Heading into the 2026 midterm elections, there are some very big warning signs for Republicans in the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

The survey of 1,443 adults, conducted from Nov. 10-13, found:

Democrats holding their largest advantage, 14 points, since 2017 on the question of who respondents would vote for if the midterm elections were held today;

President Trump's approval rating is just 39%, his lowest since right after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol;

A combined 6-in-10 blame congressional Republicans or Trump for the government shutdown; and

Nearly 6-in-10 say Trump's top priority should be lowering prices — and no other issue comes close.

"I don't think rent prices or food prices are at the forefront like they should be," said Nicole Stokes of Dallas, Texas, who participated in NPR's poll and voted for Trump last year. "You know — the American people — it's our pockets that are getting ripped apart to fund things."

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Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University, will stop teaching at the school while it investigates his connection to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a spokesman for Summers said on Wednesday.

Emails recently released by the US House oversight committee reignited questions about Summers’ relationship with Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors. Many of the messages indicated a friendship that lasted well into 2019. Contact only ceased shortly before Epstein was arrested in July of that same year.

The Harvard Crimson was first to report the news.

Steven Goldberg, the spokesperson for Summers, told the newspaper that Summers, an economist and former US treasury secretary, is not scheduled to teach next semester, and that his co-teachers will take over the remaining classes of the current semester.

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President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday night directing the Justice Department to release all files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, completing a dramatic reversal after fighting the proposal just last week.

Trump announced on Truth Social that he signed the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act, which cleared both chambers of Congress on Tuesday with only one Republican lawmaker voting against it.

"Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES," the president said in the announcement on his social media platform. Trump has pointed to Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, proclaiming: "This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have!"

With the legislation signed, the Justice Department has 30 days to publicize "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials" from the investigation into the disgraced financier and indicted sex trafficker who died by suicide in 2019.

“We'll continue to follow the law with maximum transparency while protecting victims,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier in the day.

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The widow of Jamal Khashoggi slammed President Trump on Tuesday for seeking to discredit her late husband’s reputation amid a visit from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. 

Khashoggi, who was an opinions journalist for The Washington Post, was killed in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

“@potus There is no justification to murder my husband. While Jamal was a good transparent and brave man many people may not have agreed with his opinions and desire for freedom of the press,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote in a statement on the social platform X.

“The Crown Prince said he was sorry so he should meet me, apologize and compensate me for the murder of my husband,” added Khashoggi, who had married her husband in Virginia in 2018, months before he was killed.

She previously submitted a letter to Trump and first lady Melania Trump requesting they back her demands to have her husband’s body returned and receive financial compensation for Khashoggi’s death during the crown prince’s Tuesday White House visit.

However, when asked about Khashoggi’s death, the president defended Crown Prince Mohammed, telling reporters that the leader “knew nothing about that” and alleging “a lot of people didn’t like that gentleman.”

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