Trump's Russia Diesel Deal, Livestreamed Execution Plan Dominate Sunday Shows Ahead of Midterms

With exactly one month until the 2026 midterm elections, President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plan to livestream a mass murderer's execution are dominating the Sunday political talk shows and sparking fierce debate among lawmakers.

The controversies come as Republicans face a challenging political environment, with nonpartisan forecasters giving Democrats a 76 percent chance of flipping the House and a 56 percent chance of taking back the Senate.

What is the Russia diesel deal?

President Trump struck a deal Friday to lift sanctions on Russian diesel, allowing the Kremlin to supply 300,000 tons of diesel to the U.S. and global markets. The move aims to remedy rising energy prices fueled by ongoing U.S. military operations in Iran and Russia's war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately criticized the deal, arguing it would help Russia earn more money to fund its military offensive against his country. Trump responded Saturday by decrying Zelensky's strikes on Russian oil refineries and called for his replacement.

“He wants to make problems for the world. He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world,” Trump said of Zelensky before traveling to Tennessee Saturday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Trump of “making a deal with the devil,” echoing Zelensky's warning that the deal may signal to Russia “it could simply keep attacking” Ukraine.

The decision marks a sharp reversal from September, when Trump signed bills targeting Russia and Iran that imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on the top five purchasers of Russian energy or on countries helping the Kremlin evade sanctions. GOP lawmakers including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Kennedy (R-La.) championed that legislation and are set to appear on Fox News's “Sunday Morning Futures” where they will likely weigh in on the divisive deal.

Hegseth's plan to livestream Hasan execution draws bipartisan backlash

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this week that convicted mass shooter Nidal Hasan's execution by firing squad would be livestreamed on Dec. 3 in Texas. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of fatally shooting 13 people and injuring 32 others in a 2009 attack against a Fort Hood, Texas military base.

The announcement comes amid a growing conversation surrounding the death penalty, brought back into the public eye after late September botched lethal injection attempts against death row inmate Christa Pike.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), along with a slew of Democratic lawmakers, quickly criticized Hegseth's decision, with the North Carolina senator calling the proposal “beyond disgusting.”

“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America,” Tillis wrote on social platform X.

Pope Leo XIV weighed in on the debate Saturday, calling capital punishment “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” in a social media statement.

Tillis will likely discuss his denouncement of Hegseth's plan during his Sunday appearance on NBC's “Meet The Press.” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who similarly criticized the Pentagon chief's decision, is appearing on CBS's “Face The Nation.”

GOP lawmakers split with Trump on immigration enforcement

Beyond these high-profile controversies, some GOP lawmakers and candidates are beginning to split with the president's aggressive immigration enforcement agenda with less than a month before November's midterms. Multiple Republican senators told The Hill they fear these moves could impact the party's electability.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who's running for reelection this year, advised the Trump administration to ease off on immigrants who “are here and that have a court determination that [says] they can be here.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) broke records for the second Trump administration, with back-to-back months of arrests topping 50,000 in July and August, according to the Deportation Data Project. The group added that 55 percent of those detained had no criminal record, while another 24 percent had faced charges but were never convicted.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is appearing on CNN's “State of the Union,” where he will likely discuss this escalation. He may also weigh in on criticism the agency received following a high-profile shooting in the Bronx this week, during which a 28-year-old man was shot in his car while his 5-year-old child was also inside.

Following the shooting, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani slammed ICE's actions in a statement, saying he called Mullin and Trump for two hours after the incident. The mayor was “unsuccessful” in securing the man's release from federal custody, he said.

What do the polls say about the midterms?

It is one month until the 2026 midterm elections, with the GOP entering a rocky environment as the president's approval rating continually declines and dissatisfaction with the ongoing conflict with Iran grows in the U.S.

Trump is expected to travel to Alaska and other battleground states in an effort to boost the GOP's chances this fall as the Senate is considered a toss-up by polling averages.

Nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ gives Democrats a 76 percent chance of flipping the House and a 56 percent chance of taking back the Senate.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) has remained confident despite the polling. He told The Hill's broadcasting partner NewsNation in September he believed Republicans could retain the House. Other GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), acknowledged the party needed to “do more” to lower costs for Americans to keep control.

Emmer is set to appear on ABC's “This Week,” while Barrasso will appear on CBS's “Face The Nation.”

Who is appearing on the Sunday shows?

• NewsNation's “The Hill Sunday”: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller
• CBS News's “Face the Nation”: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.), Palantir Technologies CTO Shyam Sankar
• CNN's “State of the Union”: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Bill Gates
• Fox News's “Fox News Sunday”: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn (R)
• NBC News's “Meet the Press”: Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), author Michael Lewis
• Fox News's “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway
• ABC News's “This Week”: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Senate candidate and pastor Adam Hamilton (D-Kan.)

Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn (R) is scheduled to appear on “Fox News Sunday,” giving Iowa viewers a direct stake in the national conversation as the midterm season heats up.