‘We screwed up the comms’: JD Vance admits errors over Epstein files release
Source: US news | The Guardian · Bias: Center Left
Summary
Vice-president tells Joe Rogan administration botched handling and should have released all documents from startJD Vance agreed with criticism that the Trump administration botched the handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, telling podcast host Joe Rogan that “we absolutely screwed up the comms”.The Department of Justice’s repeated moves to delay the release of documents related to the convicted sex offender drew bipartisan disapproval last year. The files have been one of the most significant political liabilities to Donald Trump since his second term began. Continue reading...
‘We screwed up the comms’: JD Vance admits errors over Epstein files release
Center Left
Vice-president tells Joe Rogan administration botched handling and should have released all documents from startJD Vance agreed with criticism that the Trump administration botched the handling of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, telling podcast host Joe Rogan that “we absolutely screwed up the comms”.The Department of Justice’s repeated moves to delay the release of documents related to the convicted sex offender drew bipartisan disapproval last year. The files have been one of the most significant political liabilities to Donald Trump since his second term began. Continue reading...
Three subcontractors claim nearly $900,000 in unpaid work on Home Court, the Obama Presidential Center's basketball facility hosting WNBA All-Star events.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt's one-word answer was flagged Saturday as a clear sign of the damage Jeffrey Epstein has wreaked on MAGA.Asked whether President Donald Trump or his administration planned to intervene in the UK extradition case against Andrew and Tristan Tate, Leavitt replied flatly: "No." The i Paper columnist Sarah Baxter argued Saturday that the single syllable reveals how thoroughly Trump's ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein have depleted his political capital. The president, she wrote, can no longer afford to spend it defending a pair of accused sex abusers — despite them being major allies.Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the posture a day earlier from the Philippines. "There's no role for us to play at this moment or maybe ever in that regard," Rubio told reporters, according to Axios.The cold shoulder marks a striking reversal. In February 2025, the Financial Times reported that Trump officials pressured Romania to ease travel restrictions on the Tates, and days later the brothers boarded a private jet to Fort Lauderdale.The Tates, dual British-American citizens, were arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami on July 18 after British prosecutors filed 38 new sex-crime charges, bringing their combined total to 59 counts. Andrew Tate faces 42 charges including rape, sex trafficking and offenses relating to indecent images of a child; Tristan Tate faces 17.Their lawyer, Joseph McBride, who previously represented January 6 defendants, has tried to press familiar buttons. He wrote on X that the brothers were being held as "political prisoners on American soil" in solitary confinement. Andrew Tate himself claimed he was locked in a unit next to "a cannibal who screams throughout the night."None of it has moved the administration.On Capitol Hill, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), a House Oversight Committee member, sent a letter to Chair James Comer this week requesting an investigation into "potential political interference" surrounding the Tates' case. Ansari also asked that Barron Trump be called to testify about any knowledge of the brothers' alleged crimes. A spokesperson for the Tates has previously called reports linking Barron to Andrew Tate fake news.
America remains deeply divided over whether the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. Millions believe the system failed them, while the media, intelligence bureaucracy, and the left have treated their doubts as something to suppress rather than investigate.The documents released this week by the Trump administration do not close the case. They reopen it — and make the “nothing to see here” narrative indefensible.Start with communist China.The released intelligence reports that approximately 220 million American voter records are in Chinese hands. Tens of millions of records across 18 states were bought, stolen, or hacked and included names, addresses, phone numbers, party preferences, and other sensitive information.A sovereign nation must know that the people selecting its government are its citizens. That does not prove China changed a single ballot, but it does prove Beijing possessed a political targeting asset. When a strategic rival aggregates enormous datasets and applies modern analytics, it gains the ability to identify, target, and influence American voters at industrial scale. The most disturbing disclosure involves the President’s Daily Brief — the president’s most sensitive and consequential intelligence product. In one released email, an official wrote: “We have deliberately massaged our one pending PDB to avoid any direct links to the election.”In a separate internal chat, a counterintelligence official boasted: “I’m basically running a shadow government across the FBI at this point.”The left has spent years ridiculing concerns about a “deep state” as conspiracy theory. These revelations make that ridicule look increasingly like camouflage.Then comes the voting-system reveal.A Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency report included in the administration’s document release identifies weak access controls, outdated operating systems, flat networks, inadequate monitoring, and legacy remote-access pathways across state and local election environments. During multiple penetration tests and red-team exercises, CISA assessors gained full control of election-office networks within hours or days.Separately, the report cites research involving one ballot-marking system showing that barcode-encoded votes could be altered without changing the human-readable selections displayed to the voter.The release also includes intelligence concerning methods allegedly developed by Venezuela’s Maduro regime to manipulate electronic totals while concealing the changes.Precision matters. A Venezuelan capability is not proof of an American operation. A demonstrated vulnerability is not proof it was exploited. The documents do not establish that American vote totals were secretly changed in 2020.But they demolish the claim that election technology is immune from manipulation. These are computer systems with software, databases, vendors, administrators, updates, and attack surfaces. Compromise must be anticipated and independently detectable.RELATED: America needs an artificial intelligence coalition, not an AI fortress Burcu demir/Getty ImagesA limited Department of Homeland Security review raises another alarm. The White House says it identified approximately 278,000 potential noncitizen registrations. DHS’ public follow-up described more than 250,000 preliminary potential matches in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania — only four states.No serious person should dismiss numbers of this magnitude. Biden’s certified Georgia margin in 2020 was 11,779 votes. In 2016, Trump carried Michigan and Wisconsin by a combined 33,452 votes — and Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania by just 77,744.The media formula — “the documents do not prove vote totals changed; therefore they prove nothing” — is analytical malpractice. Absence of final proof is not proof of institutional innocence.The proper question is whether this new information raises the probability that foreign influence, intelligence suppression, ineligible registrations, or exploitable technology played a larger role in the 2020 election environment than Americans were told — and whether future elections remain at risk.The answer to both questions is yes.That is why Congress must pass the SAVE America Act before November. The House-passed legislation requires documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration and photo identification for federal voting.These are basic risk controls. Pew found that 83% of Americans — including 71% of Democrats and 95% of Republicans — support government-issued photo identification. A sovereign nation must know that the people selecting its government are its citizens. A constitutional republic must demonstrate — not merely assert — that its elections are accurate.Congress should stop stalling and pass the SAVE America Act.
{beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment The Big Story Grant cancellations ‘based solely’ on politics: filing Federal green grants canceled last year were selected “solely” based on a state’s political affiliation, the Trump administration said in a recent court filing. Greg Nash In the filing, Department of Energy (DOE) lawyer Jeff Novak said the…
Some of the X accounts pledging to oppose Vice President JD Vance and back Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the 2028 Republican primary appear to be run from outside the United States by people who are not American voters, according to a report published Friday.
The post REPORT: Some MarcoBots Pushing Rubio over Vance ‘Aren’t American Voters’ appeared first on Breitbart.