Mike Johnson Refuses to Swear in New Dem, Delaying Epstein Files Bid

Republicans are actively trying to delay the release of the Epstein files.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was joined by other GOP leadership Tuesday in rejecting bids to swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva.

Grijalva won the special election in Arizona last week to replace her father, Raul Grijalva, making her the first Latina the Grand Canyon State has sent to Congress. She’s also the last signature that the House needs on a petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files—but Republicans are dragging their feet.

Instead, party leadership is refusing to swear in Grijalva until Congress returns to its regular session on October 3. But that’s not at all how Republicans treated their own representative-elects earlier this year: Party members didn’t delay swearing in Florida Republicans during a pro forma session in April, the day after they won their special elections.

The House was supposed to be in session on Monday and Tuesday, but Republican leaders canceled those work days in an attempt to strong-arm Democrats into accepting another stopgap funding measure that would benefit Donald Trump’s agenda.

“There’s no reason why I couldn’t have been sworn in, and it’s very problematic, because we’re facing a government shutdown. We’re going to have constituents who have questions, and there is nobody there to answer questions,” Grijalva told The Hill.

She added that Johnson had not provided a timeline for her swearing-in ceremony, telling the publication, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Grijalva’s swearing in appears to be noise in the background for House leadership, which is currently scrambling to prevent a government shutdown that would begin Tuesday night. But there’s plenty of precedent for Grijalva to be sworn in, even in such complicated circumstances. For instance, the entire House was sworn in during a shutdown in 2019, during Trump’s first term.

Grijalva had already vowed to sign the bipartisan petition advancing the immediate release of the Epstein files. Just four Republicans have penned their signatures on the petition, demanding more transparency from the Trump administration regarding the investigation into deceased pedophilic sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his potential associates. Those conservative lawmakers include Representatives Thomas Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert.

President Donald Trump begged top military brass Tuesday to clap for him as he unleashed a radical far-right tirade about using the armed forces against American citizens.

“I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” Trump said. “This is very inter— don’t laugh, don’t laugh. You’re not allowed to do that. You know what, just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud.

“And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course there goes your rank, there goes your future,” Trump added, as some laughter rippled throughout the room.

Despite the president’s pathetic plea, the U.S. military officials assembled by War Secretary Pete Hegseth to bear witness to this diatribe mostly sat in silence throughout the president’s remarks, in keeping with the military’s tradition of nonpartisanship, according to The Washington Post.

Top military leaders sat quietly while the president touted the creation of a quick-reaction force to use against protesters and ranted that America was “under invasion from within.”

“We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform you can take them out,” Trump rambled.

House Democrats decried Republican leadership at a Tuesday protest against Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to keep the body out of session as a government shutdown looms.

Democratic lawmakers decided to show up en masse to a pro forma session of the House on Tuesday—which are typically brief with no business conducted—to display their dissatisfaction with their colleagues across the aisle.

Johnson had canceled votes on Monday and Tuesday, despite a shutdown deadline of midnight, in hopes of pressuring Senate Democrats into acceding to a Republican stopgap funding measure.

The move also postpones the swearing-in of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, who is poised to provide the deciding signature on a petition that forces a floor vote on the release of the Epstein files. (Notably, Johnson has previously sworn in special election winners during pro forma sessions, but has opted not to do so with Grijalva.)

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro called the cancellations “shameful,” saying, “Speaker Johnson is silencing members and shutting down the House in advance of a government-wide shutdown.”

The Democrats used Tuesday’s session to try to force a vote on their own alternative stopgap—which would, among other provisions, reverse health care cuts in Trump’s tax and spending plan—as well as to demand that Grijalva be sworn in.

Many predicted the meeting to be quickly adjourned, with one House Democrat telling Axios, “You’re going to see that gavel go faster than the speed of light.”

And indeed, presiding Republican Representative Morgan Griffith, faced by a House floor packed with dozens of Democrats and few Republicans in sight, hastened to end the session, ignoring several shouts of “Speaker!” as Democrats sought to be recognized so DeLauro could introduce their funding measure.

As Griffith gaveled out, he was showered with objections. “Swear her in!” some members reportedly began to chant, referring to Grijalva. “Shame on you!” said others. “Do your job!”

According to CNN, some held signs depicting Johnson’s face, which read “missing person.”

On Monday, career military officials expressed serious unease regarding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sweeping overhaul of the Pentagon’s priorities. On Tuesday, Hegseth validated all of those fears at his military summit in Virginia.

The Washington Post reported that Hegseth’s shirking of longtime U.S. allies has alienated longtime Pentagon seniors, as Hegseth moves to pull resources from Ukraine and Europe while Russia continues to attack. Hegseth is also apparently prioritizing domestic threats from “the enemy within” rather than focusing on deterring China like senior officials would prefer.

Even Trump loyalist General Dan “Razin” Caine has voiced his displeasure with some of Hegseth’s decisions, particularly his rollout of Trump’s “America First, Peace Through Strength” National Defense Strategy. The initial draft for the strategy was met with widespread disapproval, which is rare.

“He gave Hegseth very frank feedback,” an anonymous source said. “I don’t know if Hegseth even understands the magnitude of the NDS, which is why I think Caine tried so hard.”

On Tuesday, Hegseth doubled down on his pro-war approach to the Defense Department.

“As history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That’s why pacifism is so naive and dangerous,” Hegseth said at his big military summit on Tuesday morning. “Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It’s a truth as old as time.”

This all comes as Hegseth is promising a 20 percent reduction in the number of four-star generals and admirals.

Chaos has followed Hegseth for most of his career, from rape allegations, to alcoholism, to infidelity. His commitment to this “warrior ethos” is a sign of more to come, and the generals left—even if they don’t support it— are powerless to stop him.

President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to illegally revoke Americans’ health care benefits if Democrats in Congress don’t agree to do it themselves.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump floated pulling the plug on certain programs if Democratic lawmakers didn’t give up their funding fight to extend tax credits for the Affordable Care Act.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump said.

Trump threatened to direct his attack dog, White House budget director Russell Vought, to “trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way.”

“So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown. Because of the shutdown, we can do things medically—and other ways, including benefits, we can cut large numbers of people out. We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste, and abuse,” Trump continued.

Trump didn’t get more specific about what programs he planned to cut, but “medically” implies he may strip health care benefits, the very thing Democrats have been battling to protect. An estimated 5.1 million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034 if ACA funding expires at the end of the year, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Trump and other Republicans have claimed Democrats want to lavish undocumented immigrants with health care subsidies—but undocumented immigrants are not eligible for the tax credits Democrats hope to extend.

Trump isn’t the only one trying to outright intimidate lawmakers. The White House Office of Management and Budget wrote Congress last week urging them to pass a short-term measure to keep the government open through November. If lawmakers fail to agree on a deal, Vought’s office has warned federal agencies to prepare for another round of mass firings, with a focus on eliminating positions where funding has been discontinued or that do not align with Trump’s agenda.

If a deal cannot be reached, the government will shut down at midnight Tuesday.

A federal judge used an anonymous pro-Trump threat he received to open his scathing 161-page ruling on how President Trump broke the law with his authoritarian deportations of students for standing against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

“Trump has pardons and tanks,” the scribbled threat to senior U.S. District Judge William Young (a Reagan appointee) read. “What do you have?”

Young responded directly.

“Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, Alone I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, we the people of the United States—you and me—have our magnificent Constitution,” Young replied. “Here’s how that works out in a specific case—”

Young proceeded to explain to Mr. or Ms. Anonymous just how exactly the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of students like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk.

“Secretaries Noem and Rubio … acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech. They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right,” Young wrote. “Moreover, the effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.”

He also called out Trump specifically and his obvious “problem” with the First Amendment.

“Where things run off the rails for him is his fixation with ‘retribution.’ ‘I am your retribution’ he thundered famously while on the campaign trail. Yet government retribution for speech (precisely what has happened here) is directly forbidden by the First Amendment.”

While tanks and pardons are quite formidable weapons, as Trump has shown, at least some judges still seem to believe in the power vested in the Constitution and their right to enforce it, even as they receive strange threats from the president himself or his anonymous fans.

“I hope you found this helpful. Thanks for writing. It shows you care. You should. Sincerely & respectfully, Bill Young,” Judge Young concluded in his response to the anonymous threat. “P.S. The next time you’re in Boston [the postmark on the card is from the Philadelphia area] stop in at the Courthouse and watch your fellow citizens, sitting as jurors, reach out for justice. It is here, and in courthouses just like this one, both state and federal, spread throughout our land that our Constitution is most vibrantly alive, for it is well said that ‘Where a jury sits, there burns the lamp of liberty.’”

The Trump administration is appealing to its ideological base to fill vacancies at the Department of Homeland Security.  

White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller announced to his followers on X Monday night that the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was looking for “homeland defenders” to approve or deny immigration applications.

“Calling all patriots. USCIS is now hiring ‘HOMELAND DEFENDERS,’” Miller wrote. “Your job will be to interview applicants for green cards, work visas and citizenship for approval or denial. Great pay, flexible hours, stay local. Sign up to be a Homeland Defender today!”

It was not immediately clear if “homeland defender” would be a new position at USCIS, or if it would differ in any significant way from the work already done by immigration service officers at the agency. But whether Miller is referring to a new title or an old one, the pay doesn’t seem to be all that he’s chalking it up to be: a batch of new job listings for immigration officers at USCIS describe the starting salary as nearly $35,000. (Job listings for similar roles in other areas of the country pay up to $107,000, according to USCIS’s career website.)

The openings come just weeks before DHS is set to introduce a more rigorous application process for wannabe green card holders. Those changes will go into effect on October 20.

Miller’s coded language paints a vivid picture of exactly who the white nationalist would like to see dictating the demographics of admitted immigrants. The 40-year-old has tasked federal agents with arresting 3,000 undocumented immigrants per day—a quota so astronomical that it has forced the agency to find unconventional subjects of detention, including noncriminal legal residents and even U.S. citizens. The result has been mass, intra-agency dejection: Former employees claim that ICE agents have reportedly never been so miserable.

After sending his state’s National Guard troops to help garden in Washington D.C., Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is now begging President Donald Trump to deploy more soldiers in his own cities.

In a letter sent to War Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday, Landry urged the Defense Department to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops “to urban centers” throughout Louisiana. “Louisiana currently faces a convergence of elevated violent crime rates in Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans coupled with critical personnel shortages within local law enforcement,” Landry wrote.

But in August, Landry approved sending 135 members of the Louisiana National Guard to Washington to assist in Trump’s federal takeover there. After finishing a sweeping crackdown on the city’s poorest, least white areas with high crime rates, service members have since been enlisted to help Trump’s effort to beautify the nation’s capital.

Like many of the Democratic-led cities targeted by Trump’s federal takeovers, Louisiana’s urban centers have majority-Black populations. But unlike those cities, Louisiana actually has a crime problem.

Louisiana’s homicide rate in 2023 was 19.3 per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than 300 percent higher than the homicide rate of the most recent site of Trump’s federal law enforcement takeover: Oregon, which had a homicide rate of 4.6 per 100,000 people that same year.

Shreveport, which is in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s district, landed at number 25 on Newsweek’s recent list of the 30 U.S. cities (with at least 100,000 residents) that had the highest number of violent crimes against people. In 2024, Baton Rouge had a murder rate of 36 people per 100,000 and New Orleans had a murder rate of 31 per 100,000. Baton Rouge’s murder rate is twice the rate in Washington. Meanwhile, Portland, Oregon, saw a 51 percent decrease in homicides in the first half of 2025.

While appearing on Fox News Monday night, Landry struck a sycophantic tone. “President Trump has amassed the best Cabinet of public servants and folks who really want to fight crime,” he said.

“Why would you not want your citizens to be safe?”

But Landry’s plea doesn’t detract from the lawlessness of Trump’s campaign to intimidate Democratic-led cities, and concerns that Trump’s sweeping crackdown and cuts to crime prevention programs could undermine already decreasing crime rates.

In a rare gathering Tuesday, top military leaders were summoned from across the globe to be lectured by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about new directives meant to uphold a “warrior ethos” in the military.

An issue on which the former Fox News pundit placed particular emphasis was the supposed crisis of “fat troops.”

“It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” Hegseth told the seasoned commanders, being sure to pat himself on the back in that regard: “If the Secretary of War can do regular hard P.T. [physical training], so can every member of our joint force.”

“Frankly,” he continued, “it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading commands around the country and the world. It’s a bad look. It is bad, and it’s not who we are.”

Reacting to the remarks, some social media users poked fun at the weight of the man at the very top of the armed forces’ chain of command: President Trump. Among them was California Governor Gavin Newsom, who frequently trolls the president online—this time posting an unflattering photo of Trump during a 2024 campaign stunt at McDonalds with the caption: “I guess the Commander in Chief needs to go!”

During his address, Hegseth also laid out a bizarre no-beard policy (that will disproportionately affect Black service members): “No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards, and adhere to standards,” he said, adding, “We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans. At my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos.”

President Donald Trump ranted Tuesday that U.S. warships don’t look tough enough anymore.

Speaking in front of a meeting of hundreds of U.S. military officials whom War Secretary Pete Hegseth had summoned to Washington, Trump said that his administration was reviewing the way that the U.S. builds warships.

“It is something we’re considering, the concept of ‘battleship.’ Nice six-inch side, solid steel. Not aluminum, aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. Starts melting as the missile’s about two miles away,” Trump said.

But Trump made it clear that his complaints actually have nothing to do with efficiency or safety. “I am a very aesthetic person. I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing aesthetically,” Trump said. “They say, ‘Oh, it’s stealth.’ That’s not stealth. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you’re stealth.”

The U.S. Navy has been a particular sticking point for Trump, as the agency that is consistently behind schedule and over-budget flies in the face of his gestures at efficacy. In June, Navy Secretary John Phelan said Trump’s priorities for the military branch could be summed up as “shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding,” a bid that sent defense contractors foaming at the mouth. Shipping experts have said Trump’s dream will likely cost billions of dollars—others say it is destined to fail.

Unfortunately, Trump doesn’t actually know anything about warships. U.S. warships are constructed using some aluminum to reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency, according to Wieland Diversified, a metal supplier. Aluminum is also resistant to corrosion and durable against the ocean waves.

Trump repeated a nonsensical criticism from his executive order that the U.S. once built one ship a day, and now they barely build one a year—which is obviously false. The president has also previously falsely claimed that magnets stop working when placed in water, and therefore were a stupid thing to put on a boat.