Today in Politics, Bulletin 397. 6/9/26

…Trump killed the vibe of the NY Knicks last night, as they came into Game 3 of the NBA Finals riding high with a 13-game winning streak only to see it come crashing down when the Orange Menace invaded their arena. The Knicks lost to the San Antonio Spurs 115-111 as NY prays for Trump to stay away from the remaining games.

… It was clear Trump orchestrated a plan with Knicks owner James Dolan to only have him shown to the crowd on the jumbotron once in the middle of the national anthem to try and reduce the number of boos. But videos captured the minute he was shown on the screen showed the crowd booing loudly, then they quickly took him off and didn’t show him for the rest of the game.

… The best video that accurately shows the incident was posted by WFAN’s Evan Roberts. I posted it on Substack, X, Threads and Bluesky.

… Trump also fell asleep during the game.

… Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “The president is not well. He has tremendous difficulty staying awake on the job. He has repeatedly fallen asleep at Cabinet meetings, at WH events, at a Memorial Day ceremony, and most recently at a very loud NBA game last night. The WH needs to explain why Trump keeps going to the hospital and taking cognitive tests.

… Real America’s Voice host Grant Stinchfield: “Brainwashed New Yorkers. Blind Liberal Millionaire Zombies boo Trump - the one man whose quest it is for every American to preserve and BUILD wealth. The minimum seat price was $8000 dollars. Who will be able to pay that if their socialist mayor gets his way. Insanity!”

… Several members of Trump’s admin attended the game with him. Jared Kushner bypassed all the lines and security as he breezed right into the arena. I posted video of that also on multiple platforms.

… Others in attendance were Kai Trump, Vanessa Trump, Steve Witkoff, Lee Zeldin, Howard Lutnick, Boris Epshteyn, Dan Scavino, Erin Scavino, Doug Burgum, Sean Duffy, Michael Boulos, Steven Cheung, Walt Nauta, Margo Martin, and (of course) the ever-present “special assistant” Natalie Harp.

… NYC journalist Sam Koppelman: “You have the most likable NY sports team in decades - and you decide to bring Trump, Lutnick, Kraft, and half the Epstein files into it. Glad Dolan reminded us all why he was known as the worst owner in sports. It’s on us now to transcend it.”

…But Trump told reporters after that he was cheered at the game: “You mean when they showed me on the screen? I thought it was very good. It was certainly amazing. I think mostly cheers. It was loud. And it was very enthusiastic.”

… Q - “Will you go to the next game? Zeldin: We’re busy with a lot of important stuff right now. Trump: Like a war.”

… Speaking of that, when you look at the timeline of events last night it is clear that Trump was flying to the game from Bedminster after US helicopter pilots had been shot down for about 90 minutes and still awaiting a possible rescue:

• CENTCOM: “At 7:33 p.m. ET on June 8, two crew members from a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache were rescued by American forces after their helicopter went down near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters. The Soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition. The cause of the incident is under investigation.”

… But Trump’s comms assistant Margo Martin posted a time-stamped video at 6:57 PM ET showing Trump boarding the helicopter at Bedminster to fly to Madison Square Garden. So he was literally on his way to the game while the pilots were in the water hoping to be rescued.

… He has said previously that he didn’t like pilots who get shot down, so maybe the game was a bigger priority.

… Trump later posted today that they were shot down by an Iranian drone: “I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the US must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

… Israeli journalist Amit Segal: “Trump has announced that Iran was responsible for shooting down a US helicopter last night, stating that the US must respond to the attack. ​I’m confused. Just two days ago, Trump demanded that Israel refrain from retaliating against Iran because their attack resulted in zero casualties. Why is there a sudden double standard when it comes to a US response?”

… Iranian Parliament Speaker MB Ghalibaf: “We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best. You ride the horse you saddled!”

… ABC’s Jonathan Karl spoke to Trump later as the US launched retaliatory strikes:
"I think it's very important to respond. They shot down a helicopter, and we are responding as we speak. This is a response to what they did they did with our helicopter last night, and I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that's what this one is."

… Right before this incident happened, JD Vance was on Fox touting a peace deal and total victory: “Let’s be honest. The Iranians don’t want this war to continue. It’s not in their best interests. They’re coming to the table putting some real things on the table. If we get this deal, it’s going to be a home run for the American people.”

… And Trump told reporters right after the game that a deal was very close: “Two or three days - we have a very good chance of doing it.”

… CNN reported that Trump has claimed an Iran deal was “imminent” 38 different times.

… Even Republicans are getting frustrated. Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) on Fox: “I’m starting to feel like we’re Charlie Brown and Iran is Lucy, and every time we go to kick the ball it’s taken away. ‘We’re close to a deal, we’re 2 days from a deal, we’re 3 days from a deal,’ and it’s not happening. If I were in Vegas right now, I’d be betting that in 2 days we’ll be right where we are today.”

… Fox host Jesse Watters: “Trump keeps saying we're very close, days away. I don't know what that means. We've heard that for a very long time.”

… Iran expert Gregory Brew: “Iran has demonstrated that it will fire on Israel to defend Hezbollah, it will fire on the Gulf if the US strikes its territory, and it will fire on ships that attempt to run the blockade in the strait. Iran does not want the war to continue, but it is also prepared for the war to re-intensify, confident that another round of fighting will produce a similar (and perhaps even more favorable) outcome.”

… NYT: “A key obstacle to an Iran deal has been Trump’s shifting demands and frustration with the negotiation process. According to mediators, Trump has been frustrated by his inability to speak directly with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and by Tehran’s slow pace of negotiations. They say he has repeatedly changed terms that his own team had already discussed with Iranian officials.”

… “In the first round of talks after the April cease-fire, Trump’s envoys—Steve Witkoff and JD Vance—reportedly proposed a deal under which Iran would suspend uranium enrichment for 10 years. Iranian officials say they accepted that framework, only for Trump to later demand a 20-year suspension, helping derail the talks.”

… “More recently, while negotiators waited for Khamenei’s response to a draft agreement, Trump reportedly added new conditions related to Iran’s nuclear program and access to frozen assets, further deepening Iranian mistrust of the negotiations.”

… Trump to ABC: “Somebody’s going to have to build all that infrastructure, new bridges, new this, new that, new power plants - they’re talking about a trillion dollars, probably more. That’s why we’ll probably get involved in rebuilding. But, we’ll get half their oil.”

… Yeah, I’m not an expert on the Iranian regime, but I don’t really think they are going to accept that kind of a deal. Just a hunch.

… Dr Oz was on Fox talking about his new Medicaid requirements: “You have to work. You were not put on this planet to sit at home and watch TV. The average person who’s on Medicaid, who’s able-bodied, watches 6.1 hours of television, or just hangs out, every day. That’s not why God put you here.”

… Gavin Newsom: “Wow. We cant believe Dr. Oz would insult Trump like that.”

… Rep. Jim Jordan held a Judiciary Committee hearing where he was supposed the expose the Southern Poverty Law Center after they were indicted by Todd Blanche for allegedly instigating violence at right-wing events using paid informants. Like most Jordan hearings, he hyped it up on Fox for days only to have it unravel into a total clown show when live witnesses were questioned under oath.

… I’m still not exactly sure why, but Jordan’s star witness was right-wing activist and Trump-supporter Alveda King, who appeared to know very little about SPLC except for her uncle’s affiliation with the org during the Civil Rights era. Ranking member Jamie Raskin attempted to determine whether King knew anything about SPLC:

• King: Do you pay the same people that do the bomb and then go comfort the people from being bombed? Do you pay the same people that do both jobs. That’s kind of fraud to me - it’s weird and chaotic and confusing.

• Raskin: I don’t think there’s any allegation that anyone who worked for SPLC bombed anyone. Do you have information to that effect?

• King: I don’t personally, but outside agitators did bomb our house in 1963 and they ran back and took off the KKK sheets and put on police things and ran up in the yard. It was crazy!”

• Raskin: That’s a statement about the racism of that police force working with the KKK.

• King: Hey, y’all pay both of them to do the double jobs. That’s what SPLC does now. You hire them to do the bombing then you hire them to fix the bombing? That’s weird.

• Raskin: You are asserting a lot of things under oath and you haven’t brought the evidence with you.

• King: I’ll get some for you.

• Raskin: OK, please. Bring us the evidence.

• King: I will.

… Rep. Jasmine Crockett was incredulous that Jordan would have King testify at the hearing when she knows nothing about the case: “White men on that side of the aisle are lecturing people of color on who is fighting for who. People of color do not feel comfortable or welcomed within your party. That’s why you have to parade someone who has the name ‘Dr. King’ attached to them, so that people can be confused.

… “I’ve been reading the comments online, and people are asking, ‘Who is this Dr. King?’ because you want them to believe that somehow she espouses who Dr. King was. Yet you’ve yet to have MLK III come in here. You’ve yet to have Dr. Bernice King—the ones who were actually raised by Dr. King, the ones who probably actually understand the teachings of Dr. King.”

… Alveda King has an honorary doctorate.

… Jordan attempted to question SPLC CEO Bryan Fair, but since the org is presently under a criminal indictment he was unable to answer most of the questions. He was able to answer this: Jordan - “Do you wish you hadn’t done the program? You said the program was successful, helpful, but now you’re stopping it. Fair: We stopped the program because we believe hate and extremism has migrated significantly online and in to govt agencies.”

Reminder there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my weekly podcast Uncovered where we do a deep dive into the top stories of the week. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

Thank you again to everyone who read, shares and subscribes.

… House Oversight’s Robert Garcia gave an update today on his Epstein investigation: “Today we had Ms. Groff, who’s actually still testifying before the committee. She’s giving us, in fact, I think a lot of names of staff, employees, and folks who worked in the Epstein orbit. She worked for Epstein for 18 years, so she’s being asked some very tough questions, rightly so, about what she knew and who she scheduled