Today in Politics, Bulletin 175. 7/21/25

… NJ US Attorney Alina Habba faces judgment day tomorrow, as her 120-day interim appointment expires and she doesn’t have the votes to get confirmed by the Senate. Under a fed statute, the district judges must vote on whether to keep her in the post or replace her with their own choice until Trump nominates someone else. The problem for Habba, besides being unqualified and unfit, is that 15 of the 17 judges voting for her NJ district are Democratic appointees.

… NYT published a scathing story that morale in her office has cratered in the short period of time Habba has been on the job. She dissolved the Civil Rights Division of the office, criminally charged the Mayor of Newark then was forced to drop the charges weeks later, and met with defense attorneys on a serious investment fraud case without notifying or inviting the career prosecutors handling the case to the meeting.

… Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has a lawsuit pending against her for false arrest and malicious prosecution.

… Career prosecutors also told the Times that their main conference room is now adorned with three large framed pictures of Habba.

… House Dem Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged judges with a social media post to vote against Habba, which led to attacks from her supporters. MAGA lawyer Mike Davis: “House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries is corruptly strong-arming 17 NJ US district judges - including 15 Obama and Biden judges - to fire New Jersey US Attorney Alina Habba tomorrow at 10 AM. Article3 Project just filed a House ethics complaint against Hakeem.”

… Deputy AG Todd Blanche, who was Habba’s co-counsel in Trump’s criminal cases: “In light of the smear campaign, it’s worth repeating: Alina Habba has the full confidence of DOJ leadership because she’s doing the job - aggressively, independently, and by the book. The district judges should not be swayed by political noise. Keep her in place.”

… If they vote to remove her, they would have to choose a replacement to run the office on an interim basis. However, Trump could then immediately fire whoever they appoint.

… Politico: “Tarini Parti, a WH reporter for the WSJ, had been scheduled to serve as the print pooler for the final 2 days of Trump’s 4-day trip to his golf courses in Turnberry and Aberdeen, Scotland. But the WH, which earlier this year took over control of pool rotations from the WH Correspondents’ Assn, removed her from the trip manifest.”

… WSJ is now apparently banned because of their recent story connecting Trump to Epstein with his signed birthday card message, which has resulted in Trump suing the paper and owner Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News.

… Press Sec Karoline Leavitt: “As the appeals court confirmed, the WSJ or any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces. Due to the WSJ’s fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the 13 outlets on board. Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the WH has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.”

… Trump’s lawsuit against the WSJ and Rupert Murdoch was assigned to Judge Darrin Gayles, who was appointed by Barack Obama. I’m sure Trump will be cool with it.

… Trump urged his followers to watch Mark Levin’s show on Fox but did not say why. This is how Levin started off the show: “We better be united. We can’t waste our time on Epstein and other stuff going on here that some people want us to focus on.”

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA) wasn’t happy: “If you tell the base of people who support you about deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People. If not, the base will turn on you and there’s no going back. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.”

… Speaker Mike Johnson says he will not bring the bipartisan resolution to release the Epstein files sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to the floor before the August recess. It is supported by at least 7 Republicans including Greene, so is certain to pass if it gets a vote.

… CNN’s Manu Raju asked Johnson today why he won’t bring it to the floor before September: “My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing.” Raju: So no vote on this before the August recess? Johnson: “No.”

… FL Gov Ron Desantis went on Fox to call for Trump to release the Epstein files: “What I would say is release it and let people see. I think there's a desire for justice because Epstein and Maxwell did not just do this amongst themselves, there were obviously other people involved but no one's been brought to justice.”

… Michael Wolff, who wrote a bestseller chronicling Trump’s first term, to Meidas: “Epstein would often recount his experiences with women - pursuing women - with Trump. At one point in their relationship, they even shared a girlfriend for, I think, the better part of a year. In fact, Epstein regarded Trump’s behavior with women as, somehow, even worse than his own.”

… Wolff said he was baffled by Trump supporters calling for the Epstein files to be released: “The person most implicated by his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein is Donald Trump. So how the MAGA crowd got this so wrong is baffling. Because what they would actually see, if everything came out, is the relationship between Epstein and the central figure in their lives.”

… Karoline Leavitt was asked today for an update on Trump’s statement last week that it is ok with him for AG Pam Bondi to release the files: “The President has said if the DOJ/FBI want to move forward with releasing any credible evidence, they should do so. As to why they have not - you should ask the FBI.”

… Politico: “GOP leaders have an understanding with WH officials that the House will wait to address the matter until after the month-long break in order to give the admin time to release documents on its own following Trump’s move to release grand jury info on the case. Massie and Khanna are seeking a vote on this measure through a discharge petition, a procedural maneuver that allows members to bypass leadership to force a vote on the House floor if it receives 218 signatures. The effort is quickly picking up steam.”

… NBC: “A previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X is using AI to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump admin. But with the MAGA movement split over the admin’s handling of files involving deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the accounts’ messaging has broken, offering contradictory statements on the issue - revealing the AI-fueled nature of the accounts.”

… “The network, tracked for NBC News by both the social media analytics company Alethea and researchers at Clemson Univ, consists of more than 400 identified bot accounts, though the number could be far larger, the researchers say. Its accounts offer consistent praise for key Trump figures, particularly support for HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. and press secretary Karoline Leavitt.”

… Fox continues to push the Tulsi Gabbard hoax that Obama committed treason to divert MAGA’s attention away from Epstein. Media Matters: “Mentions on Fox this weekend: Epstein - 63. Obama - 129.”

… Levin’s guest was Speaker Mike Johnson, who said this: “The Republican Party is the party of fiscal responsibility and we are demonstrating that day after day.”

… The Republican Party just passed a budget that raised the debt ceiling by an additional $5 trillion to $41.1 trillion. I pray that Democrats run on debt and fiscal responsibility as part of their midterms playbook. This is an issue that Republicans are now polling very poorly on with independent voters, and although Dems are typically focused on other issues this is teed up perfectly for them if they want to take a swing at it.

… Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) on Fox: “We are $37 trillion in debt. It’s not just fiscally irresponsible, it is morally irresponsible and I'm so grateful to President Trump and his leadership for saying the buck stops with me and we’re starting to rein this in.”

… They just passed a budget with the largest deficits in history by far. This after exploding the deficit in Trump’s first term to unprecedented levels. Democrats can’t let Republicans seize this issue with lies while they only focus on other issues. This needs to be part of the platform.

… Bloomberg reported on the ongoing trade negotiations between the EU and US: “With the Aug 1 deadline looming, the US is now seen pushing for a near-universal tariff on EU goods higher than 10%, with increasingly fewer exemptions limited to aviation, some medical devices and generic medicines, several spirits, and a specific set of manufacturing equipment that the US needs.”

… New CBS News/YouGov poll: 55% believe the economy is getting worse under Trump, 60% disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, and 64% disapproving of his handling of inflation. 62% believe Trump's policies are making the cost of groceries go up and 60% oppose tariffs.

Despite Trump’s many attempts to distract and divert attention away from Epstein, we will not stop writing and posting about it. One of the unique things about my X account, which has over 1 million followers, is that so many of them are Republican politicians, Fox and Newsmax hosts/producers/reporters, and MAGA influencers with huge accounts.

Even though my account is relentless attacks on Trump and his minions, I suppose they like to keep tabs on what I am doing and look for an opportunity to troll me. Which is fine with me because that also allows me to put anything in front of them that I want from time to time, which I have found very useful over the years.

Thanks again for supporting my work. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… The DNC had its best-ever June for grassroots donations in an off-year in history, raising $8.6 million. The DNC has raised over $50 million since the start of the year. Democrats also saw record breaking grassroots support, with over 30,000 volunteer sign-ups in the first 6 months; the most ever this early in an election cycle. The RNC