Today in Politics, Bulletin 199. 9/4/25

… RFK Jr had a heated and contentious hearing today while making his first appearance in front of Congress since firings and mass resignations at the CDC left the agency is shambles. RFK Jr, who never led any organization in his life other than a heroin ring that addicted his friends and family members, sounded like Darth Vader breathing into the microphone amid an endless series of twitching, facial tics, and fidgeting.

… RFK Jr was asked about the recent firings: “We are the sickest country in the world. That’s why we have to fire people at CDC. They did not do their job. This was their job to keep us healthy. I need to fire some of those people to make sure this doesn't happen again.”

… Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR): “All over the country. scientists and doctors are saying otherwise. RFK JR: The scientists and doctors are supporting me all over the country.”

… Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO): “Are you aware that one of the people you put on the panel, Dr. Robert Malone, claimed that the commonly used MRNA vaccine causes a form of AIDS? That statement is not true, just as it wasn't true when you wrote that African AIDS is entirely different from western AIDS.”

… Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): “Do you agree with me that the president deserves a Nobel prize for Operation Warp Speed? RFK JR: Absolutely. Cassidy: But you just said that the covid vaccine killed more people than covid.”

… Cassidy: “I would like to submit for the record a evaluation of the conflict of interest of those who are on the ACIP and the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Board. Many of those whom you've nominated have received revenue serving as expert witnesses for plaintiffs attorneys suing vaccine makers.”

… Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) who, like Cassidy, is a doctor: "Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership in the NIH questioning the use of MRNA vaccines, and the recently confirmed director of CDC fired. Americans don't know who to rely on."

… Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA): “Do you accept the fact that 1 million Americans died from covid? RFK Jr: I don't know how many died. WARNER: You're the Secretary of HHS. You don't have any idea how many Americans died from covid? RFK Jr: I don't think anybody knows that because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC. WARNER: How can you be that ignorant?”

… Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA): "You're a charlatan. That's what you are. You’re the one who conflates chronic disease with the need for vaccines. You don’t want to support the evidence that vaccines has reduced many infectious diseases by 99-100%.”

… Wyden: “I'm getting reports that you've said you're going to conduct a complete review of Mifepristone safety, and what we're hearing is it's not based on new clinical trials or data from the scientific community, but on one reviewed paper, that's not a peer reviewed paper, from a political organization and Project 2025 sponsor whose stated mission is to advance an anti-abortion agenda.”

… Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN): “So let me ask you, were you lying when you told this committee that you were not anti-vax or when you told Americans that there's no safe and effective vaccine? RFK JR: Both are true.”

… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) outside the Capitol: “It's like we're living a nightmare. We have conspiracy wackos running our nation's most important health agencies. And people are going to die. This shouldn't be another left/right, red/blue issue. RFK Jr. has to go. And Republicans should just say what they know is true.”

… Rep. Ronny ‘Candyman’ Jackson (R-TX) posted this: “Seeing Senate Democrats attack RFK is DESPICABLE. These same Democrats think it’s ‘healthcare’ to mutilate children with DISGUSTING gender transition surgeries. They have NO RIGHT to lecture ANY of us!!”

… Former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr on Fox: “We poke fun at Democrats when they can’t answer questions but—we have to be consistent. You can't be the HHS secretary and not know the budget for Medicaid, Medicare, or the CDC.”

… WSJ: “More than 1,000 current and former HHS employees called on Kennedy to resign in a letter to the secretary and members of Congress. The letter said the secretary’s actions threaten the nation’s health, citing his involvement in former CDC Director Susan Monarez’s dismissal and his appointment of vaccine skeptics to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, among other reasons.”

… Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): “I don’t have a problem at all focusing on infectious diseases, making sure that we’ve got more epidemiologists in there. We want to have this based on science. Right now, it just doesn’t feel that way.”

… Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to HuffPost: “I guess I need to know why his words at his confirmation hearing aren't matching up with some of the deeds.”

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) to Semafor: “So far, all I see over at CDC is chaos. I mean, it’s a goat rodeo. How’s the average American, who is trying to make a decision, supposed to make a decision based on what’s going on now? We’ve already had this kind of chaos during the pandemic.”

… Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA): “It looks like scientists are getting rolled for his philosophies. The CDC is really in turmoil right now.”

… Cassidy to Semafor: “Who’s making the decisions at the CDC on all these policy issues? If the scientists are gone, is it the political people? If it’s the political people, then where are they getting the information?”

… WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Secretary Kennedy is taking flak because he's over the target. The Trump admin is addressing root causes of chronic disease, embracing transparency in govt, and championing gold-standard science. Only the Democrats could attack that commonsense effort.”

… DOJ Acting Deputy Chief Joseph Schnitt was just recorded on a hidden camera having a lengthy conversation with one of James O’Keefe’s female undercover operatives talking about their handling of the Epstein files. From the video: “They’ll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files and leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files.”

… Fallout from the press conference with the Epstein survivors and Trump’s repulsive comments after continued today. Punchbowl : “Rep. Thomas Massie stood up in the closed party meeting to push Republicans to sign his discharge petition. He also said billionaire friends of the WH are running ads against him in his district because their names are on the Epstein list. Miriam Adelson, Paul Singer and John Paulson are funding an anti-Massie super PAC.”

… Massie on CNN: “Let me give you the name of one the billionaires who’s running $2 million dollars of ads in my district since I started this effort - John Paulson. He is a major donor to the Republican Party, a major donor to the Speaker, a major donor to the president's campaign and he is in Epstein's black book. That’s indicative of the types of people who could be implicated or embarrassed.”

… Massie: “I think the administration did a 180 on this because they discovered that some of their biggest donors and friends would be implicated and/or embarrassed.”

… Rep. Marge Greene (R-GA): “President Trump called it a hoax while these women were speaking out. It's not a hoax, because Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile. One of the Trump admin officials came out and called this press conference a ‘hostile act against the Trump admin’. The hostile act was Jeffrey Epstein raping 14-year-old girls.”

… MAGA influencer Catturd: “Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene on full display. It’s impossible for to hate these two frauds anymore right now. Just the sight of these backstabbing losers, makes me sick at my stomach. MTG is worse - pretending to be on our side, while trying to take Trump down. What a POS fraud.”

… Laura Loomer: “This is why I call her Marjorie Traitor Greene.”

… Massie: “Politically, it’s really bad for Republicans. They should just have this vote and put it behind them. 80% of Republicans support releasing these files. So, they are at odds with our base right now—particularly the MAGA base.”

… Epstein survivor Jena-Lisa Jones on MSNBC: “I voted for Trump. And for him to say what he's saying is beyond me, because I put my hope in him and he's supposed to protect us. And for him to say that this is a joke and that it's sides, this is not sides.”

… Virginia Giuffre’s sister-in-law Amanda Roberts: “You heard from every survivor saying this isn’t a hoax. Maybe he just wants it to disappear and go away, but it's not going to it's not going to go away. This is relevant.”

… Massie: “Survivors at our press conference announced they are privately compiling their own Epstein list. They would be sued into homelessness for naming names, but Rep. Greene and I are willing to name names in the House of Representatives under Constitutional ‘speech or debate’ immunity.”

… Epstein survivor Liz Stein: “We saw in the documents that were released, it was a show. There was no new information. And I think that the public is getting sick and tired of these document dumps that aren't showing or telling us anything. If I could implore the president to do anything, I would ask him to stop politicizing this issue because it's not a political issue.”

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who changed her mind and will now not sign the petition, said she doesn’t like that Ghislaine Maxwell was sent to a minimum security prison: “It looks like she's at a country club compared to where she was at previously.”

… Speaker Mike Johnson told NBC that he thinks Trump will meet with the victims: “I suspect he probably will. He has great compassion for them. The president has a very compassionate heart. He hates the fact that these women suffered those harms.”

… Johnson said he does think Massie will get enough Republican signatures on his discharge petition.

… Massie disagrees: “We have 214 signatures on the discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to release the Epstein files. I’m 99% certain we’ll get 218. At that point Speaker Johnson may try to change the rules of the House, but chair of Rules Committee says she won’t!”

… CNBC: “US private sector hiring rose less than expected in August offering the latest indication of trouble in the labor market. Private payrolls increased by just 54,000 in Aug, according to data from processing firm ADP published Thursday. That’s below the consensus forecast of 75,000 from economists polled by Dow Jones and marks a significant slowdown from the revised gain of 106,000 seen in the prior month.”

… Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist: “The year started with strong job growth, but that momentum has been whipsawed by uncertainty.”

… “The ADP report adds to an already concerning picture of the labor market. Jobless claims increased to 237,000, up 8,000 from the prior week and above estimates. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey registered one of its worst levels for job openings in July since 2020. Now, attention will home in on the all-important jobs report slated for Friday morning.”

… Fox Business host Stuart Varney: "Disappointing jobs data, only 54,000 private sector jobs added, and look at this, the yield on the 10-year treasury below 4.2%."

… The Hill: “The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will deliver Friday its first jobs report since President Trump fired its leader in response to disappointing employment data for July. Economists are predicting more weakening in the labor market for Aug, which could prompt further reprisals and criticism from Trump.”

… EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco: “August’s employment report is likely to confirm that a marked slowdown in labor market conditions is underway.”

… “Daco expects nonfarm payrolls to increase by just 40,000 in Aug, following the modest 73,000 jobs that were created in July. He sees the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.3%, which would be the highest level since October 2021. WSJ is estimating a middling 75,000 jobs to have been added. The economy needs to add between 80,000 and 100,000 new jobs per month to keep up with population growth.”

… Labor analyst Amanda Goodall: “The job market just crossed a line nobody wants to talk about. July 2025: 7.24M unemployed vs 7.18M openings → 0.99 job openings per person (first dip below 1:1 since April 2021). Back in July 2009 (peak GFC): 14.6M unemployed fought over 2.2M jobs → 6.7 people per opening. Brutal. But here’s the twist → those 2009 jobs were real. Today’s 0.99 ratio is built up with ghost listings, offshoring, and AI shell jobs. Strip that out and the labor market is already weaker than 2009 - just hidden under sexy earnings decks and corporate spin.”

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Newsmax: "It might be ironic if in the end the protectionist flavor of the day - the tariffs we're putting on - if it brought together our enemies and ultimately led to the collapse of the reserve currency of the world. If you put a 50% tariff on Indian goods, India will become closer to China and Russia."

… NYT: “John Deere, the leading supplier of agricultural machinery in the US, reported a record profit two years ago, but President Trump’s tariffs and trade policies are making the market more challenging and unpredictable for the business and its customers.”

… “Last month, John Deere said net income in its most recent quarter was down 29% from a year earlier. Higher tariffs, primarily on steel but also on aluminum, have cost the company $300 million so far, with nearly another $300 million expected by the end of the year. This summer the company laid off 238 employees across factories in Illinois and Iowa.”

… Fox host Lara Trump: “Prices are coming down. It's not going to happen immediately. But people are actually feeling it out there. It's coming down with Donald Trump. We see the numbers all over the place.”

… I don’t know when the last time Lara went to a grocery store or paid an electric bill, but I’m not seeing what she’s seeing.

… CNN: “Trump last year: ‘We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months, maximum of 18 months.’ As of the end of July, electricity prices had surged 5.5% over the prior 12 months. AI and EVs are both in part to blame as the grid and market are strained.”

… As House Republicans return after a month off trying to sell Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ to their constituents, they now realize that it is deeply unpopular and are getting a little panicked. So they held a strategy meeting with Trump advisors. Punchbowl: “This meeting is basically the Trump team telling House Republicans that the OBBB is great if they completely rebrand it and talk about it differently. The bill passed nearly 2 months ago and is still underwater in the polls.”

… NYT reported that the solution they decided on is a new name for it: “Members coming out of the meeting are now referring to it as the ‘Working Families Tax Plan.”

… WaPo: “US forces could have stopped the boat that officials say was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the US on Tues, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, but Trump chose instead to destroy it, killing 11 people on board, to send a deterrent message to traffickers: ‘Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up - and it’ll happen again. The president has a right to eliminate immediate threats to the US. This president is not a talker; he’s a doer.”

… “The admin has not said how the vessel was targeted, who was on board or the types and quantities of drugs they were allegedly smuggling. Neither the WH nor the Pentagon has produced visual evidence that clearly shows 11 people were on board the vessel. The Trump admin has not released crew members’ names. Some criminal groups smuggle drugs and people, and the Caribbean also is a common transit point for unlawful migration to the US.”

… Rubio: "The US has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allow us to interdict and stop drug boats. We did that and it doesn't work. What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them."

… “Mary Ellen O’Connell, law professor at Notre Dame, said the strike violated international law because the US is not in armed conflict with Venezuela or its criminal elements, which means it violated the suspects’ right to life. She said it also raises the possibility that Trump, in pursuit of other traffickers, could launch military strikes within the US: ‘When the president decides this is a person who can be killed summarily, there’s no restraint on him. It’s a very dangerous new move.’”

… Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee: “The admin has not identified the authority under which this action was taken, raising the question of its legality and constitutionality. The lack of information and transparency from the admin is even more concerning. Does this mean Trump thinks he can use the US military anywhere drugs exist, are sold or shipped? What is the risk of dragging the US into yet another military conflict?”

… Sen. Rand Paul on Newsmax: "You might ask the question, where does it end? Are we the world's policemen? Are we gonna be blowing people up off the coast all around the world? Is it really the constitutional duty of our govt? The reason we have trials and we don't automatically assume guilt is what if we make a mistake and they happen to be people fleeing the Venezuelan dictator off our coast. It isn't our policy just to blow people up - if we accuse somebody of a terrible crime, they still get a trial."

… JD Vance was asked to cite the legal authority the Trump admin was working under to justifying killing 11 people on a boat suspected of drug trafficking: “The legal authority is there are people who are bringing deadly drugs into our country.”

… Energy Secretary Chris Wright was on Fox praising Melania Trump before her big speech today on AI: "I'm working every day on using AI to figure out how to cure cancer or launch fusion energy or understand dark matter. Our Defense Department is trying to figure out how to keep America safe. We're using different applications. God bless the First Lady. She of course is wiser than all of us."

… Stephen Miller was on Fox ranting about Stephen Colbert’s speculation about Trump’s health issues: “He is just a sleazy disgusting, smarmy guy. And it takes a lot to make me really despise somebody - really a horrible person.”

… These people have zero self-awareness.

… And Miller hates all non-white people.

… Fox host Sean Hannity defended Trump disappearing for 6 days: “While he did not hold any public events for just a couple of days leading into the holiday weekend, I can promise you he was working behind the scenes in ways that you don't know about.”

I think September is the best weather month here is Maine which makes it a lot more difficult to grind this out for 12 hours a day when it is 70 degrees and sunny than it is in December. At least my cat is enjoying it!

If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Trump posted a distorted photo of Rosie O’Donnell on Truth Social with this caption: “We are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!”

… The Gavin Newsom Press Office responded with their own slightly distorted photo of Trump: