The U.S. has opened up secret communications with Venezuelan socialist boss Diosdado Cabello, an alleged drug kingpin and the second most powerful person in Venezuela, after President Nicolás Maduro, The Associated Press reported late Sunday, citing a senior U.S. administration official. Cabello, 56, met with a U.S.-backed envoy in Caracas last month, the official said, though it isn't clear if Cabello is acting on Maduro's behalf or, as the official suggested, negotiating safety guarantees if he helps topple Maduro.

AP isn't reporting who Cabello is meeting with, but Axios said Sunday that National Security Council official Mauricio Claver-Carone has been communicating with Cabello through emissaries, and U.S. officials tell both Axios and AP that Cabello is among a handful of top Maduro officials who have secretly reached out to the U.S. An unidentified Cabello aide disputes that, telling AP that the U.S. has been chasing Cabello, and Cabello would only meet with U.S. officials with Maduro's permission. Cabello did not take part in April's failed uprising.

Trump, meanwhile, is getting frustrated that Maduro is still in power, and he has suggested publicly and pushed "more vividly" in private for the U.S. to set up a naval blockade along Venezuela's coast, five current and former officials tell Axios. "They added that to their knowledge the Pentagon hasn't taken this extreme idea seriously, in part because senior officials believe it's impractical, has no legal basis, and would suck resources from a Navy that is already stretched to counter China and Iran."

Trump "literally just said we should get the ships out there and do a naval embargo," one source who's heard Trump's comments told Axios. "I'm assuming he's thinking of the Cuban missile crisis. ... But Cuba is an island and Venezuela is a massive coastline. ... It would need massive, massive amounts of resources; probably more than the U.S. Navy can provide." Former Defense Secretary James Mattis long stonewalled Trump's demands for a military option for Venezuela, Axios reports. Peter Weber

The Senate on Sunday voted to advance Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation.

The final count was 51-48, with Democrats unanimously voting in opposition, and Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) crossing the aisle to join them. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, was not present for the vote. Both Collins and Murkowski, like their Democratic colleagues, have said they believe Barrett's nomination was too close to the Nov. 3 election to move forward, although Murkowski said Saturday that she will now back the judge's confirmation after losing the "procedural fight." Collins is expected to stick with the Democrats going forward, but Barrett should still be confirmed without much drama.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has faced criticism from Democrats for expediting the confirmation process after blocking former President Obama's nominee in 2016 because it was an election year, called Barrett one of the most "impressive" nominees for public office "in a generation," adding that the "heated" debate around confirmation "curiously" lacked talk of her "actual credentials or qualifications." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, said the vote was a "sham."

Sunday's vote allows for 30 hours of debate, setting up a final tally on Monday evening around 7 p.m. ET. Read more at The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell

Vice President Mike Pence will continue to travel and campaign for re-election despite the fact that several close contacts — including his chief of staff, Marc Short, and an unnamed personal aide who accompanies him throughout the day — have tested positive for the coronavirus at various points throughout the week. Pence did test negative for COVID-19 on Sunday morning, but the decision to maintain his schedule has raised eyebrows among both the Trump administration's critics, as well as allies like former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who recently recovered from his own bout with the virus.

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, meanwhile, said that while the short answer is yes, Pence could be putting others at risk by foregoing quarantine, he did say there are ways to handle the situation safely. "I would understand why they wouldn't want to quarantine the vice president," Gottlieb said. "But they need to be very explicit about what they're doing and the risks that they're taking."

Gottlieb said Pence should be wearing an N-95 mask, distancing whenever possible, and getting tested repeatedly. Finally, he suggested the vice president's medical team could at least consider providing him with antibody drugs that are not available to the general public as a preventative method, though that would come with some risk. Tim O'Donnell

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday's edition of State of the Union that she feels strongly about the need to ban fracking in the United States, but she's not letting that get in the way of her efforts to help former Vice President Joe Biden defeat President Trump in the upcoming election.

Biden, she said, has "made very clear" that he disagrees with a fracking ban, but she says it would be a "privilege" to lobby him on the issue in the future. However, "we need to focus on winning the White House first," she told Tapper.

Ocasio-Cortez has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and she certainly has policy disagreements with the more moderate Democratic nominee. Indeed, earlier in the year, when she first threw her support behind Biden's candidacy after he secured the nomination over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ocasio-Cortez said "the whole process of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved." But her latest comments reaffirm that she prefers that uncomfortable process continue over the next four years. Tim O'Donnell

President Trump has stirred up controversy by giving some evasive answers on what he'll do if he fails to win re-election on Nov. 3 (or whenever the presidential race is called). The president has said he will accept a peaceful transition of power, but he continues to suggest the election may not be "honest" or "clean" with a particular focus on the mail-in voting process, which he believes is vulnerable to fraud.

Regardless, the majority of his supporters are prepared to accept the election results no matter who wins, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed Sunday. In the survey, 59 percent of those who are backing Trump said they'll accept a win from his Democratic competitor, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the data is pretty much the same on the other side of things, where 57 percent of Biden supporters said they'd accept a Trump victory.

That does theoretically leave a significant amount of people who would refuse to accept the results, but not all of those folks would take action to challenge the outcome. Among Trump backers, 16 percent said they would try to do something about a Biden victory, while 22 percent of Biden voters said they'd make an effort to dispute a Trump win.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online between Oct. 13-20. It gathered responses from 2,649 American adults. The margin of error was 4 percentage points. Read more at Reuters. Tim O'Donnell

Josh Holmes, a top adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), told Politico he thinks the Republican Party could win more Senate races than people expect on Nov. 3, but the fact that there are so many close races means "you could have a whole bunch of scenarios play out on Election Day." The worst-case scenario for the GOP, he said, is "potentially catastrophic."

As it turns out, the party may not get that much help from President Trump when it comes to avoiding such a fate. Trump privately told donors this past Thursday at a fundraiser in Nashville, Tennessee, that he isn't sure the party will maintain its Senate majority, The Washington Post reports. "I think the Senate is tough actually," Trump said at the event, an attendee told the Post on condition of anonymity. "The Senate is very tough. There are a couple senators I can't really get involved in. I just can't do it. You lose your soul if you do. I can't help some of them. I don't want to help some of them."

Instead, the president reportedly said he believes the GOP will "take back the House," a stance that he made clear during Thursday's presidential debate, as well. Trump's optimism isn't shared by many Republican officials and strategists, who consider it a long shot. Read more at Politico and The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell

Saturday Night Live once again tackled the presidential debates during the show's latest cold open, parodying the most recent and final showdown between President Trump and the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, who were, as usual, portrayed by Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey, respectively. Maya Rudolph returned to the stage as well, this time portraying the debate's moderator, NBC News' Kristen Welker, who was armed with a mute button, a shot glass, and a "Biden Bingo" board.

As was the case in reality, the SNL version was relatively tame, at least compared to the previous debate. The most chaotic moment during the skit occurred when Kate McKinnon showed up as Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to accuse Biden's son, Hunter, of corruption. But Carrey's Biden, after a strenuous inner monologue, opted not to retaliate, and the debate resumed as planned. Watch the full sketch below. Tim O'Donnell