Thursday, October 15, 2026

Anderson Cooper corrects lying Chump

First up, Katie Phang.




Criticism descended on President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he claimed that the country is actually profiting from the high global price of oil caused by the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran.
“I never say this, because, and watch, they’ll cut all of this stuff out, and they’ll leave the little sentence,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona on Wednesday. “Our country is making more money than it’s ever made because of the fact that oil is so high.” 
Trump then claimed he “cared about the little person like crazy” but said, “we’re making a fortune.” 
“But I never talk about it, because I’m not happy until we get the actual price of the oil down,” Trump said.
The president then claimed gas was down to $1.85 per gallon, which it hasn’t been nationally since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when shutdowns drove global oil prices down. 

"I never talk about it" but you're doing it.  And, no, it is not good that oil companies are raking in huge profits.  It is not good at all.  Shame on Chump. 

But he's incapable of shame.  He's incapable of honesty.  He just lies and tries to buy people.  Rex Huppke (USA TODAY) notes:

The bad news for Republicans is that the last inflation report before the midterm elections showed that overall prices in September were nearly 4% higher than the same time last year, and gas prices specifically surged 34%.

The good news is that Republican candidates, whose operating philosophy seems to be “eating is overrated,” have President Donald Trump on the midterms campaign trail offering voters all kinds of free things.

While insisting the economy is doing great – because apparently it's always Opposite Day at Mar-a-Lago – the president has pitched a $5,000 Trump Dividend that will go to every U.S. adult if and only if Republicans maintain control of Congress in the upcoming elections. (Wink!)
He has also ponied up $500 checks he describes as “Obamacare refunds” to fewer than 0.3% of Americans, and sent 90 bucks to about 20 million seniors. That last part is super exciting, because $90 these days can buy you almost a whole tank of gas or a small amount of ground beef!


Rex is right about Chump's insulting bribes.  Be sure to read his column in full.  Briana Charles (DAILY BEAST) notes: 

CNN Host Anderson Cooper sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s real priorities as the president faces mounting problems.

On Wednesday’s Anderson Cooper 360°, Anderson tore into the president for focusing on his vanity projects and Truth Social AI clips instead of climbing inflation and high cost-of-living issues.

With inflation rising, gas is averaging $4.33 a gallon, according to AAA. The president also took a brutal blow on Wednesday after the release of the Consumer Price Index, with Bureau of Labor Statistics data that showed that consumer prices rose 3.7 percent in September from a year earlier and that inflation rose faster than expected last month.
However, at a rally in Arizona on Wednesday, as Cooper showed on CNN, Trump, 80, had a different story.

“All your prices have been tumbling down. Prices are coming down very fast. Oil is coming down. Inflation is down,” Trump said.

Cooper offered a more realistic picture.

“The words of a man who says he wants voters to pretend that he is on the ballot, telling them things they see with their eyes are not true,” Cooper, 59, said.

“Inflation not down. It’s up. Prices not coming down. They’re going up. Oil not coming down.” Crude, he noted, was sitting at $106 a barrel. “None of what you heard him say there was true,” he added.


Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Thursday, October 15, 2026.  Inflation rises, Chump's unhinged as he continues his DESPERATION TOUR, the tour is dragging down GOPers running for elected office, Priss Pot Hegseth remains a huge problem for the administration, Senator Patty Murray calls out the damage Chump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Junior are doing, and much more. 




Chump the snowflake, clown, grifter and whiner just got served.  Finya Swai (THE HILL) reports:

Former Vice President Kamala Harris ripped President Trump over his restrictions on White House press access, suggesting he should resign from office if he does not want journalists to scrutinize his administration.

“If you want to do things in secret, then why don’t you just leave the White House?” Harris said Tuesday in an interview with actor Keke Palmer on her podcast, “Baby, This is Keke Palmer.”

Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from accessing the White House complex and revoked their journalists' hard passes in September, claiming the ban was a “result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

“It shows the extent to which the current occupant of the White House has such a fragile ego that he can’t, as president of the United States, tolerate major news outlets listening to what he’s saying and watching what he’s doing,” Harris said.


She is exactly right.  If tubby can't handle the heat, he needs to go into hiding.  He can do that by announcing he is stepping down from the office.  It would be a holiday gift to the nation.  But if he's going to remain as president, he's going to have to accept reality and stop screaming "FAKE NEWS! FAKE NEWS!"  



The news is not good for Chump.  AFP notes, "US consumer inflation was hotter than anticipated in September, government data showed Wednesday, as Washington's war with Tehran pushed energy costs higher, deepening strains on American households ahead of next month's midterm elections."  Steve Kopack (NBC NEWS) adds: 

Inflation in September picked back up again after three months of largely stagnating. Overall, prices rose 3.7% from a year ago, and up 0.6% from August.

“The index for gasoline rose 9.1 percent in September, accounting for over half of the monthly all items increase,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Friday’s number is the final inflation report before November’s pivotal midterm elections, where business owners and consumers have said they will be voting with their bottom line in mind.

Since August, oil prices have risen to more than $106 per barrel from about $80. The price of regular gas, which most consumers buy, has risen 45% since late February, when the Iran war was launched. The price of diesel, which powers businesses, farms, the shipping industry and other critical sectors, has risen 70% since then.

And that's with 19 days left for midterm voting.  November 3rd is the official day to vote, early voting is taking place in many states currently.  19 days and the economic news is yet again bleak.  And it's the last report before the midterms.  Chump asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot.  And they likely will. 




As of Tuesday morning, the national average gas price was $4.34 per gallon, according to AAA, up from $2.98 per gallon just before the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran in late February.

That means gas prices have risen more than 46 percent since the start of the war, for an additional $73.5 billion, according to researchers at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs. That amounts to an additional $561.20 per U.S. household.

The surge in costs is bad news for President Donald Trump and the Republicans hoping to maintain control of the House and Senate, as Trump made lower gasoline and energy prices a key point in his 2024 presidential campaign. Last October, the White House touted Trump’s leadership as “bringing relief at the gas pump.”

At the time, the average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. was a little over $3. Shortly after the White House announcement, Trump said gas prices would soon drop below $2 per gallon. Five months later, the average price of a gallon of gas was nearly $4. The prices have risen even further since.


Inflation?  Chump's responsible.  BBC NEWS reminds: 

Higher tariffs - which are levies that businesses pay on the goods they import - directly raise prices for US companies unless the overseas firms they are buying from lower prices to absorb some of the cost.

In response to the higher tariffs introduced by the president, the New York Fed found exporters reduced prices very little, meaning US-based businesses ended up absorbing nearly 90% of the cost of the added tax.

Indirectly, higher tariffs also affected the prices of locally made goods, as many US producers rely on parts, materials or ingredients from overseas.

Overall, the Fed found that every percentage point increase in average tariffs led to nearly a 0.25% price increase for consumer goods after one year.


Chump's many mistakes impacted the stock market.  Stan Choe (AP) explains, "Worries about worsening inflation are weighing on Wall Street Wednesday and pulling the U.S. stock market further from its record.  The S&P 500 dropped 0.9% and was on track for a fifth loss in the six days since setting its all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 88 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower."  It's Chump's economy and he owns it. Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (WASHINGTON POST) notes, "In a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week, 78 percent of Americans said Trump’s policies bore at least some responsibility for higher costs, while 57 percent of Republicans said their expenses were rising faster than their paychecks. Economists and Federal Reserve officials have pointed to the administration’s tariffs and higher energy costs stemming from the Iran war as factors putting renewed upward pressure on prices." Jack Crosbie (ROLLING STONE) captures the distorted nonsense Chump serves up in place of an actual plan:

"TRUST IN TRUMP," the White House posted back in June. "Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end - It always does!" Since then, Trump has escalated in Iran and rambled incoherently on the stump while hosting rallies for midterms candidates. He's asked for strike packages to hit Iran again before the election, if needed. Got a problem with that? "Trust the process," the White House posted yesterday. 

American voters aren't this stupid, even if Trump thinks they are. With his approval rating in the dirt and even his own party turning against him, it's clear that people recognize that Trump's choices - namely, invading Iran and setting up ludicrous tariffs - are what created the economic situation we're currently dealing with. And the final indignity is that wages simply aren't catching up. The New York Times notes that hourly wages fell by 0.5 percent in August and are down 0.7 percent in the past year, putting them right around the level they were when Trump first took office. Your pay has not gone up, but the prices have. 








 The GOP is on the defense.  Which is why a number of them are resorting to lies as they attack opponents.  Stephen Collinson (CNN) notes: 

It’s getting ugly out there.

The worse GOP midterm prospects look, the darker the rhetoric from top Republicans becomes as they single out Democratic candidates as weird, threatening and antithetical to what it means to be and look like an American.

President Donald Trump is mocking the name of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and slandering him as a “jihadist.”

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday made a joke that implied James Talarico is gay. Trump keeps claiming the Democratic Senate nominee is a vegan who is incompatible with the carnivorous Lone Star State. Talarico is now often seen pictured with a plate of meat.

The president has also revived his searing racially derogatory rhetoric suggesting that Haitians and Africans are invading key election states like Ohio.

And after federal officials searched the home of Somali-born Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Monday, he underscored concerns he’s using executive power to target a political foe by questioning whether she had constitutional rights as a naturalized citizen “from one of the worst countries anywhere on the planet.”

Trump’s rhetoric is hardly a surprise, given the linguistic excesses of his presidential campaigns, yet it’s still jarring to see such overt racial language delivered from behind a presidential podium.


And yet Chump continues his DESPERATION TOUR.   Obsessed with promoting himself he lumbers around the stage in one of those cheap foreign suits that look like meat casing on his morbidly obese body.  He's playing defense as well. Sarah Ewall-Wice (DAILY BEAST) explains: 

Republican strategist Kevin Madden said that with just three weeks to go before the election, Trump’s strategy, based on where he has been heading, would qualify as “defensive.”

“Judging by the president’s schedule, there is a strong focus on shoring up the base in Republican strongholds,” he observed.

Trump kicked off his final midterm sprint with a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, a district he won by more than 55 points less than two years ago. He followed that with a rally in Mobile, Alabama, a district he won by 36 points.

Of the fifteen rallies the president has attended or announced to date, all but one were in districts he won in 2024, and he won all but one by double digits.

His average margin of victory in the districts he’s gone to or will visit, according to the upcoming schedule, was more than 25 points.



President Donald Trump’s me-me-me approach to the midterm elections is backfiring spectacularly, according to a damning new poll.

The president’s strategy aimed to mobilize conservative voters by turning the upcoming midterm elections into a personal referendum, but instead of galvanizing Republicans, it has inspired Democrats to act, Politico’s latest poll found.

In the survey released Tuesday, opposing the president and his policies emerged as the single biggest factor driving Democratic voters, with 44 percent identifying it as their primary motivation. Only 33 percent of conservative voters cited supporting the administration as their main reason for casting a ballot.

The widening enthusiasm gap comes as public standing for the administration reaches historic lows. A newly published Pew Research Center survey shows 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s job performance, with a shocking 31 percent of his own 2024 voters now expressing dissatisfaction.

Overall support among his voter base has plunged to 67 percent—down from 75 percent in July and a staggering drop from the 95 percent approval he enjoyed at the start of his term.

In 19 days, control of the House could shift to the Democrats.  Control of the Senate could shift as well.  And if control of the House shifts, Dems are prepared.  Lisa Mascaro (AP) notes:


House Democrats are preparing an ambitious 100-days agenda focused on delivering their campaign promises — making life more affordable and conducting vast oversight of the Trump administration — if the party seizes majority control in next month's elections.

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to become House speaker if the party wins power, said the Democrats will be united “right out of the gate” on reinstating Affordable Care Act tax breaks, reversing Republican Medicaid cuts, holding votes against the Iran war and undoing President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
They expect to launch the agenda in the first 100 hours, once the new Congress is seated in January.

Those are things worth pursuing.  And the American people agree.  Justine Fernandez (BLUSHER) reports on a new poll:

Two-thirds of U.S. adults now say they favor a national health insurance plan sometimes called Medicare-for-all, according to a September 2026 KFF Health Tracking Poll. The 66% support marks the highest level KFF has recorded since it began asking Americans about the proposal, up from 53% in 2020. The poll comes as healthcare affordability remains a major concern for voters heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Support is not evenly divided along party lines, but the idea has attracted substantial support from Democrats and independents. About 84% of Democrats and 72% of independents said they favor Medicare-for-all, while 66% of Republicans opposed the proposal. KFF found that 79% of Americans also favor having the federal government do more to help provide health insurance to more people, including majorities among Democrats, independents and Republicans.

The poll surveyed 1,328 U.S. adults from September 16 through 21, 2026, with most respondents registered to vote. Healthcare expenses ranked as the leading economic concern among those surveyed, with 60% saying they were very or somewhat worried about affording healthcare costs, compared with 59% worried about gasoline prices and 52% concerned about grocery costs. The findings suggest that frustration with the cost of coverage and medical care is helping fuel interest in major changes to the healthcare system.

Support for Medicare For All has grown and grown.  Democrats need to remember that -- especially in 2028 when selecting the presidential candidate. 




In other news, we now know who is responsible for the many problems surrounding Chump's 'fix' of The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and, spoiler, it's not an Olympian.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports: 

The Virginia company that resurfaced the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool under a $14.7 million no-bid contract botched the job in at least 85 places, according to an inspection report the contractor commissioned.

The 75-page “failure analysis,” completed Aug. 6 by Atlantic Coating Inspection, which was obtained by the Washington Post, blames improper materials and a rush to finish in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations – but it makes no mention of vandalism to the liner, which is the explanation President Donald Trump has repeatedly given for the pool’s problems.
The report documents nearly 40 blisters caused by trapped moisture or chemical fumes, peeling in nearly two dozen spots, and buckling along eight of the pool’s 10 expansion joints.

Some of the peeling probably happened because crews were still applying the coating on June 3, the day before the pool was refilled. The material needed 72 hours to cure, but one photo shows workers still using spray guns the day after water started flowing in.

And yet Chump blamed vandals.  He specifically blamed Olympian David Hearn.  He's never apologized.  He's never corrected the record.  For someone as litigious as Chump, it would probably serve him well to be sued by Hearn.  As the president, he is not above the law and he is not allowed to lie about citizens.  


Turning to Chump's toy boy Priss Pot Hegseth, Isabel van Brugen (DAILY BEAST) reports: 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has backed unleashing new strikes on Iran as part of a major operation ahead of the midterm elections, according to a report.

Hegseth, 46, and the leadership of U.S. Central Command are the strongest backers of resuming attacks, a source familiar with the discussions told Axios. Most of President Donald Trump’s advisers, however, favor maintaining economic sanctions and “other forms of pressure” for now.
The push comes as the war, which the 80-year-old president promised would last “a few weeks,” is nearing the end of its seventh month and has claimed the lives of 21 U.S. service members, with hundreds of others wounded.

Hegseth is getting mocked in public. 





And his attempts to control who worships and who doesn't in the military continues to be a sore spot. 



There is a development in Chump's war on the press.  From yesterday's MORNING EDITION (NPR):


STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have an update on the White House's attempt to ban news organizations from the White House because President Trump doesn't like them. Last night, a federal judge ruled again that the president must let them into the White House for the foreseeable future. NPR's David Folkenflik is covering this case. David, good morning.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. What kind of ruling is this?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, so the judge made a ruling like this that lasted for a period of weeks when he had a chance to think about this motion. This motion was for something called a preliminary injunction, which basically says - is there enough evidence to suggest that the plaintiffs, the people suing - that is CNN, MS NOW and Politico - could prevail at trial? This injunction, this ruling, stops the White House from being able to bar the 70-some journalists for these three outlets from the White House for the length of the case, that is, until it goes to the trial phase. So it's not final, but it gives us some real insight into the judge's thinking.

INSKEEP: OK. What is the judge's thinking?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, so the judge really didn't credit the Justice Department's arguments about national security, about concerns about accuracy, about really anything because President Trump had been so vocal about not liking the coverage of those three outlets. And in fact, that's what Theodore Boutros, the lawyer for the outlet, said was the best witness they had was the President of the United States and his own statements. Here's what Judge Timothy Kelly said in his ruling. In part, he said, quote, "it's not hard to conclude that President Trump likely banned plaintiffs from the White House because he believes that their reporting is generally inaccurate and biased against him."

And he found that the president, the administration had essentially violated two forms of constitutionally protected free speech or violated their free speech, that is, in two different ways. That's, of course, part of the First Amendment. He said essentially, the White House was retaliating against these outlets for their coverage. And he said there was a due process violation. That is, they made their decision. They conveyed it pretty much instantaneously and put it in place over that weekend of mid-September and, son of a gun, they gave them no chance to appeal that until after it was always (ph) in place. He didn't say that national security doesn't matter. He said he wasn't really crediting it in this case.

INSKEEP: Because Trump himself had been so blatant about his motives and so explicit about his motives. So where does...

FOLKENFLIK: That's right.

INSKEEP: ...The case go from here?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, you know, as I said, this suggests that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are very likely to prevail at trial. Officially, that's where it's headed. You know, oftentimes, the parties tend to work this out at this point, save everybody the need for a trial. The White House didn't return my request for comment, but let's acknowledge the president often likes to keep going. He likes to tie the institutions that he has targeted up in court. It's expensive. It's complicating. It's distracting. And he doesn't like to yield to challenges to his authority. And we're seeing this play out in a variety of court cases that are happening, both involving the press, which the president has taken great aim at, and others that he's tangling with as well.




Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

READ MORE:  Senator Murray announces members of new public health initiative

NYT: A Public Health-Minded Senator Asks: What Comes After Trump and Kennedy?

***LIVESTREAM OF DISCUSSION FROM KHQ HERE***

***PHOTOS OF EVENT HERE***

Pullman, WA — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, formally launched the Public Health for America Working Group. Senator Murray delivered a speech outlining the mission of the working group and then was joined by WSU faculty and state and local public health officials for a panel discussion on the working group’s goals and the future of public health in Washington state and across the country.

Murray’s working group will seek to develop the ideas, safeguards, and legislation needed to restore trust in public health and build a stronger, public health system that is more resilient to political attacks. It follows nearly two years of unprecedented attacks by President Trump and Secretary Kennedy on the agencies, scientists, and institutions that keep Americans safe and healthy.

“I’ve worked with health secretaries under five presidents. Republicans and Democrats. People I agreed with and people I disagreed with. But at the end of the day, every one of them understood that their job was to protect the health of the American people. They listened to the scientists. They trusted the experts. And when a crisis hit, we could pick up the phone and work together. I have never seen anything like what we’re seeing now. The genuine malice toward experts. The sheer hostility towards science. None of that is a policy disagreement. It’s a complete break from how every administration before this one—of either party—has approached the job. I’m not going to mince words here: Trump and RFK Jr. have put our public health system on life support. Trust among the public is in free fall. Our nation has simply never been more unprepared for serious public health threats,” said Senator Murray. “All of us who care about the future of public health need to come to grips with a hard reality: If we had a healthy public health system—it would not have been so easy to snap in half. Instead, the system we had before was already underfunded, already stretched thin, and already far too vulnerable to politics. If we are going to meet this moment, we have to build something stronger. And we have to start by rebuilding trust.”

“The charge of my working group is simple. First, we need to repair the trust that has been shattered. And second, we need to reinforce it against future political attacks. We have to build something that can’t be broken the next time someone decides science is inconvenient. Public health policy can’t become a political football that shifts every four years based on political ideology. It has to be reliably grounded in science and facts,” Senator Murray continued. “I’ll tell you: I’ve passed more bipartisan health policy into law than nearly all of my colleagues in Congress. And I’ve done it by understanding you can’t reach a deal without trust—it’s the foundation of every deal I’ve ever brokered. You build trust by listening to people’s concerns, understanding their perspectives, and answering their questions honestly—even when that means saying you don’t know the answer yet…But we know that when it comes, we need a public health system that is already trusted, and already prepared. Not one that is warped by politics and distracted by conspiracies. Families are counting on us to keep them safe. I know—because I’ve been that mother worried about the pesticides being sprayed near my kids. I’ve been that teacher worried about outbreaks spreading in my classroom. Every one of those times—I knew I could trust what CDC told me. I want every family in this country to have that again.”

Since taking office, President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have taken unprecedented steps to politicize public health agencies, overrule experts, promote misinformation, and undermine trust in the nation’s public health infrastructure.

Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal public health experts—including all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director for refusing to rubberstamp his anti-vaccine views before reviewing the scientific evidence. Under Secretary Kennedy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has halted promising research, taken down data for deadly diseases, refused to accurately report measles deaths, promoted false anti-vaccine information, and more. These steps have severely undermined public trust—with polls showing trust in CDC recommendations dropping from 77% to 50% over Trump’s first year in office this term. 

The mission of Murray’s working group is not simply to restore what existed before January 2025, but to design a public health system that is stronger, more resilient, and structurally protected from political interference—no matter who holds the White House or controls Congress. The working group will convene roundtables with researchers, providers, state, local, and Tribal health officials, and former career federal scientists; host public conversations on the future of public health; engage directly with communities and trusted messengers; and respond in real time as key public health decisions unfold. Its findings will inform nonpartisan, evidence-based policy proposals as Murray works to build consensus around legislation to rebuild public health in America stronger and more resilient than ever before.


Senator Murray has a long record as a leader on public health, including; pushing for permanent funding for public health infrastructure; serving on the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security; and serving as the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for several years—including during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has negotiated and passed key public health legislation like the American Rescue Plan; PREVENT Pandemics Act; the SUPPORT Act which helped address the opioids crisis; the 21st Century Cures Act; and bills reauthorizing key Food and Drug Administration (FDA) programs and pandemic preparedness programs.

More information on the Public Health for America Working Group is available HERE.

Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below:

“Public health is maybe not the hottest topic in politics or on social media—but the students here know how much it actually matters.

“Quick show of hands: how many of you had to learn through a screen during middle or high school?

“Exactly—that’s why today’s conversation matters.

“In public health, we say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s not just true of disease—it’s also true of corruption, incompetence, and political interference. Unfortunately, it is painfully clear right now that these are threats our public health system was simply not equipped to prevent.

“Curing them is going to take some serious work. That’s why I’m here today.

“Under President Trump and RFK Jr., we’ve seen an outbreak of corruption, chaos, and political interference ripping through our public health system. I’m not going to stand up here and list every single thing Secretary Kennedy has done to our public health system. We’d be here all afternoon—and frankly, I want to leave time to talk about how we fix it.

“But I do want to be straight with you about the damage. Because it is real, it is serious, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.

“I’ve worked with health secretaries under five presidents—Republicans and Democrats. People I agreed with, and people I disagreed with. But at the end of the day, every one of them understood that their job was to protect the health of the American people.

“They listened to the scientists. They trusted the experts. And when a crisis hit, we could pick up the phone and work together.

“I have never seen anything like what we’re seeing now. The genuine malice toward experts, the sheer hostility toward science—none of that is a policy disagreement. It’s a complete break from how every administration before this one—of either party—has approached the job.

“I’m not going to mince words here: Trump and RFK Jr. have put our public health system on life support. Trust among the public is in free fall. Our nation has simply never been more unprepared for serious public health threats.

“Losing experts and staff across our health agencies, funding being illegally withheld—that’s bad enough. But we’re also dealing with a whole lot of disinformation coming at us online, often incentivized by some kind of profit-making scheme.

“How many of you have come across health advice on TikTok or Instagram in the last few days? How many of you were certain that information was absolutely correct? If you needed public health advice, where would you look for it? Would you ask your doctor? Talk to your parents? Would you check the CDC website? Would you ask AI?

“This is one of the big challenges we’ve got to grapple with, too. This isn’t about the sanctity of science or how experts are treated. At the end of the day, this is about our families.

“When a daycare needs help fighting a measles outbreak—that is public health. When a hospital is looking for recommendations to reduce maternal mortality—that is public health. When the library has concerns about its drinking water, when the rec-league has concerns about wildfire smoke, when the cafeteria has concerns about contaminated lettuce—raise your hand if you want to make sure our lettuce doesn’t give people life-threatening explosive diarrhea? That’s what I thought; me too—all of that is public health, and it is just the start.

“At the end of the day—public health is about public safety. We have to remember that. When our loudest public health megaphone becomes an echo chamber for conspiracies, that is a lot bigger than a political problem—it is a life and death problem.

“Not every national security threat is about war or AI. We cannot fully protect the American people if we just buy more bombs and leave public health in the dust.

“COVID taught us all this lesson very painfully, and it is outrageous to see this Administration trying to rewrite that history and erase the lessons we should be learning from—even as the world just nervously watched a potential outbreak in Russia.

“How are we supposed to be prepared for the next public health threat when it seems like our Health Secretary is more likely to cover up a measles outbreak than admit vaccines don’t cause autism?

“However, I want to be clear—as bad as things are right now, I’m not here to throw up my hands and just say how awful everything is. I’m here to roll up my sleeves and get to work on how we fix it.

“I believe with a dose of the right medicine—some hard work, some common sense, and serious accountability for RFK Jr. and Trump. We can break this fever. We can save our public health system.

“Think of how rapidly public health has deteriorated under RFK’s leadership— it stands to reason that we could build it back pretty quickly, too.

“But, after we do that, things cannot just go back to business as usual. All of us who care about the future of public health need to come to grips with a hard reality: if we had a healthy public health system, it would not have been so easy to snap in half.

“Instead, the system we had before was already underfunded, already stretched thin, and already far too vulnerable to politics. If we are going to meet this moment, we have to build something stronger—and we have to start by rebuilding trust.

“Which is why I decided to turn to some people I trust for help: Patty Hayes, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Dr. Jeffery Levi, Dr. Helen Chu, and Dr. Vin Gupta. This is a group of nonpartisan experts, dedicated to public health and public service, with experience managing the COVID response in King County and Seattle, conducting medical research on vaccines, and making science-based decisions at agencies like the FDA, the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee, and the Office of National AIDS Policy.

“I’m incredibly excited and grateful to have these individuals joining me to launch the Public Health for America Working Group. I’m especially glad to be having one of our first events here at my alma mater, WSU, and to be joined by some incredibly knowledgeable local public health experts to discuss the challenges we face.

“The charge of my working group is simple. First, we need to repair the trust that has been shattered. Second, we need to reinforce it against future political attacks.

“We have to build something that can’t be broken the next time someone decides science is inconvenient. Public health policy can’t become a political football that shifts every four years based on political ideology. It has to be reliably grounded in science and facts.

“Sounds great, right? But how do we do it? I have ideas already: I believe we ought to limit the number of political appointees at our health agencies like CDC. I know we need more stable and consistent funding for our state and local health agencies, but there’s another dimension to this outside of policy—trust.

“I’ve passed more bipartisan health policy into law than nearly all of my colleagues in Congress—and I’ve done it by understanding you can’t reach a deal without trust. It’s the foundation of every deal I’ve ever brokered. You build trust by listening to people’s concerns, understanding their perspectives, and answering their questions honestly—even when that means saying you don’t know the answer yet.

“I am sincerely determined to talk to anyone and everyone about what comes next to rebuild public health in America. Then, out of those conversations, we will build trust, and we will bring back new ideas for legislation that will help build a stronger public health system.

“I started today by saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s what this working group is about—it’s a tall order, but Congress needs to deliver on this. Not just repairing the damage but making sure it can never happen this easily again.

“As smart as the members of this Working Group are, none of us know what the next public health threat will be. A measles outbreak worse than what we’re facing today? Anti-microbial resistance? Tick-borne diseases? There are so many possibilities. But we know that when it comes, we need a public health system that is already trusted and already prepared—not one that is warped by politics and distracted by conspiracies.

“Families are counting on us to keep them safe. I know because I’ve been that mother worried about the pesticides being sprayed near my kids. I’ve been that teacher worried about outbreaks spreading in my classroom.

“Every one of those times, I knew I could trust what CDC told me. I want every family in this country to have that again.

“To the students here today: this is your fight too. The public health system we build is the one you’ll inherit, and the one you’ll run. So, if you’ve got ideas—if anyone has thoughts they want to share—go ahead and email me at publichealth@murray.senate.gov.

“So, with that, it’s great to be here at WSU. This university trains the people who staff our public health system, and its research helps keep families safe far beyond Pullman. I’m excited to have a discussion with some great public health leaders about what comes next.” 

###


 
The following sites updated: 

Posted by at

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

We could have had Harris

First up, Katie Phang.



Now for the sewer dweller Chump.  Victoria Richards (INDEPENDENT) reports: 

What would be the “normal” reaction to the tragic death of a vulnerable man who climbed into a tiger enclosure at a wildlife park and was killed?

Sadness, grief? A thought for his family, perhaps, who paid tribute to 23-year-old William Chapman, calling him “bright, warm and engaging” and saying that he had suffered from “significant mental illness” over a number of years and had been prescribed “strong medication”. Respect, too, for the family’s wishes; after they said “the publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time” and urged people not to share the video.

Or, if you’re the actual US president, Donald Trump: reposting a graphic video of the man being mauled to death anyway, on your own social media platform, Truth Social, with the caption: “Don’t ever mess with nature!” A minute later, Trump followed up the 41-second silent clip showing the rare Amur tiger, Altai, attacking Chapman, with a second video compilation of lion attacks on people, set to music, which may or may not have been AI.
And then, awfully, of course, he posted an AI-generated video of Trump himself wrestling a tiger to the floor. I’d say I was shocked – except it is hard to be shocked by Trump any more.


Grim, appalling, despicable – and that’s before we get to the actual attack. Yet it is entirely what we’ve come to expect from a man who appears to be in a race to the very bottom; from a White House so cruel and so callous that it thinks nothing of sharing footage of a man’s death to farm clicks.

Chump is grotesque and despicable.  He's an overweight dementia prone moron.  Martin Holmes (TV INSIDER) notes: 

Famed computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” has spoken out against President Donald Trump‘s attempts to rebrand artificial intelligence as “superintelligence.”

Hinton, who made early contributions to AI at Google before leaving the company in 2013 to speak out about AI’s risks, was recently interviewed by The Guardian about the topic. During the interview, the outlet asked Hinton about Trump’s “superintelligence” rebrand of AI.

“Superintelligence means smarter than people, and has been around for at least 20 years. It’s got a very clear meaning,” Hinton said, noting that Trump’s attempts to use this term to describe AI prove he knows “almost nothing” about it.

He continued, “And now he says we’re going to call AI ‘superintelligence.’ You can’t make it smarter than people just by calling it smarter than people.”
Several AI company executives recently warned of the dangers AI could pose to humanity and petitioned Trump to implement guardrails. However, Trump brushed off these concerns and said the only thing needed to rein in AI is a “smart president.” He also made a deal with AI leaders to self-regulate.


He's an idiot.  President Moron.  President Dementia.  He really is a threat to the world as he dismisses justifiable concerns over AI.  We need to be addressing this.  I caught Kamala Harris on the radio talking about this yesterday and saying that we were running out of time on addressing this issue.  

And that's another reason we should have all voted for Kamala.  She would have done the work required.  She cared about keeping this country safe.  Chump's just scheming to make money and he's just corrupt.  Chump doesn't care about America's safety and he doesn't care about its future.  He just cares about illegal stock trading -- insider trading -- and he just cares about how much he can grift.  

I've never known a bigger crook in the White House in my lifetime.  He really does make Bully Boy Bush look better by comparison.  Because Chump is just that bad.  We never need another piece of garbage like Chump in the Oval Office again.  Never.  Ever.  

He's an idiot and that's why Project 2025 existed.  They knew he stood for nothing and they knew they could get him to push their garbage.  He doesn't stand for anything.  10 years ago, he was a Democrat.  And was for years and years.  And then he became a Republican.  But he doesn't abide by any core Republican principles.  He's not a fiscal conservative, for example.  And that's because he's not anything.  Not a Democrat, not a Republican, just a con artist. 


iHEART has a story about Kamala and AI:

Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has called for urgent international cooperation to establish safety standards for artificial intelligence (AI), warning that the opportunity to do so is rapidly closing. Speaking at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, South Korea, Harris emphasized the need for immediate action to address three existential threats posed by AI: cybersecurity risks, AI-enabled weapons, and systems escaping human control. She urged the United States to engage with China on creating global AI standards, despite the broader strategic rivalry between the two nations.

Harris stated, "There is room for cooperation where our interests are aligned," and advocated for "healthy and robust competition, but not conflict." She criticized President Donald Trump's approach to AI, particularly his "erratic tariffs" and the transactional nature of his policies, which she argued have diminished U.S. global influence. Harris praised South Korean investments in U.S. industries, including shipbuilding and semiconductors, as "immensely significant and valued" and called for renewed U.S. commitment to South Korea in light of growing cooperation among North Korea, Russia, China, and Iran.

Harris's speech comes as she campaigns for Democratic candidates ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections and considers another bid for the presidency in 2028. She expressed confidence in the Democrats' chances, predicting a majority in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of taking the Senate, which would enhance Congress's influence on domestic and foreign policy, including AI regulation.


Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Wednesday, October 14, 2026.  Chump's Desperation Tour continues as polls demonstrate the American people feel Chump doesn't give a damn about them and only cares about enriching himself, Chump fires the US Ambassador to Greece but keeps Priss Pot Hegseth, his attacks on the safety net with his 'Big Beautiful Bill' are being felt around the country, and much more





Chump continues his Desperation Tour.  Not content to drag his own numbers down, he's determined to tank Republicans running for Congress. Stephen Silver (NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL) observes:

The 2026 midterm elections are just three weeks away and are shaping up to be a bloodbath for President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, thanks to the unpopularity of the president himself, as well as the Iran War and the still-high cost of living, including high gas prices.

It’s not a great state of affairs for the president, who won the election to return to office two years ago, largely because of the inflationary environment during the Biden years.
According to a CNN report on Monday, the midterm election has, on the Republican side, “turned into a triage operation,” with the GOP moving to defend seats, including in red states, that they thought were relatively safe until recently.

The report added that the president's party is increasingly fearful it will lose its Senate majority and the House of Representatives.

CNN also said that while Republicans have pushed Trump to travel more in recent months to support candidates, they now worry the president is so unpopular that such travel might hurt the candidates he’s coming to support.

“Trump is dragging the party down,” one House Republican, who did not share their name, told CNN.





He asked the voters to make the election about him.  And they have.  Mike Hills (BBC NEWS) explains:

One of the reasons the opposition Democrats have a chance to take back Congress is the president's low approval rating, which is a good indicator for how well his party could perform.

He began his second term as president with an approval rating of just over 50%, according to polling resource website Silver Bulletin, but it quickly fell into the 40s.

It was hovering around 42% when Trump decided to launch air strikes with Israel against Iran at the end of February this year but it fell below 40% shortly afterwards. It is currently sitting at about 37%.

Eight years ago, Trump's approval rating was significantly higher at this point in his first term, at 43%. Joe Biden's at the same point in his term was at 40%. In both cases, the sitting president lost control of the House in the midterms but kept hold of the Senate.

But Trump's poor ratings help explain why Democrats are hopeful of winning both chambers of Congress and why they are setting their sights on states that Republicans have won consistently in recent years.




And Chump does not even pretend to care about the needs and concerns of average Americans.  ALJAZEERA and AP note: 

Most US adults believe President Donald Trump has placed his personal financial interests and those of his inner circle ahead of the country’s since returning to the White House in 2025, according to a new nationwide poll.

The poll, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and released on Tuesday, suggests that public perception of the Republican president leans heavily critical: Over half of surveyed adults view Trump’s second term as self-serving by investing in his own business and commercial pursuits “a lot”. Roughly one quarter believe he focuses on national interests, but only 11 percent feel Trump represents regular Americans. Fifty-five percent of Republicans surveyed said that Trump has prioritised his personal business interests “a lot” or “some”.

Half of the respondents report that Trump has placed zero priority on people “like them”.

Stephanie Gauthier (OBOXMA) notes, "With the November 3 midterms just weeks away, Donald Trump is confronting extraordinary polling numbers as frustration over affordability intensifies. A new AP-NORC survey finds 82% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the cost of living, while only 17% approve."  And that's reason enough for Republican candidates to distance themselves from him.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

National Republicans are pulling out of a handful of House races less than a month before the midterms, abandoning two sitting GOP lawmakers as the party tries to keep its losses from spreading.
Super PACs aligned with President Donald Trump and House GOP leadership canceled all remaining ad reservations over the weekend for Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ) and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), three people with direct knowledge of the plans told the New York Times, and internal Republican polling had shown both incumbents’ chances fading.
It’s the first time this cycle that national GOP groups have cut loose their own incumbents, following last week’s decision to pull money from Nebraska’s open seat, held by retiring Rep. Don Bacon. Taken together, Republicans have effectively surrendered three districts they currently control, even after an aggressive redistricting campaign meant to pad the party’s narrow House majority.

WRAL NEWS notes, "Democrat Roy Cooper leads Republican Michael Whatley by a wide margin in the race to claim North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat as voters sour on President Donald Trump, a new WRAL/WSOC Poll shows. Whatley, a longtime Republican Party insider, was endorsed by Trump and has themed his campaign largely around delivering for Trump’s agenda if elected to the U.S. Senate. He has consistently trailed Cooper, the former governor, in polls this year. The new poll, released Tuesday, shows a continuation of that trend."  Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi (RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER) notes, "Democrats once again lead North Carolina in voter registration. That’s an about-face from January 2026, when, for the first time in North Carolina history, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats by about 2,000 people. That came a couple of months before the March 3 primary. As of Saturday, there are 490 more registered Democrats than Republicans in North Carolina - out of nearly 7.8 million registered voters."



Americans know Chump's in it for Chump.  They see it.  Marco Margaritoff (HUFFINGTON POST) explains:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump has engaged in illegal or unethical activity to profit from his presidency, according to a new poll released Tuesday from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025,” the AP-NORC article states in its introduction. “Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them.”

And this is a reason he has lost support.  Even within his own party.  Frank Yemi notes:


A Republican mayor in California is saying he intends to vote for Democrats in next month's midterms, warning that people are starting to question their support for President Trump.

Victor Martinez, the mayor of Mendota in the San Joaquin Valley, is still a registered Republican but told the Financial Times he intends to support Democrats in the next election.

"I think a lot of people are waking up," Martinez, who was born in El Salvador, told the paper. "They're really voting for what's right and what needs to happen."

His decision comes as Trump's position with Latino voters is up for a test following the gains that helped get him back in the White House in 2024.

The Financial Times reports that some Hispanic voters are growing disillusioned with the rising cost of fuel, the cuts to social programs and the administration's hardline approach to immigration.


The voting bloc helped deliver President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, sending him to the White House for a second term. Republicans in Texas also saw gains that year, picking up two seats in historically Democratic districts in South Texas.
Halfway through Trump’s term, some Latino voters are rethinking their presidential pick, polling shows. This year’s midterm offers the first opportunity to express that disappointment with their votes, even if the president isn’t on the ballot himself.

Midterms are historically tricky for the party in control of the White House, and this year - when Texas is on pace to have the tightest races it has seen in years - Hispanic Texans have emerged as a key vote to win over.

“The Hispanic vote is going to be the determinate vote,” said Daniel Alegre, CEO of Spanish-language media company TelevisaUnivision. “It is the true swing vote that is still persuadable.”


Just a few weeks from the end of the 2026 midterm elections, there are all sorts of variables that could affect the outcome on the margins. There remain many races for House, Senate and governorships that are very close. Polling errors could be painting an unduly rosy picture of Democratic prospects. Late ad blitzes or candidate debates may tilt the balance here and there. “October surprises” remain a possibility, or even a “November surprise” by way of Trump administration efforts to suppress or intimidate voters.
But the basic national dynamics of this election seem very clear. Midterms are always to a considerable extent referenda on the job performance and character of whoever occupies the White House. In Donald Trump, we have a highly controversial president who is the dominant personality of our era, with a record that that is drawing terrible reviews from the public. His current job approval ratio per the Real Clear Politics polling averages is 38.1 percent approval and 59.5 percent disapproval. Presidents with this level of unpopularity almost always post big midterm losses. But he also has a virtually unshakable hard core of supporters. As a party Democrats have made their campaign a consistent frontal assault on Trump’s most vulnerable point–his poor record on, and his contemptuous disinterest in, high and rising living costs — with important sub-themes stressing the corruption that has flourished in his administration and deploring his war of choice against Iran. For their part, Republicans have mostly focused on energizing Trump’s most loyal supporters and maximizing their turnout, while trying to get more skeptical voters to think about their misgivings towards the opposition.
Let’s be clear about one thing: Trump’s energize-the-base tactics aren’t going to win the midterms. These voters are already energized. Yes, slightly increasing their turnout can help staunch the bleeding and keep down Democratic gains in deep-red territory. But even if the president gets them whipped up into a frenzy, there aren’t enough of them to overwhelm super-energized Democrats plus the vast and largely alienated ranks of swing voters who don’t like Trump’s economy or Trump’s war, and are generally tired of his act.




As Chump flits around the country talking about how much he loves this man's rear end or that man's thighs, as he insists that gas prices are lower, as he claims that "affordability" is a hoax and an invented word by the Democrats (despite affordability dating back in this country to the start of the 20th century), he gives listeners even less reason to believe him.  Matt Egan (CNN) reports: 

From $4 gas and 7% mortgage rates to surging airfares, the Iran war is significantly raising the cost of living for inflation-weary consumers ahead of the midterm elections.

The conflict has cost US consumers about $265 billion since it started in late February, according to estimates from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. That equates to about $2,000 in higher costs for the average American household.

“Many Americans have rightly connected the dots between the Iran War and the painfully high cost of living and thus want the war to end,” Zandi told CNN on Tuesday.

Not only have consumer prices increased, but paychecks are not keeping up.

Wage growth slowed in September to a five-year low. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, have declined almost every month since the Iran war started, prompting some consumers to dip into savings and rely on credit cards to get by.




Chump's administration is a plethora of unqualified officials.  Priss Pot Hegseth may be the most unqualified.  His current asinine notion is that we need to live stream the execution of a prisoner. 



The daughter of one of the victims of the Fort Hood terror attack slammed plans by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to livestream the perpetrator’s public execution.

Keely Cahill Vanacker’s father, Michael Cahill, was one of 13 people shot dead by radical Islamist Nidal Malik Hasan, whose execution by firing squad is set to be broadcast live on Dec. 3.

“I think that is absolutely the worst thing you could do. I think that this has nothing to do with justice,” Vanacker said of Hegseth’s plan, speaking to CNN on Monday.
Vanacker — who grimly described it as turning “tragedy” into “entertainment” — said she learned of the move from her son, who found out from an Instagram reel.

“I can’t imagine, with social media, how horrific it would be and how widespread it would be. It is not something you could just get away from,” she said, adding that this would not bring “closure” to the families.



But despite one embarrassment after another, Chump keeps Hegseth in place.  THE WEEK argues that Priss Pot is too similar to Chump for Chump to quit him. 

But this week, the country learned that Chump could quit Kimberly Guilfoyle and he did yesterday.  Joshua Feldstein (THE HILL) reports: 

The scandal surrounding Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, came to a head on Tuesday morning after White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said in her first press briefing that the administration has asked Guilfoyle to resign.

It was first reported by The Wall Street Journal last week that Guilfoyle asked Trump donor Eric Deters to a pay $100,000 credit card bill.

Hiding the evidence: Not only did Guilfoyle apparently ask Deters for a little cash but she requested he do the transaction through a wire transfer to not leave a paper trail, The Hill’s Julia Manchester wrote.

The Wall Street Journal also reported over the weekend that Deters allegedly helped fund Guilfoyle’s luxury vacations to promote their business interests.

Following the Deters report, the accusations mounted against Guilfoyle, who was previously married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and engaged to Donald Trump Jr.

Guilfoyle responds: The former ambassador responded to the resignation on the social platform X, saying that the “allegations are false.”

“I will forever be grateful to President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for entrusting me with the extraordinary privilege of representing the greatest country in the world,” Guilfoyle wrote.



It started out so well for her.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece until she was effectively fired on live television on Tuesday when the new White House press secretary said that President Trump had asked for her resignation, was at one point engaged to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. The couple owned a $9.7 million home in Florida, appeared at Trump rallies together and sent each other adoring posts on Instagram.

“Falling in love with my fiancé more and more every day,” Ms. Guilfoyle posted on Instagram on Valentine’s Day 2022. “@donaldjtrumpjr, you’re my best friend, my support system and my forever guy.”

“Thanks for always being there no matter what the haters are throwing our way,” he posted in 2024. “I love you.”

Today, the junior Mr. Trump is married to a Florida socialite and model. And Ms. Guilfoyle, who was nominated as ambassador to Greece by the president soon after her engagement to his son was broken off two years ago, is out of a job after a series of damning reports in The Wall Street Journal, including that she asked a Republican donor to pay off $100,000 on her American Express credit card just before her Senate confirmation hearing in July 2025.


While she leaves the inner circle, Alien Musk has returned.  Sara Boboltz (BUZZFEED) reports Alex Gibney and Ronan Farrow who made the documentary MUSK have some questions regarding Musk and his DOGE boys who filtered through highly sensitive data on American citizens and then did what with it? 


The Supreme Court on Tuesday took up a Trump administration’s bid to prevent a watchdog group from seeking information about the Department of Government Efficiency, which played a key role in firing thousands of federal workers and canceling government funding.

The court agreed to hear a Justice Department appeal that sought to prevent Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington from obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act. A ruling is due by the end of June.

The Trump administration has argued that DOGE, spearheaded by former administration adviser Elon Musk, was not subject to what are known as FOIA requests.

DOGE, which played a key role in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, was a controversial feature of Trump’s early months in office, triggering various lawsuits. Its operations have since dwindled.


Last year, the D.C. District Court sided with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, watchdog in its lawsuit against DOGE, which argued that the agency is subject to the Freedom of Information Act but was ignoring public records requests. After the court allowed CREW’s lawsuit to move forward, and gave the watchdog group a sworn deposition from acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, the Trump administration stepped in to appeal the decision.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court has interfered in the case before, blocking a CREW discovery request last summer. Now the high court will hear the Trump administration’s argument that DOGE was a presidential advisory organization and not a federal agency—making it exempt from public records requests.


 DOGE raises so many questions that deserves answers.  Possibly Democrats taking control of one or both houses of Congress could force answers to those questions? Daniel Desrochers and Oliver Ward (POLITICO) report: 

 
Democrats know they can’t repeal President Donald Trump’s tariffs as long as he’s in the White House. But if they win control of Congress, they plan to haul in top administration officials and possibly executives to explain how Trump picked his targets in his trade war — and why he gave others a pass.

With midterm elections less than a month out, Democratic lawmakers and aides on the House Ways and Means, House Foreign Affairs and Senate Finance Committees are preparing a big oversight push on Trump’s trade policies, especially suspected quid pro quos that may have benefited wealthy interests and foreign governments.

Among the exchanges drawing scrutiny from Democrats are the president’s decision to lower tariffs on Switzerland after a visit from gift-bearing executives with Rolex and other Swiss firms and a move to ease export restrictions on the United Arab Emirates months after an Emirati royal invested in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency company.

“We're going to legislate, but we will investigate, as well,” said Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), who sits on House Ways and Means. “There's some low-hanging fruit when it comes to the appropriate investigations that need to be done in this administration's pay-to-play scheme that is so prevalent.”


There are a lot of questions that could be answered if Democrats get control of even one house of Congress.   Robert Reich reminds that the corruption is linked to the economy: 

In these last weeks before the midterms, Democratic candidates have been gaining ground by talking about two things: the affordability crisis and political corruption.

If Democrats regain control of Congress and genuinely want to respond to affordability, they’ll need to do everything possible to root out the corruption.

The two are inseparable. In large part, prices are rising faster than paychecks because so much of the economy has become subject to political bribery, Trump Republican pay-to-play schemes, and kickbacks to Trump and his cronies.

1. Trump’s war and the corruption underlying it

Trump’s war on Iran is causing Americans to spend almost 50 percentmore on gas than before the war, on average. And the diesel fuel needed to transport almost everything else we buy now average.
These price increases due to Trump’s war tell only half the story. The other half is the political corruption at the root of the war — enriching Trump’s friends and family.


As prices increase, more suffer because Chump has gutted the safety net.  THE NEWSHOUR (PBS) reported on that last night.


Geoff Bennett:

More than five million people have lost their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits since President Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year. The bill cut SNAP funding, expanded work requirements, and recently pushed more program costs to states.

And, as Stephanie Sy reports, that's meant many more people are turning to food banks for support.

Stephanie Sy:

Seventy-year-old Joan Steenburgh rarely misses her weekly trips to the food pantry. In rural Hanover, Virginia, she visits Moments of Hope to supplement SNAP benefits for herself and the two children she cares for.

Joan Steenburgh, SNAP Recipient:

Now my food stamps have been cut from $500 a month to $300. I would expect the most people that are politicians, $300 meal would be nothing to them. But you expect for us to raise two healthy children for $300 a month. It's no way possible that you can do that unless you have help.

Stephanie Sy:

More than 100,000 Virginians have lost their SNAP benefits in the last year. And in Central Virginia, SNAP participation is down more than 15 percent.

Dennis Hatchett, CEO, Feed More:

When SNAP changes, people are forced to either not eat or access food banks.

Stephanie Sy:

Dennis Hatchett is the head of hunger relief organization Feed More supporting food pantries across the region. He says, in the last year, he's seen a 20 percent increase in visits to local food pantries.

Dennis Hatchett:

Can food banks be a substitution for SNAP? I'd have to tell you, absolutely not. They're meant to work in conjunction. SNAP is the single most effective means of fighting food insecurity, and food banks are here to provide a supplement at the end of the month.

Stephanie Sy:

President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is projected to cut $186 billion in federal spending on SNAP over the next decade.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: In one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off, of food stamps.

(CHEERING)

Stephanie Sy:

The law raised the age limit to be exempt from SNAP work requirements from 55 to 65 and increased the amount of paperwork required to stay enrolled. And starting next year, states with higher SNAP error rates will lose federal funding and have to pick up part of the benefit costs.

In the last year, almost every state has seen a decline in people enrolled in SNAP. And many still eligible are receiving much lower benefits.

Betty Hayes, Moments of Hope Food Pantry: We have people that are getting as low as $17 a month in food stamps or SNAP benefits.

Stephanie Sy:

Betty Hayes runs Moments of Hope Food Pantry. She says client visits have doubled in the last two years, but her neighbors' support will help them get by.

Betty Hayes:

At the beginning of the year in my back warehouse, I had enough surplus, a two-month window. So if I could not get any more food, I had two months' worth of nonperishable items that I could make it through with the clients that we had. I have two weeks' worth of food in the back warehouse.

I think the community will step in because the community has stepped in before. And I have never run out of food. We just keep on going.

Stephanie Sy:

The Trump administration says the changes will cut waste and fraud and decrease dependency on government assistance, a stance echoed by Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

I make this very clear. We are not cutting Medicaid. We are not cutting SNAP. We're working on the elements of fraud, waste and abuse.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN):

Every dollar from this program is intended to help feed eligible individuals in need. That's not where every dollar goes, not by a long shot.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL):

These programs have massive waste, fraud, and abuse in them. Democrats don't want to tackle them. Republicans do.

Stephanie Sy:

But Dennis Hatchett says the people Feed More serves rely on SNAP to put food on the table.

Dennis Hatchett:

There's this misconception that people who are on SNAP don't need SNAP. What we're finding is that the vast majority of people who are accessing SNAP are working. They're asset-limited, income-constrained, employed people. We have got stats that show as many as you know 50, 60 percent of the people who are accessing our food banks are people who are working one, two, even three jobs.

Stephanie Sy:

And Joan Steenburgh, a former nurse, says with less money for food, she now may have to go back to work.

Joan Steenburgh:

Well, I have worked for all, what are you talking about, 30 years in nursing or taking care of people. And now, instead of me sitting back and enjoying life, I have got to get a job to be able to raise enough money and be 70 years old and have to get a part-time job at this point in your life again to be able to make ends meet.


Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:


Washington, D.C. – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, released the following statement on the Trump administration holding back or cutting off billions of dollars Congress provided the Department of Energy to bring new energy online and lower Americans’ energy costs. Four recent reports detail how, over the last 18 months, President Trump’s policies have raised energy costs for families and delayed and defunded critical energy investments.

“President Trump hasn’t just sent gas prices through the roof with his war with Iran; he and his administration have systematically held up and cut off energy investments Congress has made that should be lowering families’ energy bills. Congress gave the Department of Energy tens of billions of dollars to build out the power grid and cut the costs that families pay to heat and cool their homes. But the Trump Administration is still holding that money back and letting politics decide which projects survive. This president’s corruption is already sending Americans’ energy bills higher. The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. We will keep pressing until this money reaches the projects and families it was meant for,” said Murray and Kaptur.

Congress provided funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bills for a variety of cost-cutting energy investments. The funding supports power lines, grid upgrades, home energy savings, and bringing more power online. But starting in January 2025, the Trump Administration froze funds for energy programs and kept them frozen after Kaptur and Murray demanded answers. The Department announced the cancellation of 24 awards worth $3.7 billion in May 2025 and another 321 worth nearly $8 billion on October 1, 2025. In July 2026, the Department’s lawyers admitted in court that the October cancellations were based solely on the politics of each recipient’s state.

Four reports released recently show the Department of Energy is failing to spend money Congress provided—driving up Americans’ costs—and it is letting politics drive its decisions:

  1. Recent analysis from Energy Innovation, which includes state-level impacts, found that the Trump administration’s energy policy changes since January 2025, including the Department’s cancellation of hydrogen hub funding, will cost households an additional $920 billion for energy from 2026 through 2040, or about $6,500 more in energy costs per household.
  2. The Department of Energy Alumni Network and Lawyers for Good Government reported that a year after the Department canceled hundreds of awards, 61 percent of terminated awards remain in limbo, 69 percent of the awards the Department said it would keep have received negligible funding in the past six months, and another 1,731 projects worth $3.9 billion have heard nothing from the Department.
  3. The Natural Resources Defense Council published internal Department records, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, indicating that DOE’s committee reviewing awards for termination was made up entirely of political appointees and Department of Government Efficiency staff. This follows DOE’s earlier admission in court that its decision to cancel energy projects “was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state.”
  4. The EFI Foundation found that 94 percent of the $57.5 billion Congress provided DOE through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has still not reached recipients, and $29.3 billion, or 51 percent, has not been legally committed to any project.

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