Part 2 Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down ...

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“Food is A Fundamental Human Right”: U.S. Hunger Expert Decries Trump Withholding Food Assistance
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
November 12, 2025
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/11/12 ... transcript



"The Painful Truth about Hunger in America”

The government shutdown has brought attention to food insecurity in the United States, as it disrupted the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about 42 million people across the country. Delayed and partial payments have occurred despite the availability of contingency funds to keep the program going during the shutdown, because the Trump administration initially chose not to use those funds. “42 million Americans, 16 million of them children, are really struggling to be able to afford nutritious food for their health,” says Mariana Chilton, child hunger expert. “It’s deeply concerning.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn to how the shutdown’s brought attention to food insecurity and hunger in the United States. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court extended a short-term stay that allows the Trump administration to withhold full food assistance benefits under SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, until Thursday at midnight in anticipation of the end of the shutdown.

SNAP helps nearly 42 million people to eat and also to feed their children each month. Delayed and partial payments have occurred despite the availability of contingency funds to keep the program funded during shutdown because the Trump administration chose not to use those funds and resisted a court order to do so.

The USDA, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that runs the program, told states to deliver just 65% of benefits and claw back any payments beyond that. Some states have chosen to fully fund benefits in their states. The Supreme Court said withholding some funding is permissible while legal battles continue in lower courts. SNAP benefits break down to a maximum of about $10 a day per person.

At St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, patients waited in line for 45 minutes to receive assistance. Many expressed frustration with President Trump. This is 11-year-old Sincere Miller, who’s waiting with his grandmother.

SINCERE MILLER: Trump, why are you starving the kids? I’m – I’m hungry, and we have to get boxes from the food bank.

AMY GOODMAN: For more on SNAP and hunger, we’re joined by Mariana Chilton, Professor of Practice in the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, nationally recognized leader on child hunger in America, author of The Painful Truth About Hunger in America. She joins us from Sunderland, Massachusetts.

We only have a few minutes, Professor Chilton. If you can explain what is happening now, and what the Supreme Court decided and what exactly the Trump administration is doing in saying if states make up for what the federal government is not giving to hungry people, they now have to claw that money and support back from poor people.

MARIANA CHILTON: That’s an outrageous claim. What’s been happening over the past weeks has been unconscionable, and in the past week, there have been four different judge assessments about what should be done with SNAP. All of this chaos and confusion was completely avoidable and is against the law. SNAP benefits are an entitlement, and the funds are there, especially in the case of a government shutdown. So, all of this was avoidable.

The Trump administration continues to break the law. The fact that there’s a stay until Thursday night while Congress decides whether they want to come back to work or not is – the fact that they’re waiting, I can understand, they’re trying to reduce the amount of confusion. 19 states, including Washington D.C., have released full SNAP benefits to their constituents.

Others have released some partial funds. It’s hard to know quite what’s happening. What is very clear that is happening is that 42 million Americans, 16 million of them children, are really struggling to be able to afford nutritious food for their health and wellbeing and for good school performance.

So, it’s deeply concerning. And what it shows is how precarious the American people truly are. Only 50% of people in the United States have savings enough to get them through hard times. That’s why we’re seeing government workers who are not getting paid waiting in lines at the food bank. It’s unconscionable and just so wrong on so many different levels.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Chilton, are food stamps – is SNAP the new name for food stamps?

MARIANA CHILTON: Yes, SNAP is the new name for food stamps. It means Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Lots of people continue to refer to it as food stamps because it is a beloved program. It used to be a bipartisan darling. That’s why it’s so surprising that the Republicans have been so absent in this entire dialog and have been actively causing harm. It’s very surprising. SNAP benefits, or food stamps, as many people still call them, was a way to bring together rural communities, farming communities with urban groups, people who really need access to that food.

So, it’s quite surprising that the Republicans have been causing so much harm along with the Trump administration. Again, this is something that used to have a lot bipartisan support. Unfortunately, this withdrawal of SNAP benefits and this cruel way of threatening states and even threatening grocery stores if they help SNAP recipients is part of a long history in the United States of denying people food in order to cause chaos and also force people into submission.

This is what the United States government did to Native Americans less than 100 years ago and on beyond that. They used to starve Native Americans into submission in order to steal their land and to force them into compliance with the American government. Finally, I just wanted to say that the right to food is extremely important in this sense. And at the Climate Summit in Belém, they have insisted that ending poverty and ending hunger is central to ensuring that we address the climate crisis. Food is a fundamental human right.

Many states can actually put the right to food in their constitutions. Why should we wait on the federal government, who is not abiding by the rule of law? They’re completely absent, morally corrupt. And we need to really – what’s amazing is the solidarity expressed with people who are poor. I am just so energized and filled with awe at the community groups that have come together to feed their families, that farmers, Black, white, Latino, and Native have been helping their communities, and many of those farmers and farmworkers are also participating in SNAP.

So, I have lots of hope for the American people coming up with new and creative ideas, including Mayor Mamdani, who wants to have publicly funded grocery stores in the city of New York. There are wonderful new ideas emerging, and I’m just in awe of the American people coming together.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to President Trump being interviewed on Monday night by Laura Ingraham on Fox.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, SNAP has gone from, like, $7 billion to many times $7 billion. And the people keep talking about SNAP, but SNAP is supposed to be veered down and out. You really, really have – that’s what the purpose of it – people, they get it, they walk in, and they get it automatically now. So, the number is many times what it should be. It’s disgraceful.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Can we – can we change that?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You wouldn’t have been able – I’ll tell you what. This country would have been busted, 100% busted, within five months into a new administration if I didn’t win.

LAURA INGRAHAM: Can we – can we reform SNAP and these benefits so they’re used for the people who really need them?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I think we can reform it. Sure. It’s meant for people – and you know what it does is it really puts the country at jeopardy. People that need it have to get it. I’m all for it. But people that are able-bodied, can do a job, they leave their job because they figure they can pick this up, it’s easier, that’s not the purpose of it.

AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can explain, are they now trying to – using this opportunity to go after people who receive food stamps?

MARIANA CHILTON: Oh, they already have been doing that. I think the Big Beautiful Bill that was passed in the summertime is already an indication of what they’re trying to do. One thing I would like to remind Trump and his administration is that the vast majority of people who are participating in SNAP are actually, as Trump would say, down and out. That’s when I talked about the precariousness of the American people, that 50% of the people in the United States don’t have enough savings to get them through hard times, again, while his own workers are waiting in food pantry lines, he doesn’t think that people are down and out, need actual food?

So, we need to correct him. As well, people who are able-bodied who are receiving SNAP benefits are actually already working, which I want to insist that the reason that they’re on SNAP is because their wages are far too low to support them being able to pay their rent, pay for healthcare, and pay for food. That’s why so many people tell me about trading off – they’re not eating in order to take their medicines, or they don’t take their medicine because they need to eat. This is why we have a major public health crisis.

We are at the verge of a major public health crisis with the healthcare premiums increasing. And it’s deeply concerning. This is why we need to have universal healthcare and also maybe consider if we’re going to get rid of SNAP, let’s turn it into universal basic income so people are not tied solely to being able to buy groceries, that they can spend their money as they please. There are two major voices that are absent in this entire dialog, and that would be the food industry.

Walmart is the primary redeemer of SNAP benefits. They redeem one-quarter of SNAP benefits, and the vast majority of their workers participate in SNAP. Walmart has been completely silent in this. As well, we need to think about Amazon and also the healthcare companies that are increasing the premiums. We need to bring corporations and the government back into line and find ways we can promote health and wellbeing and solve this public health crisis.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, we just passed Veterans Day. Can you talk about veterans receiving food stamps, people who are disabled receiving food stamps?

MARIANA CHILTON: Yes. Yes, very much so. 1.4 million veterans participate in the SNAP program. The vast majority of those veterans are people with disabilities, and those disabilities were created in the combat that they were doing for the United States, mental health challenges. 40% of people who have disabilities in this country report food insecurity, and SNAP is a lifeline for them because their disability benefits are not enough to help support their health and wellbeing.

Not only veterans, but also active-duty military. Many active-duty military families also participate in SNAP. So, we need to be able to support veterans, people who are active-duty military, families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.

AMY GOODMAN: Mariana Chilton, we thank you so much for being with us, Professor of Practice in the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of the book The Painful Truth About Hunger in America.

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Epstein Brother EXPOSES Trump Underage SCANDAL With SHOCK IMAGE!
Jack Cocchiarella Show
Nov 12, 2025

Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to the latest Epstein Trump scandal.



Transcript

If you thought the Jeffrey Epstein leaks
were done for the day, you would be dead
wrong. And Donald Trump would be very
upset, which he is because Jeffrey
Epstein's brother just shared
information that is blowing up this
scandal more than we even could have
imagined with one devastating image in
some very unsettling anecdotes. We are
going to get into it all. But before we
do, if I could quickly ask you to leave
a like on this video and if you haven't
already and you enjoy our channel to hit
that subscribe button because it's goes
a long way in supporting our work. Now,
before we get into what Epstein's
brother shared today with all of these
emails coming out which are just so
damning for Donald Trump, I want to
start with the other devastating news he
got today. Adelita Graalva being sworn
in the 218th signature on the discharge
petition to release the Epstein files in
the speech she gave today which is
blowing up Trump's term.

[Adelita Grijalva] And while we celebrate this moment
today, our American promise is under
serious threat.
Basic freedoms are under attack. Health
care premiums are skyrocketing. Babies
are being ripped away from their parents
by masked agents. We can and must do
better.
What is most concerning is not what this
administration has done, but what the
majority in this body has failed to do.
Hold Trump accountable as a co-equal
branch of government that we are.
It has been 50 days since the people of
Arizona's seventh congressional district
elected me to represent them. 50 days
that over 800,000 Arizonans have been
left without access to the basic
services that every constituent
deserves.
This is an abuse of power.
One individual should not be able to
unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of
a duly-elected member of Congress for
political reasons.
Our democracy only works when everyone
has a voice.
This includes the millions of people
across the country who have experienced
violence and exploitation,
including Liz Stein and Jessica
Michaels, both survivors of Jess Jeffrey
Epstein's abuse. They are here in the
gallery with us this evening.
Thank you for being here.
Just this morning, House Democrats
released more emails showing that Trump
knew more about Epstein's abuses than he
he previously acknowledged. It's past
time for Congress to restore its role as
a check and balance on this
administration and fight for we, the
American people.

Donald Trump can no longer run. He can
no longer hide. And the Epstein emails
that came out this morning might be the
most damning indictment yet in this
scandal. It is a smoking gun that shows
not only did Donald Trump know about
what was happening with Epstein and his
victims. He was clearly accessory to it
enough to spend time with those victims
and to have said nothing. And Epstein
and Galain Maxwell knew that Donald
Trump had said nothing. They were almost
surprised that he did and they knew they
could hold it against him whatever he
did with those victims if he ever tried
to. That is what was made very very
clear. And I think what we've understood
throughout this entire scandal as more
and more information has come out, more
testimony that might not be in the
documents. But I think that what's not
in the documents is a little bit more
damning. And that is why what Jeffrey
Epstein's brother said today in an image
that he had previously sent to Epstein
about Donald Trump and his relationship
with young women is so disturbing
especially with the information we have
gotten today. That was all broken down
on MSNBC. And I want to take a look.
Person we were just talking about
Jeffrey Epstein's brother um Mark Epste.
We just put up um the meme that Mark
Epstein sent to Jeffrey Epstein a
picture. Let me put it up one more time.
Um, this is Donald Trump's face and it
says, "Would you trust this man with
your daughter?" Um, there it is. Um, you
just spoke with the man who sent that
meme to his brother. What did he say
today?
Right. I'll actually be honest. I
completely missed the segment because I
was on the phone with him and just got
up from off the street here. And I think
we should be very clear here. Mark Epste
is somebody who has said that he has
known for decades now that his brother
had a deep close friendship with Jeffrey
with Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
And he said the way that he put it to
me, when are people going to admit to
themselves this guy, President Trump is
so full of every time he opens his
mouth. He says he wanted to deny an
essay.
Maybe does. He wanted to deny that he
had a relationship or a friendship with
Donald Trump. As Mark tells me, back in
1999, he was on the plane when they were
having intimate conversation about women
on a flight from Palm Beach, Florida
back up here to New York. He goes, I he
talked to his brother, somebody who he
still cares deeply about even after his
passing. And he says, at what point is
there going to be a reckoning that
Donald Trump just makes up stuff? And
the number two part is that he's been
very clear. This is outside the scope of
what we were talking about today, but he
wants a full investigation into the
death of his brother, saying he doesn't
believe anybody at this point anymore.
He said he did sit down, he just told
me, with the House Oversight Committee
here this summer. I said, "Did they call
and ask you to come in and speak?" He
goes, "No, I requested to." And he said
he went into detail with staff trying to
get them to compel them to go even
further beyond just the relationship
between Donald Trump and other men that
were a part of this cabal and to really
get at the fact of why did people want
Jeffrey Epstein gone. This also goes to
a conversation I had with Mark over the
summer when he told me that Steve Bannon
had 15 hours of footage uh of him
interviewing Jeffrey Epstein. We have
not seen that footage. And I think it's
also worth noting that Michael Wolf has
said that he has up to 100 hours of
audio recordings with Jeffrey Epstein.
We have not heard those audio recordings
from either of the men. And that is what
hits at the heart that Mark Epstein is
so frustrated by that the public
including him as the brother do not have
a full understanding of what the
Department of Justice have has or
frankly what either of these two other
men have.
Do you trust this guy with your
daughter? That's not your your 25 year
old daughter. That's not your 30, 40
year old daughter. That's Donald Trump
looking at a child and saying, "I'll be
dating her in 10 years." Daughter. That
is a a beauty pageant, a teenager.
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein seem to
spend a lot of time around those. It's
that type of daughter. That's what that
image reflects.
And they were joking about it. It was so
glaringly obvious Donald Trump's
disgusting nature around young girls
that it was laughable that it went
without saying. That is what is being
shown. And Jeffrey Epstein's brother, of
course, was the one who alleged that it
was it was Epstein who left Mara Lago.
It was Epstein who realized that Donald
Trump was a criminal, that he was a
phony, that he didn't want to be with
him. He didn't want to be his buddy.
Imagine that. Imagine being so just
detestable that Jeffrey Epstein doesn't
want to hang out with you. That is what
Epstein's brother has said of Trump. So,
he's joking about how much he, much like
Epstein, loves young girls
at the same time as he's sharing more
information today about the closeness,
the relationship with Donald Trump and
his brother. And Donald Trump's silence
really speaks volumes. You know, there's
that clip there's that clip of Trump
talking about Bill Clinton back in 2015
when he was on the campaign trail,
saying that there's going to be some
problems with him as it relates to
Epstein. Now, it's interesting that
Donald Trump, who had largely stayed
quiet and was able to because of our
failed mainstream media, not receive any
push back about his relationship with
Epstein. interesting that he brought up
Clinton to me because why would he want
to introduce that? Why would he want to
introduce that conversation? Well,
again, who was Donald Trump running
against in 2015? It was Hillary Clinton.
So, I think Trump was kind of, you know,
muddying the waters to be able to say,
well, you know, Bill, Bill was just as
much involved, so why do you want to
talk to me about it? Shouldn't you have
to ask Hillary? Because people see that
clip and they wonder, why would Trump
even want to bring it up? because I
think he knew it could become an issue
of the campaign. Right? That's what that
2015 email was about
between Wolf and between Epstein.
It was about how they could potentially
hold Epstein's relationship with Donald
Trump, the crimes that they committed
against him if he became president or if
he spoke out against Epstein. Right?
That's what Michael Wolf was advising
was advising of Donald Trump.
So, it's interesting that he did that.
He's been thinking about this for a
while and it's all gotten a lot clearer.
And I think what is most important to do
right now, of course, is not to stop
pressing on this. We should be talking
about Epstein all the time, but we
should maybe even be looking outside of
the documents that we have.
Looking for testimony from Epstein's
brother, trying to find those tapes, get
him handed over. I think that's what we
need to be doing because we know what's
in the file and we know how damaging it
is to Trump and we know it still may
take a few more weeks.
So, let's bring in the other
testimonies. That's what I want to see.
Just just follow the money.
It is so damning. It is so glaringly
obvious that these connections are so
widespread.
Cash Patel telling us that it was only
Epstein. He was the only person
involved. Nobody else, no other
trafficking is the biggest admission yet
that this is a broader operation that
Trump was certainly involved in. And we
need to just keep pushing on that. We
have to keep pushing. Talk about all of
this. AOC certainly did, not just with
Epstein, with the shutdown as well,
right here.
What is your uh what do you think it
shows you about what uh we know about
Trump's relationship with Epstein? Well,
you know, I think uh we've been seeing
Republicans have been trying to deflect
and imply that I mean, even House
Speaker Mike Johnson had insinuated a
couple months ago that Trump was on some
kind of secret mission. Um I think what
these emails demonstrate is precisely
why rep uh House Republicans have been
trying to block the release of the
Epstein files for months now. I think it
illustrates in a very damning way and I
think it also implicates House Speaker
Mike Johnson uh as well.
This is no time to let up and this is a
time for Democrats to really tap in to
independent media. Now I always say this
if you are independent media that kind
of just follows along with what the the
corporate wing of the party wants. You
kind of just do the regular talking
points. You stay on message and there's
nothing wrong with uplifting the
successes of our party. I think it's
great being a part of the fight, but if
you are an apologist for Chuck Schumer,
if you are not pushing for more
progressive candidates, if you're not
pushing back on those who take money
from the crypto lobby, the oil lobby,
the Israel lobby, you're just kind of
corporate media because you're still
corporate owned. But this is a great
time for Democrats to engage with the
independent media that wants to be
talking about this that'll push in the
way that the mainstream press won't. And
I advise every Democrat to do that.
Someone like Robert Garcia chairing up
oversight right now. My god. Talk about
someone who has used independent media
to the fullest and supported us
mightest like two times a day at this
point. He's been on this show all the
time. That is the type of leader that we
need. Robert Garcia, hats off to you
today, especially being able to secure
these documents. We are going to keep
fighting on this show. We are going to
bring you all the news you need to know.
If you want to support that, as always,
you can hit that subscribe button. Leave
a like on this video if you stuck around
to the end. Drop a blue heart in the
comments. Keep on fighting, y'all. Don't
let them silence you. And until next
time, I'll see you

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Trump THREATENS Federal JUDGE, Police are HORRIFIED
Mason Talks
Nov 11, 2025

During a tense Supreme Court hearing, Donald Trump’s legal team faced tough questions from justices he himself appointed, challenging his use of emergency powers to impose massive tariffs. The case highlights the limits of presidential authority, the major questions doctrine, and what it means for any president thinking they can act above the law. Business leaders, legal analysts, and lawmakers are all watching closely as this decision could reshape executive power for years to come.



Transcript

with former United States District Judge
Mark Wolf. Thank you for being here.
Thank you, Nicole. I appreciate the
opportunity to speak with you and uh to
some of the American people.
What have the last 36 hours been like
since your piece in the Atlantic
dropped?
It it's been a whirlwind. uh for the
last 45 years as a federal prosecutor,
as the last uh 40 of those uh as a
federal judge, uh I've been limited to
what I can say uh to what I properly say
in the courtroom. I've been overwhelmed
by the reaction to my piece in the
Atlantic, including the invitation uh to
speak with you. uh and uh it's been very
encouraging in a way because as you saw
in my piece I expressed some skepticism
about what I'm striving to do in this
new chapter uh will be successful
although I think it's important to try
and to work with many others uh to try
to protect our rule of law and democracy
in the United States. The response I've
received gives me greater hope than I
had 36 hours ago.
One of the things that I I worked in the
government and one of the things that I
understand from covering the Trump story
for nine years, well, one is that my
brain will probably be studied for
having to cover the Trump story for nine
years. But the other is that for every
person like you, for whom entering
the public debates around policy and
politics was once unthought of, there
are hundreds and probably in your case
thousands others. Can you just tell me
what the judiciary as a body, as an
institution,
experiences when there are threats and
menacing tweets and posts coming at them
to say nothing of the actual intimation
of violence, pizzas sent in the name of
Judge Esther Solace's murdered son,
Daniel. I mean the the climate is is
almost impossible to adequately cover,
but what has it been like these last
nine months for judges?
Um
the experience of being threatened uh is
deeply disturbing.
those of us who become federal judges uh
to varying degrees and maybe me because
I came from being a federal prosecutor
to a higher degree uh understand that it
comes with the territory and while it's
very disturbing to us it's particularly
disturbing to members of our family who
uh didn't uh sign up for this uh I've
been threatened in the past by people
who were crazy and uh also by others who
uh uh were in I believe were in
positions of official responsibility.
uh and it's I don't think that the
threats affect how any judge performs
his or her uh work but it does make it
more difficult, more anxious and uh
particularly imposes uh harms or
anxieties on people close to us.
What is your message to the American
people about the importance of the
judiciary when you see the Congress? Um,
and and let's leave aside their policy
preferences, but their abdication of the
functions of of Congress, whether it's
uh making declarations of war or making
decisions about tariffs, what what
burden does that place on the judiciary?
it I think it imposes an even higher uh
responsibility on the judiciary to
properly for perform its functions. As
you know, Nicole uh our constitution is
based on Lord Actton's axiom uh power
corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely and therefore we have a
system that divides power and creates
checks and balances. Uh under the
constitution under the declaration of
independence a constitution all power is
in the people of the United States. um
some of that power is delegated to
elected officials and it's the role of
the courts to hold those officials to
the limits of their uh power. It's also
a shared responsibility with the
Congress and while I'm not a political
uh I think that there's fair criticism
that Congress has not uh served as
intended as an effective check or
balance for the executive but has been
abdicating uh some of its
responsibilities
and that makes the proper functioning of
the courts even more important now than
it always is.
Many setbacks for Donald Trump in court
from ICE agent conduct and enforcement
to the ongoing food benefits clash in
the shutdown. And we're joined by Emily
Basilon, the New York Times magazine
legal writer.
Happy Friday, Emily. How are you?
Hey, I'm pretty good, Ari. Uh, nice to
be here.
Great to have you. It was a big week on
the elections that's obviously driven a
lot of news. We like to have you,
especially on Fridays. And then I heard
you would only talk law, not the
election. So here we are. We built this
whole segment for you. Uh what do you
see in the courts this week at a time
where there do seem to be headwinds
against the administration?
Yeah, we've seen at this point more than
a hundred judges rule against the Trump
administration's policies of mandatory
detention for um people who ICE picks up
and just increasing, I think, dismay
from judges about the tactics that ICE
is using on the street. We've now seen
this, you know, in Portland, in
Washington, in Chicago, where the
administration comes in and they make
assertions in court, and then witnesses
come and talk about what's actually
happening. And those two things are
really different from each other, and
the judges can see it. And this judge,
um, who we saw this week ruling on
Chicago said that the government was
lying. in particular that the ICE
official who's supposed to be in charge
said that he got hit with a rock before
he threw uh canisters of tear gas and
that just wasn't true from the video.
So, this idea of the judges really
scrutinizing the facts on the ground and
testing the administration's claims,
it's so important. I mean, Arya, as you
know, courts are for finding facts.
That's what judges do and you can really
see them um upholding that standard and
it does not go well so far for the Trump
administration when they do that.
Right. And this this DOJ is strained in
more than one way. It's defending uh
what sometimes look like longshot or
losing cases. Uh and that's always been
the DOJ's job as long as they don't
violate their oaths uh when they have a
government to defend in court. um while
they're on offense with very flimsy
cases against Trump's opponents and then
you have the question of their overall
credibility uh there is a difference in
many cases especially national security
that judges give and yet you've just
reminded everyone why um they're blowing
that up and if that continues you get to
the Supreme Court uh and even apart from
who appointed whom you may have more
skepticism on the rationale um the ICE
agents are obviously busy here's a
headline that the detainee population is
now at a record high and it's up 70%
since January since Mr. Trump took
office. They note the previous high was
in his first term in 19 when they held
56,000 detainees. Uh I mentioned that
because this is something that came up
when I interviewed Steven Miller and
others before they came back into
office. Uh they view this partly as a
messaging effort that you have to do
more so that it's harder to be here or
get in here or stay here. But at the end
of the day, those numbers are also
striking because you are not going to
change the national labor force uh when
the number is 50 or 70,000.
That's right. I mean, there's always
this kind of push and pull with
immigration, right? And as long as there
are jobs here and people can work those
jobs, whether they have documents or
not, people are going to want to come.
Now, it is true that there are far fewer
people crossing the border, but what the
Trump administration is trying to do is
to get people to leave and there's just
a limited amount that even tens of
thousands of people in detention is
going to accomplish when people are
still working. And of course, there is a
kind of broader solution to all of this
that Congress has not um yet agreed on.
But if you have more people who have
permits to work here legally, then they
can work those jobs legally. And that is
one way of just sort of straightening
out these dynamics. But instead, we have
this current situation where we have no
comprehensive immigration reform and
then we have these really quite brutal
tactics.
We're finally seeing parts of the legal
system start to push back. Not enough,
nowhere near enough, but the resistance
is growing. Judges are beginning to
fight back against MAGA's overreach and
their attempts to rewrite law in their
image. Even the Supreme Court
surprisingly refused to reopen the far
right's push to relegalize
discrimination against gay marriage. And
sure, Trump himself might not have
personally filed that case, but let's be
real, his movement created the
environment for it. Remember when he
said abortion rights would be safe under
him. We all saw what happened in Ro v.
Raid, a large faction of MAGA wants to
erase decades of progress for women,
minorities, and LGBTQ plus Americans.
That decision from the Supreme Court was
a wakeup call, a reminder that these
rights are not guaranteed under
Trumpism. We're also seeing judges slam
down Trump's orders to ICE and the
National Guard. What he's asking them to
do isn't just immoral, it's flatout
illegal. It violates precedent, process,
and basic decency. Some judges have even
quit in protest, refusing to serve under
what they see as a corrupt system. It's
complicated because you want good judges
to stay, right? If they leave, the
positions go to MAGA loyalist, but at
the same time, I get why they walk away.
You don't want to legitimize Trump's
power. It's the same dilemma facing
anyone inside the FBI, DOJ, or any
institution Trump is trying to
politicize. Do you stay and fight from
within, or quit and refuse to lend him
legitimacy? There's no easy answer
there. Still, resistance exists. People
with real influence are standing up. Not
enough of them, but enough to matter.
And it's not just in the courts. There
are protests, organizing efforts, and a
huge wave of ordinary citizens pushing
back. You don't want to fall into false
hope. But you also don't want to despair
to win. The truth is, even in dark
moments like this, the fight hasn't
stopped. The push back is real.

[admin]

I Know Why Epstein Refused to Expose Trump: Michael Wolff
Inside Trump's Head
The Daily Beast
Premiered 21 hours ago Inside Trump's Head

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to shed light on his email correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein and its impact on President Donald Trump. Drawing on leaked emails, private conversations, and years of reporting, Wolff exposes how the resurfacing of the Epstein files is reopening dangerous cracks inside Trump’s circle. Coles pushes him on what’s fact, what’s myth, and what Epstein really knew. As Trump fights to control his comeback narrative, Wolff posits one haunting truth: Epstein’s shadow may be the one story he can’t spin away.



Transcript

I'm the person who sees this. This elemental story. Donald Trump and I have gone through this
with Epstein deep into the background. Donald Trump is the best friend
of a human right, you know, evil. I mean, he is the best friend of
of a deeply, deeply diabolical person.
Well, I'm going to say I've known you for a long time. As we've often mentioned, we've known each other 25 years.
And I was shocked by some of these emails. And I want to read one in particular that I was like, wow.
And this is based on, you sending Jeffrey Epstein an email in December 15th, 2015,
on the eve of a primary debate. Republican primary debate.
And it's CNN is holding the debate, and you sent an email to him saying, I hear CNN is planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you,
either on air or in scrum afterwards. He writes back, if we were
able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it would be? And then you say, I think you should let him hang himself.
If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.
You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you.
Or if it really looks like he could win, you could save him. Generating a debt.
Of course it is possible. When asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and he's gotten a raw deal. And he's a victim
of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime. Let's remember the the entire context here.
Okay. But what I, what I want to say is in this particular email, it sounds like you're advising a conflict, a convicted pedophile, about what
to do, and you're colluding with him against a potential. Well, I you know, I don't you know, you know, what emails sound like.
Would one have rewritten them in hindsight? Yeah. Of of course.
You know, emails always are. That's that's, That's embarrassing.
But remember what's going on here. I am in this.
I am where no one else is. I am in proximity to a story which actually most people
don't see at this point. So in these emails, what strikes me is that you're
frequently giving advice to Jeffrey Epstein about how to handle the media, how to use the media.
Were you his media adviser? No, he had, I mean, and given the fact of how badly he has managed
the media over the course of his long, difficulties,
I would not want credit for that in any way, but, but you know, this was always a major thing, and this was actually,
you know, part of the reason, part of my entree here that I knew about
the media that gave me the kind of cachet that got me a place at the table,
which has gotten me the Epstein story. If anyone wanted to pay attention. Right.
So I'm 2050. I'm the person who sees this, this elemental story, Donald Trump
and and I've gone through this with Epstein deep into the background.
Donald Trump is the best friend of,
you know, evil. I mean, he is the best friend of of a deeply, deeply
diabolical person, a person who is involved in. Well, we now know what he's what he's involved in.
A thousand women trafficking of thousands. You know, and and. Read back and so. What I, what I understand at this
point is that Donald Trump may become the president of the United States, and this is still in 2015.
And if he proposition but nevertheless, the a possible president of the United States has been involved for well,
more than ten years, has been joined at the hip with this person has been involved in every they both of these men in every aspect
of each other's lives, sharing girlfriends in their financial lives.
Now, this is true to me, and this is a moment which I think we ought to we ought to we ought to pause, because I think we're
very close to the smoking gun. This is what is not only in, in implied in my emails,
but in other emails that Epstein has, has sent and. By the smoking gun. What? What do you mean?
Well, I the the relationship and remember Donald Trump has denied this this this relationship.
Oh Epstein you know, past him and he's. Calling it a Democratic hoax. Again. He just well. Yeah, I'm a witch.
Which of a Democrat. Which of course, of course he will. He's called it again and again. Everything is everything is a hoax.
Everything in his life he doesn't like is a hoax. But the smoking gun is obviously.
Has Donald Trump been involved with Jeffrey Epstein and underage girls?
Did Donald Trump know about Jeffrey Epstein's,
that the underage girls in and out of Epstein's house? Now, I have spoken
here and in many other place about the photographs that I have seen.
And Epstein at one of these emails confirms or says Trump knew about the girls and he damn well did.
I have seen the pictures of the girls of of, you know, again, a dozen snapshots, three of which I vividly remember,
two with topless girls sitting on Donald Trump's lap. Okay, there's another one I wanted to read to you here, which was,
came out in October of 2016. So just before he was being elected,
there's an opportunity to come forward this week and talk about Trump in such a way that could garner you great sympathy and help finish him.
Interested? You know, one of the things that I was focused on
is trying to get Epstein to come forward. Why don't you go public with these pictures?
Why don't you go public? Let me help you go public in telling your story with a about Donald Trump.
I mean, I saw then, as I have continued to see and see every day now,
that Donald Trump was unfit to be the president of the United States. So blue sky and,
social media is full of journalists just saying this is completely unacceptable. This is not how you speak to a source.
This is not what journalism is. Well, I mean, these are not people who have written the kind of books that I
have written. And, and, you know, and I often make the distinction
between journalists who do what they do daily reporters working, working for organizations, working within a very prescribed set of, of rules.
And what I do, I mean, I'm a writer who manages to make relationships
that let me tell a story in the ways that The New York Times or other
very reputable journalistic organizations are unable to tell. I mean, I was, you know, I am the one.
I am the journalists who got into the Trump White House in those first months for seven months, actually, I, I sat there and,
and was able to write a book that's my book, Fire and Fury, which was,
you know, I think made a substantial contribution to understanding what was going on and the utter uniqueness.
And out of control ness of the first Trump White House. You know, I did the same my my biography of of Rupert Murdoch.
Somehow I of I was the only journalist not in his employ
who has ever spent in enormous, an enormous amount of time with him
basically basically a year and And what. Year? And the emails.
But but no, I just want to I want to I want to I want to make the point that if you saw the emails that I shared with,
with with Rupert Murdoch, I would I would be embarrassed about them. But I was able to write the book that no one has been able to write in the book.
Also that that he profoundly hated. All right. So I was going to ask you about that because you
you go in and certainly Rupert Murdoch is the perfect example. You go in, you spend an inordinate amount of time with them,
and they believe that you are on their side.
Do you basically go in and sort of suck up to them and, and Well, let me let me ask, let me ask the question in a friendlier way.
Am I acting? Am I play acting, right? Are you am I playing a role?
And the answer is yes. I mean, that's what that's what a journalist, a writer in that situation does.
If you want to stay, if you want to be invited back the next day and the next day and the next day. Yes.
So the the point is not what you say, but what you write.
The story you tell and, you know, and that's always the thing that I'm,
that I'm, I'm constantly focused on. Tell me, tell me what you would not tell other people.
I mean, you know. In order to do that, you know, you got to, I think
I think as, as my mother would say, you get more with a little honey,
right? Some of the honey feels a lot when it's a convicted pedophile. We have.
But that's but that's the the the the point is to get the story of the convicted pedophile.
I could have easily not gotten the story and could have said, you're a fucking pedophile and I can't see you anymore.
But were in order to get the story and, and let's this is a story that I have told as often
as I can in as many places that I can. The story of Donald Trump's relationship with this pedophile,
a story that virtually and certainly many of the journalists that are, I'm sure are now criticizing me have chosen not to pick up.
I have had a very, very hard time telling this story. So you use the phrase twice in the email we started off with about let
let him hang himself, which turns out to have a particular resonance.
Well, I the the the hanging here was referred to not Epstein.
But it was. Trump. Trump. Trump was pretending he was someone other than who he actually is, which is, you know, I think
by wide agreement, one one might say certainly the sleaze ball of our time.
But also, I think, you know, we could argue a criminal in his sleazy boldness.
All right. So let's talk a bit a bit more about your methodology in terms of when you came home from spending,
you know, a day with Jeffrey Epstein or an evening at Jeffrey Epstein's house. What did you do?
Did you write notes? Did you speak in to us? Of course. I. Know. So you you can't, you know. And unless.
I know that, you know, when you were there. Yes. And also, most of these conversations with Jeffrey Epstein are on tape.
So, you know, as we've discussed before, I've just discussed many, many places. There are hours and hours, upwards of 100 hours
of Jeffrey Epstein talking about many things, but many hours of him talking about Donald Trump and his relationship to Donald Trump.
So what else is in the tapes? What else do we need to know? What other emails are going to come out with explosive revelations?
Well, I think that there's this. I again, to go back to this and this is this is where the focus should be.
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein had this deep relationship. They knew everything about about each other.
And then they then they fell out with enormous acrimony. But for more than a decade, that's what they were doing.
And their obsession was women, girls, models.
You know, again, you know, I, you know, I can't make that that point clear enough.
It was models, models, models, supermodels, runway models, fashion
models, catalog models, girls who just wanted to be models.
You know, the Trump model agency, Well, they all had the modeling agency, right?
Jeffrey headed model, Jeffrey Epstein had a modeling agency. Trump had a model. Yes, everyone.
I didn't have a modeling agency. So you've talked about going after Trump. But how is Donald Trump, who was elected president?
Not once, but twice, worse than a convicted pedophile
who, it turns out, had trafficked a thousand girls? I mean, he was sending cars to pick up girls from.
Okay, but that's Joanna. That's clear the answer, because he's the president of the United States, because he is the model of
of what a leader should be of of of what success looks like.
And, and so it is important. Important. It's vital. It's it's
it's required at some level that we understand the truth of who this man is, this charade.
We all live in a charade. And you are also lying to Jeffrey Epstein by trying to seduce him into.
Well, joining you is Joanna. There are lies and there are lies. I am not a pedophile. I am a writer.
So, you know, and I guess I guess what you might be saying is, does the, does the means justify. The.
Ends and, and I would point out that the that the
that the means in this instance are,
are, I'm, I'm kind of said of white lies.
They harm no one and they, they produce the ends. I got this story.
I am the only one. And I have been going and and we took together actually before the
before the election, we released a we put daily with the Daily Beast.
We released a set of a set of tapes that are much more explicit than, than, than these emails that directly connect Donald Trump
to Jeffrey Epstein in, in a way that is, you know, that I think is completely revealing
of Donald Trump's character and make makes the point he is,
he was, is and continues to be unfit to be the president of the United States, to say the very least.
So we've, we've been inundated, as have you, with, questions from journalists
trying to get to the bottom of this story and to understand your methodology. We've put them together and there's some questions here from a guy
called Eric Wemple at the New York Times. I'm going to read out his questions. Just wanted to ask you if you could add any context to the emails
that were released. Some seem to conclude that you are essentially outlining a strategy for blackmailing Donald Trump.
This was when he was a candidate for president. Do you have any response to that? You know?
Well, there's a curious thing. And the that's that's a reference to and I say in one of those, those those emails, you can get.
Well, it's where you say you could save him generating a debt. You know. And the interesting thing was, I mean, this was obviously
what Epstein wanted to hear. But the point was how afraid Epstein was of Donald Trump.
I mean, that that really was a kind of going forward thing
that that that Epstein was fearful about what would happen to him
if Donald Trump became the president of the United States. Okay. So Eric has another question.
It seems as though these emails and news, did you ever disclose them in any of your pieces or podcasts or.
Hint. Well, as I've said, I haven't talked about almost nothing for the past year
except my relationship to Jeffrey Epstein and have disclosed things that I thought
were much more incriminating than these emails.
Are there any other emails with Epstein that you could share? No. Wow. There are well.
More important, more importantly, there are 100 hours of tape, and,
and then Eric Wemple, the next question he will ask is, is have. I you mentioned that you tried
to interest news outlets in the story of the Epstein Tapes? How many did you pitch and how many said, no.
Do you have any correspondence from those interactions? I certainly do, and everybody has been pitch.
There is almost no outlet streamers, networks, cable stations
and book publishers who has not been pitched on this story. I was going to ask. Everyone saying no.
So you spent 4 or 5 years on and off with Epstein at the center of Epstein, sort of table
with all the people that came to and from his house. The book never appeared. He wanted you to write a book about him after, you.
Know, but but several other books did appear, which is, you know, he became a very.
Did you mean several other books by you or. Yes, by by by me. So he became a, a,
a very significant source for me in and out of, in my for my four books about Donald Trump.
I understand Donald Trump as well as I do. Partly because of because of Jeffrey Epstein.
I mean, there were many other people in many other sources in these books. But but Epstein's I have always found probably the two people
who have been most insightful about Donald Trump are Jeffrey Epstein
and Steve Bannon, who actually, curiously, then became friends. So it's one of the reasons that the networks and streaming services
or whatever have turned you down on this is because Jeffrey Epstein is thought to be an unreliable narrator. You know.
I don't think so. I think the reason is that they are scared. They're scared of being sued by the Trump administration.
They're they're uncomfortable with how to talk about this, this, this story.
They don't want to see Jeffrey Epstein in a
in any more than that, then that, then that single lens through
which we view him in these tapes, these tapes are go all over the place. They, they really show a show a life in full.
I mean, a really strange life and and clearly a diabolical life.
But he is he he is something else in these tapes beyond just just the
the the man who victimized many, many, many, many girls. But I, I actually don't think that's them.
I think they are afraid. Afraid of of, of what Donald Trump will do.
And remember, Donald Trump has repeatedly and every instance
turned to these, to the media outlets. And if he doesn't like what they do, he sues them.
I know getting the story is important. Are there any lines that you wouldn't cross?
You seem to downplay the importance of getting the story and, which I would not do.
Getting the story is is the all important thing. But yeah, but of course, what I'm, I'm you know, I'm not I'm not going to be
here. Do I have to answer this? You know the answer to this. Of course. Of course there are.
I mean, you remind me a little bit of an undercover cop. Well, I suppose in a way that, in a way that I am.
And then the television show, the other, the the undercover cop, always has to prove himself by shooting someone who is.
I wouldn't do that. Well, let's. And let's. Leave. Yes, let's let's remember what I did.
I sat at a table and listened to Jeffrey Epstein and many of the other people
who he invited to his table, and I often said what he wanted to hear.
His table sounded a really intriguing place to be. There were all sorts of people from world leaders we've talked to on the podcast
about how you ran into the head of the Nobel Prize committee there. You said you saw Bill gates there.
Woody Allen there, Larry Summers there. Is there a way in which you were trying to seduce
Jeffrey Epstein into confiding in you, and you were also seduced by Jeffrey?
Well, no, this is this is I'm you know, I'm not the first journalist in this position. And many journalists have have have talked about this
and how to navigate such a situation and the times they have failed to entirely navigate this situation.
And, yeah. And I, I suppose that I,
you know, that there were moments in which you have to stomach
what you would what you know, you should not be stomach king, but you do because.
When you say that, what do you actually mean? You know, I and and again, that's why you stomach.
Because you're not, you're not, you're not seeing anything. You're not participating in anything.
You're just hearing things. So I mean, that was I mean, my relationship with, with with Jeffrey Epstein did not go.
I mean, I actually I have never in all of the hours that I've spent with him, I have never, never saw saw
any interaction with women, with girls. Did you ever see the massage room?
I never saw the massage room. I do want to want to say. And and I think it's.
I think it's, it's important that the kind of journalism
I do or the kind of writing that, that I do is different from journalists who work at newspapers or broadcast outlets.
I am trying to and I but I offer an entirely different view.
The cost of that is, you know, you got a
you got to be nice to these people. What I find is it's interesting is it's access journalism, which normally
results in something favorable to the person who's given you access. What I always found interesting about your columns at New York
magazine was that people were clamoring to talk to you, even when you'd written previously negative pieces about them.
You know, well, even that sometimes they they not. I am willing to,
what I was going to say. I'm willing to blow up people, but that's not really how, how how I think I'm I have always been just, you know, what the story is.
You got the story. You're lucky enough to get the story. You've worked hard enough to get the story.
Tell the fucking story. And,
and, you know, usually that results in the people you're telling the story about really hating you.
But you know, what the hell? So what more do you think the Oversight Committee is going to release?
I, you know, I guess they're they're just releasing whatever they can get. And there's it appears to be dueling.
Dueling releases from the Republicans, from the Democrats.
But I think that this is all signs of an investigation that is closing in on its subject.
And, you know, and it's sometimes I'm not sure that they realize that the subject here
is not so much Jeffrey Epstein, but Donald Trump. Okay. So I want to ask you a question about Ghislaine Maxwell, who we have talked
about a lot on the podcast, especially since she's been moved from jail in Tallahassee, Florida, after a two day interview with Todd Blanch.
Number two, the Justice Department, to a prison camp in Texas where we know she has her own puppy.
She has a puppy. She has a fitness instructor. And then there is, an email from
Jeffrey Epstein on Saturday, April the 2nd, doesn't have the year her actually saying,
I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump.
There is then a name redacted, which has since been filled in because she's dead by the Republicans who say it was Virginia Giuffre.
Virginia Giuffre spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned police chief, etc.
I'm 75% there. And then Ghislaine Maxwell sends him back an email later
that day saying, I have been thinking about what.
Let me before we go to that email, per se, I think it's going to be interesting.
I don't think I mean, Donald Trump has clearly been getting ready to pardon
Ghislaine or commuted her sentence or get her out of jail in some way. I think that's going to be very hard for him to do now, which
probably has other complications for him, because if he breaks his deal with Ghislaine, Ghislaine gets to talk.
But if he reneges on his deal, and her method of talking as remember with
the birthday letter is a method of leaks and,
which could be as the birthday letter was pretty devastating to Donald Trump. Because her family, who we think are behind the leak of the birthday,
letter, determined to get her out of jail and feel that she is the only person
in this entire Epstein saga to have gone to jail. That other men that we assume partook of the things that Jeffrey was offering
have some of them have lost their jobs, but none of them have gone to jail?
No, but but they have a lot of them have suffered terrifically, have been held to account in some ways,
the one who has not been held to account in any way is the president of the United States. Right.
We're losing your job isn't the same as being sentenced. Well, it is, it is. It is not. But not losing, losing your job and facing disgrace is also a lot different
than being the most powerful man in the world. And,
and and being unstoppable in that apparently in the power you hold.
An again once just struck by the remarkable
difference in their journeys that these were two men that used to travel around Atlantic City together,
one ended up dead in a Manhattan. So still, uncertainty around whether he killed himself
or whether or not something else happened to him and the other ended up being the leader of the free world.
Yes. And I admire that line, because it is my line which I have used again and again and again and again and the this, this line and
and people for years now have been people. I mean, journalists, the media, organized media organizations
have been willing to overlook this story until, you know, smoking gun time.
I think we may be closing in. On it now. The Republicans decided to unredacted the name and put in Virginia Giuffre
because they say there's no mention of Donald Trump in her book, Nobody's Girl. And she never mentioned Donald Trump as one of the people she saw there,
although she did mention other people. Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton, and actually al Gore.
She's a complicated witness. You know, she had to apologize to Dershowitz. Al Gore turns out never to have been in any proximity to,
to Jeffrey Epstein. So she's my, I you know, I don't know.
I mean, she's dead, so let's not, let's not pile on, but, I, you know, I think I think there would be no reason for
for Epstein to write this email were it not to be true.
This email was theoretically a private email, and he's writing it to glean who would know. So
I in. 2011, I think it's 2011. I think it's speaks for itself.
So did you have any sense that this enormous stash of emails was coming? No, not in the least.
I woke up to this like everybody else. So I mean, some of the names in here you've talked about Woody Allen,
Bill gates, but some of the names I was surprised to read, Deepak Chopra.
I have discussed Deepak Chopra before as being there. Yes. Not with I don't think you have with me.
It's an oversight then, because I have been there with Deepak Chopra.
Okay. And what was he doing? You know, eating an omelet like everybody else?
Eating an omelet. And I actually remember. No, but I,
What was Deepak Chopra? I mean, I suspect he was there trying to get money out of out of, Epstein, but I don't know.
Kathy Ramla, who was Obama's white House counsel?
Tom barrack. No. And Tom barrack is pivotal here in this
the the connection because it was and I talk about this in in my effort
in fire and fury as them being the three Musketeers, Trump Barrack Epstein,
and and they were together the closest of friends. And when Tom barrack went into the white House or actually
he did not go into the white House in the first administration. And that was partly because of Epstein's advice don't take an official job.
But barrack remained one of the key advisers. Still is one of Trump's key advisers. Right?
He's an ambassador now. Yeah. But, you know, on the phone with Trump constantly.
So there you have it, straight from the man himself. If you have been.
Thank you for joining. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. We are independent media and we appreciate your support.
Leave a comment. Tell us the questions you would have asked Michael in my role today.
And don't forget, as our First Lady would have us all beast and a special thanks to our beast tier of members.
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[admin]

Trump’s PRISON GIFT To Maxwell EXPOSED In LEAKED REPORT!
Jack Cocchiarella
Nov 13, 2025 Jack Cocchiarella Show

Political commentator Jack Cocchiarella reacts to the latest ghislaine maxwell prison scandal.



Transcript

The Epstein dam has officially broken.
Of course, we have been seeing a steady
stream of information about Donald
Trump's disgusting and criminal
relationship with Jeffrey Epste over the
past couple of months. But what
yesterday's email dump represents, those
20,000 emails are the beginning of the
end for Trump. As more anecdotes come
out about their past relationship, we
see new information, new documents, new
photos, and new reporting on Glain
Maxwell and the conditions she's
enjoying in prison right now. We have
talked extensively about this, but a new
gift that Trump has given Maxwell has
been brought to light. We're going to
get into it all, but before we do, if I
could quickly ask you to leave a like on
this video, and if you haven't already
and you enjoy our channel to hit that
subscribe button because it goes a long
way in supporting our work. Now, before
we get into that gift and this new
reporting about Galain Maxwell, I want
to start with what Jamie Rascin had to
say about emails to come in this clip
right here. give us an update um as well
about others who may have information um
and that could be prisonmates of Gileain
Maxwell. I mean, give us an update on
that and what the committee is thinking
about how to talk to these people.
Well, the the thing that really struck
me so intensely yesterday was all of
these emails saying things like, "Of
course, Trump knew about the girls and
tried to get Maxwell to stop." And we
don't know if that means to stop
stealing girls from Trump at his hotel
and taking them into their operation or
stop being involved with uh with
Epstein. We don't know exactly what it
means, but there's all kinds of emails
that indicate that Donald Trump was
perfectly uh situated to know what was
going on. And in Scon, that whole
culture, after all, Epstein was his best
friend for more than 10 years. Although
Epstein said very mocking, derisive
things about Trump in some of these
emails saying that he was, you know,
borderline deranged and demented and,
you know, talked about how stupid he was
and so on. But in any event, um we know
from these emails that um there's that
Trump was aware of everything going on
and uh the Department of Justice must
have these same emails. And yet none of
them were released by the Department of
Justice and these huge trenches of
material that were sent over, including
completely irrelevant press releases
from many years ago and all of this
flatsom and jetsum stuff. But the point
is that the Department of Justice has
not released any of these emails that
mention Trump's name and that identify
his role in all these activities. Those
came from the uh estate of Jeffrey
Epstein instead. So this is a
demonstration that the government is
very deliberately withholding the
information that everybody is actually
looking for in anything that could be
damaging the Trump. I think that it is
important we keep in mind that what this
administration would like us to believe
is that Epstein is the only person you
need to worry about in the Epstein case.
Of course, they'd like all of us to move
on, but if we don't, they'd like us to
think that this was a a one-man
operation, that there was no one else
involved. And why is that the case? Why
did Cash Patel say it was only Epstein?
Well, because if we think it's only
Epstein, then how are we going to get
new information? Well, there's lots of
new information to be found from all of
his associates, including Galain
Maxwell, who Carolyn Levit said this of
yesterday before we get into what Trump
gave her.
Stephen, if the president is considering
a pardon for Gain Maxwell,
again, he's answered this repeatedly.
It's not something he's talking about or
even thinking about at this moment in
time. I can assure you of that.
Uh, so that wasn't a no. He hasn't
talked to me about it. We're not
necessarily thinking about it. Maybe he
could, but a would, but a won't. been an
eh it's not an answer and we know why
it's not an answer because Caroline
Levit can't say no to that question.
Donald Trump has done nothing for
transparency in the Epstein files as
Caroline Levit would have you believe.
The only thing that Donald Trump has
really worked at this entire time is to
make sure that Gain Maxwell was
comfortable that she was in a nicer
facility that she was all taken care of
by the guards. Donald Trump is looking
out for Galain Maxwell because again
what is in the files might not be as
damaging as what is not in the files
which is stories that Maxwell could
share other Epstein associates she could
bring to light it'd be incredibly
damaging for Donald Trump which is why a
new gift that he gave her in prison was
just reported a physical object that
Donald Trump has bestowed on his bestie
and it's [ __ ] disgusting. Galain
Maxwell's bizarre toilet privilege in
clubfed revealed. Galain Maxwell is
allowed an unlimited supply of toilet
paper is a special privilege not
extended to other inmates at her Texas
prison. According to a report, Maxwell,
who is currently serving a 20-year
sentence for helping the late pedophile
Jeffrey Epstein abuse and traffic
children, simply request more of the
essential item at the federal prison
camp Brian whenever she needs it,
sources told CNN. By contrast, other
inmates are allotted just two rolls of
toilet paper per week and must pay $2.55
from the prison commissary on their once
a week shopping day to purchase
additional rolls if they run out. You
don't understand the value of toilet
paper in prison. It is hoarded. It is
hidden from staff, Sam Mangol, a prison
consultant and former federal inmate,
told CNN. Because if you think about it,
you can go without shampoo for a day or
two, but you can't go without toilet
paper. The unlimited toilet paper supply
is among several perks Maxwell has
reportedly enjoyed since being
transferred from a stricter federal
facility in Tallahassee. The move itself
was also considered an unprecedented
preferential treatment for a convicted
child offender, child sex offender, amid
reports she is seeking a commutation of
her sentence from President Trump.
Maxwell was transferred to the lower
security facility after she met with
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch,
Trump's former personal defense lawyer
for two days in July to discuss Epstein.
Maxwell did not incriminate the
president during those talks, but
damning emails released Wednesday by
Democrats on the House Oversight
Committee suggest Trump was aware of
Epstein and Maxwell's crimes. Of course,
Trump knew about the girls, as he asked
Elaine to stop, Epstein wrote in a
January 2019 email to author Michael
Wolf. Other privileges Maxwell has
allegedly enjoyed during her sentence
include occupying a fourperson cell
entirely by herself at one point and
having her meals and mail delivered
directly to her cell. She was also been
granted private use of the chaplain's
office and her prison chapel to meet
guests outside of regular visitation
hours. She has almost the closest thing
to a get out of jail free card on our
dime.
people who have been ranting and raving
about how the government spends its
money and making sure that people are
fed,
that they have health care, that they
have housing. The people losing their
minds don't give a damn that Gain
Maxwell is living large,
that Gain Maxwell in prison might have
better toilet paper than some of the
people whining about who gets food
stamps. that those people whining about
who gets food stamps might be using
worse toilet paper than Gain Maxwell,
who got it from her buddy Donald Trump.
Think about that. There are Republicans
out there who are mad about who is
getting food stamps
when four out of five households
who are receiving SNAP benefits,
children,
elderly grandparents or parents, someone
with a disability.
Are you telling those people that they
need to work? Because people on SNAP are
working. They're just not paid enough.
But to be mad at someone receiving SNAP
benefits
when the billionaire president is giving
his billionaire buddy better toilet
paper than you in the prison facility
that she was moved to for trying to help
him win his PR battle. For you to be
focused on who is allowed to eat rather
than that
is something I can't understand. I can't
wrap my head around how conservatives
aren't more upset about that.
It's because they're brainwashed.
It is baffling to me that they are so
separated from reality. And the worst
version of this was Megan Kelly. This
clip is going to disturb you, but you
need to listen to all of it.
We have not seen some slew of young
women come forward to say, "Me too." on
Donald Trump molesting them or having
paid for sex with them when they were
barely legal or otherwise. It just
hasn't happened.
Yeah. In fact, at that same press
conference, the lawyer for one of the
for a group of the women actually said
Jeffrey Epstein would pray upon women
when they were underage. True and
disgusting and horrible. And then the
lawyer said, "And when they came of age
and he was no longer interested in them,
he would then pass them on." So there
was no pedophilia ring. There was a
pedophile who did unspeakable things to
vulnerable girls. And then they would
age out of Jeffrey Epstein's pedophilic
interests at which point he would then
start to pass them around to his
friends. Meaning that there were not
actual crimes committed by anybody
beyond there's no pedophile ring.
There's a pedophile and then a bunch of
friends who were getting massages at
that point from women who were no longer
underage. This is this
level of cope that we are at with this
administration. Oh, Donald Trump was
probably only sleeping with 15 year
olds. Barely legal.
Almost legal. Almost legal.
They're 15. You [ __ ] psycho.
How are we at the point of the Epstein
files that Megan Kelly is justifying
or excusing
the rape of minors
because, oh, well, I thought they'd be
younger.
the girls that Donald Trump was like
fawning over that he was like making
jokes with EP a [ __ ] that's your one
buddy. Well, I thought that they would
be 12 and they were 15. So,
I don't know. Is it that bad? Are you
insane?
How is this the point that we've gotten
to? And for Megan Kelly to be like,
"Well, there aren't a slew of women
coming out against Donald Trump." Um,
yeah, there are. You asked him about it
years ago. Have you forgotten?
These people are crazy and they're
detached from reality. Clearly, they
are.
Oh my god. Oh my god. The president is a
pedophile. Are you serious?
What are the questions you're asking?
What are the concerns that you have that
it is not that and that alone?
I'm sorry that I'm freaking out, but I
really truly don't know any other proper
response to this.
And
you know, I I I saw someone say that
we can't let yesterday be a Wednesday.
And I agree.
It it can't be, oh, it was yesterday's
news. This needs to be a nuclear day of
news, something we do not move on from
or forget.
Those emails are so clear. The only
thing that's not clear now is like, did
Trump kill Epstein?
There were a lot of questions asked of
Carolyn Levit. I need someone to just
say, "Yeah, did Donald Trump kill
Jeffrey Epstein?"
I don't know. Maybe quite possibly at
this point. It's not out of the realm of
possibility for me. But Megan Kelly's
not asking that question. Megan Kelly is
asking the question of, "Well, is it
really bad if they were 15?" 15.
And like to say, well, you know, if
Donald Trump did take a girl from
Jeffrey Epstein and she was 18, well,
you know, it's not it's not that bad.
Oh, so the the girls who were groomed by
by the pedophile
who were physically and sexually abused
and then passed along to Donald Trump,
he's all hands squeaky squeaky clean.
I like I don't I don't understand these
people. I I really don't. This is a
sickness. this MAGA ideology. It is a It
is a sickness.
And I'm sorry that we had a little bit
of a crazy episode today, but this
really pissed me off and I just needed
to let it out because what is wrong with
these people? Sorry for the rant. I
appreciate you watching. If you want to
support our show and support our rants
as always, you can hit that subscribe
button, leave a like on this video. If
you stuck around to the end, drop a blue
heart in the comments. Keep on fighting,
y'all. Don't let them silence you. And
until next time, I'll see you

[admin]

We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
by Nicole Foy, photography by Sarahbeth Manicey
ProPublica
October 16, 2025, 12:00 pm
https://www.propublica.org/article/immi ... ainst-will

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Reporting Highlights

• Americans detained at raids and protests.
• Held Incommunicado: More than 20 citizens have reported being held for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or a lawyer. In some cases their families couldn’t find them.
• Cases Wilted: Agents have arrested about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, for allegedly interfering with or assaulting officers, yet those cases were often dropped.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

When the Supreme Court recently allowed immigration agents in the Los Angeles area to take race into consideration during sweeps, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that citizens shouldn’t be concerned.

“If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, “they promptly let the individual go.”

But that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced. Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.

About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.

Videos of U.S. citizens being mistreated by immigration agents have filled social media feeds, but there is little clarity on the overall picture. The government does not track how often immigration agents hold Americans.

So ProPublica created its own count.

We compiled and reviewed every case we could find of agents holding citizens against their will, whether during immigration raids or protests. While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second administration.

Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer. That includes four who were held for weeks with their undocumented mother and without access to the family’s attorney until a congresswoman intervened.

Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances. Agents can hold people whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino.

Immigration agents also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers. We compiled cases of about 130 Americans, including a dozen elected officials, accused of assaulting or impeding officers.

These cases have often wilted under scrutiny. In nearly 50 instances that we have identified so far, charges have never been filed or the cases were dismissed. Our count found a handful of citizens have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.

Among the detentions in which allegations have not stuck, masked agents pointed a gun at, pepper sprayed and punched a young man who had filmed them searching for his relative. In another, agents knocked over and then tackled a 79-year-old car wash owner, pressing their knees into his neck and back. His lawyer said he was held for 12 hours and wasn’t given medical attention despite having broken ribs in the incident and having recently had heart surgery. In a third case, agents grabbed and handcuffed a woman on her way to work who was caught up in a chaotic raid on street vendors. In a complaint filed against the government, she described being held for more than two days, without being allowed to contact the outside world for much of that time. (The Supreme Court has ruled that two days is generally the longest federal officials can hold Americans without charges.)

A man with a mustache wears a white T-shirt and stands with his arms crossed on an empty road.
George Retes, an American combat veteran, at the site of his arrest by immigration agents on California’s Central Coast. Retes was detained for three days without access to a lawyer and missed his daughter’s third birthday.
In response to questions from ProPublica, the Department of Homeland Security said agents do not racially profile or target Americans. “We don’t arrest US citizens for immigration enforcement,” wrote spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

A top immigration official recently acknowledged agents do consider someone’s looks. “How do they look compared to, say, you?” Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino said to a white reporter in Chicago.

The White House told ProPublica that anyone who assaults federal immigration agents would be prosecuted. “Interfering with law enforcement and assaulting law enforcement is a crime and anyone, regardless of immigration status, will be held accountable,” said the Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson. “Officers act heroically to enforce the law, arrest criminal illegal aliens, and protect American communities with the utmost professionalism.”

A spokesperson for Kavanaugh did not return an emailed request for comment.

An immigration raid on 79-year-old Rafie Ollah Shouhed’s car wash left him with broken ribs. Courtesy of Rafie Ollah Shouhed. Compiled by ProPublica.
Tallying the number of Americans detained by immigration agents is inherently messy and incomplete. The government has long ignored recommendations for it to track such cases, even as the U.S. has a history of detaining and even deporting citizens, including during the Obama administration and Trump’s first term.

We compiled cases by sifting through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports. We did not include arrests of protesters by local police or the National Guard. Nor did we count cases in which arrests were made at a later date after a judicial process. That included cases of some people charged with serious crimes, like throwing rocks or tossing a flare to start a fire.

Experts say that Americans appear to be getting picked up more now as a result of the government doing something that it hasn’t for decades: large-scale immigration sweeps across the country, often in communities that do not want them.

In earlier administrations, deportation agents used intelligence to target specific individuals, said Scott Shuchart, a top immigration official in the Biden, Obama and first Trump administrations. “The new idea is to use those resources unintelligently” — with officers targeting communities or workplaces where undocumented immigrants may be.

When federal officers roll through communities in the way the Supreme Court permitted, the constitutional rights of both citizens and noncitizens are inevitably violated, argued David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. He recently analyzed how sweeps in Los Angeles have led to racial profiling. “If the government can grab someone because he’s a certain demographic group that’s correlated with some offense category, then they can do that in any context.”

Cody Wofsy, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, put it even more starkly. “Any one of us could be next.”

The video Garcia Venegas made of an immigration raid on a construction site shows him walking away from the officer while trying to film and then stating that he’s a citizen before being detained. Courtesy of Garcia Venega
When Kavanaugh issued his opinion that immigration agents can consider race and other factors, the Supreme Court’s three liberal justices strongly dissented. They warned that citizens risked being “grabbed, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed simply because of their looks, their accents, and the fact they make a living by doing manual labor.”

Leonardo Garcia Venegas appears to have been just such a case. He was working at a construction site in coastal Alabama when he saw masked immigration agents from Homeland Security Investigations hop a fence and run by a “No trespassing” sign. Garcia Venegas recalled that they moved toward the Latino workers, ignoring the white and Black workers.

Garcia Venegas began filming after his undocumented brother asked agents for a warrant. In response, the footage shows, agents yanked his brother to the ground, shoving his face into wet concrete. Garcia Venegas kept filming until officers grabbed him too and knocked his phone to the ground.

Other co-workers filmed what happened next, as immigration agents twisted the 25-year-old’s arms. They repeatedly tried to take him to the ground while he yelled, “I’m a citizen!”

Officers pulled out his REAL ID, which Alabama only issues to those legally in the U.S. But the agents dismissed it as fake. Officers held Garcia Venegas handcuffed for more than an hour. His brother was later deported.

A man with a small goatee seated on the steps of a single-wide home, wearing a blue shirt, jeans and a pair of sandals.
Leonardo Garcia Venegas told agents he was a citizen both times he was detained. His REAL ID was dismissed as a fake.
Garcia Venegas was so shaken that he took two weeks off of work. Soon after he returned, he was working alone inside a nearly built house listening to music on his headphones when he sensed someone watching him. A masked immigration agent was standing in the bedroom doorway.

This time, agents didn’t tackle him. But they again dismissed his REAL ID. And then they held him to check his citizenship. Garcia Venegas says agents also held two other workers who had legal status.

DHS did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about Garcia Venegas’ detentions, or to a federal lawsuit he filed last month. The agency has previously defended the agents’ conduct, saying he “physically got in between agents and the subject” during the first incident. The footage does not show that, and Garcia Venegas was never charged with obstruction or any other crime.

Garcia Venegas’ lawyers at the nonprofit Institute for Justice hope others may join his suit. After all, the reverberations of the immigration sweeps are being felt widely. Garcia Venegas said he knows of 15 more raids on nearby construction sites, and the industry along his portion of the Gulf Coast is struggling for lack of workers.

Kavanaugh’s assurances hold little weight for Garcia Venegas. He’s a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, who speaks little English and works in construction. Even with his REAL ID and Social Security card in his wallet, Garcia Venegas worries that immigration agents will keep harassing him.

“If they decide they want to detain you,” he said. “You’re not going to get out of it.”

A plywood shell of a house with men on top of it adding roof framing.
Men building a home in rural Baldwin County, Alabama. Garcia Venegas was detained by immigration agents twice while working on homes in the area.
George Retes was among the citizens arrested despite immigration agents appearing to know his legal status. He also disappeared into the system for days without being able to contact anyone on the outside.

The only clue Retes’ family had at first was a brief call he managed to make on his Apple Watch with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He quickly told his wife that “ICE” had arrested him during a massive raid and protest on the marijuana farm where he worked as a security guard.

Still, Retes’ family couldn’t find him. They called every law enforcement agency they could think of. No one gave them any answers.

Eventually, they spotted a TikTok video showing Retes driving to work and slowly trying to back up as he’s caught between agents and protestors. Through the tear gas and dust, his family recognized Retes’ car and the veteran decal on his window. The full video shows a man — Retes — splayed on the ground surrounded by agents.

George Retes’ family noticed his car in a compiled video posted to TikTok. This clip from that longer video shows his white vehicle surrounded by tear gas. Immigration agents later pinned him on the ground. nota.sra/TikTok
Retes’ family went to the farm, where local TV reporters were interviewing families who couldn’t find their loved ones.

“They broke his window, they pepper sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor,” his sister told a reporter between sobs. “We don’t know what to do. We’re just asking to let my brother go. He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car.”

Retes was held for three days without being given an opportunity to make a call. His family only learned where he had been after his release. His leg had been cut from the broken glass, Retes told ProPublica, and lingering pepper spray burned his hands. He tried to soothe them by filling sandwich bags with water.

Retes recalled that agents knew he was a citizen. “They didn’t care.” He said one DHS official laughed at him, saying he shouldn’t have come to work that day. “They still sent me away to jail.” He added that cases like his show Kavanaugh was “wrong completely.”

DHS did not answer our questions about Retes. It did respond on X after Retes wrote an op-ed last month in the San Francisco Chronicle. An agency post asserted he was arrested for assault after he “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement.” Yet Retes had been released without any charges. Indeed, he says he was never told why he was arrested.



Retes said that agents knew he was a citizen. “They didn’t care.”
The Department of Justice has encouraged agents to arrest anyone interfering with immigration operations, twice ordering law enforcement to prioritize cases of those suspected of obstructing, interfering with or assaulting immigration officials.

But the government’s claims in those cases have often not been borne out.

Daniel Montenegro was filming a raid at a Van Nuys, California, Home Depot with other day-laborer advocates this summer when, he told ProPublica, he was tackled by several officers who injured his back.

Bovino, the Border Patrol chief who oversaw the LA raids and has since taken similar operations to cities like Sacramento and Chicago, tweeted out the names and photos of Montenegro and three others, accusing them of using homemade tire spikes to disable vehicles.

“I had no idea where that story came from,” Montenegro told ProPublica. “I didn’t find out until we were released. People were like, ‘We saw you on Twitter and the news and you guys are terrorists, you were planning to slash tires.’ I never saw those spike tire-popper things.”

Officials have not charged Montenegro or the others with any crimes. (Bovino did not respond to a request for comment, while DHS defended him in a statement to ProPublica: “Chief Bovino’s success in getting the worst of the worst out of the country speaks for itself.”)

The government’s cases are sometimes so muddied that it’s unclear why agents actually arrested a citizen.

Andrea Velez was charged with assaulting an officer after she was accidentally dropped off for work during a raid on street vendors in downtown Los Angeles. She said in a federal complaint that officers repeatedly assumed she did not speak English. Federal officers later requested access to her phone in an attempt to prove she was colluding with another citizen arrested that day, who was charged with assault. She was one of the Americans held for more than two days.

DHS did not respond to our questions about Velez, but it has previously accused her of assaulting an officer. A federal judge has dismissed the charges.

Other citizens also said officers accused them of crimes and suddenly questioned their citizenship — including a man arrested after filming Border Patrol agents break a truck window, and a pregnant woman who tried to stop officers from taking her boyfriend.

The prospects for any significant reckoning over agents’ conduct, even against citizens, are dim. The paths for suing federal agents are even more limited than they are for local police. And that’s if agents can even be identified. What’s more, the administration has gutted the office that investigates allegations of abuse by agents.

“The often-inadequate guardrails that we have for state and local government — even those guardrails are nonexistent when you’re talking about federal overreach,” said Joanna Schwartz, a professor at UCLA School of Law.

More than 50 members of Congress have also written to the administration, demanding details about Americans who’ve been detained. One is Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat. After trying to question Noem about detained citizens, federal agents grabbed Padilla, pulled him to the ground and handcuffed him. The department later defended the agents, saying they “acted appropriately.”

How We Did This
Americans have reported a wide range of troubling encounters with immigration agents. To get a wider sense of agents’ conduct, we cataloged all incidents we could find of citizens being held against their will by immigration officers.

Critically, there is no way to know the complete scope of these stops since the government itself does not track them. But we were still able to fill in the picture a bit more.

We reviewed more than 170 cases overall, which we sorted into two categories.

The first is Americans who were held because agents questioned their citizenship. We found more than 50 such cases. The second category is Americans arrested by immigration agents after being accused of assaulting or impeding officers at protests or during immigration arrests of others. In that category, we tallied about 130 Americans, including more than a dozen elected officials. In many of these cases, the government never charged these individuals or the cases were dismissed.

We also tracked another nine citizens who reported being concerned about racial profiling after being extensively questioned by immigration officials. This includes a Mescalero Apache tribal member who was pulled out of a store and asked for his passport, and a California man who was previously deported by mistake and got another deportation order in the mail.

We did all this by sifting through both English- and Spanish-language social media, lawsuits, court records and local media reports. We compiled cases from the beginning of the current Trump administration through Oct. 5. Our accounting of arrests in Portland, Oregon, and Chicago is particularly limited, since the events there are still unfolding.

We did not review cases of Americans detained in airports or at the border, where even citizens are more likely to encounter increased questioning. We also did not review cases of Americans arrested at some point after alleged encounters with immigration agents since those involved a judicial process. We similarly excluded arrests of immigration protestors by local police who, unlike many of the federal agencies, booked protesters into a local jail where they could access the legal process and their families could find them.

[admin]

Exclusive: Trump administration holds Situation Room meeting over House effort to force release of all of DOJ’s Epstein files
By atelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Hannah Rabinowitz, Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, Annie Grayer
CNN
20 hr ago
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/politics ... nt-release

[x]
US President Donald Trump listens during an event about weight-loss drugs in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on November 6, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Top Trump administration officials met Wednesday with a key GOP lawmaker about an effort in the US House to force a vote on releasing Justice Department case files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the meeting later Wednesday when asked about reporting that administration officials were huddling with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” she told reporters at the press briefing.

Leavitt added: “I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room.”

A source familiar confirmed the meeting in the Situation Room included Boebert, who has wanted the Justice Department to release its trove of Epstein files and has signed onto the effort in the House to force the vote compelling their release.

That effort is now in motion after a newly sworn-in Democratic member of Congress provided the 218th – and final – signature needed on the discharge petition to force such a vote and, in turn, trigger a number of procedural steps before the House can vote on a bill compelling the files’ release.

After the meeting, Boebert wrote on X, “I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.”

She later told CNN’s Manu Raju that Trump did not pressure her to take her name off of the discharge petition and that while Epstein came up in the White House meeting, other topics were also covered.

Separately, President Donald Trump and Rep. Nancy Mace, another Republican who’s signed the petition, had been playing phone tag for the past 24 hours. The South Carolina Republican sent a direct message to the president Wednesday outlining why she’s supporting the discharge petition, according to a source familiar with the message who said it largely mirrored a public statement in which she said: “I will NEVER abandon other survivors.”

But both the meeting and Trump’s efforts to talk to Mace underscored the administration’s concerns around the Epstein saga, which roared back Wednesday morning when the House Oversight Committee released more documents it had obtained from Epstein’s estate. (Leavitt said Wednesday the emails from that trove that mention Trump “prove absolutely nothing.”)

Besides Boebert and Mace, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the other Republican who’s signed onto the petition from Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, to force the vote on the release of the files on the House floor. The pair received the 218th decisive signature from Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva Wednesday afternoon, allowing the push to force a vote to move forward.

Had anyone removed their name from the petition before reaching 218, Massie and Khanna would have no longer had the support needed to move forward.

Under the arcane procedure of a House discharge petition, if 218 members of the House – a majority of all 435 districts – sign on, they can force a floor vote in the chamber on anything — even if leadership opposes it. Such an effort rarely succeeds.

The unreleased Justice Department files, which capture years of investigation into child sex trafficking, could include details the House hasn’t obtained.

Ahead of the White House meeting, one source said it would also include Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.

Bondi was seen leaving the White House at 1:10pm ET on Wednesday.

The controversy around Epstein and his contacts with other powerful people, including Trump, has divided the Republican Party in recent months, with Boebert being among the Republican House members publicly pushing for more transparency around the case.

Trump hasn’t been accused of any crime, and longtime Epstein contact and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell previously told Blanche in an interview this summer that she had seen no wrongdoing, including by Trump.

At least two women who say they are survivors of Epstein’s abuse were expected to attend Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony Wednesday afternoon, sources with knowledge told CNN.

The House effort to compel the release of the files, should it pass, would still have to pass the GOP-led Senate and be signed into law by Trump, who has derided the effort.

[admin]

Jeffrey Epstein claimed he gave Russians insight into Trump. Newly released emails show the late convicted sex offender’s extensive network of foreign contacts, whom he corresponded with about Trump’s policy decisions.
by Kyle Cheney and Nahal Toosi
Politico
11/12/2025 03:40 PM EST
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/1 ... s-00648919

[x]
President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Nearly a month before President Donald Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Jeffrey Epstein attempted to pass a message to Russia’s top diplomat: If you want to understand Trump, talk to me.

“I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in a June 24, 2018, email to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway who was leading the Council of Europe at the time of the exchange. Lavrov was an apparent reference to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s longtime foreign minister.

In the email exchange, one of hundreds released Wednesday by congressional investigators, Epstein indicated he had previously talked about Trump with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s forceful ambassador to the United Nations, before Churkin died in 2017.

“Churkin was great,” Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, wrote. “He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”

The exchange was among dozens that showcase Epstein’s extraordinary network of international associates, whom he often corresponded with about Trump’s first-term policy decisions.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the emails, but press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Wednesday the broader set of emails “prove absolutely nothing other than President Trump did nothing wrong.”

Trump later posted on Truth Social: “Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.” He was referring to the U.S. government shutdown.

In the emails, Jagland said he was meeting Lavrov’s assistant the following day and would suggest a connection with Epstein. It’s unclear if anything ever came of the proposed contact.

But Epstein would later opine about Trump’s fateful meeting with Putin, which was panned around the world for his apparent capitulations to the Russian dictator.

“Do the Russians have stuff on Trump? Today was appalling even by his standards,” wrote Larry Summers, the former Clinton administration Treasury secretary and Obama administration economic adviser, in an email to Epstein on July 16, 2018, the day of the Helsinki summit with Putin.

“My email is full with similar comments. wow,” Epstein replied the next day. “Im sure his view is that it went super well. he thinks he has charmed his adversary.. Admittedly he has no idea of the symbolism. He has no idea of most things.” He also called Trump’s handling of the summit with Putin “predictable.”

Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Days later, Epstein was flexing his overseas relationships in an email exchange with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, telling him in a July 23, 2018, message that Bannon needed to be physically present in Europe to wield influence on the continent.

“If you are going to play here , you’ll have to spend time, europe by remote doesn’t work,” Epstein wrote.

Epstein told Bannon he could organize one-on-one meetings with foreign leaders but that he would have to stay for several days.

“The fear is that you gin up their hopes and emotions and then abandon them. I think you want to be an insider, not an outsider flying in and out.”

A representative for Bannon declined to comment.

Epstein often relied on his foreign contacts to learn about their views of Trump as he obsessively tracked the new president’s actions. And at other times, he simply showcased his deep connections around the world in emails with other associates.

“Can you belive MBS sent me a TENT carpets and all,” Epstein wrote to billionaire businessman Tom Pritzker in December 2016, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, who is now the Saudi crown prince.

“A tent? Hmmm…” Pritzker wrote back. “I think that is code for ‘I love you’. Or, maybe code for ‘go pound sand’. Better check your [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] urban dictionary.”

Pritzker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A year before he reached out to Jagland for help with the Russians, Jagland asked Epstein to visit him in Strasbourg, France, so Epstein could help him “understand more about Trump and what’s going on in the American society.”

Among Epstein’s international connections was Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a businessman based in the United Arab Emirates. Sulayem asked Epstein two weeks before Trump’s first inauguration if he should “accept the invitation” extended to him by Trump associate Tom Barrack, who oversaw the event.

Barrack did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Epstein responded that it would be “very crowded” but might be worth it to make connections in Washington or New York before and after the festivities.

“Do you think it will be possible to shake hand with trump,” Sulayem responded. It’s unclear if Epstein replied.

Saudi representatives declined to immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Jagland couldn’t be reached for comment and Sulayem didn’t respond to a request sent to what appeared to be his Instagram account.

Shia Kapos, Gregory Svirnovskiy, Cheyanne Daniels and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.

[admin]

MAGA Rages at Trump Saying H-1B Visas Needed to Bring in Talent
by Jordan King and Shane Croucher
Newsweek
Nov 12, 2025 at 02:39 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/maga-donald-tr ... w-11031767
updated Nov 12, 2025 at 06:21 AM EST

President Donald Trump's defense of H-1B visas, used to bring skilled foreign workers into the U.S., sparked anger among social media users within his MAGA movement, who accused him of betrayal and losing touch with what they think.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, said H-1B visas were needed because you "have to bring in talent". When Ingraham pushed back, saying the U.S. has plenty of domestic talent, Trump replied: "No, you don't."

"You don't have certain talents" and "people have to learn," Trump said. "You can't take people off an unemployment line and say, 'I'm going to put you into a factory, we're going to make missiles.'" He added: "It doesn't work that way."

Newsweek has contacted the White House in an email sent outside regular working hours for comment.

Why It Matters

A softening of his position on immigration would be a substantial break with the MAGA movement that helped to deliver him the White House twice.

The centerpiece of Trump's "America First" agenda has been a fierce crackdown on immigration, both legal and illegal, which he says has come at the expense of Americans' economic security and public safety. In September, Trump announced a new $100,000 fee for the H-1B program, saying the statute had been open to "systemic abuse" and artificially suppressed wages.

[x]
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance look on during a ceremony at Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery to mark...Read More | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

What To Know

Ingraham asked Trump if H-1B visas "would not be a priority" for the administration. "Because if you want to raise wages for American workers, you can't flood the country with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands foreign workers."

"I agree," Trump said. "But you also do need to bring in talent."

"We have plenty of talented people here," Ingraham said. "No you don't," Trump replied.

"We don't have talented people here?" she asked.

Trump responded: "You don't have certain talents and people have to learn - you can't take people off an unemployment line and say 'I'm going to put you into a factory where we're going to make missiles."

He later added: "I know you and I disagree on this. You can't just say 'a country's coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant and take people off an unemployment line who haven't worked in five years and they're going to start making missiles. It doesn't work that way."

The uproar comes a day after Trump faced criticism from MAGA supporters over comments made in the same interview defending the need for up to 600,000 Chinese students to be allowed into the U.S.

The president had been quizzed about remarks made in August that hundreds of thousands of Chinese students would be allowed into the US to study. Ingraham said the previous comments were not a “pro-MAGA position” and argued that there were concerns that Chinese students “spy on us” and “steal our intellectual property.”

Trump defended his position, saying the influx of Chinese students was important for American colleges and universities to stay in business.

What People Are Saying

Savanah Hernandez, a MAGA influencer and contributor to conservative youth group Turning Point USA, called Trump's comments "disheartening" in a post on X. She wrote: "Trump needs to get out of his bubble and back on the ground listening to the American people who elected him to work for us," Hernandez said. "His H-1B comment shows how out of touch with the base he has become."

The "ChiefTrumpster" account on X shared the clip of Trump's comments, saying: "Not good. We need to be prioritizing American students and workers-replacing us isn’t the answer!"

Matt Morse, an "America First" content creator and commentator, called the interview "catastrophic for Trump". He wrote on X: "Whoever's in Trump's inner-circle that's been telling him that we need more H-1B visas, 50 year mortgages, and 600,000 Chinese students needs to be FIRED IMMEDIATELY. AMERICA FIRST."

Morse later followed up: "I am one of the largest pro-Trump commentators in the nation. I get tens of millions of views every single month talking about Trump's America First agenda. And right now, I'm absolutely f****** [fucking] beyond P***** [pissed] OFF that tonight, as a justification for H-1B visas, Trump said that Americans don't 'have talent.' Absolutely unreal."

Evan Kilgore, a self-described American nationalist, called it a betrayal. He wrote on X: "Donald Trump has betrayed the American people over some H-1B Indians. It's so over."

The Hodgetwins, an account representing conservative political commentary duo and twin brothers Keith Hodge and Kevin Hodge, wrote on X: "The best thing Trump can do to save MAGA is fire every advisor telling him to say the dumb shit he’s been saying."

It is not certain that the brothers were referring to Trump's latest comments in this post, but they had previously shared the clip of his interview with the caption "WTF."

Conservative commentator Scott Jennings, defended the President's position in a CNN panel discussion. He said: "You can be America First and also recognize there may be times you can import talent from other countries, that makes America stronger, we've done that for decades."

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen what impact the new $100,000 H-1B visa program will have on application numbers. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is also facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce arguing the new fee "will make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program".



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Trump BLOWS UP in LATE NIGHT MASSACRE of HIMSELF
MeidasTouch
5Nov 12, 2025 The MeidasTouch Podcast

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump destroying the entire MAGA movement and destroying himself as his behavior and physical and mental condition rots and gets even worse.



Transcript

What's happening, Donald? What's
happening, Donald? What's happening,
Lindsay? What's happening, Magga Mike?
I'll tell you what's happening. It's all
falling apart. The Trump regime is
collapsing. MAGA is collapsing. Donald
Trump's destruction is now being
recognized by Americans who are
Democrats, independents, Republicans,
non-political people. This country
despises and hates this Trump regime.
I'll give you some data points.
America's perception of the economy
right now has fallen below the lows seen
during the 2008 financial crisis per Hav
analytics. So right now Americans feel
that we are in a worse economic
condition than during basically the
closest we came since the great
depression, the great recession that
took place caused by George W. Bush and
Republicans back then. How about this
data point for you, folks? The latest
Yuggov poll shows that if the midterms
were held tomorrow on a generic ballot,
46% of registered voters would vote
Democrat, 39% would vote Republican.
This is the biggest spread yet. And this
would mean a massive, and I mean
massive, blue tsunami come the midterms.
That would make last Tuesday look like
the appetizer that I think it will be.
Folks, Russian state regime media is
mocking Donald Trump's interview with
Laura Ingraham last night. We've covered
it from many angles here. This is what
Russia's saying about it. Trump defends
the H1B visa holder program in response
to Ingraham asking, "We have plenty of
talented people here in America, Donald.
Can't they work in the factories or in
these highskilled jobs? Shouldn't we
provide them with the training? Donald
Trump, no, we don't. We don't have good
workers here. That's why we need H1B
visa program." Donald Trump says that
American workers are not capable of
working highkilled jobs and highskilled
factory jobs. I'll show you the receipts
as I always do. But here's what's going
on in MAGA world. It is blowing up
folks. You have MAGA accounts saying
things like this. JD Vance's best option
if he wants to be president might
actually be to make a dramatic public
resignation. torpedo this
administration, scorch it, come back in
two to six years because you have other
people in MAGA saying this. This
administration is quickly morphing into
a horrific mixture of Bush's second term
and the Biden presidency. Combine
baffling policy choices with being so
out of touch and you get a ticking time
bomb. Our editor-inchief Ron
Philipkowski writes, "Yes, we have
issues and gripes in the Democratic
party. I certainly have mine, but I
think they are solvable in the near
term." MAGA, on the other hand, is in
total disarray, and their problem, a
malevolent, unpopular fool sinking
deeper into dementia, surrounded by
clowns, is only going to get worse. This
MAGA account, Andrew Torba, says the
following. So, Trump's message to the
American people this week. Number one,
you're too dumb to build things. We need
500,000 people from, I'm not going to
use these terms, uh, to fill these jobs
from foreign countries. You're too dumb
for college. We need 600,000 people from
China to fill the school slots. You're
too poor. Here's a 50-year mortgage and
a one-time petty check for $2,000.
You're not struggling financially. The
stock market is doing great, so shut up.
Here's my new goldplated room in the
White House. That's from a MAGA account.
And here's what was on the newswire.
Trump says H-1B visa holders are
essential because there aren't enough
talented Americans. It's a direct quote
from Donald Trump. That's not a
paraphrase. That's what Trump said on
the Laura Ingraham Show on Fox. More
mega accounts are saying this. This has
to be a full heel turn. I mean,
seriously, this has to be the nail in
the coffin for plan trust us. No, we
don't have talent here. What the f? Or
how about this account? What in the
actual f is happening? Is someone
threatening this guy's kids or Melania?
He's acting like he's being held
hostage. Not joking right here. Then
there's this MAGA account. I do not get
this and don't believe other MAGA do.
WTH.
So, at this point, the Trump regime,
they're using Door Dash press releases,
you know, the the food delivery company
as their economic data. I kid you not,
we're not publishing Bureau of Labor
Statistics data. America has access to
the best economists in the world, or we
did. But now Caroline Levit, Donald
Trump's propagandist, is citing Door
Dash reports. Prices are steadying and
wages are climbing, new Door Dash report
shows. And then this one account goes,
per a Door Dash report. You can't make
this stuff up. And this account goes,
you know, the economy is effed when they
report using Door Dash numbers. And that
Door Dash reports replace the economic
report. Well, by the way, while all of
this was going on, California Governor
Gavin Newsome, who I've referred to
basically as the shadow president of the
United States, representing what America
once was and could be, he's still out
there in Brazil. He's at the 30th
anniversary United Nations climate
conference where he gave multiple
speeches, very high-profile speeches
there. Here he is cutting a deal with
Nigeria on a new climate partnership.
But back here in the United States,
Donald Trump like the most unpopular
president in modern history or history
in general. Here's how they were
describing it yesterday evening on CNN.
Let's play it.
Hey there, Laura. Look, Donald Trump
might be trying to downplay voters
concerns about affordability, but I'm
here to tell you that is a ginormous
error. It may be an error that goes down
in political infamy. Why do I say that?
Well, the reason Donald Trump was
elected was to fix the problem of
inflation. Right? Back in October of
2024, who was more trust in inflation?
It was Donald Trump by nine points over
Kla Harris. But look at where we are
today. Donald Trump is underwater with
the Titanic when it comes to inflation.
His net approval rating is 26 points
underwater. My goodness gracious. Now, I
know Donald Trump, when things aren't
going his way, wants to pass the
political buck. He might try and throw
it back at Joe Biden's face, the former
president. That, simply put, will not
work. The American people don't buy it.
Because get this, more responsible for
the current economy, Trump or Biden,
we're talking 54%, the clear majority of
voters say Donald Trump's more
responsible for the current economy than
just 20 21% who say Joe Biden. I will
note, I've seen this in poll after poll
after poll, more folks saying Trump is
responsible than Biden. Now, of course,
it's one thing if voters don't like the
state of the economy, but it's another
thing when they don't think that Donald
Trump actually gives a hoot. And we see
that in the polling because take a look
here. Trump attention to lowering costs,
not enough. We're talking about three
and four Americans, 75% overall who say
Trump's not paying enough attention to
lowering costs. And even among
Republicans, that solid Republican base
who oftent times approves of Trump's job
by 85 90%. 57% of them say that Trump's
not paying enough attention to lowering
costs. Now, we're talking about Trump.
He of course at least constitutionally
can't run for another term but his
Republican party is up in the midterm
elections. They should be scared. Sh
blank blank blank list. I mean and look
here are the things that he was saying
in this Laura Ingram interview. I got to
show you the receipts. I have to show
this to you because it's critical that
we show you his exact words. Here's
where he says Americans are not talented
enough to do jobs in the United States.
So we need foreign workers. Let's play
this clip.
There's never going to be a country like
what we have right now. The Republicans
have to talk about it long.
And does that mean the H-1B visa thing
will not be a big priority for your
administration? Because if you want to
raise wages for American workers, you
can't flood the country with with tens
of thousands or hundreds of thousands of
foreign workers.
You also do have to bring in talent when
a country talented people. No, you
don't. No, you don't. We don't have
talented people. No, you don't have you
don't have certain talents and you have
to people have to learn. You can't take
people off an unemployment like an
unemployment line and say, "I'm going to
put you into a factory. We're going to
make missiles or I'm gonna put
How do we ever do it before?"
Well, let me I'll give you an example.
In Georgia,
they raided because they wanted illegal
immigrants out.
They had people from from South Korea
that made batteries all their lives. You
know, making batteries are very
complicated. It's not a easy thing. It's
very dangerous. A lot of explosions, a
lot of problems. They had like five or
six hundred people early stages to make
batteries and to teach people how to do
it.
Well, they wanted them to get out of the
country. You're going to need that,
Laura. I mean, I know you and I disagree
on this. You can't just say, uh, a
country's coming in going to invest $10
billion to build a plant and going to
take people off an unemployment line who
haven't worked in 5 years and they're
going to start making missiles. It
doesn't work that way. And here's where
Donald Trump in that same interview says
that our universities need to be filled
with Chinese students and non-American
students. Let's play this clip.
A lot of MAGA folks um are not thrilled
about this idea of hundreds of thousands
of foreign students in the United
States. Um we have about 350,000
Chinese. One point during CO you were
going to, you know, push to, you know,
get them out, but um that was pulled
back. You've said as many as 600,000
Chinese students could come to the
United States. Why sir is that a pro
MAGA position when so many American kids
want to go to school and there are
places not for them and these
universities are getting rich off
Chinese money.
Sure. Uh never said about China but I we
do have a lot of people coming in from
China. We always have uh China and other
countries. We also have a massive system
of colleges and universities. And if we
were to cut that in half, which perhaps
makes some people happy, you would have
half the colleges in the United States
go out of business.
For what?
Well, I think that's a big deal.
Are they fancy?
You would have the United States.
Yeah. But you would have, as you know,
historically, black colleges and
universities would all be out of
business. That you would have a system
of colleges uh and universities would
depend on China to keep our university
system. I think it's good to have I
actually think it's good to have outside
uh countries. Look, I want to be able to
get along with the world.
They're not the French. They're the
Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our
intellectual property.
Do you think the French are better?
Yeah.
Really? I don't know. I'll tell you.
Like, so no wonder when these MAGA
Republican uh Congress members finally
hold town halls like Congresswoman Mary
Miller Meeks in Iowa's first
congressional district, they just get
booed. Here, watch this. Farmers are
suffering from high info costs which
occurred when we had record high
inflation under the Biden
administration.
I
mean, by the way, even the top Trump
MAGA influencer type people like this
guy Grant Cardone, this MAGA guy, he's
running ads saying we're going to a
recession and that he'll help you with
real estate during the recession. Here,
play this clip.
Hey, real estate investors, big heads
up. Don't tell anybody, but I'm going to
show you how to get in the real estate
game. We're going into a recession.
Seriously, this is going to be the
biggest opportunity in your lifetime to
invest in real estate, retail,
residential, and office is going to
provide you with big opportunities. I'm
going to show you exactly how to get
started.
Now, while all that's going on, Donald
Trump still says that prices are going
down and that Republicans are not
messaging this the right way, that
Republicans just need to tell people
that everything's affordable. Here, play
this clip.
The Republicans don't talk about it.
Yeah. So they need to do a better job on
Capital Hill.
The Democrats give false talk and the
Republicans are and I say it all the
time. Republicans have to talk about the
fact that prices are down. The Walmart
thing is very important. When Walmart
says a Thanksgiving meal cost 25% less
under Trump than under Biden, that I
mean to me that's better than
So Republicans need to spend more time
talking about how great the country is
and less time complaining about the
Democrats. We have potentially the
greatest economy in the history of our
country.
And then you have Donald Trump's
transportation secretary, uh Shawn from
the real world and the real world road
rules challenge.
He says, "I can't guarantee your
safety." You have one job. He says, "I
cannot guarantee safety." As the
transportation secretary here, play this
clip.
Um listen, you could walk outside. I
can't guarantee your safety. You get in
your car. Sorry, I can't I mean I can't
guarantee safety, but I have to look at
the risk in this system and then we have
to make decisions based on that risk and
based on that pressure. As Jeb Feain
writes, who could have predicted that
the guy from MTV's real world for
Secretary of Transportation would go
badly. I don't know, maybe we shouldn't
have Shawn from the Real World running
the Transportation Department. You can't
make this stuff up, folks. And let me
just show you this and I'll leave you
with this. Congresswoman, I'm sorry.
Here's what she says at the
congressional hearings last night before
the vote on the continuing resolution.
Play this clip.
So, I have amendments at the desk.
First, to guarantee that the American
people are not forced to subsidize
Donald Trump's $350 million ballroom, a
private palace where his billionaire
donors will be rewarded with access and
influence. These amendments also require
complete transparency on which
corporations and ultra-wealthy
individuals are financing this project
and what they are receiving in return.
Second, to ensure that this bill cannot
take effect until ACA premium tax
credits are renewed because when, if and
when they expire, premiums will
skyrocket and people will lose health
care. The corruption and heartlessness
of these policies must end. I urge the
committee to support these amendments in
order for us to have a real debate on
protecting American families and on
restoring trust in government that
Donald Trump is dismantling. I yield
back.
And then here is what Democratic
Congress member McGovern, the ranking
Democrat on the rules committee said.
Let's play it.
Well, hello Madam Chair. Um, welcome
back.
Hello.
Long time no see. I hardly recognize you
guys. Where the hell have you been? Uh,
it's good to see you back on Cap back in
the Capitol building. We've been looking
everywhere for you guys. I mean,
seriously, we were worried. We actually
started handing out missing person
posters. Nobody has seen you for 8
weeks. But hey, I'm glad that you're
okay. I'm glad that you survived your
nice two-month paid vacation while
Democrats stayed in Washington to try to
end this shutdown. There you have it,
folks. There you have it. By the way,
Virginia Fox, the lady you heard
interrupt Congresswoman on, sorry,
remember back in the day where she was
like yelling at the reporter, "Shut up.
Shut up." Yeah, that's the shut up lady.
Very thin skinned these MAGA
Republicans. Go on the offense. Be
powerful. Be strong, Democrats. You know
what to do. Hit subscribe. Let's get to
6 million. Thanks so much. Thanks for
watching. Be sure to add the Midas Touch
podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or
wherever you get your podcast for new
updates every single day.

[admin]

RED ALERT: 20k Leaked Epstein Emails EXPOSE Trump's COVER-UP for Israel
Danny Haiphong
Nov 13, 2025

Danny Haiphong reviews the full leaked Epstein emails, over 20,000 released by the House Oversight Committee, and reviews how the most damaging of these emails have been ignored, until this video. What do these emails reveal about Trump, Epstein, Israel and the world? Find out here.