Letters to the Editor: The government has a ‘debt addiction,' not a spending addiction
Pat Cathcart, Pasadena
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jasmine Crockett unleashes on Ghislaine Maxwell talking to Trump DOJ before Congress: ‘Out of jail for free'
Rep. Jasmime Crockett wants Ghislaine Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding sex trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein — to testify before Congress before she speaks under oath to the Trump Justice Department. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, will meet with Maxwell on Thursday in Florida, where she is serving out her two-decade sentence for scheming with the late pedophile power-player to sexually exploit and abuse young women and girls. The meeting comes just a day after the House Oversight Committee, on which Crockett sits, voted to subpoena Maxwell. On Wednesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer issued a subpoena and set Maxwell's deposition date for Aug. 11. 'I don't know that we'll get anywhere, but I know if there's anybody that I want to talk to her, it is us — and not the administration — because at least if she comes before the committee, even if it's behind closed doors, it will be bipartisan,' Crockett, a frequent Trump antagonist, told The Independent. 'It won't just be one side able to ask questions, it'd be both sides, whereas the administration, they're a bunch of thugs,' she railed. 'And frankly, if it means that she can engage in a coverup, he'll most likely let her out of jail free. He's let people out of jail for far less.' This comes after the Department of Justice released a two-page memo on July 6 saying that Epstein, the convicted pedophile, had no 'client list' and died of suicide in his New York City jail cell, where he was found hanged by bed sheets. But Crockett, who spoke to The Independent before Comer issued his subpoena, also cautioned that she did not know if they would actually hear testimony from the once high-flying former socialite Maxwell. 'I don't know if she has appeals that are pending, and I'm sure that her attorneys will have some issues, some questions surrounding so it's more complicated than just subpoenaing her,' the Democrat said. 'We can subpoena all we want to. We have had a number of transcribed interviews as well as depositions over the last two weeks, and frankly, a lot of them ended with nothing because people invoked privilege and things like that.' Crockett has become a fundraising dynamo because of her combative style of questioning on the Oversight Committee and her willingness to joust with Republicans in the majority. But she recently lost her bid to replace the late Gerry Connolly (D-VA) as the top Democrat on the committee to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA). Garcia told The Independent that subpoenaing Maxwell does not mean the committee trusts her to be truthful. 'She's a documented liar, she's obviously done an enormous amount to harm young girls and and and has an interest, of course, in, in being free,' Garcia said. 'We should still want to have her come testify in front of oversight in the Congress, but, but we should just be very we should understand that this is a very complex witness and someone that has caused great harm and not a good person to a lot of people.' The House of Representatives broke a day early after the House Rules Committee ground itself to a halt because Democrats continued offering amendments to release files related to Epstein. In an attempt to mollify Democrats and some conservatives, Republicans proposed a non-binding House resolution to get the Department of Justice to release files. In addition, Rep. Thomas (R-KY) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have a discharge petition, which would force a vote and circumvent Speaker Mike Johnson, to release files related to Epstein. Massie, a critic of Trump, accused Johnson of covering for the president. 'He doesn't want a paper-thin sliver of daylight between him and the president, and so that's why he's avoided taking even the symbolic vote on the non-binding resolution,' Massie told The Independent. Trump, a friend of Epstein's for many years before a falling out that appears to have come before it was publicly known the financier was being investigated over his sex trafficking, has criticized his supporters and others for focusing on the Epstein case. He also vehemently denied a story in The Wall Street Journal that he sent Epstein a note for the disgraced financier and predator's 50th birthday party and also filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the newspaper and its owners News Corp and Rupert Murdoch, among others.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump is losing support from men as approval rating drops below 50%
Men are cooling on Donald Trump after making up a significant chunk of the president's 2024 voting bloc. According to a new poll by CBS/YouGov, Trump's approval rating is tanking with men during his second term. It found that 47 percent of men approve of Trump's job, and 53 percent do not. Last October — just before Trump's second electoral victory — a similar CBS/YouGov poll found that 54 percent of men supported Trump and 64 percent said they thought he would be a strong leader. The drop overall reflects a broader disapproval with Trump's second term; DecisionDeskHQ's polling averages showed that the president's overall approval rating was down by about 12 points since January, a drop from 56 percent then to 44 percent this week. According to the new CBS/YouGov poll, 47 percent of men said Trump was focusing "too much" on deportations, while 33 percent said he was showing the "right amount" of focus. In another metric, 65 percent of men said Trump has not done enough to lower prices, and only 29 percent said they felt he had. On February 7, Trump had a 60 percent approval rating with men, but his numbers began to slip in the months that followed, according to the poll. By the end of the month, his favorability had dropped to 56 percent, and by April 11 — just a week after he unveiled his tariff plan — men's approval of the president fell to 49 percent. Trump won big with men in 2024. According to Pew Research, men favored Trump by 12 points in 2024. Men under 50 split their votes almost evenly between former Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump. In 2020, men under 50 backed former President Joe Biden over Trump by 10 points. According to the CBS/YouGov polling data, the big issues driving down Trump's approval with men are his performance on the economy, his seeming inability to curb inflation, and his intense focus on immigration issues. By mid-April, Trump's approval rating among men on the economy dropped to minus 10 points, his approval regarding inflation fell to minus 20, and his immigration approval — one of his strongest areas among men — dropped to just plus six points, The poll found that 49 percent of men believe that the economy is getting worse, and 65 percent said that Trump wasn't doing enough to lower prices for goods and services. Another 60 percent said they believe Trump is focusing too much on tariffs, and 57 percent believe his policies are directly increasing the cost of their groceries. They aren't wrong about their grocery bills; Consumer Price Index data shows that annual inflation rose by 2.7 percent in June, up from 2.4 percent in May. They're also not wrong about Trump's tariffs, according to Yale's Budget Lab. Americans are currently facing an average tariff rate of 18.7 percent, which is the highest it has been since 1933. The three key issues driving down Trump's approval rating were the major issues that attracted men to Trump in the first place, according to the poll. That could spell trouble for Republicans come the midterm elections if they do not adjust their focus and messaging before the election. Trump's dipping approval comes at a difficult time for him, as even some stalwart supporters among his voter base and within his party are questioning him over his handling of the alleged "Epstein client list." The president promised to be transparent about what the government knew of disgraced New York financier and child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — a man who had a long and well-documented friendship with Trump. After U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told the public she had the so-called client list on her desk, the administration backtracked and insisted no such file existed, and confirming previous rulings that Epstein died by suicide in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial. Trump has reacted with dismissal and annoyance toward Republicans — and his own voters — who have asked him questions about his administration's position on the Epstein documents. Since then, Trump has faced questions and criticism from his voting base and within the conservative cultural sphere that helped sell his vision for America to the public — especially men.
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ghislaine Maxwell could dodge congressional subpoena for her testimony in Epstein investigation, lawyer says
Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell is unsure whether she will comply with a recent congressional subpoena to testify about his abuse of girls and whether others were involved, amid continued pressure for the government to disclose more about the case. 'We have to make a decision about whether she will do that or not,' her attorney David Oscar Markus told Politico. 'That's been scheduled for the week of August 11th and we haven't gotten back to them on whether we'll do that.' Maxwell could invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying, while Congress could offer the former British socialite immunity. Maxwell is currently in a Florida federal prison serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, which she has sought to overturn in the Supreme Court. Her lawyer said, Maxwell is hoping Donald Trump pardons her. A bipartisan group on the House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Maxwell amid renewed interest into the Epstein scandal. Maxwell sat with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in recent days for an in-depth interview in Florida. The interview featured Maxwell answering questions about '100 different people,' her lawyer said. DOJ officials spoke to her as fallout from the president's handling of releasing information in the Epstein case continues to mount. Democrats have criticized Maxwell's conversations with the DOJ, arguing they are a conflict of interest given the political pressure the Trump administration is facing to disclose more about the Epstein case and Trump's personal relationship with the disgraced investor. 'Under no circumstances should anyone from Trump's DOJ be allowed to privately interview Ghislaine Maxwell,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X of the interview. 'The conflict of interest is glaring. It stinks of high corruption.' The battle over Epstein info has played out beyond just Congress, which House Speaker Mike Johnson broke early for an August recess as legislators pressured the administration to disclose the full Epstein files. Last week, President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal's parent companies News Corp and Dow Jones, after the paper reported that Trump sent a 'bawdy' birthday letter to Epstein. The president has denied the letter is valid. The Epstein saga has created a rare wedge between Trump and members of his base and party. Trump and his allies campaigned on releasing more information about Epstein, and initially, the White House made steps toward fulfilling that promise, releasing what it called 'Phase 1' of the Epstein files to a group of conservative commentators and online personalities in February. However, most of it was redacted or already disclosed. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced there was no 'Epstein client list' despite speculation, and that no more disclosures would be made about the case, infuriating parts of the MAGA base. The president has chastised his own supporters for their intrigue over Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, calling the scandal a Democrat-led 'scam' and 'con job.' The president, who has previously denied being mentioned in the Epstein files, was in fact told by the Justice Department he was one of numerous high-profile figures mentioned in the course of investigations into Epstein, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
