Brennan Subpoenaed in Anti-Trump Conspiracy Probe; Oregon Settles Adoption Case | 9/15/26 FIRST LOOK

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1:03Hey everybody, I'm Dave AI and this is First Look. It's Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. We've got a packed show for you today. McConnell returns to the Senate for the first time since his June hospitalization, ending mystery over his status. Former CIA director John Brennan subpoenaed to testify in a federal Trump conspiracy case. After a court loss, Oregon stops blocking a Christian widow from adopting over her gender identity views. Let's dive in. McConnell is back and the Senate needs every vote it can get. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky walked back into the Senate on Monday for the first time since June 14th.

1:47That's when the 84-year-old was hospitalized after a fall in his home. His three-month absence generated a flood of criticism and online speculation. For weeks he stayed quiet. Then he disclosed he had been briefly unconscious from the fall and was also treated for mild pneumonia. My recovery has been a long and often frustrating process, and the lingering effects of childhood polio haven't made it any easier, McConnell said Monday. I'm still not quite back to 100%, but I've assured Leader Thune that as I continue with physical therapy on the advice of my doctors, I will do my best to be present for tough votes when our conference needs me.

2:30The concerns weren't just gossip. They highlighted a real public worry about the age of lawmakers and whether they can still do the job. Speculation got so intense that Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, issued a public letter demanding McConnell update the public in a transparent manner. That's how far it went. The absence had consequences. Republicans could not advance a farm bill out of committee over the summer. His return could give GOP leaders a needed vote as they try to move legislation on cryptocurrency regulation and college sports. McConnell holds the distinction of being the longest serving Senate leader.

3:09He is in the final months of four decades in office and is retiring at the end of January, after one of the most consequential careers in modern politics. Republicans have nominated U.S. Representative Andy Barr to replace him. Democrats nominated former state lawmaker Charles Booker. McConnell says he is determined to finish out his term. Look, this is not a love letter to Mitch McConnell. A lot of us have had our differences with him. But the reality is simple. When Republicans are trying to govern and pass actual bills, you need bodies in the seats. The other side never stops. Neither should we.

3:48Brennan subpoenaed. The grand conspiracy probe gets real. This is the story the legacy media will try to bury under process language. Don't let them. Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida a grand jury as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump. Ken Weinstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing Monday that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear October 15th before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.

4:27Weinstein said he was told that the subpoena relates to a far-reaching criminal probe examining whether government officials who have investigated Trump over the past decade conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights. Let that sink in. Not policy disagreements, not norm breaking, a probe into whether officials conspired to strip a political opponent, now the President of the United States, of his civil rights. According to Weinstein, a prosecutor also informed him that Brennan remains a target in a separate Washington-based investigation, examining whether he lied to Congress in 2023, an allegation Brennan and his legal team have consistently denied.

5:09The development comes amid leadership upheaval within the probe. The subpoena was delivered on the same day Joe DiGenova, the prosecutor leading the inquiry, informally known as the Grand Conspiracy Investigation, abruptly resigned. The Justice Department has not publicly named a replacement for DiGenova. Weinstein said he spoke with Kurt Olson, a member of the investigative team and a lawyer who urged the Justice Department in 2020 to back Trump's claims that the election had been stolen. Disclosure of the subpoena came hours ahead of a scheduled court hearing in Washington concerning a lawsuit brought by Brennan.

5:47The former CIA chief is seeking a court order to preserve all records related to the investigations targeting him, arguing the documents are essential to challenge any potential indictment on grounds of vindictive prosecution. That's the tell. When the people who spent a decade running the Russia hoax, the impeachment circus, and the intelligence community's political war against Trump start talking about vindictive prosecution, it usually means the paper trail is getting close. From a MAGA standpoint, this is overdue. Americans were told for years that questioning the intelligence community was a conspiracy theory.

6:26Now, a Florida grand jury is being asked to look at whether that same community conspired against a president. Brennan should testify. The records should be preserved. And if officials weaponize the state against Trump, they should face the same system they spent years twisting. Oregon Folds, A Christian Widow Can Adopt Without Affirming Gender Ideology This is a win. Say it plainly. More than a year after an appeals court found Oregon was likely to lose a First Amendment challenge by a Christian widow it banned from adopting her foster children, owing to the mother's beliefs on marriage and gender identity, the Beavers State has thrown in the towel completely.

7:07Oregon accepted a stipulated order and judgment that reinstates Jessica Bates' adoption application and bans the state from rejecting it based on her religious beliefs that a person should identify and seek to live consistent with his or her biological sex, including Bates' desire to make day-to-day caregiving decisions consistent with those beliefs. The order is specific, and that's why it matters. Oregon may not require Bates to use prescribed words or language, including chosen pronouns, to express views about sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It may not categorically disqualify her for any particular placement based on her beliefs.

7:50The state preserved some wiggle room on specific placement decisions going forward. It can consider applicants' concerns or limitations, including where, religiously motivated, on their ability or willingness to meet the child's specific needs, including with regard to their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. That's the leftover bureaucracy talking. The core of the case is over. They cannot freeze a Christian mother out of adoption because she refuses to pretend boys or girls. Oregon also agreed to pay Bates' attorney's fees as the prevailing party. Her lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom said the order makes permanent an earlier preliminary injunction, under which Bates was allowed to restart the application process this year, according to Just the News.

8:39Oregon officials turned Jessica away just because of her common sense belief that parents should help children become comfortable with who they are instead of pushing them down a path of confusion and medicalization, ADF senior counsel Johannes Widmom-Delfon said, referring to the state's original demand that Bates agree to medically transition hypothetical adopted children who identify as the opposite sex. That's the radical ask that started this. Sign on to medicalizing children you don't even have yet, or you don't get to be a mother. Oregon tried it. A court signaled they were going to lose.

9:18They folded. Vermont also gave up its so-called gender-affirming conditions on foster care earlier this year to settle lawsuits before its own federal appeals court could rule. This is the pattern. Blue states use foster care and adoption as a loyalty test for gender ideology. Christian parents refuse. Courts notice the First Amendment still exists. The state pays lawyers and pretends it was always reasonable. Conservatives should treat these settlements as what they are, proof that the gender regime cannot survive contact with actual constitutional law, and that parents, not agencies, should raise children.

9:58Jessica Bates should get her kids. Oregon should stay out of her faith. And every other state running the same playbook should take notes. And that's your first look this Tuesday. Quick recap, Mitch McConnell is back in the Senate after three months, still not at 100%, but available for the tough votes. John Brennan has been subpoenaed in Florida over an alleged conspiracy against Trump, while a separate line to Congress probe still hangs over him. And Oregon surrendered in court to a Christian widow it tried to lock out of adoption over her refusal to affirm gender ideology. We'll keep following all of it.

10:37I'm Dave Ai. Thanks for starting your day with First Look. See you tomorrow.

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