Today in Politics, Bulletin 276. 12/22/25

… WSJ: “CBS News pulled a planned ‘60 Minutes’ segment on an El Salvador maximum-security prison where the Trump admin sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, a last-minute decision that drew a rebuke from one of its high-profile correspondents. Sharyn Alfonsi said in an email that she learned Sat that new CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss ‘spiked our story.’ Alfonsi said the last-minute change was a political decision, rather than an editorial call.”

… Weiss issued a statement in response: “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason - that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices -happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”

… Alfonsi responded: “Our story was screened 5 times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. If the standard for airing a story became the govt agreeing to be interviewed, the network would cede editorial control. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.”

… Armen Keteyian: “I contributed pieces to 60 Minutes for 8 years, including several investigative in nature. The most they were screened was 3 times - the average rate. I never heard of even one screening 5. I stand with Sharyn and 60 one thousand percent.

… NYT: “Weiss was appointed in Oct after David Ellison, the owner of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, acquired her independent news and opinion site, The Free Press. Ellison’s acquisition of Paramount earlier this year was approved by the Trump admin after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit that Trump had brought against ‘60 Minutes.’”

… “Ellison is currently making a hostile bid to outmaneuver a rival company, Netflix, and acquire the media behemoth Warner Bros. Discovery. He has been courting Trump’s support for his bid, but the president has used recent episodes of ‘60 Minutes’ to suggest he is displeased with Ellison’s stewardship of CBS.”

… “Weiss raised numerous concerns to ‘60 Minutes’ producers about Alfonsi’s segment on Fri and Sat, and she asked for a significant amount of new material to be added. One of Weiss’s suggestions was to include a fresh interview with Stephen Miller or a similarly high-ranking Trump admin official. Weiss provided contact info for Miller to the ‘60 Minutes’ staff.”

… Weiss also questioned the use of the term ‘migrants’ to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting that they were in the US illegally. In her note, Alfonsi said that her team had requested comment from the WH, the State Dept, and DHS: “If the admin’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.’”

… Alfonsi: “We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.”

… Weiss held a damage control conference call with CBS staff. CNN reported this is what she said: “I want to say something about trust: our trust for each other and our trust with the public. The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable.”

… “I held a 60 Minutes story because it was not ready. While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball—NYT and other outlets have previously done similar work. The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera. Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too.”

… What a bunch of bullshit. She’s as bad at damage control as she is trying to run a network.

… Political historian Bruno Macaes: “I have to defend Bari Weiss. She signed a contract to censor the news and is doing that. It would be unethical and unprofesssional to pocket the salary, turn around and do … journalism.”

… Oversight Committee Ranking Dem Robert Garcia was asked by Meidas if an investigation of Trump’s influence over media companies might happen: “It’s clear they are trying to take control of all media, including outlets with a long history of reporting balanced news. We have to be very aware of this. Absolutely, these issues are on the table. There are many members of Congress looking at this issue in particular, and I think CBS still has a lot of explaining to do.”

… NYT: “Since Trump was elected a second time, he and his allies have raised nearly $2 billion for his favored political causes and passion projects. That total likely eclipses the amount raised to support his 2024 campaign. The astounding haul hints at a level of transactionalism for which it is difficult to find obvious comparisons in modern American history. The identities of the donors behind much of the cash are not legally required to be, and have not been, publicly disclosed. In some cases, Trump’s team has offered donors anonymity.”

… A large portion of the funds raised - more than half a billion dollars’ worth - come from 346 donors who each gave at least $250,000. More than half of them have benefited, or are involved in an industry that has benefited, from the actions or statements of Trump, the WH or federal agencies. The lengthy article detailed many examples of this. These were just a few:

• One $2.5 million contribution to MAGA Inc. was given by a South FL woman whose father months later received an unusually lenient deal from top DOJ officials to settle charges that he bribed Puerto Rico’s then-governor in 2020.

• Another $2.5 million pledged donation - this one to Trump’s WH ballroom project - came from Parsons Corp, an engineering firm that is jockeying for some of the more than $1 trillion in contracts that could be awarded to build a missile defense system called the ‘Golden Dome.’

• Also giving $2.5 million to the ballroom project was the CEO of Roblox, a popular online video game company that has applauded a Trump executive order and other initiatives involving children’s use of AI.

• A couple who donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee and $500,000 to MAGA Inc., as well as an undisclosed amount to the ballroom fund, saw Trump nominate their son to be US ambassador to Finland.

• A company that was accused last year by DOJ of colluding over ticket prices donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. The president pardoned the company’s co-founder in a separate case this month.

• Tech firm Palantir donated $10 million to the ballroom project and $5 million to America250. Additionally, the Palantir co-founder Alex Karp donated $1 million each to the inauguration and to MAGA Inc. Palantir has secured fed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, including to develop software to help ICE deport people.

• Extremity Care, a company that makes a pricey form of bandages known as skin substitutes, donated $5 million to MAGA Inc. An executive from the company then attended a donor dinner in March at Mar-a-Lago where he lobbied Trump, whose admin announced the next month that it would delay a Biden-era plan to limit Medicare’s coverage of the bandages. Extremity Care or one of its affiliates subsequently donated $2.5 million to the ballroom.

… “Presidents have long awarded their campaigns’ top donors with ambassadorships, jobs and appointments to boards and commissions. Trump appears to have taken that tradition to a new level, tapping at least 32 people for an array of positions - including in his cabinet - who have donated at least $250,000 each to his causes after the election, or whose companies or families have made such donations.”

… A new Gallup poll has Trump’s job approval down to 36%. His approval with independents is down to 25%.

… Trump’s pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward now have Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot by 7 points, which would be a big blue wave if it stays the same. It it increases, blue tsunami.

… Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Fox: “Today we’re sending notifications to the 5 large offshore wind projects that are under construction that their leases will be suspended due to national security concerns. The Dept of War has come back conclusively that the issues related to these large offshore wind programs create radar interference.”

… Burgum: “They cause issues with casting radar shatters and clutters, they call it, that create real issues for trying to determine what’s friend and foe in our airspace for our country. We know with the advances that have happened, the wars that are happening between Russia-Ukraine, largely those are aerial drone wars.”

… Foreign policy journalist Kevin Baron: “Bullshit. Every word of this is made up nonsense. False flags like this undermine public trust in warnings about ACTUAL security threats. The truth: Trump has an unexplainable obsession with wind and renewable energy conspiracy theories. No need for this ruse.”

… I can explain it because I have written about it extensively over the years. Trump has been obsessed with wind turbines for decades, which began after Scotland put some in near his golf course a long time ago and he complained they ruined the view from one of the holes. He lobbied the Scottish Parliament to remove them and he lost. He then sued the UK govt and lost. He then appealed to the UK Supreme Court and lost. That’s when he began telling ridiculous stories about wind turbines - that they cause cancer, cause mental illness in whales, result in bird extinctions - a whole bunch of stuff.

… Energy policy expert Pavan Venkatakrishnan: “Of course, this won’t stop at offshore wind. The Interior memo has already created significant uncertainty for renewables on govt lands. Future admins could marshal these tools against rigs, pipelines, and LNG. Congress needs to pass strong permit certainty policy.”

… Bill Clinton’s press secretary released a statement on Epstein: “The Epstein Files Transparency Act imposes a clear legal duty on DOJ to produce the full and complete record the public demands and deserves. However, what DOJ has released so far, and the manner in which it did so, makes one thing clear: someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.”

… Accordingly, we call on Trump to direct AG Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials referring to, mentioning, or containing a photograph of Bill Clinton.
This includes, without limitation, any records that may exist and are subject to disclosure under the Act, including grand jury transcripts, interview notes, photographs, and findings by the US Attorney.”

… “Refusal to do so will confirm the widespread suspicion DOJ’s actions to date are not about transparency, but about insinuation - using selective releases to imply wrongdoing about individuals who have already been repeatedly cleared by the very same DOJ, over many years, under Presidents and AG of both parties.”

… Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on the House moving to hold Pam Bondi in contempt: “It’s coming from Republicans too. If it was just me out there or Robert Garcia, it would be seen as ‘this is just a Democratic thing.’ This is gonna be Thomas Massie leading it. There are a few Republicans who are on board with it.”

… Khanna: “We hear there will be another DOJ Epstein release this afternoon. Here is what Massie, survivors and I want: 1) The FBI witness interviews which names other men. 2) The Epstein emails seized from his computer. 3) The 60 count draft indictment. 4) The 82 page prosecution memo.”

… Trump announced that the new generation of warships will be named after himself: ‘Trump-class’ battleships: “They will be the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. They will also have hypersonic weapons, state-of-the-art rail guns and even high powered lasers. You aim the laser at a target, it just wipes it out. They will be the most sophisticated lasers in the world and the most sophisticated laser in the world will be on the battleships that we are building. It will also carry the nuclear armed cruise missiles currently under development.”

… Trump: “The US Navy lead the design of the ships, along with me because I’m a very aesthetic person. AI will be a big factor when it comes to these ships. They will be very AI controlled.”

… Battleships designed by Trump with nuclear weapons run by AI. What could go wrong?

… Lexington Herald Leader: “One of KY’s largest bourbon producers apparently is pausing whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam, which is one of the largest makers of American whiskey in the world, is planning to shut down production in Happy Hollow in Clermont on Jan. 1 through 2026.”

… Exports have been curtailed to major trading partners; Canada has been boycotting American spirits in retaliation for Trump’s ongoing trade war and US whiskey sales to that country are down by more than 60%. Other KY companies, including Jack Daniel’s, also have announced layoffs or shorter pauses in production earlier in the year. As of 2024, Jim Beam had nearly 1,500 KY employees.”

Here is the schedule as we head into the holidays: Bulletin tomorrow, Wed podcasts, Thur-Fri off, then starting on the 27th will be my 5-part series on the 500 Worst Things Trump Did in 2025. I will post 100 of them each day as they occurred in chronological order. I have often heard MAGA people on social media say that they challenge libs to come up with 5 reasons why Trump is so bad, and they claim they can never come up with anything specific. Well, here is 500 specific things. In just one year.

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

… MS NOW: “FBI Director Kash Patel is being driven around in specially armored BMWs that the FBI bought at his request. Patel had pressed the FBI for this high-end vehicle for the purpose of being less conspicuous on his outings. FBI directors, protected by a security detail, have traditionally been driven in a Chevrolet Suburban -