Today in Politics, Bulletin 305. 2/10/26

… It was a very busy day today with multiple congressional hearings taking place simultaneously, followed by votes on some really important issues. I did my very best to keep up with everything happening live on Capitol Hill along with everything else in the news. Buckle up.

… Forbes: Binance now holds 87% of the total circulating supply of the stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture affiliated with the Trump family. This concentration represents around $4.7 billion of the $5.4 billion total supply. The 87% holding is the highest concentration of a major stablecoin at any third-party exchange. The partnership comes after Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in Oct 2025.

… Howard Lutnick testified before the senate today, his first public appearance since it was revealed in the files that he lied about his contacts with Epstein in previous interviews. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): “You led people to believe that you had cut off all contact with Epstein after the 2005 encounter. Why do the Epstein files show you coordinating a meeting and planning a visit with Epstein on his private island in Dec 2012? I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person.”

… Lutnick said he just stopped at the island to have lunch.

… Van Hollen: “Do you know whether the nanny that you had on that trip to Epstein’s private island was the same nanny that Epstein expressed interest in meeting?
Lutnick: No, I have no idea about that whole thing. I don’t recall it having anything to do with me. Van Hollen: This guy was a convicted sex offender. Obviously not a good place for kids and nannies.”

… Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE): “You said in 2005 you concluded Epstein was a disgusting man with whom you should have no contact, but it troubles me that you took your family to lunch on the island, that you had appointments with him. Lutnick: To the best of my memory I met him when he moved next door to me and I met him two other times in 14 years. I know and my wife knows that I have done absolutely nothing wrong.”

… Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): “Secretary Lutnick, the reason people are bothered is because last year you said you had cut off all contact, but there are 8 instances of interaction after 2005.”

… Rep. Ro Khanna on MS NOW on why there are too many redactions in the files: “What the DOJ got was already scrubbed. Trump’s FBI in March went and scrubbed these files. The DOJ just told us, ‘Ok, we’re getting these documents uploaded, but they’ve already been redacted.’ They’re protecting powerful people. The documents we saw had the redactions of the FBI from March. So we still have not seen the vast majority of documents unredacted that have the survivor statements of the rich and powerful men who committed these crimes.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie: “In response to my posts on X today, DOJ 1) unredacted an FBI file that LABELS two individuals as co-conspirators. 2) unredacted a file that lists several men who might be implicated. 3) tacitly admitted that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was the sender of the torture video.”

… “This is significant because Kash Patel testified to Congress that FBI had no evidence of other sex traffickers. This is FBI’s own 2019 document listing Wexner as coconspirator in child sex trafficking. It wasn’t unredacted until tonight. No one knew until tonite who sent the torture video to Epstein. I went to DOJ, unredacted the email, and reverse searched the email to discover it was a Sultans. Our law requires VICTIM’s information to be redacted, not information of men who sent Epstein torture porn!”

… Khanna: “After Massie I flagged to the DOJ that they had redacted the names of 6 men who were allegedly incorrectly accused of crimes, they have now unredacted the identities of those men and some women. The problem remains that the files the DOJ received were scrubbed by the FBI in March.”

… Khanna: “You have the king of Britain saying that his own brother needs to be criminally investigated. But here, we have a sitting cabinet member, Howard Lutnick, who’s all over the files as having a business relationship allegedly and personal relationship alleged after Epstein was convicted. He’s allegedly lied about his relationship. And there’s no consequence. We need to get real in this country.”

… Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): “DOJ is giving Members of Congress just 4 computers in a satellite office to read the unredacted Epstein File of more than 3 million documents. Working 40 hours a week on nothing else but this, it would take more than 7 years for the 217 Members who signed the House discharge petition to read just the documents they’ve decided to release (and there are 3 million still being withheld). This is what a cover up looks like.”

… Marge Greene: “It is being covered up. Pam Bondi works directly for Trump. Everyone’s getting mad at Bondi, but the man at the top is Trump. He’s the president and he’s the one that was completely against releasing the files. Do I believe that this admin is going to provide justice for anything in the Epstein files? No, absolutely not. Because the president told me that his friends would get hurt.”

… Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA): “I reviewed Epstein file redactions today. One redacted document is an email from Epstein’s attorneys recounting a conversation with Trump in 2009. The email includes no mention of victims and should not have been redacted. There were many other inexplicable redactions.”

… Meidas attempted to ask Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) about a revelation that one of the Epstein victims was only 9 years old, but he just laughed it off: Q - “Rep. Raskin reviewed the Epstein files, and says there was a 9-year-old victim. Moreno: Is that the guy with the really bad haircut?”

… Raskin responded: “Hey, Mr. Moreno—Maybe you should focus on justice for the 1,000+ women and children victimized by Jeffrey Epstein and accountability for the abusers protected by your party. If you really think child sex abuse is a laughing matter, you’re sick in the head. But great haircut!”

… A new CNN poll shows 75% of network news consumers say they’ve heard “a lot” about the Epstein files. Among consumers of conservative TV news? Just 49%.

… ICE Director Todd Lyons testified before the House today. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS): “Can you tell us the number of ICE agents who have cameras on their body as of today? Lyons: Approximately 3,000 out of 13,000 that are in the field.”

… Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA): “Will you apologize to the family of Renee Good for being called a domestic terrorist by the president and his leadership? Lyons: No sir. Swalwell: Why not? Lyons: I welcome the opportunity to speak to the family in private but I’m not going to comment on active investigations. Swalwell: Is she a domestic terrorist? Lyons: I’m not going to comment on an active investigation.”

… Swalwell: “If somebody rolls up in an unidentified van and gets out wearing all black, their faces covered, and they ask her to get in the van. How does she know if they’re an ICE agent? Lyons: ICE agents have identifiable placards. But you won’t see ICE agents rolling through the parking lots and just snatching someone up.”

… Seems like I’ve seen a few hundred videos of that happening.

… Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA): “One of your officers in Maine said to one of the individuals protesting, ‘we’re going to put your face in a database.’ Do you have a database of Americans? Lyons: There is no database.”

… Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) to Lyons: “You said in your opening statement that references to ICE as ‘the Gestapo’ or ‘secret police’ encourages threats against ICE agents. The problem is you have it backwards. People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist.”

… Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) leaving today’s ICE hearing: “All of this comes from Stephen Miller’s sick, twisted, deranged Great Replacement Theory.” He says when Dems have the majority they will subpoena Miller to testify: “If he doesn’t, he will end up in prison for criminal contempt.”

… Irish citizen Kieran Cuddihy, who has lived in the US for 20 years, married to a US citizen, and holds a valid work permit, has been in an ICE detention facility in Texas for 5 months. He has no criminal record and was arrested driving from work. He told Irish broadcaster RTE what it is like:

… “The best way I could describe it is probably like a modern-day concentration camp. It’s a bunch of temporary tents. There’s probably room for a thousand detainees in each tent. I believe there’s like 5 tents. I’ve been locked in the same room now for four and a half months. I’ve had barely any outside time, no fresh air, no sunshine. I could probably count on both hands the amount of times I’ve been outside. So I’ve just been locked in this room all day, every day.”

… “We get three meals a day, very, very small meals, kid-sized meals. So everybody’s hungry, everybody’s tired. We’ve no commissary, we’ve got no options to get extra food or anything like that. The conditions here are filled. The toilets, the showers, completely nasty, very rarely cleaned.”

… “I’m in fear for my life now here, honestly, because people are being killed by the staff here, by the security staff, you know? And you just don’t know what’s going to happen on a day-to-day basis. You don’t if there’s going to be riots, you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a nightmare down here.”

… WH trade advisor Peter Navarro was on Fox signaling that the jobs report is going to be pretty bad: “The jobs report comes out tomorrow. We have to revise our expectations down significantly for what a monthly job number should look like. Wall Street has to adjust for the fact that we’re deporting millions of illegals out of the job market.”

… Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) wants to prioritize deportations for anyone who liked Bad Bunny’s halftime performance on social media: “Today would be a great day to round up and deport illegals. Especially those who liked Bad Bunny’s filth. ALL of them. NO EXCEPTIONS.”

… Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN): “The Super Bowl Halftime Show was pure smut, brazenly aired on national TV for every American family to witness. Children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively, and Bad Bunny shamelessly grabbing his crotch while dry-humping the air.”

… “That is why I am requesting that the Energy and Commerce Committee launch a formal congressional inquiry into the NFL and NBC immediately for their prior knowledge, deliberate approval, and facilitation of this indecent broadcast. American culture will not be mocked or corrupted without consequence.”

… I always picture Ogles standing in front of a burning cross typing those tweets into his phone.

… Part of this is happening because of a viral post on social media claiming to translate Bunny’s lyrics into English from a right-wing clickbait account that contained sexually explicit songs that he did not sing in the show. But now they’ve all convinced themselves that it actually happened since none of them can speak Spanish.

… Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO): "On the Bad Bunny bad performance at the Super Bowl -- we're still investigating this. There's a lot of information that has come out about the lyrics. I saw the halftime show - we were switching back and forth with the TPUSA halftime show. The lyrics from what we've seen from Bad Bunny are very disturbing. And if it holds true - I don't speak fluent Spanish, okay, I know how to ask where the bathroom is - but if it's true what was said on national television, we have a lot of questions for the entities that broadcast this and we'll be talking with Brendan Carr from the FCC. This could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction."

… There is something seriously wrong with these people. This is all a hoax.

… Sen. John Husted (R-OH) on Fox: Q - “When it comes to masks and federal agents, is that something the Republicans will stand firm on? Husted: That’s something for the president, and Tom Homan, and DHS to determine what’s safe. It’s been below zero in Minneapolis. If you’re going to be doing work outside, having a mask on is a practical issue.”

… Oh, so the masks are just about keeping warm? Got it.

… Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on CNBC: “Why would Democrats want ICE to remove their masks? Because they want these officers exposed, they want them afraid, they don’t want to carry out their enforcement actions.”

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my live podcast Uncovered at 4 ET where we do a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will see you back with the next Bulletin on Thursday. If you missed the one yesterday, you can find it here.

Thanks again to all who subscribe. As you can see with the coverage of our amazing new Capitol Hill reporter Pablo, we are always looking to expand what we are doing and get better at doing it. We are redefining how political news is processed and disseminated by posting clips of interviews in the hallways and on the steps of the Capitol on social media minutes after they happen across multiple platforms.

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… WaPo: “Trump has threatened to block the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario, claiming Canada is trying to ‘take advantage of America’ and calling for compensation in the latest flash point in the simmering tensions between the US and its northern neighbor. The Gordie Howe International Bridge - a 6-lane bridge between Detroit and Windsor, ON, that has cost about $4.7 billion to build - has been under construction since 2018 and is due to open early this year.”

… “The bridge is financed by the Canadian government but is publicly owned by the govts of Canada and Michigan, with terms outlined in a 2012 Crossing Agreement. The agreement stated all iron and steel used in the project must be produced in the US or Canada. Canada will recoup the costs of funding the bridge from toll revenue, the Canadian govt said in 2022.”

… Then we learned that the guy who has privately owned the only bridge in the area who charges tolls and will be mostly put out business by the new bridge met with Howard Lutnick right before Trump made his announcement. NYT: “Matthew Moroun, the billionaire owner of a bridge connecting Michigan with Canada, met Howard Lutnick on Monday hours before Trump lambasted a competing bridge.”

… Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was asked about it today when he testified before Congress: “There’s a valid concern on the part of the president that this bridge was allowed to be built, they didn’t necessarily use American content. There’s a