few news stations Amazon called and they are refunding my money,” she said in a social media post.

LaFavers said she was changing some settings on her phone to make sure there’s never another surprise delivery at home.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday named Dr. Vinay Prasad — a hematologist-oncologist who has been accused of spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines and was an outspoken critic of the agency’s decision to approve Covid shots in children — as its new vaccine chief.

The FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, announced Prasad would lead the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research to agency employees earlier Tuesday and later on X.

Makary called the appointment “a significant step forward,” saying Prasad would bring “scientific rigor, independence, and transparency.”

Prasad comes from the University of California, San Francisco, where he most recently was a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. He is a practicing physician, according to his website.

He spent much of the pandemic criticizing the FDA’s and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s response to the virus.

In a 2021 blog post and an accompanying video, Prasad suggested the national response to Covid might bring on the collapse of democracy, invoking the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich in Germany.

On the blog that year, Prasad downplayed the anti-vaccine activism of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — now the secretary of health and human services — specifically his role in a 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

On Bari Weiss’ contrarian website, The Free Press, Prasad seemed to defend Kennedy’s most controversial positions on vaccines, raw milk and fluoride by listing other countries that have policies that align with Kennedy’s views.

Prasad has also been an outspoken critic of Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s former vaccine chief, saying on Twitter, now X, in 2022 that Marks “might be the worst FDA regulator in modern history” after the approval of Covid boosters in children. Last year, he called on Marks to be fired “ASAP,” claiming the FDA approved boosters for kids who had already had Covid with “no data.” The agency approved the boosters based on blood samples and safety data from other versions of the vaccines.

Prasad has also advocated for randomized placebo-controlled trials for the Covid vaccines every year — a position the FDA, in the Trump administration, now appears to support.

Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, noted that some of Prasad’s views — including that healthy children and other low-risk groups may not need additional Covid vaccinations — are more widely accepted in the scientific community now.

However, Prasad’s criticism of the health agencies’ response during the pandemic is unfair, he said.

“If we had the luxury of knowing then what we know now, we would do it differently,” Creech said. “But my goodness, the world was on fire, and we were doing our best.”

Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has been a critic of Kennedy, said Prasad’s past comments are “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” noting that 1,800 children have died from Covid and hundreds of thousands have been hospitalized. The center, a member of the World Health Organization’s vaccine safety program, provides information about vaccines to parents.

“Does he think Covid doesn’t hurt children?” Offit said. “It makes me think he never spent a minute in a children’s hospital.”

Offit also questioned whether Prasad was fit for the role as an oncologist and hematologist. As head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Prasad would also oversee a number of other medical products, including gene therapies.

“He has no experience at all in vaccine research or design or development of testing,” Offit said. He added that most people in the role do have such experience — although Marks, the former vaccine chief, was also criticized for having a background in oncology and hematology.

Prasad didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In late March, Kennedy forced Marks out of his position.

Marks wrote in his resignation letter that undermining confidence in vaccines is “irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety, and security.”

According to a poll published Tuesday by KFF, a health policy research group, less than half of Americans say they have confidence in the Trump administration’s health agencies, including the FDA, to protect against outbreak of infectious diseases and ensure the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs and vaccines, among their other responsibilities. The poll, which was conducted last month, found that most adults say they are at least “somewhat confident” in the safety of many routine vaccines, including those for measles and the flu.

After the announcement, a group of biotech stocks, including vaccine makers, fell more than 6%, suggesting investors didn’t have a favorable view of what Prasad could do in the role.

In his new memoir, American businessman Barry Diller addressed for the first time decades of speculation about his sexuality and his marriage to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.

Diller, the chairman and senior executive of IAC, an international media company, and chairman and senior executive of Expedia Group, an American travel company, married von Furstenberg in 2001, though their romance began more than 20 years before that, Diller wrote in an excerpt of his upcoming memoir, “Who Knew.”

In the excerpt, published Tuesday by New York magazine, Diller, 83, said he had only been interested in men until he met von Furstenberg when he was 33. 

He said von Furstenberg was dismissive of him the first time they met, but the second time, at a dinner party for a mutual friend, Diller said, “I was instantly bathed in such attention and cozy warmth I couldn’t believe it was the same woman I’d been dismissed by a year earlier,” according to the excerpt.

At that dinner party, they talked alone on a sofa, and Diller said, “There was a glow around us that was setting off sparks, accurately described by the French as a coup de foudre.”

Soon after, they had dinner at her apartment and “afterward, on the same sofa as the night before, we wound around each other, making out like teenagers, something I hadn’t done with a female since I was 16 years old,” Diller wrote. 

Diller added, “Now, this has always amazed me: There was no effort, no reasoning, no what’s-going-on-here, no ambition, no anything. Other than sheer excitement, I thought, Well, this is a surprise! I certainly didn’t feel, Oh my God, what does this mean? I was simply existing in the moment, a rare place for me.” 

Prior to meeting von Furstenberg, Diller said he had never publicly come out. He vowed to himself that he would “live with silence, but not with hypocrisy,” and “wouldn’t do a single thing to make anyone believe I was living a heterosexual life.” 

As a result, when Diller and von Furstenberg became a couple, he said people noticed. At the time, he was the chairman of Paramount Pictures and von Furstenberg was an established designer who had been on the cover of Newsweek.

“People started saying, ‘Huh? What is it with this person? We thought he liked only men,’” Diller wrote. 

However, “Much of the speculation subsided when it was clear to all we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.” 

The couple dated for a few years and lived together until they separated in 1981 after von Furstenberg had an affair with actor Richard Gere, Diller wrote in his memoir. He said von Furstenberg re-entered his life 10 years later, and a decade after that, they married. 

“I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers,” Diller wrote. “We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends. Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years. And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane.”

Though the media has speculated that Diller is either gay or bisexual, he didn’t use either of those words in the excerpt. In fact, he wrote that Europeans “had a wiser attitude” about sexuality, and that today, “sexual identities are much more fluid and natural, without all those rigidly defined lanes of the last century.” 

“I’ve always thought that you never really know about anyone else’s relationships,” he wrote. “But I do know about ours. It is the bedrock of my life. What others think sometimes irritates but mostly amuses us. We know, our family knows, and our friends know. The rest is blather.”

A lawyer for the federal government and an appeals judge got into a heated exchange Tuesday when the lawyer could not answer whether detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk’s free speech is protected.

Öztürk, who is from Turkey, was apprehended by immigration authorities on the streets of a Boston suburb on March 25.

The Trump administration revoked Öztürk’s student visa in late March based on an assessment from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she “had been involved in associations that ‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.’”

Which included, according to a State Department memo, co-authoring an op-ed “that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus, the Bureau of Consular Affairs approved revocation, effectively immediately.”

Last year, Öztürk wrote an op-ed in her student newspaper that was critical of Tufts’ response to the war in Gaza.

During the hearing Tuesday at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, Judge Barrington Parker Jr. asked the government whether they believed that Öztürk and Mahdawi’s speech was protected.  

Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign said, “Your honor, we haven’t taken a position on that.” 

“Help my thinking along,” Parker responded. “Take a position.”

Ensign replied: “I don’t have the authority to make those decisions. At the moment it’s not a live issue.” 

Viral video of Öztürk’s arrest shows DHS officers and immigration authorities surrounding her on a sidewalk, grabbing her wrists and taking her off the street into a nearby SUV as she screamed.

She has been held in a detention center in Louisiana — thousands of miles from where she lives and was arrested — while she fights deportation.

Her lawyers have argued that the case should be transferred to Vermont, because it was the last place she was taken before she was transferred to Louisiana. U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered Öztürk to be moved to Vermont earlier this month.

While in detention, Öztürk has been suffering asthma attacks.

“The dorm rooms in detention are very crowded, and the other women have reported seeing mice in the dorm rooms,” she wrote in a court filing on Monday. “Additionally, the air conditioning is running most of the day, and I do not have immediate access to fresh air.”

Simultaneously on Tuesday, the 2nd Circuit heard arguments on whether they should grant or deny another federal judge’s order to release Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi.

Mahdawi, a 34-year-old green card holder who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was detained by DHS agents on April 14 while being interviewed for his naturalization at a Vermont immigration office. He was released from prison on bail last week.

Ensign argued that Mahdawi shouldn’t remain free because it would interfere with the government’s ability to carry out his removal and lead to “technical challenges” and “operational costs” for the government.

Naz Ahmad, an attorney for Mahdawi, quipped that just a day after he was released, Mahdawi appeared remotely using Webex. Ahmad also argued that if Mahdawi were ordered to be detained again, it would chill his free speech.

“Liberty is the norm, and the government wants to disrupt that liberty,” Ahmad said.

Mahdawi was a key organizer of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last year. The Ivy League school became the epicenter of similar demonstrations at college campuses nationwide and drew the particular ire of Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The Trump administration justified his detention, arguing that his “presence and activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” according to the DHS notice for Mahdawi to appear.

Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford, of the Federal District Court in Vermont, ordered Mahdawi’s release on bail last week, comparing today’s political climate to the Second Red Scare of the 1950s.

“This is not the first time that the nation has seen chilling action by the government intended to shut down debate,” Crawford said.

Addressing reporters outside the courthouse last week after his release, Mahdawi struck a defiant tone.

“I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his Cabinet: I am not afraid of you,” he said

U.S. onshore oil production has likely peaked and will start to decline due to the recent plunge in crude prices, jeopardizing the nation’s position as the world’s largest fossil fuel producer and its energy security, the CEO of Diamondback Energy told shareholders in a letter this week

U.S. crude oil prices have tumbled about 17% this year as recession fears due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs weigh on demand expectations. At the same time, OPEC+ producers led by Saudi Arabia are rapidly increasing supply to the market.

Adjusted for inflation, there have only been two quarters since 2004 when front-month oil prices have been as cheap as they are now, excluding 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world, Diamondback CEO Travis Stice wrote.

“Therefore, we believe we are at a tipping point for U.S. oil production at current commodity prices,” Stice warned the company’s shareholders in a letter published Monday. “It is likely that U.S. onshore oil production has peaked and will begin to decline this quarter,” Stice told investors in his letter, pointing to cuts in activity levels.

Diamondback is an independent oil and gas producer focused on the Permian Basin, the most prolific oil patch in the U.S. The company is the third biggest oil producer in the Permian and the sixth biggest in the continental U.S., according to data from Enverus.

U.S. crude oil prices rose more than 4% to $59.56 per barrel Tuesday as domestic production is expected to decline.

Energy security at risk

The shale revolution over the past 15 years has transformed the U.S. into the largest fossil fuel producer in the world, with the country producing more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, the CEO said.

“This has transformed our economy and given the United States a level of energy security not thought possible at the beginning of this century,” Stice told investors. “Today’s prices, volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty have put this progress in jeopardy,” the CEO warned.

Depending on how much oil prices fall, the amount of capital needed for the U.S. to produce 13 million barrels per day and for the Permian to produce 6 million bpd “might be an untenable lift for the business model that we put in place, where we’re returning so much back to our investors who own the company,” Stice told analysts on Diamondback’s earnings call Tuesday morning.

“We don’t have a crystal ball in the rest of the world, but we have a very good view of what the U.S looks like, and right now, that’s a business that’s slowing dramatically and likely declining in terms of production,” Stice said.

Onshore production to decline

The number of crews fracking shale for oil and gas has already fallen 15% this year with crews in the Permian Basin down 20% from a peak in January, Stice estimated, warning that number of crews will likely decline further.

Rigs focused on oil production are expected to decline nearly 10% by the end of the second quarter and fall further in the third, the CEO said.

Diamondback has cut its capital budget by about $400 million to $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion this year. Trump’s steel tariffs are the biggest cost headwind the oil producer is currently fighting, Stice said. Those tariffs have increased well costs by about 1% or $40 million annually, the CEO said. Efficiency gains are expected to offset rising costs as activity slows in the coming quarters, he said.

Diamondback has dropped three rigs and one completion crew, and the company expects to remain at these levels through the majority of the third quarter, the CEO said in his letter. It now expects to drill between 385 to 435 wells this year and complete 475 to 550 wells.

“To use a driving analogy, we are taking our foot off the accelerator as we approach a red light,” Stice said. “If the light turns green before we get to the stoplight, we will hit the gas again, but we are also prepared to brake if needed.”

CLEVELAND — President Donald Trump endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy on the night he kicked off his campaign to be Ohio’s next governor.

More than two months later, term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine is scrambling behind the scenes to keep the Ohio Republican Party from following Trump’s lead.

DeWine and his advisers are working to deny Ramaswamy an endorsement when the state party meets Friday, four people aware of the effort told NBC News, including one who heard directly from the governor. 

The moves place DeWine sharply at odds with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, an Ohioan who has directed his political team to steer Ramaswamy’s campaign. The move also reinforces long-standing tensions in the state between the old guard, establishment GOP that DeWine is trying to preserve and Trump’s MAGA movement, which counts younger figures like Vance and Ramaswamy among its next generation. 

DeWine and Trump were on opposite sides last year in a high-profile GOP Senate primary that Bernie Moreno — Trump’s candidate — ultimately won. And since DeWine chose Ohio State football legend Jim Tressel to serve as his lieutenant governor in January, there has been wide speculation that he prefers the former coach to succeed him. Aside from attending some party fundraisers, Tressel has sent no signals he intends to run, though he has not ruled it out.

“I think he would like to forestall an endorsement taking place, because I think he would like to see if he can convince Jim Tressel to run for governor,” one Republican leader in the state said of DeWine. This person, like others interviewed for this article, was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations and intraparty disputes involving a sitting president and governor.

DeWine did not directly respond this week to questions about his effort ahead of the state Republican Party meeting. In a statement issued through a spokesperson, he maintained that he is focused on state budget negotiations.  

“As far as who I endorse in the Republican primary for Governor, it is much too early, as we do not even know who all will be in the race,” DeWine said in the Tuesday statement. “We are now 364 days away from the primary and 293 days away from the filing deadline. In politics, this is a lifetime!”

Votes from at least two-thirds of the state party’s 66-member central committee are required for a candidate to earn an endorsement, which would come with advertising and organizational support. The committee is scheduled to meet Friday to consider the matter. 

Public and private polling has shown Ramaswamy — a biotech entrepreneur who ran for president in the 2024 election cycle before dropping out and endorsing Trump — with a wide primary lead over Tressel and state Attorney General Dave Yost. An outside group supporting Ramaswamy has already spent millions of dollars on TV ads emphasizing the Trump endorsement.

The supermajority vote is “a pretty high hurdle,” said a committee member who heard directly from DeWine. “I know Vivek has a lot of support. He’s working the phones. The governor is working them also.”

DeWine, according to this person and three other Republicans who have been briefed about the calls, is not advocating for a specific candidate but, rather, for delaying an endorsement, arguing that it’s too soon. The primary is scheduled for May 5, 2026.

A Ramaswamy ally with knowledge of DeWine’s calls said the governor and his administration “will be remembered for being wrong on every major Republican fight” and noted how DeWine had opposed past Trump-endorsed candidates.

“If Trump backs you, DeWine’s guaranteed to take the losing side,” this person added. “The establishment isn’t just out of touch — it’s out of time. And the state central committee will prove that again this Friday.”

Others expressed frustration that DeWine was meddling and teasing the prospect of other candidates who might emerge without offering an explicit alternative or coherent strategy.

“There’s not a unified opposition to the endorsement,” said the committee member who spoke with DeWine.

While DeWine’s involvement is viewed in part as an effort to keep the party’s powder dry in the event of a late entry by Tressel, it’s also viewed with a hint of irony: DeWine pushed the party to endorse him in a competitive primary for governor in 2018.

The situations aren’t entirely comparable. The state party’s 2018 endorsement of DeWine over then-Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor came about three months before the primary, after the filing deadline. The 2026 primary is less than a year away. 

The early polling, though, suggests this race might not be as close. The Trump factor is more pronounced, too. He stayed out of the 2018 primary but has been with Ramaswamy since day one. And Trump’s endorsement of Vance in a 2022 Senate primary and of Moreno in the 2024 Senate primary helped both clinch the nominations. Those Trump endorsements came much later in the cycle, meaning there was less pressure on committee members to take an early stand.

Yost, in a recent letter to central committee members, urged a wait-and-see approach while also lobbying for their support if they decide to go forward with a vote Friday.

“The May 9 meeting is almost exactly a year before the primary election,” Yost wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Cleveland.com. “A great deal will happen in that year that could very well change your judgment. The world is a very fluid and unpredictable place, after all.”

Yost also likened a rushed endorsement to how Democrats quickly closed ranks around Vice President Kamala Harris last year after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid. 

“No primary, no vote — just a coronation. That did not turn out well for the Democrats, and there is no reason to believe it will be better for the Grand Old Party,” Yost added.

DeWine did not respond to questions about the belief that he is trying to engineer a more favorable environment for a Tressel candidacy.

“When the time comes for an endorsement, I will base my decision on who I believe can best serve the people of Ohio and which Republican has the best chance of winning in the general election,” DeWine said in Tuesday’s statement. He noted, though, that he has already endorsed Sen. Jon Husted, his former lieutenant governor, in next year’s special election to fill the remainder of Vance’s Senate term. DeWine appointed Husted to fill the vacancy, which created the opening for Tressel.

Jim Dicke, a prominent GOP fundraiser in Ohio, said he sees little evidence that Tressel is interested in running for governor. 

“Usually people are making phone calls, testing the waters and getting in their Chevrolet to drive around the state,” Dicke said.

“I’m sort of a ‘let’s listen to the voters’ person,” Dicke added. “The enthusiasm for Vivek has been so overwhelming that I think there’s a legitimate argument that the voters are speaking.”

Ramaswamy has kept a steady schedule of party functions — a pace that has impressed Tony Schroeder, a central committee member and chairman of the Putnam County GOP. Schroeder said Ramaswamy has earned his endorsement vote Friday.

“He’s got the enthusiastic backing of voters in a way that I’ve never seen this early in a primary cycle,” Schroeder said. “It’s absolutely astonishing. He’s filling halls in every part of this state.”

The Rev. William J. Barber II warned congressional Republicans against weaponizing “our tax dollars against us” after he was arrested last week in the U.S. Capitol following a prayer-protest against potential cuts to Medicaid. 

Barber, a pastor and civil rights activist known for his progressive, faith-based advocacy, was at the Capitol as part of his Moral Monday sermon series. 

Barber told NBC News that he was praying for senators to spare Medicaid in their plans for vast government spending cuts. Medicaid, the largest health care program in the country, provides coverage for more than 71 million low-income people.

“This budget cut does not affect one side or the other. Coming out of Covid, we all learned that Covid did not kill people for being Black or white or Republican or Democrat,” said Barber, who also contributes to MSNBC. He added the virus “did not discriminate, and neither should our health care.”

Barber has also long been critical of what he described as President Donald Trump’s “extremist policies.”

“We recognize that if Trump were out of office, these policies would still be pushed by the majority,” Barber said. “We have to focus heavily on the policies and go after them. Not the individual.”

In recent weeks, Republicans have unveiled plans to strip down the Affordable Care Act as part of a sweeping spending cut. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, is tasked with cutting $880 billion in spending. Democrats in the House and progressive groups argue the GOP will have to make drastic cuts to Medicaid to meet the threshold. 

Committee chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said the cuts will allow for better health care options. Republicans also said the cuts are geared toward preventing Medicaid abuse, though the specifics remain unclear.

Congress has weeks to pass a sweeping budget that support Trump’s agenda. Republicans have said they are aiming to cut fraud and waste from federal spending but specifics have been minimal thus far. 

Republicans are weighing new work requirements for able-bodied adults seeking Medicaid and rules to prevent noncitizens from receiving benefits.

“People are dying from poverty every day,” Barber said. “This is a crisis of civilization. This is a crisis of democracy. This is not about being Black or white, left or right. This is about life and death.”

Poverty contributed to the deaths of about 183,000 people in the United States in 2019, according to a study by David Brady, a professor of the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy. Limited access to health care, poor nutrition and exposure to environmental hazards all contribute to higher rates of illness and premature death among low-income communities. 

Highlighting those disparities is part of Barber’s Poor People Campaign, a broader effort to lobby for economic equality that began with protests during Trump’s first term in office. 

“When we talk to poor and lower-wage voters about why they don’t vote, the No. 1 reason is that nobody talks to them,” he said. “Conversations around poverty center the middle class and wealthy. We have to have a change of our language and our focus.”

In a letter sent to congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle last week, Repairers of the Breach, Barber’s social justice organization, said Black and Latino communities would most likely bear the brunt of the impact of Medicaid cuts.

Barber and others have regularly organized Moral Monday protests for more than a decade. Barber said hundreds of supporters arrived at the protest at the Capitol last week but were largely denied entry to the building. He and a smaller group that gained access to the rotunda proceeded with silent prayer until the police intervened. Barber and faith leaders Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steven Swayne were arrested and charged with crowding, obstructing and incommoding. 

Capitol Police told NBC News the group also violated federal regulations that prohibit demonstrations, including prayer, in congressional buildings. The arrests resulted in tickets.

In support of Barber, Repairers of the Breach announced that “the clergy and impacted persons and advocates will go to the US Capitol to deliver a written moral analysis done by Repairers and the Institute for Policy Studies” and that they would return to the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court every month until a change is made in favor of the millions affected.