Mikey Likes It!: Johnson and Chump bask in their humiliation

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Johnson and Chump bask in their humiliation

Couples counseling now required for Donald Chump and Mike Johnson. Rhian Lubin (INDEPENDENT) reports:

House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against legislation to release the Jeffrey Epstein files for more than a month but eventually caved to pressure Tuesday and joined the other 426 representatives who voted for the bill.

Now it appears Johnson is furious with the Senate for approving the Epstein Transparency Act, despite voting for it himself.

“I am deeply disappointed in this outcome,” Johnson told MSNOW on his way out of Tuesday evening’s glitzy state dinner with the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law, though the timetable remains unclear.

Johnson’s hand was forced after the president made a U-turn at the 11th hour Sunday, urging Republicans to pass the measure. Johnson voted for it despite what he said were “serious deficiencies” and previously blasted the bill as a “shiny object.”

Poor pathetic Mike Johnson, Speaker of the Closet. He impresses no one. Has there ever been a weaker and more pathetic person in charge of the House of Representatives?

Comments on the article include:

MARK GOODRICH

1 hour ago

If you have nothing to hide, hide nothing. Clearly, this administration is fearful of something and I think it's more of loosing control than it's guilt by a specific person. Johnson is upset because the people are tired of the smirk when people ask him ethical questions about the concerns of Americans. His legacy will now be framed as the guy who didn't want to protect the women who were victimized. Shameful.

David Anthony

1 hour ago

The trancparency is in the panic of Trump and Johnson over these files becoming public information. Hmm... seems like they're acting like a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers?? And seems to me that Trump and many of his party are the ones who used these files like a shiny object while on the campaign trail. now we're all flippy floppy on the issue?

Alexandra Akima

11 minutes ago

The Mike Johnson Shutdown of 2025 was all about Johnson not being in DC, the House out of session made sure the Shutdown lasted longer, & was irresponsible of Johnson to keep the House out of session all that time, as per Our Constitution. Yet no one is holding him responsible. WHY is Johnson still Speaker of the House after all his shady hiding, staying out of session, & ripping off all Americans with BBB last July 4th? Yes, Johnson does like ADDING PORK to bills, much to the detriment of the American People & much to the delight of his own banking account.

Mike Johnson and Donald Chump, forever entwined in humiliation. I'm sure Glenn Greenwald is scratching at the door to the Oval Office trying to get inside to join in the humiliation. He's robably wearing one of his school girl skirts, puffing on his crack pipe, and trying to hunt down a man he can pay to insult im -- that is what he gets off on, remember his sex tape that got leaked. Over to Chumpy,

Andrew Buncombe (THE I PAPER) notes:

Putting aside the dramatic action by Congress, long accused of having failed to stand up to many of the excesses and abuses of the president’s second term, what happened on Tuesday can also be seen as a humiliation for Trump.

He had been forced to permit a vote after failing to silence members of his own party who supported the material’s release.

The US President has insisted there was no wrongdoing on his part in regard to Epstein’s sexual trafficking of minors and young women.

At the same time, if he had really wanted the material released, he could have either gone in person or sent a senior official to speak alongside the victims.

As it was, he snapped at a reporter – “terrible person” – who asked about Epstein as he met in the Oval Office with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, finalising a controversial deal to sell F-35 fighter jets.

“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump said. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”

Later, writing on TruthSocial, Trump claimed he was indifferent about the vote.

“I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future, I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had,” he wrote.

By contrast, it was a day of victory and vindication – no matter how painful and long overdue – for Epstein’s countless victims, many of whom carried photographs of themselves as they were when first preyed upon, as they spoke on Capitol Hill.

“I want everybody to take a look,” said Haley Robson, who said she was also a teenager when she was first abused.

Good for Haley Robson. Too bad she has to live in a country where Chump's in the White House right now when he should be in prison. Mark Z. Barabak (LOS ANGELES TIMES) has a must-read column which includes:

To some, the attempted election theft is old (and eagerly buried) news.

The events that culminated in the violent assault on the Capitol and attempt to block Biden from taking office occurred half a decade ago, the shovel wielders might say, making them as relevant as those faded social-distancing stickers you still see in some stores. Besides, Trump was given a second turn in the White House by a plurality of voters in 2024.

But it's only old news if you believe that justice and integrity carry an expiration date, wrongdoing is fine with the passage of enough time and the foundational values of our country and its democracy — starting with fair and honest elections — matter only to the extent they help your political side prevail.

It bears repeating: "What we're talking about here is an attempt to overturn the outcome of a presidential election," said Sean Morales-Doyle, who heads the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a law and policy think tank at New York University. "If people can engage in that kind of conduct without consequence or accountability, then we have to worry about it happening again."

Which is why punishment and deterrence are so important.

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

Wednesday, November 19, 2025. Tuesday was a historic day in the House and in the Senate.

Late yesterday afternoon, Katy Stech Ferek, Siobhan Hughes and Anvee Bhutani (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reported:

The House passed legislation Tuesday mandating the disclosures of a trove of government files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a milestone in a long-running fight that divided the Republican Party and President Trump’s MAGA movement.

The 427-1 vote came after a band of Republicans bucked party leaders and joined with Democrats to force the matter over the opposition of GOP leadership. The one lawmaker to vote against the measure was Rep. Clay Higgins (R., La.).

Here for the run down of the vote at THE NEW YORK TIMES. Clay Higgins, Republican known to Lake Charles residents as "Miss Higgins," voted against the measure. He mumbled something about three months ago one of his nuts climbed up his sack and it still hasn't descended back to normal. Five members of the House didn't vote -- 3 Dems, 2 Republicans -- presumably, they were attempting to help Miss Higgins find his missing nut. Some jokers insisted they'd seen in Mike Johnson's office or maybe his mouth but, to date, the testicle has not been discovered.

THE WSJ reporters also note:

Trump, in comments to reporters Tuesday, said he has “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert, and I guess I turned out to be right.”

Really because an e-mail suggests Chump saw him years later -- Thanksgiving 2017. Claire Healy and Ana Claudia Chacin (MIAMI HERALD) note:

When Manhattan modeling management executive Faith Kates wrote to Epstein, asking where he was having Thanksgiving dinner in 2017, he answered “eva” – apparently referring to Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Eva Andersson-Dubin. Kates asked “who else is down there?” “david fizel. hanson. trump,” Epstein responds. Trump was in West Palm Beach for Thanksgiving and hosted a large public dinner at Mar-a-Lago. There is no indication that they met for Thanksgiving that year.

THE NEW REPUBLIC's Edith Olmsted noticed the e-mail as well:

Newly released emails suggest that President Donald Trump may have spent his first Thanksgiving in office accompanied by none other than Jeffrey Epstein.

Buried in a batch of thousands of documents released Wednesday by the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform, one email chain between Epstein and someone called “Faith Kates,” likely referring to the founder of NEXT Model Management, suggested that the convicted sex offender was still hanging out with Trump long after the president claims he cut ties.

[. . .]

That wasn’t the only message that suggested Trump and Epstein were still spending time together. In another email chain from December 2017, a guest of Epstein’s claimed they didn’t want to risk running into Trump at Epstein’s Paris apartment. In other emails sent just days after the presidential election, Epstein claimed he was headed for New York as “Trump gives many new things to do,” and later said he was visiting Trump Tower.

The president has long claimed that his friendship with Epstein ended before his Palm Beach neighbor was indicted for soliciting prostitution in 2006. But clearly, the two remained linked long afterward.

In an attempt to forestall the vote, Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson sent the House home for weeks on an extended vacation and refused to swear in Adelita Grijalva for over fifty days. Yet today? Johnson voted for the measure. David Moye (HUFFINGTON POST) notes a reaction to that:

On Tuesday, the Louisiana Republican announced he would vote to release Department of Justice files related to the late sex offender.

Considering the decision came two days after he accused the Democrats of only using the scandal to bring down President Donald Trump, some people wondered the reason behind Johnson’s change of heart. The speaker previously shut down the House early and held off on swearing in a new member during the government shutdown as part of his effort to delay a vote.

Rep. Eric Swalwell had a theory that he offered on social media that was pretty vicious.

“Daddy gave you permission??” Swalwell asked.

Befor the vote on Tuesday, Epstein survivor and House Reps Ro Khanna (Democrat), Thomas Massie (Republican) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Republican) held a press briefing.

US House Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene: I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually, six years, and I gave him my loyalty for free, I won my first election without his endorsement beating eight men in a primary, and I've never owed him anything, but I fought for him, for the policies and for America first, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America, and Americans like the women standing behind me. The only thing that will speak to the powerful, courageous women behind me is when action is actually taken to release these files and the American people won’t tolerate any other bulls**t.

After fighting and attacking and even getting Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson to shutdown the House for a little over two months, Sunday night found Chump suddenly doing a turn around on the Epstein files. The snapshots this week have featured a number of thoughts on that from different people. Today, let's note US House Rep Ro Khanna who addressed this issue and many more with NYT's David Leonhardt in a recent podcast for the paper of record:

Leonhardt: Donald Trump reversed course on social media, where he makes many of his big announcements, on Sunday night. Where were you when you found out that he was reversing himself?

Khanna: As I was about to get to bed, my phone starts to blow up. Someone says: Donald Trump endorsed your bill. And I said: What do you mean? Because Thomas Massie and I, we’ve been working all weekend texting Republicans we knew, trying to get a veto-proof vote in the House.

Leonhardt: Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican, with whom you’ve been working very closely.

Khanna: He has been an instrumental partner. So the underlying bill is my bill, but Thomas Massie has the discharge petition that would get the bill to a vote in the House. But Donald Trump saw that he was going to lose. I mean, this is the first time it has happened that probably almost a hundred Republicans would’ve voted for a Democratic bill, for the Khanna Epstein Files Transparency Act. And he was having Rasmussen, the Republican pollster, People’s Pundit, a Republican pollster, say: What are you doing, Donald Trump? You’ve forgotten the forgotten Americans you campaigned against. So I think he bowed to reality and now is endorsing our bill.

Leonhardt: And so just to walk people through what happened for those who haven’t been following this as closely as you have: You spent months scraping to get just enough Republicans to get their signatures on this petition that then forced the House leadership to hold a vote on a bill. The House leadership didn’t want to hold a vote on the bill. How many Republicans did you ultimately get to sign that petition?

Khanna: We got four.

Leonhardt: Four — all Democrats and four Republicans.

Khanna: All Democrats, four Republicans. I’ve been in Congress nine years. It was the most herculean effort to get that discharge petition through for a few reasons. You had a full-court press here by the White House and the speaker to make this not possible. You had the speaker adjourn Congress early in the summer, if you remember, trying to get the whole issue to go away. At the same time, you had the White House launch the most intense pressure campaign on Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert, to get them to remove their names from this petition.

Leonhardt: And they are the three along with Massie. Those are the only four Republicans.

Khanna: They’re the only four. So with Massie, they came out right away: “We’re going to primary you. The president’s team is going to run the campaign against you.” Why? Yes, they didn’t like what Massie was doing, but they were also sending a signal to every other Republican in the caucus to not defy Donald Trump.

And Donald Trump then un-endorses Marjorie Taylor Greene. I mean, can you imagine this? He is treating Ghislaine Maxwell better than he is treating Marjorie Taylor Greene these days. Once Trump starts to un-endorse Marjorie Taylor Greene, we think, OK, people are going to have understandably cold feet. I mean, do you really want Donald Trump endorsing a primary challenger against you over this vote? And yet, Massie’s thought — and from the people I was talking to — that we thought that some Republicans would still defy him. And obviously that’s what Donald Trump calculated. Ultimately, it was a surrender to justice. But it shows that you can get Donald Trump to come to your side as opposed to having to cave to his side.

Things moved quickly yesterday. At one point in the afternoon, NYT posted Annie Karni's "House Is Expected to Vote on Tuesday to Release Epstein Files."

It was.

It did.

The surprise was what happened next.

Jordain Carney, Hailey Fuchs and Meredith Lee Hill (POLITICO) explain:

The Senate moved swiftly to approve legislation Tuesday forcing the Justice Department to release more information about the case it built against the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — acting hours after an overwhelming House vote to send the bill to the desk of President Donald Trump, who spent months trying to kill it.

The Senate acted by unanimous consent, which requires signoff from every senator but does not require them to take a roll call vote. Earlier in the day, the House passed the bill on a 427-1 vote.

Ben covers the developments this morning at MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.

And let's note some other coverage in the last 24 hours.

You can't talk Epstein without talking his partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell. Erik Ortiz (NBC NEWS) reports:

A “whistleblower” who came forward to House Democrats alleging convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell received preferential treatment at a federal prison camp in Texas says she was not motivated by politics.

Instead, “this was about common human decency and doing what’s right for all inmates,” Noella Turnage, a nurse who worked at Federal Prison Camp Bryan since 2019 until she was fired last week, told NBC News on Monday.

She added that when even one inmate is wrongly retaliated against, “and influence gets another one protected, somebody had to say something.”

Maxwell’s time at FPC Bryan, an all-women’s minimum-security facility, has come under scrutiny since her transfer there in early August from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Her relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has become a focal point as Democrats and some Republicans renew their push to compel the Justice Department to make all investigative files surrounding Epstein’s case public.

Turnage said she was not driven by public outrage surrounding Epstein, Maxwell or any other public figures, but acted because she felt “failed by the institution” when colleagues and others have spoken out about alleged leadership misconduct and retaliation.

Meanwhile Brian Bennett (TIME) observes:

Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors over the course of a decade. Blanche interviewed Maxwell in Tallahassee, Fl., on July 24 and 25. Days after the interview, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to an all-women minimum-security prison northeast of Houston called Federal Prison Camp Bryan. The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

I'd hoped to get some Justice Dept news in here today. There's not room. We will move over to the economy, however. Yes, Donald Cump continues to destroy the economy. Zoe Schneeweiss (BLOOMBERG NEWS) reports:

Initial applications for US jobless benefits totaled 232,000 in the week ended Oct. 18, according to the Labor Department website showing historical data for claims.

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, came in at 1.957 million, up slightly from 1.947 million in the prior week. For initial claims, weekly data for the previous three weeks weren’t made available.

The department did not release its weekly jobless claims report during the government shutdown, which ended last week, but it has published data on its website through other channels.

Unadjusted state-level claims data were available for download throughout the shutdown. Economists have used those state figures along with pre-released seasonal adjustment factors to estimate weekly claims.

The seasonally-adjusted initial claims figure was accessed through an online database, and the recently posted figure is roughly in line with prior estimates.

This as MONEY TALK NEWS notes, "American families will pay an average of $2,700 more annually due to President Trump's new tariff policies. Research shows consumers have different tolerance levels for price increases depending on the product category and how businesses explain the hikes." And Trevor Jennewine (THE MOTLEY FOOL) explains:

The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stumbled out of the gate in November, historically the strongest month of the year for the U.S. stock market. The index has declined 1.5% month to date as investors have received bad news about the economy and become increasingly concerned by elevated valuations, particularly where artificial intelligence stocks are concerned.

Indeed, the S&P 500 recently flashed a warning signal seen just once in the last 25 years. Here's what you should know.

President Trump has argued tariffs are necessary to bring manufacturing activity back to the U.S. However, the most recent ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) -- which measures the health of the manufacturing sector by tracking orders, production, employment, deliveries, and inventory -- shows that manufacturing activity has fallen in eight consecutive months.

Of course, all bad economic news isn't sad. J oe Light (BARRON'S) reports:

Trump Media & Technology Group, the social media and crypto company, is trading at all-time lows as Bitcoin and other tokens keep plunging.

The stock, known by its ticker DJT, was down 0.9% at $10.76 in afternoon trading Tuesday. Earlier, it hit an intraday low of $10.32—the lowest price since DJT’s predecessor company announced in October 2021 it had entered a merger agreement to take Trump’s social networking company public.

President Donald Trump indirectly owns nearly 115 million shares of DJT that are held in a revocable trust in the name of son Don Jr. The son sits on the Trump Media’s board. The holdings make the Trump family the company’s largest shareholder.

DJT stock has fallen nearly 70% this year and 34.6% in the past month.

The little con artist can afford to pay E Jean Carroll because he doesn't have the cash on hand and probably never will. He wanted to make a little money on bonds but Ja'han Jones (MS NOW) explains that required breaking rules and ethical guidelines:

Trump — who waged a yearslong conspiracy-driven campaign against former President Joe Biden, accusing him of using the presidency to enrich himself and his family — claimed prior to his inauguration that his business ventures would be controlled by his children when he returned to the White House. The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Saturday. The administration has said before that Trump has continued to file mandatory disclosures about his investments but that neither he nor his family has a role in running the portfolio, which is managed by a third-party financial institution.

But the suggestion that the president is staying out of his family’s business affairs has been contradicted by Trump Organization statements to foreign governments and by Eric Trump himself.

The timeline for these investments (late August into early October) shows Trump, through his private investments, positioned to profit from decisions in his role as president, all while his administration was contributing to unemployment through government layoffs and federal cuts and fueling an affordability crisis via the president’s ongoing tariffs.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

McMahon previously admitted to Warren that she did not have the authority to dismantle the Department of Education

Washington, D.C. - Today, in reaction to news that Secretary McMahon plans to further dismantle the Department of Education by moving multiple parts of the agency to other federal departments, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released the following statement:

“The Trump administration is waging an illegal assault on public school kids. Instead of working to lower costs for Americans, the Trump administration is hellbent on punishing underserved students.

“Linda McMahon is a liar who knows she doesn’t have the power to single-handedly dismantle the Department of Education – she admitted that to me herself. Only Congress has the authority to close the Education Department, and I will not let that happen on my watch.”

Senator Warren has led the fight to make our higher education system more affordable, cancel student loan debt, and hold student loan servicers accountable for incompetence and malfeasance. She launched the Save Our Schools campaign in a coordinated effort to fight back against President Trump’s attempts to abolish the Department of Education:

On November 17, 2025, Senator Warren led over 40 of her colleagues in a letter urging Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to immediately end any plans to sell or transfer the federal student loan portfolio to the private market.
On November 10, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in a letter urging the Trump administration to use the IRS’s existing legal authorities to stop the looming “tax bomb” facing borrowers who obtain income-driven repayment (IDR) discharges of their student loan debt.
On October 15, 2025, Senator Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) led 70 members of Congress in a letter calling on the Trump administration to address the ongoing and unprecedented wave of student loan delinquencies and defaults, which threatens the financial stability of millions of people and could have disastrous effects on the American economy.
On September 19, 2025, following a push by Senator Warren and nine other senators, the Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education agreed to open an investigation into DOGE’s infiltration of internal systems, including the scope of its access to sensitive student loan borrower information and its impact on borrowers’ rights and privacy.
On August 26, 2025, Senator Warren led colleagues in sending a follow-up letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon condemning the Department of Education for deliberately hiding the “Submit a Complaint” button on the Office of Federal Student Aid’s website, firing employees responsible for providing customer service to borrowers and families and misleading Congress about the scope of these firings.
On August 7, 2025, Senator Warren publicly released Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s response to the senator’s 60+ questions and pressed for additional information. Senator Warren announced that she would refer certain matters where the Department has proved uncooperative to the Government Accountability Office and the Education Department’s Inspector General.
On August 4, 2025, Senator Warren led eight Senators in pressing major private student loan lenders on their plans to serve the incoming surge of borrowers who will be pushed to the industry because of Republicans’ recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
On July 17, 2025, Senator Warren released a new 23-page report, “Education At Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students,” highlighting warnings from 11 major national education and civil rights organizations on the impact of the Trump Administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education (ED), slashing support to millions of American students, primary and secondary school teachers, administrators, parents, and student loan borrowers.
On July 15, 2025, Senators Warren and Sanders, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, urging her to reverse the interest hike on student loan borrowers in the SAVE forbearance.
On July 14, 2025, Senator Warren joined a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, and Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, demanding that the Department of Education stop blocking nearly $7 billion in funds for K-12 schools, including for afterschool programs.
On July 3, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in submitting an amicus brief for NAACP v. US, arguing to the United States District Court District of Maryland that President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education violate separation of powers and lack constitutional authority.
On June 10, 2025, Senator Warren met with Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and delivered over 1,000 letters to McMahon that the senator had received from people in all 50 states who were worried about the Secretary’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
On June 9, 2025, Senator Warren led her colleagues in pushing the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Education to open an investigation into new information obtained by her office, revealing that DOGE may have gained access to two FSA internal systems, in addition to sensitive borrower data.
On May 20, 2025, Senator Warren and 27 other senators pushed for full funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid.
On May 14, 2025, Senator Warren led a Senate forum entitled “Stealing the American Dream: How Trump and Republicans Are Raising Education Costs for Families,” highlighting the consequences of Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education and President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for working- and middle-class students and borrowers.
On May 13, 2025, Senator Warren agreed to meet with Education Secretary Linda McMahon and promised to bring questions and stories from Americans across the country to highlight how the Trump administration’s attacks on education are hurting American families.
On May 6, 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren highlighted the consequences of President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education for American families in a Senate forum.
On April 24, 2025, Senator Warren launched a new investigation into the harms of President Trump’s attacks on the Department of Education, seeking information on the impact of the Trump administration’s actions from the members of twelve leading organizations representing schools, parents, teachers, students, borrowers, and researchers.
On April 10, 2025, following a request led by Senator Warren, the Department of Education’s Acting Inspector General agreed to open an investigation into the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the Department of Education.
On April 2, 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mazie Hirono, along with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding the Department of Government Efficiency’s proposed plan to replace the Department of Education’s federal student aid call centers with generative artificial intelligence chatbots.