Schumer Begged 2028 Dem Contenders Not to Criticize Shutdown Deal

Senator Chuck Schumer reached out to leading Democratic presidential contenders to try and mute criticism of the deal to end the government shutdown.

The Senate minority leader called Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and JB Pritzker of Illinois and asked them not to attack or criticize the deal eight Democratic senators made with Senate Republicans, Puck reports. His efforts had mixed results, with Pritzker still disparaging the deal, along with California Governor Gavin Newsom.

The final deal didn’t include the key demand by Democrats: for Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are expiring this year, to be extended. Instead, Republicans promised to hold a future vote on extending those subsidies, leading to backlash within the Democratic Party against the deal.

While Schumer voted against it, the eight Democrats who voted in support said that the minority leader was aware of their plan the whole time. Some Democrats thought that extending the subsidies would help Republicans in the midterms, and opted to put electoral prospects over their own constituents.

Several Democratic organizations, political candidates, and members of the House have called for Schumer’s resignation since the deal was announced Sunday. House Speaker Mike Johnson has not committed to a vote on the subsidies, and a Democratic attempt to raise the issue was voted down Tuesday by House Republicans. It seems that Schumer knew that the deal was bad, but instead of scrapping it and negotiating a better one, sought to minimize dissent.

Community organizer Katie Wilson is projected to defeat Seattle Mayor and Democratic incumbent Bruce Harrell, in another big-city victory for the progressive left against the Democratic establishment.

Local news outlets called the race for Wilson on Wednesday evening.

“We’re thrilled with the latest drop, which continues to trend in our direction. Ahead by almost 2,000 votes, we now believe that we’re in an insurmountable position,” Wilson wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “We’re so grateful to all the volunteers who have powered this grassroots campaign to victory. We look forward to hearing the mayor’s address to the city tomorrow.”

Wilson, 43, who has said she is fine being called a Democrat, a socialist, or both, had never run for office before but focused her campaign on affordability, proposed improvements to mass transit, and increased housing for Seattle’s homeless population.

“I think that the affordability crisis of the last few years has kind of brought that to a fever pitch where people have not felt that their elected leaders are actually fighting for them, actually fighting for affordable housing, for affordable childcare, for the things that are affecting them day to day,” Wilson told The New Republic’s Monica Potts in October. “And the failure of a certain brand of Democratic Party politics to stop Trump’s election.... It’s like, OK, now we see that the government can move fast. It can do some really bad things really fast. So why can’t it be some good things?”

Harrell, her opponent, has not conceded, although Wilson is likely to eclipse the 2,000-vote margin that triggers an automatic recount.

Jeffrey Epstein, the man who orchestrated an international child sex trafficking ring to service the sick desires of the ultra-wealthy, believed that he was morally superior to Donald Trump.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents Wednesday that they had obtained from Epstein’s estate. The real estate mogul was a frequent topic in correspondence between Epstein and his pen pals, including former Treasury Secretary and ex-Harvard University President Larry Summers.

“Recall ive told you „ i have met some very bad people „ none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body,” Epstein emailed Summers in February 2017, affirming that Trump is “dangerous.”

In a 2018 exchange with Obama-era White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler about Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, Epstein remarked that he was well aware of “how dirty Donald is.”

That same year, Epstein began deriding his former “pal” with myriad insults, largely attacking Trump’s finances. In exchanges with Trump chronicler Michael Wolff, Epstein referred to the president as “dopey Donald” and “demented Donald.” He also claimed that Trump’s financial situation was “all a sham.”

In a December 2018 message to Summers, Epstein wrote: “Trump—borderline insane.”

When queried by Wolff in 2019 about the extent of Trump’s knowledge about Epstein’s operation abducting young girls, the imprisoned trafficker remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine [Maxwell] to stop.”

Another detail that emerged in the recently publicized cache was an offer by Epstein circa 2015 to share pictures of Trump posing with “girls in bikinis” in Epstein’s kitchen. The recipient of the offer was New York Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr., who had written the New York magazine profile on Epstein in which Trump praised the disgraced financier as a “terrific guy.”

Thomas, who left the Times in 2019, told his former paper that Epstein never provided the images, and it was unclear whether they really existed.

One of Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released private emails implicates Tom Barrack, an old friend of President Trump and the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Barrack sent an email to Epstein on March 9, 2016, saying, “Hope ur good. Let’s catch up.” Epstein’s reply is chilling in hindsight.

“Send photos of you and child.  -- make me smile,” the wealthy financier and child sex offender wrote. If anyone else wrote this email, one could say that this was an innocent request to see pictures of someone’s kids or grandkids. But knowing what we know about Epstein, it possibly takes a sinister connotation that Epstein wanted to see something disgusting and illegal.

The emails released on Wednesday by House Oversight Republicans and Democrats heavily implicate Trump in being closely associated with Epstein even while president, and are also implicating his confidants like Barrack. The president has responded by referring to the whole thing as a hoax, even as his staff and other Republicans have confirmed that the emails are real and identified one of the mentioned victims.

Now that there are 218 members of the House who have signed a discharge petition to make all of the Epstein files public, more damaging information about the president, as well as other powerful Americans, could soon come to light. Trump could be in the politically damaging position of having to veto their disclosure.

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein wrote in a private email that he “gave” his then 20-year-old girlfriend to President Donald Trump in 1993.

“My 20 year old girlfriend in 93, , that after two years i gave to donald,” Epstein wrote in an email to New York Times finance journalist Landon Thomas, Jr. in 2015. Attached was a link to photos of Norwegian businesswoman and cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, who would have been 20 years old in 1993—insinuating that Epstein (who would have been 40 in 1993) dated her, and then passed her on to Trump.

“Hawaiian tropic girl Lauren Patrella [redacted],” Epstein wrote earlier in the same email chain. “would you like to see photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen.”

These are just some of many damning email exchanges that the sex predator had with various rich and powerful people while he was actively trafficking and abusing young women and girls with the help of Ghislaine Maxwell. House Democrats and Republicans on the Oversight Committee released a slew of these messages on Thursday, with more likely to come. Notable messages show Epstein writing that Trump “knew about the girls” and that one of Epstein’s victims “spent hours at my house with [Trump].”

“There’s a total of about 23,000 documents.… We obviously released some today, we’ll be releasing additional documents likely later today,” House Democrat Robert Garcia said Wednesday on MSNBC. “The important thing here is that we know, and we’ve been demanding that Donald Trump and the DOJ release the full Epstein files.”

Trump, of course, has called it all a hoax.

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk—and they should pay a fair price,” he wrote Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social. “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

The White House is frantically trying to do damage control on Donald Trump’s Epstein scandal.

The president’s team rushed reporters out of the Oval Office right as he received one question on the latest trove of files released from the pedophilic sex trafficker’s estate.

The question that closed the press conference was little more than a request for comment: “Mr. President, can you respond to these Epstein emails that were released today?” It’s unclear if the conference had already ended by that point, but Trump’s staffers were quick to usher reporters out rather than let the president respond to one of the biggest stories of the day.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents Wednesday that it had obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Trump and his ascent to the White House.

In a 2011 email, Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite the fact that Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” Epstein wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

When queried by Trump biographer Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of the president’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

The White House immediately brushed off the reports, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting that the emails prove nothing. Trump, in turn, has accused Democrats of inventing the Trump-Epstein connection, repeatedly referring to it as a “hoax.”

Meanwhile, congressional support for the files’ release has continued to grow. At least three more Republicans publicly voiced their support for a bill to make the case files public Wednesday, apparently distressed and disturbed by the president’s affiliation with Epstein.

Some of them were also interested in obtaining new answers from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who remained silent during a Senate hearing last month when asked to confess if she had seen a rumored series of photos in which Trump allegedly had young girls sitting on his lap at one of Epstein’s estates.

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.

In the emails that took place on the morning of November 23, 2017, Kates asked where Epstein was spending his Thanksgiving, and the convicted sex offender responded: “Eva.”

Kates responded that “Glenn” must be there, indicating that Epstein was with Eva Andersson-Dubin and her husband, Glenn Dubin. In addition to helping to broker the sale of Dubin’s hedge fund to JP Morgan, Epstein had previously dated Andersson-Dubin and was the godfather of the couple’s children.

Kates asked, “who else is down there?”

Epstein replied: “david fizel, hanson, trump.”

“Have fun!!!” Kates replied.

It’s not clear whether Epstein was referring to people that he spent time with during this period, or just who was in Palm Beach for the holiday. Trump spent Thanksgiving day that year at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago, his glitzy Palm Beach club.

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.

Now that the House discharge petition has enough signatures to force a vote on the Epstein files, even more Republicans are coming out of the woodwork to support the files’ release.

Just four Republicans initially penned their signatures on the discharge petition. But despite the apparent internal opposition to supporting the petition, several Republicans announced Wednesday that they will vote “yes” on the resulting bill when it comes to the floor.

That includes Representatives Eli Crane and Warren Davidson, reported CNN’s Manu Raju Wednesday afternoon.

Representative Don Bacon also expressed his support for the bill in an interview with MSNBC.

“If it goes on the floor—I get a lot of pushback, ‘Why don’t you put your name on the discharge petition?’ I’m just going to be subtle in my response: Just look at the few Republicans who are on it and who they are,” Bacon told the network.

Early GOP signatories on the petition were Representatives Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“If it comes to the floor, I will vote ‘yes,’” Bacon affirmed.

The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 documents Wednesday that it had obtained from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. The documents included multiple mentions of Donald Trump and the pedophilic sex trafficker’s fascination with Trump’s ascent to the White House.

In a 2011 email, Epstein expressed he was grateful Trump had stayed quiet about abuse that had taken place at one of his residences. The “dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” Epstein wrote, despite the fact that Trump had spent hours at one of Epstein’s properties with a known victim.

In a 2017 exchange with former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Epstein said that Trump was the worst individual he knew.

“I have met some very bad people, none as bad as Trump,” Epstein wrote. “Not one decent cell in his body.”

When queried by Michael Wolff in 2019 about the extent of Trump’s knowledge of abductions of young girls, Epstein remarked: “Of course he knew about the girls he asked Ghislaine to stop.”

The White House immediately brushed off the reports, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting that the emails prove nothing. Trump, in turn, has accused Democrats of inventing the Trump-Epstein connection, repeatedly referring to it as a “hoax.” But House Democrats have roundly rejected that illusion.

“The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover,” said Robert Garcia, the Oversight ranking member, in a statement. “These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”

Trump was warned as early as May that his name was all over the Epstein files. But concern had swelled among GOP lawmakers since early November that Trump’s relationship with Epstein was even cozier than previously understood—apparently with good reason.

After House Oversight Democrats released a series of private emails from Jeffrey Epstein mentioning Donald Trump, Republicans released their own files, with even more incriminating info.

House Oversight Republicans released 20,000 pages of emails and documents from Epstein’s estate. One of them includes correspondence between Epstein and former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Ruemmler in 2018. Ruemmler had sent the disgraced pedophile a link to a New York Times op-ed regarding former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty to violating finance laws with hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. 

“You see   ,  i know how dirty donald is.    my guess is that non lawyers ny biz people have no idea,” Epstein wrote. “what it means to have your fixer  flip.”

The rest of the emails—and their past friendship—would suggest that Epstein did indeed know how “dirty” President Trump is. 

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump [sic]. [Redacted] spent hours at my house with him ,, [sic] he has never once been mentioned. police chief etc,” Epstein wrote in 2011 to his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, allegedly referring to one of his sex-trafficking victims. 

“I have been thinking about that …” Maxwell responded. 

In another email to author Michael Wolff, Epstein implies that Trump knew Maxwell was trafficking young women who worked at Mar-a-Lago.

“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.  .  of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop,” he wrote.

Ruemmler also had a very close relationship with Epstein in her own right, meeting with him multiple times after she served as Obama White House counsel. The pedophile also apparently planned for her to join him on his flights to Paris in 2015 and to his private Caribbean island in 2017, although she never visited. “I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,” Ruemmler said in 2023.

Trump has stuck to his usual script since the emails’ release, calling it “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.” 

“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk—and they should pay a fair price,” he wrote Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social. “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

Seven weeks after she won a special election in Arizona’s 7th congressional district, Adelita Grijalva was sworn in to the House of Representatives Wednesday, giving legislators the final vote needed to release all of the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein.

House Speaker Mike Johnson set a record for how long he stalled on swearing in Grijalva, using the government shutdown as an excuse. Grijalva won a special election in September to fill the seat of Representative Raúl Grijalva, her father, who passed away in March after 22 years in Congress. She has vowed to be the deciding 218th vote on a petition that would automatically trigger a House floor vote on legislation demanding that the Justice Department release the Epstein files.

After being sworn in, Grijalva received a standing ovation from her colleagues and gave a speech on the House floor, saying she would “sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files” to applause.

“Justice cannot wait another day,” Grijalva said.

Earlier this month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Johnson and the Trump administration of running a “pedophile protection program” by refusing to swear in Grijalva, a term he repeated Tuesday night as he said the GOP is “intentionally hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

“But those days are over, because as soon as Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva becomes Congresswoman Grijalva, her first act ... is going to be to sign that discharge petition,” Jeffries said. “It’s going to force a vote on the House floor, and the American people are going to get the transparency that they deserve.”

This story has been updated.