Today in Politics, Bulletin 350. 4/16/26
… When Erika Kirk canceled her appearance with JD Vance at a Turning Point rally in GA where the arena was 90% empty, she claimed the reason she ghosted the event was because she received “credible threats” before it began. But the US Secret Service is contradicting her claim.
… CBS: “The Secret Service determined there were no credible threats to Tuesday's Turning Point USA rally at the Univ. of GA. Kirk cited threats and concerns raised by her security team. However, the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the VP, was not tracking any specific or credible threats tied to the venue or to Vance.”
… “According to a source, the site was secure, and there were no known threats to the protectee. After being briefed by his protective detail, Vance was informed that the event remained safe and chose to proceed.”
… There were multiple congressional hearings today with RFK Jr testifying in the House about health care fraud, Russ Vought testifying in the Senate on Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request, and a House vote on invoking the War Powers Act on Iran. That all followed another looney “press conference” from Pete Hegseth.
… I asked our Capitol Hill reporter Pablo Manriquez to ask Reps. their opinion on the cost of the war adding to huge national debt. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA): “OMG! Stevie Wonder can even see how much this war is costing us! Gas prices have gone up, fertilizer has gone up, you name it. And this dude, Dr. Jesus, is wanting to spend $2 billion of your money every single day rather than help you get health care. Fuck his ass!”
… RFK Jr. testified about the Trump admin initiative lead by JD Vance to investigate alleged health care fraudsters. It didn’t go well for him:
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX): “As far as fraud, Paul Walczak had $10 million of wages that he kept some of to buy a $2 million yacht. His mother contributed to the Trump campaign and he no longer had to pay $4.4 million or stay in prison. Did you recommend to Trump that several health care fraudsters should get pardons, or did the campaign contributions speak for themselves? RFK Jr: It’s not a credible story. Doggett: It’s not a story. It’s a fact.”
Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA): “I find it incredible that you suspended a pro-vaccine campaign, but somehow you’re spending taxpayer dollars on a campaign to drink milk, shirtless in a hot tub with Kid Rock, and somehow you think that’s a better public health message.”
RFK Jr: “There’s a global measles epidemic, we’ve done better in preventing it than any country in the world. Sanchez: There is no country that has seen a bigger percentage increase in measles than us.”
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL): “In a 2024 podcast interview, you suggested that Black children on ADHD medication should be re-parented. Have you ever re-parented or parented a black child? RFK Jr: I’m not going to answer something that I didn’t say. Sewell: You absolutely said it.”
… Ways & Means Dems then posted the clip of RFK in 2024: “Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented - to live in a community where there’ll be no cellphones, no screens.”
… Leaving the hearing room, RFK Jr was asked by TMZ about the incident in a new biography where he admitted chopping a penis off a dead roadkill raccoon so he could “study it later”: Q - “Mr. Secretary, what did you do with the dead raccoon’s penis? Where is it now?” He refused to answer and walked away.
… Pete Hegseth incorporated what he said was a “Bible verse” at his monthly Pentagon Christian prayer and worship service yesterday, alluding that it came from Ezekiel 25:17: “It reads, and pray with me please. “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother … when I lay my vengeance upon thee, and amen.”
… “Ezekiel 25:17” was recited by a hit man played by Samuel L. Jackson in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, just before he executes his mark in the opening moments of the movie. The problem is, the reference is not from a real Bible verse. It was written for the film by Tarantino.
… Hegseth called another press conference today to attack the press for not being sufficient patriotic in their reporting about the war:
“The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn. Where’s the coverage of the new spirit in the country? Nothing from the fake news.”
“To the American media - I just can’t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on. It’s incredibly unpatriotic.”
“Jesus entered a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees came to watch. As the scripture reads, they were there to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath so that they might accuse Him.”
“You see, the Pharisees were there to witness, to write everything down, and to report. But their hearts were hardened, even though they witnessed a literal miracle. It didn’t matter to them. They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.”
“The Pharisees went out and immediately held a council against him, plotting how they might destroy him. Our press are like these Pharisees. Your politically motivated animus for Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors.”
… Hegseth took questions today from OAN, Real America’s Voice, Daily Wire, and Just the News.
… Minutes after Hegseth made those remarks, Pope Leo XIV posted: “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
… Much to the horror of Republican candidates heading into the midterms, Trump continued to attack and lie about the Pope today:
Q - “Why are you fighting with the Pope? Trump: I have to do what's right. I’m not fighting with him. The Pope made a statement saying Iran can have nuclear weapon. Reporter: He didn’t say that. Trump: I can disagree with the Pope. I have the right to do that.”
Q - “There were a group of bishops that put out a statement saying the Pope is just preaching the gospel. Trump: I'm all about the gospel - I’m about it as much as anybody could be.”
Q - “Would you meet with the Pope to even out your differences? Trump: I don't think it's necessary.”
… Trump was then asked about Epstein:
Q - “The First Lady came out last week and said she had no links with Epstein. Trump: She had none. Q - Why did she say that? Trump: Because the fake news said she did. She had none. I think that’s been proven.”
Q - “Do you believe there should be a public hearing for more of these Epstein survivors? Trump: I'm okay with that. But I understand the women didn't want to go under oath. That's what I heard, that the victims or whatever, they refused to go under oath.”
… Catholic author Christopher Hale: “Speaker Mike Johnson stood at a House Republican press conference on Wed and offered Pope Leo XIV a theology lesson. ‘It is a very well-settled matter of Christian theology,’ Johnson told reporters. ‘It’s something called the ‘just war doctrine.’ He was responding to Pope Leo’s declaration that Jesus ‘does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.’”
… Johnson, a Southern Baptist with a business degree from LSU and a law degree he parlayed into running a law school that never enrolled a single student, felt the need to correct the pope on a point of Catholic theology. The pope he was correcting is an Augustinian friar. Leo entered seminary at 14, spent 18 years in continuous theological formation, earned his doctorate at the Univ. of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, and served 12 years as the worldwide head of the Order of Saint Augustine.”
… “His patron saint - the namesake of his religious order, the figure whose writings shaped his vocation, whose thought he studied in his doctoral dissertation - is Augustine of Hippo. Augustine invented the Catholic just war doctrine in the fourth century.”
… “JD Vance, a Catholic convert, made a similar argument this week - questioning whether the Pope understood just war theory just hours after Pope Leo honored the man who created it. Augustine did develop the just war framework. He wrote it amid the collapse of the Roman Empire, and he never treated it as a permission slip.”
… “War, for Augustine, can only be an act of grief undertaken to protect the innocent and restore order. The man who spent 12 years leading Augustine’s religious order as its Prior General - who prayed at his tomb, walked the ground where he preached, studied his writings in Latin as a seminarian in Rome — grasps the tradition that Johnson referenced on Tuesday.
… Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM): “Millions of people displaced and our American bases bombed. And for what? Having been led into an illegal war by a madman who is attacking the pope, threatening war crimes and implicated in the Epstein files, and who can’t explain why we were there, or what happens the day after.”
… Sen. Majority Leader John Thune was asked about Vance saying the Pope needs to “be careful when he talks about matters of theology”. Thune: “Isn’t that his job? I’d stay focused on the economic issues, pocketbook issues that most Americans care about. And let the church be the church.”
… KY Gov. Andy Beshear on Johnson and Vance’s claim that the Pope is misinterpreting the Bible about war: “This is a president who has attacked the Pope multiple times, who is just trying to live out and speak the New Testament. There is no point in the New Testament where Jesus ever talks about a just war. The Pope is simply talking about a Christ who could have brought down fire on the Roman Empire and didn’t.”
… “The most powerful person who’s ever walked the face of the Earth - he could have been the Prince of Power, could have been king of everything, could have tried to justify violence - and never did. He could have been the Prince of Power, and he chose to be the Prince of Peace. And both Vance and Trump could know that simply by reading the New Testament.”
… Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur: “JD Vance is lecturing the Pope on Catholicism and Pierre Poilievre is lecturing Mark Carney on economics and RFK Jr is lecturing scientists about vaccines and Donald Trump is lecturing the world on tariffs and Pete Hegseth is quoting Pulp Fiction and thinking it’s the Bible.”
… This was an absolute batshit crazy day. I did my very best to keep up with it all but so much was happening so fast all over the place. I’ve been trying to make these a little shorter whenever possible, but there was so much insanity today this is one of those sprawling ones where you might need a few breaks for cocktails.
Reminder that tomorrow is the normal daily Bulletin plus we do the Ask the Editor podcast where I choose 5 of your questions to answer. The questions last week were outstanding and that makes it a much better show. Please submit a question if you have one in the comments below.
Yesterday was my weekly podcast Uncovered, where we do a deep dive into the most interesting stories of the week. A link to that is here. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Franklin Graham: “Trump is the most pro-Christian, pro-life president in my lifetime, and he doesn’t shy away from it. I would hope that the President and Pope Leo can meet at some point, and that the Pope would have the opportunity to thank the President for his efforts to protect religious liberty for Catholics and people of all faiths.”
… Trump retaliated against the Catholic Church by cutting off federal funding for one of their most successful charitable programs working with children who arrive in the
