Today in Politics, Bulletin 203. 9/9/25

… Republicans continue to serve up a variety of lame excuses and deflections for why a birthday card from Trump to Jeffrey Epstein from 22 years ago was found in his papers. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) to CNN’s Manu Raju: “I mean, anybody can do a signature. We’ve seen autopens used quite a bit. I’ve never known Trump to be much of an artist. I don’t buy it. Raju: You think someone might have forged this? Burchett: Yeah.”

… JD Vance: “The Democrats don't care about Epstein. They don’t even care about his victims. That's why they were silent about it for years. The only thing they care about is concocting another fake scandal like Russiagate to smear President Trump with lies. No one is falling for this BS.”

… Speaker Mike Johnson was asked by CNN if he thought the card was real: “I don’t. The White House says it’s not.”

… House Oversight Chair James Comer: “The president says he did not sign it. So I take the president his word.”

… Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL): “From what I’ve seen, it’s not his signature. I’ve seen Donald Trump sign a million things.”

… Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX)on CNN: "Look, Donald Trump first said this didn't exist, and then we found it. Now he's saying he didn't sign it. But the signature looks just like his own signature. It's like the bank robber who who's caught with a bag full of cash and says 'I'm not the one who robbed the bank.'"

… Raju also spoke to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH): Q - “Don’t you want to learn more about Trump’s relationship or friendship with Epstein? Jordan - No. I haven’t seen it, don’t buy it.”

… Just like the old days when he covered up sex abuse for years at Ohio State.

… Eric Trump on Fox: “This is no different than the Russia hoax. The NYT, the same people who are going to, by the way, try and do everything they can to keep me from becoming the number one bestseller on my new book - they were the ones that got Pulitzer Prizes for writing about the Russia hoax, something that was untrue and they didn't even give back the prizes.”

… Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA): “Trump is now walking into his own lie. First he says that it doesn't exist. We've proven that wrong. Now the WH is trying to play clean up and say it's not his signature. Again, that's being proven to be a complete lie. So the question to Trump is, what are you hiding? What is this special relationship that two of these men had? What is the secret that they share?”

… Comer: “It’s appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today. Trump is not accused of any wrongdoing. They find one thing in there to find a narrative. It’s really disappointing how they’ve acted. Garcia, he's been on the job for about two weeks, he's proven to me to just be a real big drama queen. Hopefully he'll mature up and get serious."

… Garcia responded: “Is this because I’m gay?”

… Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL): I can help Rep. Garcia. As someone who speaks Comer and has watched it closely in its native habitat, I can firmly say the answer is yes, that’s what he is saying. Hope this helps. We will of course continue to study the Comer.”

… Comer was asked if his committee will investigate whether the letter was forged: “22 years ago was when that was allegedly sent. So I don't think the Oversight Committee is going to invest in looking up something that was 22 years ago.”

… He spent over two years investigating Hunter Biden allegations dating back to 2014.

… Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked several questions about it today at her press briefing: Q - “One of the other documents released contained a photo of Epstein holding an oversized check that was made out to him from the president, for $22,000 for a ‘fully depreciated woman’. Leavitt: Did you see the signature on the check? It’s not Trump’s signature.”

… That’s not really the issue. The issue is that Epstein for some reason created a prop to take a picture with to joke about selling a woman to Trump. Seems kinda relevant.

… She was also asked about the signed letter: “The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter.”

… Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA): “So many questions! If it's not his signature, whose is it? Why would someone forge Trump's signature 23 years ago in Epstein's birthday book?”

… On the MeidasTouch podcast today, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen presented several letters that were sent to him by Trump over the years which had the identical signature to the one on the Epstein card.

… A letter from Trump’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz was also found in Epstein’s papers, which might make it even more difficult for Dersh to convince the Pierogi Man at the Martha’s Farmer’s Market to serve him.

… All 8 Republicans voted in the Rules Committee today to block the release of the Epstein Files after Trump warned them it would be “hostile act” against him to vote for it: Virginia Foxx (NC), Michelle Fischbach (MN), Ralph Norman (SC), Chip Roy (TX), Nick Langworthy (NY), Austin Scott (GA), Morgan Griffith (VA), and Brian Jack (GA).

… But two special elections this month should add the deciding signatures in the House to force a floor vote on releasing the Epstein files. Democrats James Walkinshaw and Adelita Grijalva are expected to easily win in special elections to replace Gerry Connolly in VA, and Raúl Grijalva in AZ. Both men died earlier this year along with Rep. Sylvester Turner from TX, leaving Dems down 3 seats.

… The election for Connolly's seat takes place today, while Grijalva's seat will be decided on Sept 23rd. All Democratic members of the House have signed Thomas Massie's discharge petition along with 4 Republicans, bringing the total number of signatures to 216. The two new Democratic votes would give Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) the votes they need to force a floor vote.

… Leavitt was asked about Trump’s statement that a man who “has a little fight with his wife” shouldn’t be counted as a crime in his DC stats: “He wasn't referring to crimes. That's the point he was making. He's saying the crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work the task force is doing.”

… So she is saying what Trump meant is that DC women are making false reports of domestic violence against them just to make Trump look bad on his crime stats. That’s even worse than what I thought he meant.

… RFK Jr was asked today why the US has so many mass shootings compared to other countries: “There are many things that happened in the 1990s that could explain these. One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs. There could be connections with video games, and number of things. And we are looking at that.”

… Charlie Kirk was on Fox complaining about women who choose not to get married and have kids at a young age: “Maybe we should solve the loneliness epidemic encouraging young ladies to get married and have children. It’s good for them, good for America, and good for our future.”

… WaPo: “Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine visited Puerto Rico on Monday, as the Pentagon looks to intensify military operations against drug cartels based in Latin American countries. The Pentagon is weighing plans to make Puerto Rico a part of its operations in the region, possibly conducting military flights out of the island territory. The effort includes the possible deployment of fighter jets to the island.”

… “On Thurs night, The Pentagon abruptly canceled a briefing for the major national security committees in Congress that had been scheduled to take place the following day. The event, expected to focus on the deadly strike in the Caribbean, was rescheduled for Tuesday after Defense Department officials acknowledged they were unable to provide satisfactory answers to expected questions.”

… “A congressional aide cast doubt on the admin’s assessment that the boat destroyed last week was carrying members of Tren de Aragua and questioned the legal work used to justify labeling the gang as a foreign terrorist organization: “The designation is built on very shaky ground. It is one thing to arrest a barber or a teacher or a caregiver. You can undo that. You can’t undo bombing people.”

… “Democrats intend to press the Pentagon on why deadly force was necessary. Drug interdiction at sea typically has been considered a law enforcement mission, with the US Coast Guard authorized to stop and board the vessels of suspected drug smugglers, confiscate any narcotics, and detain the crews for follow-up legal action.”

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) continues to go after JD Vance over the Venezuelan boat strike: “What really ticked me off and got me going was for somebody to glorify the idea of killing people without any due process and saying he just didn’t give a shit. That, to me, was a disdain for human life and a disdain for our process"

… Semafor: “A person close to Vance says Rand is a ‘sticking up for foreign terrorists thanks to his debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. The VP believes in the Trump doctrine and using overwhelming force to protect core American interests and save American lives. That pisses off hypocrites like Rand Paul."

… Paul said he doesn’t expect any other Republicans to speak out even though some agree with him: “People are very much afraid to have opinions right now.”

… Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he disagrees with Paul: “When 100,000 Americans’ lives are taken through overdoses, now’s maybe the time to push back. I’m not saying blow up every single boat or anything.”

… Paul also told CNN that he plans to "lead opposition" to Trump's move to change the name of DOD to the Dept of War, which requires passage by Congress to make it official: "I think it sends a bad signal to the world. In a world with nuclear weapons, I think glorifying war is not something I'm in favor of.”

… CNN: “DNI Tulsi Gabbard directed the NSA in recent months to recall a classified report about Venezuela – despite agency staff affirming it was accurate and complied with all NSA policies – in a move that has raised major questions inside the intelligence community. The classified report related to Venezuela and one of Trump’s special envoys, Richard Grenell. It included conversations that Grenell had with Nicolas Maduro, the leader of Venezuela whom the US has accused of drug trafficking, as well as info about Grenell collected by the NSA.”

… “After it was released, an unclassified addendum was added directing staff to ‘recall this report’ at Gabbard’s direction. It said in part: ‘Please remove the original report from all manual and computer files.’ Grenell, who multiple sources said is close with Gabbard, declined to comment.”

… Political analysts warned months ago that Texas’s redistricting could be a ‘careful what you wish for’ move as several previously safe Republican districts were weakened to move GOP voters into Democratic districts. Now, the huge shift of Latino voters in recent polls caused by immigration issues and the economy could flip some of those districts in TX and other places if the trend holds.

… Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “Hispanics now -34 for Trump. This suggests there’s a likelihood that the gerrymander Texas did to rig the midterm election, which was based on Trump numbers, is going to become a dummymander.”

… Latino voting consultant Mike Madrid: “This is a likely scenario. Beto O’Rourke won 3 of the 5 newly drawn districts in 2018 - and the economy was good then.”

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered where we do deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I also do my Ask the Editor show where I answer 5 of your questions. So if you have a question or just a topic that you want me to talk about, go ahead and put it in the replies to this article.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… Democratic rising star James Talarico announced his candidacy for the Senate seat in Texas currently held by John Cornyn, which Democrats will target heavily if AG Ken Paxton wins the Republican primary. To Semafor: “We’ve had 10 years of Trumpian politics, politics as blood sport, politics as professional wrestling. Now, it