Senate Majority Leader John Thune admits Democrats "have done a good job out-demagoguing" President Trump's "big, beautiful bill," he told us in an exclusive interview today.

Why it matters: Republicans know they are down at halftime, with the polls looking ugly on the overall package. But parts of it are very popular, and Thune thinks they can run up the score after the final bill is passed.

• "Congress doesn't do comprehensive well," Thune told us.
• Democratic arguments about "slashing Medicaid" or "letting billionaires have tax cuts" are just "the early arguments that people are hearing," Thune said.
• He called it hard to effectively talk about a bill this big.

🥵 Some Senate Republicans are feeling the heat: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned Tuesday that changes to Medicaid could earn the GOP a level of backlash that Democrats felt on Obamacare, Punchbowl News reported.

• But Thune thinks the GOP will be fine, once there is a final law. "You're going to be talking about all the individual components of this that are incredibly popular — and they are," he told us.

What to watch: Thune is betting most Americans do not have a good idea of what is in the bill. (To be fair, Congress is still figuring out the details.)

• He predicts specific measures — border or national security or energy or tax related — will surprise voters, in a good way.
• "People say, 'Oh, oh, I didn't realize that. I really like that. This is in there? I didn't know that.' And I think you're gonna hear a lot of that," he said.

Zoom in: Some of these potentially, popular details are still being worked on, with Trump feeling free to publicly weigh in.

• Trump said he hates provisions that would more slowly roll back some of the energy tax credits, calling them a "SCAM" on Truth Social on Saturday.
• Thune said he talked to Trump about it on Sunday. "He was really, really — This is something he feels passionate about," Thune said.
• "Our number and the House number will be very close," Thune said of the energy tax credit parts of the bill.

Zoom out: Thune is sticking to the July 4 deadline, even as House and Senate Republicans publicly fight over the details and pieces of the bill get struck down by Senate rules.

• "Absent deadlines, things drag."

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— Stef Kight

Skepticism is raging in Democratic quarters that U.S. strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities were not as successful as Trump described them.

• "I'm very concerned about [Trump] distorting, manipulating and even lying about intelligence," Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told us today.
• "We've been here before. We went to war in Iraq under false pretenses."

Why it matters: Reports in the New York Times and CNN suggesting that Trump and senior officials exaggerated the damage from the bunker-busting bombs spread across Congress this afternoon.

• The White House both criticized the reporting of a classified assessment and denied the reports' accuracy.

What they're saying: "If the press reporting about the impact of last weekend's strikes in Iran is true, and I cannot confirm them, then that might be the reason why the administration postponed our classified briefing today at the very last minute," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor.

• "We might be less worried about that had we not seen an administration lie us into a war in Iraq in 2002," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Axios.

Zoom in: Senators and lawmakers are still waiting for their separate classified briefings on the strikes, which have been delayed as top officials are attending the NATO summit with Trump in The Hague.

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— Stephen Neukam and Hans Nichols

House Democrats' younger wing notched a major victory today as Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) won a landslide victory to become ranking member of the Oversight Committee — but they're not stopping there.

Why it matters: Multiple lawmakers told us several initiatives around term limits are still coming.

• "I think it gives them momentum," said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a 28-year-old member of Democratic leadership, about Garcia's win.

What happened: What initially looked to be a tight four-way race to be the top Democrat on the House's main investigative panel gave way to a rout for Garcia, a 47-year-old former mayor of Long Beach.

What to watch: Frost said he is pushing for a congressional term limits measure to be included among the fast-tracked bills that the House votes on first if Democrats retake control of the chamber in 2027.

• But Frost said he also expects a renewed push within the House Democratic caucus for term limits for the party's committee leaders.

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— Andrew Solender

Rep. Thomas Massie is adding fuel to the fire in his fight with Trump, poking fun at Vice President Vance in a new post on X.

Why it matters: Trump and his allies have gone into full-blown attack mode against Massie.

• But Massie told us he's "raised $120,000 in the last 24 hours, and ultimately the president hates to lose."
• "If they don't follow through on this, this will all be blown over and nobody will remember it, other than it just increased my name ID," he said.

Between the lines: Speaker Johnson gave a tepid response today when asked if he would back Massie against a primary challenger.

• "I'm leader of my party here, and the speaker leads the incumbent protection program," Johnson said.
• "But I certainly understand the president's frustration about the colleague you named, and he and I talk about that quite a bit," he added.

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— Kate Santaliz