… Two big hearings on Capitol Hill today as FBI Director Kash Patel testified before the Senate and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in the House. First, Kash Patel:
On the FBI removing bestiality as a disqualification for new FBI agent hires. Sen. Kennedy (R-LA): “Why would you even get into bestiality? If someone participated in bestiality, don't you think he ought to be disqualified? Patel: If he voluntarily did it, sure. But if he was trafficked into it then -- Kennedy: How do you involuntarily do it? Patel: Human traffickers can force you into doing things you don’t want to do.”
Kennedy: "Why would you even get into bestiality? Patel: We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals… Kennedy: But you changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality!"
Sen. Welch (D-VT): “I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls? Patel: When did you hear that? It's just another lie. Welch: So you are sending FBI agents to the polls? Patel: We have election crisis coordinators manned at all 56 field offices. Election integrity is of paramount importance. The FBI will not shy away from that effort.”
Welch: “Trump said 'the only way Democrats can get elected is to cheat.' Do you agree? Patel: Based upon the Russiagate hoax and everything else that has happened, the president is completely justified in making his opinions known.”
Welch: “Do you agree with Trump that he won the 2020 election? Patel: There are many ongoing investigations surrounding that matter, so I'm not going to comment on it. Welch: So you believe it was rigged? Patel: There are many ongoing investigations.”
Welch: "Apparently you wanted to go to the Olympics, and then you barged into the celebration of our winning Olympic team. Patel: The players, who are my friends, invited me into the locker room."
Sen. Booker (D-NJ): “In March after Elizabeth Williamson reported that you used a SWAT detail to protect and drive your girlfriend, your agents interviewed your girlfriend about the reporting. Is that true? Patel: Why are you talking about my loved ones? Stop attacking me and my loved ones.
Booker: "Like a thug, you're using your agency to go after reporters to chill one of the most sacrosanct ideals of the US. They can pass you all the notes they want, but the truth is clear. Right now you are stonewalling this committee for asking simple questions of accountability on how you're using govt resources to go after reporters."
Booker: “You get upset when somebody writes a fair story about your girlfriend, but you're out there using the FBI to go after a reporter's mom. The president was secretly shuttled from the Qatari jet via an airport catering truck to a smaller Air Force jet on July 8th. The story ran the next day on July 9th. You demanded those reporters' phone records, but you didn't just go back to this period. As an act of further intimidation of reporters, you went back 6 months, all the way to January 1st, before there was even a story.”
Booker: “We don’t have an FBI Director, we have a lackey. He’s not even a good lackey, he’s an incompetent lackey. He's like an 18 year old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He's an embarrassment. He is a disgrace. He won’t answer questions. This is a mockery and a sham. What's bad is not just that we have a rogue FBI agents, what’s bad is we have Republican senators who are the people enabling him."
… Chairman Grassley then yelled at Booker: “ARE YOU READY TO SHUT UP!?!?”
Sen. Durbin (D-IL): "Recent reports have revealed that Corey Lewandowski while he was at the DHS approached senior officials from Qatar and the UAE offering to represent them on the side in issues that fell under DHS purview. Was the FBI aware of Lewandowski's effort to sell access to govt services for personal gain? Patel: Not as far as I'm aware. Durbin: Has the FBI initiated any investigation into these allegations? Patel: I would refer you to DHS. He was a DHS employee."
Sen. Hirono (D-HI): “You have been so drunk that briefings have been rescheduled so you could sleep it off. When challenged by Sen. Van Hollen several months ago to take an alcoholism test, you agreed if he would take out too. Sen. Van Hollen did and posted his results, but we are still waiting for you to post your results.”
Sen. Blumenthal: "A Russian oligarch bankrolled the wedding of the president's son. Have you begun an investigation? Patel: I'm not sure what public reporting you're referring to."
Sen. Schiff (D-CA): “How many of the agents who worked on Mar a Lago investigation of Trump were fired by the FBI? Patel: I don't know. I don't have that number. That's not my responsibility. Schiff: Okay, so you don't believe any of the agents who worked on that investigation are still at the FBI? Patel: I can't stop them from retiring.”
Schiff: “Todd Blanche at a CPAC conference says: ‘When it comes to the FBI, director Patel has cleaned house there, too. There isn't a single man or woman with a gun still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of Trump. So the AG says you cleaned house at the FBI. Patel: I did.”
Schiff: “I will remind you, director, because you probably need reminding, that while this Congress is not going to investigate the wrongful termination of potentially hundreds of agents for working on properly predicated investigations, the next congress will. And you have an obligation as FBI director to ensure that none of the personnel files, none of the emails, none of the voicemails, none of the text messages are destroyed.”
… Scott Bessent’s hearing in the House:
Rep. Himes (D-CT): “What I heard from the RNC convention in Texas is that we’re all communists. Can we agree that a basic tenet of communism is control of the govt over the hand of the free market? Bessent: Yes. Himes: Can you think of any other admin since FDR that has taken equity stakes - govt ownership - in 39 companies? You are imposing huge tariffs on trade. You did a massive intervention in the treasuries market. I can think of no admin in the last 50 years that is quite as communist as the Trump admin. Constant interventions in the operations of the free market."
Himes: “You spent $10 billion to try to lower the yield on the 10 year bond. When you started, it was 4.8%. Today it's at a 20 year high of 5.04%. A 20 basis point rise. Was your intervention successful? Bessent: Yes it was. Himes: Wait - it went up by 20 points! Bessent: There's a counterfactual of what would it have done.”
Himes: “When the American people see consumer sentiment lose 20 points since the beginning of the Trump admin, you have a political problem. Bessent: There’s a survey problem because Democrats are now poisoning the survey. Himes: Mr. Secretary, you’re better than that.”
… I really don’t think he is.
Rep. Casten (D-IL): “Trump said, ‘We’re taking in a lot of money, billions of dollars from Venezuela.’ He seemed to imply that we, the US people, are taking in money to offset those costs. That would suggest flows to US persons. Bessent: “This is one of the largest assets to ever go on the US balance sheet. Casten: You can't testify as we sit here whether or not those are flowing to US persons? Bessent: Uh, no.”
Rep. Cleaver (D-MO): “Do you have any apprehensions about a $1.8 trillion dollar deficit that would be impacted even more negatively if every American receives $5,000 from the federal govt? Bessent: I believe there are ways to do it that would not affect the deficit.”
… Not sure how you can not affect the deficit when you spend $1.2 trillion on a bribe.
… NY Post: “60 Minutes stumbled out of the gate with its lowest-rated season premiere of the 21st century, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. The long-running program drew about 7.7 million viewers for its season opener, marking its smallest premiere audience in records dating back to at least 2000.”
… “The weak opening comes at the start of the first full season under CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. Year over year, the premiere was down 19% among total viewers and 33% in the key 25-to-54 demographic, the early Nielsen figures showed.”
… CNN: “There were two big events on TV last Wed night: Trump’s midterm convention speech and the NFL season kickoff. The ratings are finally in: The NFL game drew more than 25 million viewers. Trump’s speech reached about 3 million viewers.”
… Speaker Mike Johnson held a press conference today:
Q: “You talked about communism. How is communism any different from what Trump is doing with equity stakes in tech and promising $5,000 checks to everyone? Johnson: He comes up with creative ideas all the time. He’s the ideas president.”
Q: “Could the $5,000 checks be part of reconciliation? Will it be fully paid for?
Johnson: I’m not going to get into the details of all that. We haven’t had time to process it.”
… 63% of Americans in the new Reuters/IPSOS poll said they disagreed with Trump’s promise to give everyone $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms.
Q: "The president has insisted that concerns about the rise of AI are a hoax and said the only guardrails that are needed is a president like him. Do you agree? Johnson: When the president says a hoax, what he's referring to is - you're not all gonna be dead in 10 years, okay? That's a hoax."
… NYT: “With fewer than 50 days until the midterms, Democrats have developed a clear advantage over Republicans as the president has lost the public’s trust on the economy. Trump’s lingering unpopularity and intense frustration over his management of cost-of-living issues, in particular, have deepened Republican vulnerabilities as Democrats push to win control of both the House and Senate.”
… “Likely voters favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by close to 9 percentage points in their congressional district - a metric that is closely watched by both parties as a leading indicator of political momentum.”
… These were the results of the poll issue-by-issue:
… One Republican commentator joked that Trump woke up and read that the only issue Republicans were above water was on AI regulation, so he made all his AI posts and statements in the last 24 hours to make sure he wrecked that issue for them also. He said that because Trump made multiple posts again today after the poll came out ranting that the AI industry should be completely deregulated:
“The AI Hoax being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats is reminiscent of their Global Warming Scam of not so long ago, where everyone was going to die from extreme heat. What happened?”
“I am the Hoax Buster, and I’m right now breaking another Hoax - That AI is going to take over, consume, and destroy the World, and that Robots will be marching into our Cities, and getting rid of us all! This is even wilder than the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA HOAX, or the Global Warming Scam.”
… WH economic advisor Kevin Hassett on CNBC: “What Elon and Sam Altman said over the weekend is that they are gonna themselves privately set up a system where there are sort of independent observers within their companies making sure that things aren’t going south.”
... Hassett said govt shouldn’t regulate the AI industry: “When you call for a govt that might someday be run by Democrats to take over everything, then it’s a recipe for disaster and that’s certainly one place we draw the line. These are solvable problems, and the private sector is the right place to solve them.”
… The private sector regulating itself. We tried that in the 19th century. We ended up with robber-baron monopolies, a huge stock market crash, and the Great Depression where we had 25% unemployment, 50% of the population under the poverty line, and a few dozen people owning everything. Which is where we are headed with totally unregulated AI.
… Unless they agree to share the wealth with Universal Basic Income. That is something Elon Musk said will be necessary in the future since AI and robotics are going to put so many people out of work. But they aren’t going to do it voluntarily.
Reminder that 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. I also filmed Ask the Editor today so it should be out shortly after this Bulletin. Once again, lots of great questions by you and I choose to answer these 5 this time:
Are the Tech Bros sincere about regulating AI or are they just trying to avoid government regulations by pledging to self-regulate and acting like they care about the dangers?
What is Trump’s angle on AI and data centers? Why is he so all-in on it when he clearly doesn’t understand it?
Do Jolly and Nixon have a chance in FL against Donalds and Moody?
What’s the situation with Mitch McConnell? He looked like a vegetable yesterday.
What is your take about Judge Luttig’s article on Mike Johnson possibly refusing to seat members if Democrats win a majority by claiming their elections were rigged?
If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.
… Decision Desk HQ: “‘Redistricting will save the Republicans’ House majority.’ This proposition sucked up a significant portion of the political oxygen in the 2026 midterm cycle. But 50 days out from the election, the Republicans’ mapmaking edge looks less and less likely to overcome the gravitational pull of larger electoral forces.”
