Joan Walsh The victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell’s sex-trafficking scheme are increasingly banding together—and could wind up outing more famous Epstein customers on their own. The post Sisterhood Could Be Powerful appeared first on The Nation.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she got “a lot” of pushback from the White House over supporting a discharge petition aiming to force the administration to release all of the documents related to late, disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Oh, I got a lot of pushback. I got phone call after…
House Democrats—with unexpected help from a handful of Republicans—blocked a GOP effort Wednesday to censure Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey and to boot her from the Homeland Security Committee. The push came after GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana introduced a privileged resolution Tuesday, forcing a quick vote. Higgins argued that it’s a “significant conflict of interest” for McIver to serve on a committee overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement while she faces federal charges related to an altercation with immigration officers. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey With Republicans holding a razor-thin majority in the House, the measure had a real shot at passing—a move that would’ve further squeezed McIver ahead of her November trial on charges that carry sentences of up to eight years. But in a surprise twist, the House voted 215-207 to table the resolution, with five Republicans breaking ranks and two voting “present.” McIver, who pleaded not guilty in June, has called the prosecution political retribution aimed at silencing dissent against President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. The charges stem from a tense May 9 visit to the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall detention facility, where McIver and colleagues clashed with federal officers as Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trespassing. (The trespassing charge was later dropped, and Baraka is now suing interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba—a Trump appointee who was later found to be serving illegally—for “malicious prosecution.”) McIver maintains that she was the one who was assaulted during the incident, and in a statement Tuesday night, she accused Higgins of using the censure to score political points. Supporters of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka rally outside the courthouse before his court appearance. “We were all elected to do the people’s work. I take that responsibility seriously—Clay Higgins clearly does not. Instead of making life any better for the people he represents, he’s seeking to punish me for doing what he and his caucus are too cowardly to do: conduct real oversight, stand up to this administration, and do our jobs,” McIver said in a statement. “If House Republicans think they can make me run scared, they’re wrong.” And on Wednesday, she doubled down. “It’s pathetic. At the end of the day, it’s not going to stop me from doing my job,” she said. “I’m going to continue to provide oversight.” Other Democrats are punching back, too. Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York, who also serves as Congressional Black Caucus chair, introduced her own privileged resolution to censure GOP Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, who faces a string of controversies—including allegedly threatening to release intimate photos of a former partner. Unlike the GOP’s unsuccessful resolution against McIver, Clarke’s effort does not call for Mills’ removal. Republican leaders dismissed the move as a stunt. “The motion against McIver is something that a lot of the members here feel passionately about,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, arguing that McIver’s pending trial “seems to be a bit of a conflict for her to continue to serve on that committee.” But Democrats counter that this is part of a larger pattern. Republicans have repeatedly targeted Democrats who challenge Trump or his allies. In March, GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington pushed a resolution to censure Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas for protesting during Trump’s speech to Congress—and it passed. Sen. Alex Padilla of California is pushed out of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference on June 12. For perspective, the House has censured just 28 members in its history—nearly a third of which happened in the last four years. What was once a rarely used punishment has become a partisan weapon, forcing lawmakers to stand in the well of the House as their condemnation is read aloud. Stripping lawmakers of committee assignments is even newer territory. When Democrats were in power in 2021, they removed GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona for promoting violent rhetoric—setting a precedent that the GOP is now eager to use in return. McIver’s case is shaping up as a stress test for how far Trump’s allies will go to punish critics—and how far Democrats are willing to push back. Meanwhile, most Republicans are laser-focused on punishing dissent while ignoring other major issues. Just this week, Trump waved away questions about the release of the Epstein files, while House leaders teed up floor time to censure a Democrat whose trial hasn’t even begun. Federal officers have also been harassing lawmakers, like Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who was shoved out of a Homeland Security press conference. For Democrats, the message is clear: If you defy Trump, you risk becoming a political example.
PoliticusUSA is real independent news that speaks out for democracy. You can join us by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now Donald Trump has one philosophy as president, and that is the president has unlimited power that allows the Executive Branch to do whatever it wants. Trump and his administration don’t acknowledge the limits of power, and their motto is act first, get sued later. This reckless philosophy continues to lead to illegal actions. Because what Trump and his administration are doing in many cases is illegal, it would be foolish for any company, organization, or academic institution to either bribe Trump or pay his extortion demands. Harvard University stood up to Trump and took him to court over the administration’s freeze of $200 billion in funds to the university, and today, Harvard won. Video clip of Mary McCord and Mark Elias on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House: McCord said, “They won here and it appears they won pretty big. Just like the law firms who challenged the blacklisting. They won and they won big. And it just shows there is real power to standing up against unconstitutional actions and actions that violate congressional statutes. That’s what we should be doing, and that’s what lots of people are doing and lots of people who are doing it are winning. Mark Elias, I would say all of the people that are doing it are winning.” Are Those Paying Off Trump Victims Or Collaborators? Read more
Chris Lehmann The president’s targeting the Federal Reserve governor over a technicality is blatantly politically motivated. The post Trump’s Attempt to Fire Lisa Cook From the Fed Is a Naked Power Play appeared first on The Nation.
The outbreak has impacted 14 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chris Lehmann The president’s targeting the Federal Reserve governor over a technicality is blatantly politically motivated. The post Trump’s Attempt to Fire Lisa Cook From the Fed Is a Naked Power Play appeared first on The Nation.
Indiana and Tennessee opted out of Summer EBT, which gives families grocery support when schools close for summer. By Bryce Covert for ProPublica Last year, Stephanie Couch had some help getting through the summer months when her two daughters, ages 11 and 14, were out of school. Both girls receive free breakfast and lunch at school, but those meals disappear during the summer. In 2024, the Tennessee resident received Summer EBT — short for electronic benefit transfer — which loads $120 for each child onto a card that parents can use to buy groceries to fill that gap. “It meant a lot,” she said. She was able to buy all of the fruits and vegetables her growing children needed. This summer looks different: While last year Tennessee and Indiana joined the Summer EBT program, also known as SUN Bucks, this year their Republican governors chose to opt out of the federal program. That left Couch with a lot less money. Some nights, meat was off the table; other times, dinner was just ramen. She’s skipped both meals and bills to get through the summer, sometimes not paying her electricity bill in full or paying her rent late. Her girls have noticed that there’s less food in the house. “When we don’t get nothing to eat, they know,” she said. Related | Red states are embracing all the evil policies of Trump Couch, a single mother, works full time as a custodian on the Fort Campbell army base. “I’m not just laying around just waiting on a hand out. I work,” she said. “But I don’t make enough to really cover everything.” She called her governor’s decision not to participate in Summer EBT this year “wrong,” adding, “How can they not feed the kids?” In 2020, Congress created Pandemic EBT, a program that sent the parents of children who receive free and reduced-price school meals up to $120 per child, paid for entirely by the federal government, while schools were remote and, after in-person school resumed, during the summer break. Summer EBT, the first new federal food program created in decades, was meant to step in once that program ended to keep money flowing to families during the summer months when their children don’t get fed at school, but states had to opt in and cover half of the cost of administration. Last year was its first year, and 13 states, all with Republican governors, decided not to participate. Indiana and Tennessee weren’t among them. But this year they reversed course and decided to join those states sitting it out. Capital & Main reached out to the governors of both states, as well as the agencies that administered last year’s programs, but did not hear back before publication. In a statement provided to NBC News, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee described the Summer EBT program as a pandemic-era program, when in fact it grew out of a USDA pilot program launched in 2011. The USDA’s evaluation found the money reduced food insecurity among American children by a fifth. Tennessee even participated in it in its final year in 2018. Lee also said the program was “mostly duplicative” because other programs, like the Summer Food Service Program, already existed. That program typically serves free meals to kids at specific sites, but only about one in six eligible children receive meals through it. Couch, for example, works from midday until as late as 11 p.m. on some nights, leaving no time to take her children there. The existing programs “are not enough to serve the families who need support during the summertime,” said Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy at the legal nonprofit Tennessee Justice Center. Some Tennessee counties don’t have any summer meal programs; those that do don’t always operate every day and may open in the middle of a work day. Less than 65,000 Tennessee children participated in summer lunch programs in 2023, compared to the 700,000 children served by Summer EBT last year. Janice Cleveland’s 17-year-old granddaughter is one of the 700,000 served last year who now isn’t receiving any food assistance. Last summer, Cleveland, who gets by on disability insurance and Social Security income, was able to pay her bills and have enough to feed her granddaughter thanks to Summer EBT. But this year she was confused when the benefits didn’t show up. She called the number on the back of her card and was told her state wasn’t offering the program. “That was a big blow,” she said, adding that she hasn’t been able to afford soap and other necessities. She is unable to take advantage of the pre-selected food at summer meal sites given that she’s diabetic and has a sensitive stomach and has to be very careful about what she eats. Stories of families losing access to food are widespread. “We’ve heard from parents who haven’t been able to pay [their] bills,” Anderson said. “We often hear from parents who skip meals so their kids can eat during the summer time.” Instead of participating in Summer EBT, Tennessee created its own program to send one-time $120 payments to 25,000 students in just 15 counties at a cost of $3 million. Running Summer EBT statewide, officials estimated, would have cost about $4 million, though that bill could have been smaller if the state had applied for a $1.1 million federal grant to cover administrative costs. “The economics of it doesn’t make sense when the state could have reached 700,000 kids across the state,” Anderson said. “It feels almost cruel to do something so limited when you know you could be serving so many more kids.” Cost may have been a reason that Indiana Gov. Mike Braun didn’t participate in Summer EBT this year, given the state’s $2 billion projected shortfall. But, argued Mark Lynch, director of advocacy at the Indy Hunger Network, the $3.7 million cost was dwarfed by the roughly $80 million in Summer EBT benefits residents would have received and spent. Indiana Governor Mike Braun is joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet
Immigration and Customs Enforcement held a hiring expo this week outside Dallas at a place called the Esports Stadium. Set between the Texas Rangers ballpark and the roller coasters of Six Flags, the arena was built for video-game competitions, and a wall of bright-blue screens welcomed job candidates at the entrance. “With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland and our values,” one message read. “Start your journey towards a meaningful career in law enforcement.” Inside the cavernous main hall, organizers had parked a shiny Mustang with stenciled lettering that read Defend the Homeland. A blinding 90-foot-wide LED display at the center of the stage was lit up with the ICE logo and recruitment slogans. The setup resembled a poker tournament or an ESPN draft night, lending a whiff of excitement and opportunity. ICE’s pitch for meaning and purpose seemed to draw in many of the applicants I met. Some were military veterans with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who told me they longed for the camaraderie and sense of belonging they once had. Others said they were bored, or wanted to serve the country, or fill a hole in their life left by a failed marriage or the creeping regrets they felt in middle age after screwing up in their 20s. Chris Freese, 34, who works in elevator repair, told me he wished he had joined the military after high school like his brother, who became an explosives expert in the Army. “I’ll do anything to help secure the country,” said Freese, who wore a T-shirt and cap emblazoned with the American flag, but had forgotten to bring his résumé. “If I don’t make it this time, I’ll keep trying,” he told me. [Nick Miroff: Fast times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement] The Trump administration plans to hire, train, and deploy 10,000 new ICE officers by the beginning of next year, a frantic pace that would nearly triple the current workforce. The Department of Homeland Security is set to spend more than $40 million in the next several months on ICE recruitment, even as the department says it’s already received 130,000 applications. ICE had advertised same-day offers to qualified candidates, especially those with prior military service or law-enforcement experience, and a $50,000 bonus to sweeten the pot. In the parking lot were license plates from New Mexico, Tennessee, and as far away as New Jersey. Hundreds of applicants began lining up before the doors opened at 8 a.m., many in suits, with résumés and diplomas in hand. A small group of protesters began to gather across the roadway, yelling “Shame!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, ICE has got to go!,” but attendees in line mostly turned away. Wandering the expo felt like walking through the set of a game show, a kind of speed dating for deportation jobs: After an on-the-spot interview, some got offers immediately and were sent to provide urine samples for drug testing, while others had to sit and wait for their name to be called. ICE planned to issue 900 tentative-offer letters to new recruits by the end of the two-day expo. They would need a medical screening, a fitness test, and a background check. But those selected could start at the ICE academy within four to six weeks, ICE officials told me. The majority of applicants were male, but it was an otherwise diverse crowd, both in age and ethnicity, and certainly not the kind of all-white Trump army that some of the president’s fiercest critics have caricatured. I traveled to Texas because I wanted to hear what the new recruits thought they were signing up for, and what ICE was telling them the job would be like. “ICE career expos are an opportunity for patriotic Americans who want to help remove the worst of the worst from our country,” the DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told me in an emailed statement. The job-fair attendees I spoke with said the defend-the-homeland message and Donald Trump’s presidency were big draws. “I want to stand up for my beliefs and protect America from foreign invaders,” Brennan Sheets, 30, told me. “I’d like to be there for others who can’t defend themselves. God is pushing me down this path.” Sheets, an Army veteran who has been working for a carpet-cleaning company, said he and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter. The February 2024 murder of Laken Riley in Georgia by a Venezuelan man who was illegally in the country—which became a rallying cry among Trump supporters—“hurt my heart,” he told me. He was offered a job that afternoon. Sheets was one of 15 applicants I spoke with at the expo. Some provided only a first name, saying they hadn’t told their current employer, or even some of their close family members, including parents or siblings who dislike Trump and ICE. I asked Sheets what he thought it would be like to arrest families and face children crying while ICE hauls off their parents. He paused. “I’m good at compartmentalizing my emotions. I believe that I can make difficult decisions that I need to make,” he said. “Life isn’t all about love and rainbows.” Trump’s funding bill set a goal of 1 million deportations a year. Despite a fourfold increase in immigration arrests in U.S. cities and communities, ICE is not on pace to meet that goal, with the latest data showing the agency on track for about 300,000 deportations during the 2025 fiscal year, which ends in September. The hiring surge will put Trump in position next year to deploy teams in far more Democratic-led “sanctuary” cities that limit police cooperation with ICE. [Listen: How ICE became Trump’s secret army] ICE has about 5,700 deportation officers nationwide. New entry-level jobs will pay roughly $70,000 to $90,000 a year, including overtime and cost-of-living adjustments, officials told me. Within Department of Homeland Security agencies, mass-hiring binges are viewed warily, and the rapid expansion of the U.S. Border Patrol a generation ago
PoliticusUSA is news for all Americans who believe in truth. Please support our work by becoming a subscriber. Subscribe now On Fox News, Vice President JD Vance had a simple reason why housing prices are so expensive. Vance didn’t blame consumer demand outstripping supply, or the fact that America has not been building enough homes, or the aftershocks from the pandemic that are lingering in parts of the economy. JD Vance, who is apparently learning at the knee of Donald Trump, blamed interest rates and immigrants. Vance said: You gotta understand the root causes here. Why did housing get so unaffordable for American citizens? Two big problems. Number one, I already talked about interest rates were too high. Number two, you had way too many people in this. country who are competing against American citizens for scarce homes, and that’s the illegal immigration problem. Why is housing leveled off over the past six months? I really believe the main driver is you’ve had negative net migration into the United States for the first time in. 60 years in this country, you cannot flood the United States of America. With 20, 30, 40 million people who have no legal right to be here, have them compete against young American families for homes and not expect the price to skyrocket. It’s as simple as supply and demand. You increase the demand, you’re gonna increase. The price. And, and the final thing I wanna say here is, is we’re working on, on, on issues right now in the White House every single day. ’cause we wanna make it easier to build homes too, because in the same way that getting illegal aliens out of this country means fewer people competing against young American families. Blaming immigrants for housing costs is the dumbest and most racist answer imaginable. Read more
