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Thank you. Good morning. I'm Anna Palmer. And I'm Jake Sherman. And welcome to The Daily Punch, brought to you by Punchpool News. It's Monday, May 18th, 2026. Let's get in the mix. Here are your Washington headlines of the day. Number one, on the ground in Maine. Number two, Republicans push on reconciliation.

And number three, the GOP doubles down on mega in the south.

All right, Jake, let's get into it.

Our very own Andrew Desiderio was up in Maine over the weekend, looking at that very key Senate race, Susan Collins, the Republican, leaning into her experience while the Democrat singing a different tune.

That's right.

This is a battle of sorts between the argument that Susan Collins can deliver for Maine versus a grand platinum campaign,

which is basically said like, no,

you are partaking in a system that I'd like to break down.

And he's quite proud of that fact.

Now, when Andrew was up there,

he was at a rural northern Maine hospital, grand opening rather, and

Collins got $13 million for that hospital. And she said that her chairmanship of the

Appropriations Committee is a, quote, once in a century opportunity for Maine. That is her

argument. And Platner's argument is quite simply that that doesn't work for us.

...