Today in Politics, Bulletin 310. 2/17/26

… Kristi Noem’s spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is quitting. Politico: “One of the Trump admin’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive immigration crackdown is leaving as public opinion sours against the hardline approach. She’s leaving DHS next week, just days after a brutal WSJ article cataloging ‘constant chaos’ within the agency and critiquing Noem’s self-importance including the alleged firing of a US Coast Guard pilot for misplacing the secretary’s blanket.”

… “In the instance of Renee Good, McLaughlin was quick to characterize her actions as an example of ‘domestic terrorism.’ At the peak of her tenure, McLaughlin logged as many as 5 media appearances a day. Throughout her time in her job, she frequently did interviews on Fox News, as well as CNN, CBS News, NPR and Newsmax.”

… Stephen Colbert led off his show last night with this: “You know who is not one of my guests tonight? That’s TX state Rep. James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. Then, I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly does not want us to talk about this - let’s talk about this.”

… CBS is completely lost.

… Deadline: “Traditionally, news content has been exempted from the equal time rule and, in recent decades, stations have assumed that it has applied as well as to daytime and late-night talk shows, like The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live, which have featured presidential and other candidates, including figures like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

… “New FCC guidance from Brendan Carr, though, signaled to those talk shows that they no longer should believe that they would fall under the so-called ‘bonafide news’ exemption. Carr said that a determination on whether a show is exempt would come down to a number of factors, including whether there was a ‘partisan motivation’ in featuring a political candidate as a guest.”

… Media reporter Paul Farhi: “FCC’s intent to enforce equal-time rule for TV and radio talk shows is going to be a Brendan Carr can o’ worms. Agency is now ‘encouraging’ stations to get pre-approval to have candidates on to avoid trouble. FCC now the nation’s guest booker?”

… Elections analyst Logan Phillips: “James Talarico is having quite a moment in Texas after the Colbert interview - and according to Google Trends, Texans are now searching his name at a very high rate just in time for early voting.

… Florida AG James Uthmeier addressed the labor shortage at FL construction sites and farms caused by mass deportations: “We need to focus on getting people into the workforce even earlier. We passed legislation last year to help high school students get their hands dirty and get on job sites more quickly.”

… Immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “The message here is simple: their solution to the economic woes caused by mass deportation will be to push teenagers to work construction instead. Of course, ignoring that construction labor can be quite skilled and teenagers won’t be an adequate substitute.”

… This is what I posted on social media on May 29, 2025: “If they are actually going to enforce deportations in FL at job sites then the construction industry in FL will grind to a halt until they can replace those employees with US-born workers willing to work outside in the summer in 100 degree heat and humidity. Should be no problem.”

… Migrant Insider: “It was approaching midnight in Dilley, Texas, and a two-month-old boy named Juan Nicolás required immediate medical attention because he couldn’t breathe, and the doctor wasn’t there. Juan Nicolás turned two months old inside an ICE private prison. For more than 3 weeks of those 60 days he has been the property of CoreCivic, a brutal private prison company that bills the fed govt for the privilege of jailing infants, and which will tell you with a straight corporate face that emergency care is available around the clock.”

… “Juan Nicolás’s immune system - still being assembled, still figuring out how the world works - has been fighting respiratory illness in a facility where measles recently walked through the door, where mothers report struggling to get clean water for formula, where sick children cycle through ibuprofen and basic antibiotics until they deteriorate badly enough that someone finally calls an ambulance.”

… Univision’s Lidia Terrazas reported later that Juan Nicholas was discharged from the hospital and returned to ICE detention. His mother told them that he was diagnosed with bronchitis.

… Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ): “CoreCivic is one of two major private prison companies making record profits off of Trump’s racist mass deportation agenda. They were also major contributors to his campaign. It’s all corruption. We need to end for-profit detention centers in the US.”

… Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL): “ICE detention centers are inhumane and deadly. Detention is a cruelty no one should endure - especially children and babies. We must end immigration detention and ensure the release of Juan Nicolás and every single person held in the camps.”

… Over the weekend, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) took a comment from one Muslim activist in NYC who said dogs should be banned as pets and used it to say that Muslims in the US should now be deported. He took it a step further today on Newsmax: “People should know Democrats like AOC are saying ‘we are going to get rid of your dogs.’ Americans need to keep that in mind when they go and vote in Nov.”

… AOC did not say anything about dogs. He’s taking one random person that nobody knows and making that person represent the entire Democratic Party.

… By the way, this reprehensible creature Fine is only in Congress because Trump gave him a quick and early endorsement over other candidates in the primary to replace Mike Waltz after he nominated him for NSA.

… Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) continues to beclown himself in moronic interviews. His latest on Fox: “If there is any group of people that knows that socialism does not work, it should be Europe. Two World Wars have been fought on their soil and yet it seems like they are slowly forgetting.”

… Trump has now latched on to his new mantra on Epstein, which he will now repeat several times a day, every day like “Russia, Russia, Russia” until his cult believes it. This is what he claimed on AF1: “I have nothing to hide. I have been exonerated. I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I have been totally exonerated on Epstein.”

… Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA): “Trump hasn’t been exonerated. For him to say he had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein is flat out absurd. One of the things we have learned through these files is that Trump’s relationship with Epstein was much longer and much deeper than he has revealed.”

… Trump was asked about his snub of MD Gov Wes Moore and CO Gov Jared Polis from the bipartisan governor’s conference traditionally hosted by the president: “Governors were all invited other than two. One was from CO where he's got a 73 year old woman who's probably got serious cancer confined because she pointed out the voter theft that was taking place. He better let her go because it's a disgrace. And the other guy is just a bad governor.”

… Trump singled out a gay governor and a black governor for exclusion. What a shocker.

… Trump was asked about Melania’s movie: “Her movie is so successful. It's a tremendous hit. She does very consequential work. I think you're going to see in the end that she's going to go down as one of the truly great first ladies.”

… A reporter pointed out that Trump-backed Venezuelan ruler Delcy Rodriguez is giving speeches saying that Maduro is innocent and is denouncing the US. Trump: “She probably has to say that. I think politically she has to say that. She’s doing a very good job.”

… The Venezuelan-Americans who thought that Trump was going to hold elections in that country are going to figure this out eventually.

… Energy Secretary Chris Wright was on Fox talking about the reason why Trump continues to back the Maduro regime still in power in Venezuela: “We’ve sold about $1 billion of oil so far. We’ve recently signed agreements to sell about another $5 billion in the next several months. So you’re talking well north of $10 billion a year. This is way out of the box, groundbreaking Trump diplomacy.”

… That’s one way to characterize leaving a dictatorship in place with US backing in order to profit from it with no oversight or accountability from Congress.

… Trump made this ridiculous claim while promoting the SAVE Act: “The population, 98%, want voter ID. They also want to end mail in ballots which is corrupt. We’re the only country in the world that has this system of mail in ballots. If you had voter ID, if you had proof of citizenship, Democrats could never win an election.”

… The SAVE Act is not a “voter ID” bill. It is so much more than that. Yes, a strong majority of Americans believe that you should show ID either to register to vote or to vote (but not nearly 98% like he claims), but that’s not what the SAVE Act is all about.

… Q - “Recent reports have discussed the possibility that Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski are in a personal relationship. Is that a bad look? Trump: I don’t know about that. I haven’t heard that. I’ll find out about it.”

… He knows all about it. He has mentioned it numerous times to staffers and said that it annoys him.

… Trump was asked about Marge Greene’s criticisms of him on Epstein and other things: “We have a lot of people who want to take Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene’s place. Many candidates. I have to choose one.”

… Trump endorsed Clay Fuller in that race two weeks ago. Maybe he forgot.

… Greene responded: “Him calling me ‘traitor’ has become a badge of honor because I’m not in his cult and I refused to bow to his demands to cover up the Epstein files to protect his friends.”

… The US Dept of Health and Human Services put out a Make America Healthy Again video today showing RFK Jr. and Kid Rock going through a serious of workouts while finishing in a hot tub together. The whole thing looked like a bad gay porn episode.

… Puck on Lindsey Graham causing more problems on Greenland: “After a good half-day of American lawmakers trying to calm jittery European nerves, Graham and a number of other senators and members of Congress met with Danish PM Mette Frederiksen. Graham completely unloaded on her. The gist was that if Trump wanted Greenland, he’d take it, and there wasn’t much they could do about it. They would just have to hand over the Arctic island and deal with it.

… One source in attendance: “Lots of F-bombs.”

… Another described the scene: “Picture Graham on his worst TV day.”

… “Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who was in the meeting, was so offended that she got up and left. People told me she looked visibly shaken afterward.”

Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my weekly podcast Uncovered on Wednesdays. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Thank you as always to everyone who reads, shares and subscribes to my work. It is very much appreciated!

I am especially looking forward to ramping things up on national election coverage of key races as we get closer to the midterms. I think I am better at covering live election events than anything else, and I can usually always find interesting things that happen on the campaign trail which don’t make national news. Of course, it is a lot more fun to cover it when you are winning!

… TIME: “Something might be happening in IA. Despite its reputation as a solidly Republican state, IA is increasingly coming up in conversations of Senate races to watch this year. And that glimmer of optimism is playing out in the fight for the Democratic nomination, which saw a significant shift Monday evening, with one of 3 contenders announcing he was stepping aside and endorsing state Rep. Josh Turek, a paralympian gold medalist and state lawmaker.”

… Turek: “We’re seeing the field consolidate around the most electable candidate because I fundamentally believe that Iowa is in play far more than what people on the coast realize. I think we are going to be the center of the political universe here in 2026. There’s no other state where you’re looking at being able to flip 3 of the 4