Today in Politics, Bulletin 225. 10/9/25

… Trump’s former personal attorney and newly installed US Attorney Lindsey Halligan complied with his repeated demands to indict NY AG Letitia James today. James is now charged with bank fraud based on her mortgage applications. Every veteran prosecutor with the E. District of VA refused to pursue charges with one resigning in protest. The Guardian reported that Halligan personally presented the case to the grand jury.

… James released a statement on video: “This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. I am not fearful — I am fearless. We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights.”

… Trump was asked why he’s going to Walter Reed Hospital tomorrow: Q - “You are going to Walter Reed tomorrow. What are you having done? Trump: I’m meeting with the troops. I’m also going to do a semi-annual physical. I think I’m in great shape. I have no difficulty thus far.”

… The first WH statement on this was that it was for his “routine yearly check up.” Then the press pointed out that he already had that on April 11. So Trump is now changing this lie to “semi-annual physical.” Something is going on.

… RFK Jr said there is a connection between circumcision and autism: “There are two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism. It’s highly likely because they are given Tylenol.”

… The occasion was another insane cabinet meeting in front of the cameras today, where Trump’s officials lavished more praise on Dear Leader while spewing lies and conspiracy theories.

… RFK Jr says he is determined to prove his theory that Tylenol causes autism, but he’s not quite there yet: “It is not proof. We’re doing the studies to make the proof.”

… Dr. Michelle Au: “Ah yes, the scientific method famously instructs us to predetermine a conclusion and then do studies to ‘make the proof.’”

… Trump then weighed in with his recommendations for pregnant women: “If you don’t take Tylenol, you have to tough it through sometimes - there are other things you can do - but you have to tough it out.”

… RFK Jr: “Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a woman at 8 months pregnant - she’s an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School - and she is saying ‘F Trump’ and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome has now left the political landscape and is now a pathology.”

… I guess we also just learned that babies reside in the placenta, so there’s that.

… But despite RFK Jr’s Tylenol theory, Trump made it clear he isn’t giving up on his theory that vaccines causing autism: “Obviously, something that is artificially induced, whether it’s the vaccines in terms of these massive vaccines twice the size of a jar like that, a glass of water like that, into a baby’s body.”

… CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale: “Repeating his baseless call to split up the MMR combo vaccine into three separate shots, President Trump just said, ‘The measles is already separate now, and it works out much better.’ No idea what he’s talking about; there is no separate measles shot available in the US.”

… Trump: “The Amish, where they don’t take any of this stuff. They have virtually none, right? They have no autism, no autism. So we are doing something very bad.”

… Then it was Kristi Noem’s turn: “I was in Portland on Tues, met the governor, met with the mayor, met with the chief of police. They are all lying. Dishonest people.”

… Noem: “The mayor said that Portland was perfectly safe, a beautiful city. And I said, ‘why did you clear the streets for me today and build out a four block radius to make sure I can get in and out of here.’”

… Trump: “Those are people who want to overthrow the govt. They are really degenerates.”

… Noem went out there with a camera crew determined to show that Portland was a lawless city in the throes of anarchy with Antifa terrorists everywhere, only to look like a fool filming a guy in a chicken suit yelling at her while she stood on top of the ICE building. So now she is claiming that Portland hid their war zone from her during her visit.

… Trump: “The amazing thing is you look at Portland, and you see fires all over the place, you see fights and just violence - it is so crazy. It’s like movies you see for the kids, adults also with these bombed out cities, it is worse than that.”

… WSJ: “Daily reports from Portland police in the month leading up to Trump’s decision to send troops into the city paint a different picture than public statements by Trump and others in his admin. On Sept 5, Trump described ongoing protests in Portland as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘the destruction of the city.’ Later that day, a Sgt from the Portland PD filed his daily observations of the demonstrations outside an ICE facility: ‘Saw 8 people out front and couldn’t even get one of them to flip me the bird. Very low energy.’”

… Kristi Noem earlier on Fox: “One of the individuals we arrested recently was the girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa and we’re hoping as we go after her and prosecute her. Then we’ll get more and more information about the network and how we can root them out and eliminate them from the existence of American society.”

… AG Pam Bondi: “President Trump, my lawyers are in court right now as we speak for you arguing in Chicago and Portland to keep them safe to bring in the Guard. The govt doesn’t want it there, but we do. Will keep their citizens safe because of you.”

… Sec Def Pete Hegseth: “It is a personal honor to witness how you lead and negotiate. With your strength, your ability to wield trade negotiations, personal relationships, to open up that opportunity is truly historic on the world stage.”

… Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins: “Here’s what everyone has to understand. The farm economy is in a very uncertain time. But that isn’t because of the current trade negotiations, although certainly the China part is part of that. But we inherited a slew of issues.”

… Trump was asked what his plan was to bail out farmers who can’t sell any of their soybeans or anything else to the Chinese: “What happens with soybeans is uhhh, we’re gonna see more and more I think opening up and part of the reason - Xi’s got things that he wants to discuss with me and I have things I want to discuss with him.”

… Thanks for clearing that up.

… The Coordinated Republican Propaganda Machine spent the last 24 hours spreading around part of a Chuck Schumer quote to make the case that Democrats want the shutdown because they believe it will help them politically. This is the part of the quote published by Punchbowl that Republicans have been using: “Every day gets better for us.”

… Yes, Chuck needs to be more careful with what he says. And yes, Chuck gets caught up on inside-the-beltway stuff because that’s who he is. But this is his full quote that Republicans cut: “Every day gets better for us. It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30 and we prepared for it. Their whole theory was - threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.”

… But then Trump undercut that entire theme today by making it clear that he is the one who wanted the shutdown all along, which is why he ordered Republicans not to negotiate: “We will be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly. That’s the way it works. They wanted to do this so we will give them a little taste of their own medicine.”

… Scott Bessent made it clear today that the $20 billion to Argentina was just the beginning since so many of his oligarch friends have a lot of money invested in that country: “Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity. Only the US can act swiftly. And act we will. To that end, today we directly purchased Argentine pesos. Additionally, we have finalized a $20 billion currency swap framework with Argentina’s central bank. The US Treasury is prepared, immediately, to take whatever exceptional measures are warranted to provide stability to markets.”

… “I continue to hear from American business leaders who, thanks to President Milei’s leadership, are eager to tie the American and Argentine economies more closely together. The Trump admin is resolute in our support for allies of the US, and to that end we also discussed Argentina’s investment incentives, and US tools to powerfully support investment in our strategic partners.”

… Bessent is also doing this 3 weeks before Argentina’s midterm elections, so the Trump admin is clearly tampering with their election to save Milei’s party.

… Mike Johnson went on CSPAN to answer questions from callers. It didn’t go well for him: “I have two medically fragile children. My husband actively serves this country and did two tours in Afghanistan. As a Republican, I’m very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you, because you have the power to call the House back. You refuse to do that just for a show. I’m begging you to pass this legislation - my kids could die.”

… Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA): “Listen to this Republican military spouse, who is exactly right: Mike Johnson could call us all back today to DC to make sure at least our military is paid during the shutdown. We have a bipartisan bill to do exactly that. Truly a disgrace Johnson won’t do it.”

… NOTUS: Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL), Chairman of the Veteran Affairs Committee who is currently speaking at the GOP press conference, is a co-sponsor of the bill to pay members of the military during a govt shutdown. Johnson has said he will not bring this bill up to the floor.”

… Another CSPAN Caller: “What is your plan to fix Obamacare? Johnson: Great question. There’s a lot of improvement that’s needed. Obamacare did not do what was promised. We gotta fix that. In the big beautiful bill we reformed Medicaid.”

… Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA): “He doesn’t have a health care plan. Republicans have never had a health care plan - all they do is cut Medicaid, raise health insurance prices, and kick people off of coverage.”

… CSPAN caller: “Hearing you say that ‘everyone is smiling’ in cities where troops have been rolled into feels dystopian and insane.”

… Johnson: “Trump has been accused of saying he wants to have a war on American citizens. I have no idea where that comes from. CSPAN Host: Trump did say in the speech to military leaders that he wanted to use cities as training grounds for the US military. Johnson: Of course, yes. The National Guard troops drill once a month so they can be trained. Put them in cities, it’s a win, win, win.”

… CSPAN caller: “Have you ever voted against anything that Trump has set forth in terms of policy? Johnson: I typically vote with President Trump because that’s my party.”

… CSPAN caller: “Trump is a dictator. So it doesn’t matter what Johnson does or what they guy over in the Senate does. If Trump says open the govt, it will be open tomorrow. We all know that.”

… Johnson also blamed Chuck Schumer for his refusal to swear in Adelita Grijalva. Q - “There were others you swore in during pro forma session. Why not do it now? Johnson: Those two Floridians had all their families and friends and supporters in town. As a courtesy to them, went ahead and administer the oath. This has zero to do with Epstein. We’re for maximum transparency.”

… Rep. Marge Greene on CNN: “I can’t conclusively say if Epstein is why the House isn’t in session, but the House should be in session. There is a new Democrat that’s been elected that does deserve to be sworn in - if it’s to avoid the discharge petition, why drag this out? That is going to have 218 signatures.”

… Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told HuffPost that the House should be in session working: “I think you got to be here. When I was Speaker of the House in NC we eliminated all days off, except for the actual holiday. Get in, do your work, go home. I think they should be here.”

… Rep. Ro Khanna on MSNBC: “They won’t swear in Adelita Grijalva. And now they’re literally not having votes. They’re not even having votes to pay the troops because they’re so concerned about swearing Grijalva in. The only reason they’re not doing this is because the Epstein files.”

… Greene on concerns about her safety for going against Trump on Epstein: “I genuinely don’t understand why there’s been any effort to hide this and prevent it from coming out. But because of the efforts for years now to hide it, it certainly makes you feel afraid when you’re one of the ones truly on the frontlines.”

Well, our fall foliage tour was a bit disappointing when we got to VT. The summer drought really killed the leaves and we just didn’t get the explosion of color that we had last year. But the Kancamagus in NH was still great and the Flume Gorge was a pretty spectacular 2-mile hike. Here is a sample from that.

If you missed the last Bulletin, you can find it here. Thanks again for subscribing and supporting our work.

… Greene was asked if Trump is getting bad advice on the shutdown: “I don’t think it’s good advice that Republicans ignoring the health insurance crisis is gonna be good for midterms. I actually think it’s going to be very bad for midterms - costs have not come down.”

… Greene: “I’m getting phone calls from people that are saying if the ACA tax credits expire, they aren’t gonna be able to have health insurance. They’re going to have to