All The Day’s News That Fits

 Despite how it might appear, I haven’t paid much attention to the Epstein business. But, holy crap!

… Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman: “The House floor is frozen because House Republicans are rebelling against Speaker Johnson’s strategy for dealing with the Epstein Files. The Rules Committee is supposed to hold the line for the leadership and vote down any Democratic amendments. But they are unwilling to kill Epstein amendments, which means Johnson's leadership team cannot bring anything to the floor.”

… “Johnson is caught between a House Republican Conference that is wary about voting against Epstein related measures and a president who wants nothing to do with revisiting the sordid episode. Massie’s discharge petition will ripen in Sept. So the WH/DOJ have some time to try to quell Rs concerns. Meanwhile, this week has largely turned into a waste.”

… “Johnson has said that he will wait until Aug to give the Trump admin time to get these docs out. So now it's on the Trump admin. if they don’t do anything in the next month, Johnson won't be able to do anything about action on Massie/Khanna in the House. If Trump admin puts something out that satisfies Rs, there's a chance they can kill the discharge petition. The WH isn’t doing anything really to help House Rs. Why? I assume because they think House Rs will fold for Trump and take bullets for him, because they always do.”

… Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to Fox: “Isn't it Interesting that it takes conspiracy theories on a conspiracy to shut down the US House of Representatives. Shows you how deep this admin is in these conspiracy theories.”

… Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) to Fox: “Certainly the Epstein one seems to be, topic du jour. We've got to get past that so that we can get on to the work of Congress. I leave that decision up to the Speaker. I'm not in charge here. I do think that we have to come to some sort of resolution sooner rather than later. We cannot let this drag on.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) who filed the bipartisan bill on Epstein with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to Fox on why Trump keeps attacking him: “Dogs don't bark at parked cars, right? This bill is moving. This is coming to a vote. We've got enough Republican co-sponsors of the bill, twice as many as we need right now, such that when they sign it and every Democrat signs this, we're going to force a vote on it. It's not going away.”

… Johnson to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN): “The discharge petition is a political ploy. The Democrats are playing games with this. They want to try to damage the president. They want to go after President Trump. They want to put speed bumps in the way of all the progress we're making and they see here a political opportunity.”

… Massie: “You don't lose your base over one single thing, but Johnson's eroding his base. More importantly, if we don't take the right side of this issue, it's going to cost us votes in the midterms. People are becoming despondent. They're apathetic. Why would they go vote if they gave us the House, the Senate and the WH and the transparency and justice they were promised doesn't happen?”

… Massie to NOTUS on Johnson: “I think this is the referendum on his leadership. Who's he going to pick? Is he going to pick the pedophiles and the underage sex traffickers, or is he going to pick the American people and justice for the victims?”

… Johnson was asked about Massie’s comments: “I don’t understand how Thomas Massie’s mind works.”

… Dem Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) to Fox: During the Biden admin, I talked about the Epstein files, and I noted that Trump was all over the Epstein files that were already released. There's multiple pictures of Trump and Epstein. There's multiple videos. There are bizarre quotes from Trump about Epstein. There are plane logs of Trump on Epstein's plane. And now we know there's his creepy birthday card. Trump is all over the Epstein files.”

Johnson really has lost the House; far more than I’d realized. Which means Trump has lost it, too.

And then there’s the wild accusations against Obama:

… NBC’s Garrett Haake: “President Trump says DNI has proof of President Obama ‘treasonous’ acts re: 2016. If true, that evidence would've been missed by a bipartisan Senate Intel Committee investigation, Trump 1.0 DOJ, Special Counsels Mueller and Durham, survived through 4 years of Biden, then were found in less than 6 months by Gabbard.”

...Conservative National Review editor Andy McCarthy: “Do Trump intel officials speak with each other? Does Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI, read the reports generated by the CIA? There is good reason to wonder. Gabbard urges DOJ to prosecute Obama officials - again, nothing new here (except she’s contradicted by what the Trump CIA found just the week before).”

… Right-wing podcaster Matt Walsh: “Trump is making a bunch of posts on Truth Social showing Obama and others in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs. Gabbard is doing a bunch of Fox hits and posting threads on Twitter. All that is fine, but none of that matters if they fail to actually make arrests. Barack Obama himself should be in handcuffs. You cannot allege a treasonous conspiracy and then do nothing about it.”

… Walsh: “If I seem a bit cynical, it’s because the typical pattern by Republicans is to make these claims on social media but never in a court of law, and I’m tired of it. Funny memes and outraged soundbites on Fox are not going to cut it anymore.”
' … Speaker Johnson told CBN that the House might bring Obama in for a deposition: "If it's uncomfortable for him, he shouldn't have been involved in overseeing this, which is what it appears to us has happened.”

Obama, uncomfortable? I’d reconnect cable if I could see it live on C-SPAN. Obama would eat those clowns for lunch and pick his teeth with their bones.

And then there’s the new information coming out:

… But more incriminating details just keep coming out every day. People: “A former employee of Trump claimed in a new interview that the president and Jeffrey Epstein were once caught bringing girls into Trump's casino who were not old enough to gamble. The WH denies the allegations. Jack O’Donnell, who oversaw the Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino for 4 years in the 1980s, spoke with CNN about the president's friendship with the late billionaire.”

… “One alleged instance stood out to the former casino boss. He claimed that one night in the late 1980s, Trump and Epstein visited Trump Plaza with 3 women and brought them onto the casino floor despite them being under 21. O'Donnell said he found out about the incident the following day, when state casino commission inspectors were waiting for him in his office. An inspector, it seems, had identified one of the girls with Trump and Epstein as ‘the No. 3-ranked tennis player in the world.’”

… "He happened to be a tennis fan and he said, 'Jack, I know she’s 19 years old.' They had determined that the women that they brought down were underage to be in the casino. I did tell him in that conversation, 'I don’t think you should be hanging out with this guy, just so you know, and you certainly shouldn’t be doing that in Atlantic City.'"

… "In my mind, Epstein was his best friend throughout the time I was there for 4 years,” O’Donnell said, noting that the pair "frequently" came to Trump's casino together.

And the very convincing and professional response of the White House:

… WH Comms Director Steven Cheung was asked by People about O’Donnell’s allegations: “Jack O'Donnell is a stone cold loser who is a liar and fraud. This is completely fabricated story from his warped imagination as he suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his pea-sized brain.”

And speaking of professionalism and maturity:

Alina Habba was ousted from her position as US Attorney for NJ after a 17-judge panel voted to remove her since her interim appointment expired and she doesn’t have the votes to be confirmed by the Senate. Habba blamed Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who urged judges to reject her: “I believe in separation of powers and you are not allowed to influence or try to influence the judiciary and fed judges. It is inappropriate and obstruction and it is wrong. The separation of powers is so important because it prevents tyranny.”

… The judges then appointed First Assistant US Attorney and Republican Desiree Grace to fill Habba’s position, a seasoned fed prosecutor with deep legal experience and a resume that couldn’t be more different from Habba’s media-centric profile. Grace has served in the US Attorney’s office since 2016, led the criminal division, clerked for NJ Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner and Third Circuit Judge Morton Greenberg.

… Pam Bondi then announced that Desiree Grace was removed from her position: Alina Habba has been doing a great job in making NJ safe again. Nonetheless, politically minded judges refused to allow her to continue in her position, replacing Alina with the First Assistant. Accordingly, the First Assistant US Attorney in NJ has just been removed. This DOJ does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the President’s core Article II powers.”

Shorter DOJ: “If we can’t have our U.S. attorney, nobody can have one!” And morale in the NJ office sinks even lower.

These people really have no fucking idea what government is or what they should be doing.