Robert De Niro is making headlines once again for his outspoken political views and his anti-Trump stance.
The
Hollywood veteran recently shared his thoughts on the state of the
United States and his inability to love a country that is led by the
current President Donald Trump.
Robert De Niro
never pulls his punches when it comes to calling out Donald Trump on his
economic policies and his infamous Department of War. Conversely, the
POTUS also uses every opportunity to hit back at the iconic actor.
The
Oscar-winning actor did not hold back while discussing the country’s
political climate. The Hollywood veteran spoke at the “Rise Up, Sing
Out” concert hosted by the Committee for the First Amendment. De Niro
suggested the nation had become harder to embrace under its present
leadership.
The actor took aim at
President Donald Trump while discussing the current state of the
country. De Niro said, “Our country isn’t so lovable right now” as it
once was. He compared loving the country under its current leadership to
an abused spouse loving an “abuser,”
Stephen A. Smith‘s feud with President Donald Trump has spiraled into chaos.
Critics have now accused the ESPN sportscaster of backing down and waving the white flag.
The
growing tension between Smith, 58, and Trump, 80, escalated into a war
of words that subsided sooner than some people expected.
[. . .]
Smith
fired back and challenged the president to sit down for an interview.
He wanted to discuss the national debt, corruption allegations, the war
with Iran, and the affordability crisis.
Not
only was the typical aggression the “Straight Shooter” podcaster
displayed towards athletes tempered in his response to Trump.
But the “Straight Shooter” podcaster handed the polarizing MAGA leader a victory lap during CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Stephen
Smith is a dookie. That's all he is. GENERAL HOSPITAL's apparently
stupid enough to employ him but the rest of the world is moving far away
from Smith. ATLANTA BLACK STAR NEWS doesn't note that as part of his
effort to appease Chump, Smith attacked Joe Biden this week. Smith is
garbage.
Wednesday, June 17, 2026. Chump fizzles at the G7, he still won't
release the memo passed off as a deal, Markwayne Mullin 'forgot' about
disclosure, JD Vance has a book to pimp, staffers with the House
Oversight Committee went to Bryan, Texas to check up on Maxwell, and
much more.
The G7 took place. Chump attended. Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) reports how sad and humiliating it was for Chump.
Rob Gillies (AP) notes, "Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will leave the G7 summit on
Wednesday without a formal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump as
the free trade agreement between their countries faces an uncertain future. Canadian
leaders typically get a bilateral meeting with American presidents at
summits of the world’s leading industrialized democracies, but Carney
dismissed any notion of a snub." Tom Nichols (THE ATLANTIC) adds:
Donald
Trump arrived in France yesterday for this morning’s G7 summit and
promptly confirmed America’s capitulation to Iran. Instead of merely
repeating the outlines of what looks to be a terrible peace deal,
however, Trump made a series of statements so bizarre, even by his usual
standards, that they raise the question of whether the president still
understands the words that come out of his own mouth.
The
president began with a classic Trumpian move, daring his listeners to
forget today what they knew yesterday. Just this winter, Trump had
promised the Iranian people that the tyrants who ruled them would be
gone. But now? “I never cared about regime change,” he told reporters,
waving away his failure to achieve a primary strategic goal by denying
that it had ever been a goal at all.
One
of the largest fertilizer companies in the world, the Mosaic Company,
is losing money because a small amount of a specific ingredient is stuck
in the Strait of Hormuz.
Mosaic makes
phosphorus fertilizer, which contains sulfur and ammonia. The war in
Iran has disrupted the world’s supply of sulfur, a fifth of which
travels through the strait. The price Mosaic receives for one ton of
fertilizer is about $800, and half that cost — before processing,
shipping and labor — now goes just to acquiring sulfur.
“If
we’re losing money every ton, the total losses can mount quickly,” Ben
Pratt, Mosaic’s vice president of public affairs, said in an interview.
Mosaic lost $258 million in its quarter ending March 30, and said it
would slow production at some of its plants. Even as the United States
and Iran reached a preliminary agreement on Sunday to end the war that
has roiled the region since March, it would take months for ship traffic
and supply chains to return to normal, and years for destroyed energy
and fertilizer infrastructure to be rebuilt.
A
full reopening of the strait will eventually cause fertilizer prices to
fall, but they will remain above their prewar levels for years to come,
said Shawn Arita, an agricultural economist at North Dakota State
University.
“The spike resolves with the
Strait; the premium resolves with reconstruction, and that looks more
like a 2028 story than a 2027 one,” he wrote in an email.
Chump
may have ended the Iran War he started, he may not have. We won't know
until Friday at the earliest.
But we do know fertilizer will remain high this
year and next. And we can all thank him for that.
The war has set in motion changes that will be hard to reverse.
The
near shutdown in oil and gas deliveries from the Middle East and the
leap in prices are causing a shift in power. Energy producers from the
Gulf to the Americas are jockeying to maintain or increase their
dominance, and customers are struggling to reduce their dependency and shore up their supply.
As a result, the energy market is changing, the energy mix is changing and the energy players are changing.
[. . .]
Inflation
is also starting to roar. In the United States, it rose for the third
month in row, hitting an annual rate of 4.2 percent in May. And instead
of planning for the next drop in interest rates, Wall Street is
expecting the Federal Reserve to increase rates at least once this year.
Last week, the European Central Bank raised rates to 2.25 percent. “The war in the Middle East is generating inflation pressures,” the bank said.
Drivers
hopeful that the U.S.-Iran framework deal will translate to lower
gasoline prices will probably have to wait weeks, or longer, to see
meaningful improvement.
Energy analysts refer
to the swing of prices as “up like a rocket, down like a feather” — a
phenomenon that means gasoline costs quickly rise alongside the price of
crude oil but are slow to follow its descent.
One
of the main reasons is that gas station owners tend to lose money or
make only small profits when prices are shooting up because they are not
able to raise prices fast enough to make up for soaring costs. So when
wholesale prices start to go down, station owners are slow to bring
retail prices down to make up for their poor financial performance on
the way up.
The average price of regular
gasoline in the United States went up roughly 50 percent between Feb.
28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran, and the middle of
May. It has receded since then and was $4.04 a gallon on Tuesday,
according to the AAA motor club.
But a new CNN/SSRS poll,
conducted between May 7 and 31 among 2,480 adults, shows Republicans
are facing growing political headwinds ahead of the November elections,
with fewer voters identifying as Republicans.
The
survey found that among registered voters, Democrats now hold a slight
advantage over Republicans, with 31 percent identifying as Democrats
compared to 28 percent who identify as Republicans. Another 41 percent
say they do not identify with either major party.
That
marks a notable reversal from 2024, when Republicans held a three-point
advantage in party identification among registered voters. At that
time, 34 percent identified as Republicans, 31 percent as Democrats, and
35 percent said they belonged to neither party.
Young children often struggle to
admit blame. Demented old man can suffer from the same avoidance. With
young children, their emotional regulating is still developing and a
mistake can cause them to question their self-worth and activate
feelings of shame. Apparently, elderly men suffering from dementia,
like Donald Chump, go through something similar. Owen Scott (INDEPENDENT) reports:
The
Trump administration has hit out at former President Obama after the
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool water turned green, despite a
much-touted $14 million renovation.
Work on the
pool was completed last week, after President Donald Trump vowed to
paint the space an “American flag blue.” However, the familiar green
algae often spotted in the pool returned just days later.
The
Washington Post revealed on Tuesday the latest cost estimates for
President Donald Trump’s highly controversial ballroom, which he
promised the American people would be funded entirely by private donors.
The Post obtained
a “detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the
contractor” that instead showed the cost would come in at $600 million,
with over half the cost being burdened by the public. Even more
remarkable, the Post notes, Trump received the estimate three weeks
before publicly saying the project would cost $400 million and include
no public funding.
“This is taxpayer-free. We have
no taxpayer putting up 10 cents,” Trump declared in the Oval Office on
March 31, well after receiving the estimate.
“President
Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the
tune of approximately $400 million, which will be a secure and
appropriate venue for Presidents for generations to come,” White House
spokesman Davis Ingle wrote in a statement to the Post.
The
Post also reached out to the contractor that prepared the estimate,
McLean, Virginia-based Clark Construction, which said through a
spokesperson that “all project details are confidential and referred
questions to the White House.”
On the topic of childish Chump and actual children, he continues his war on education. Annie Ma (AP) reports,
"President Donald Trump’s administration is further dismantling the
Department of Education, moving oversight of special education and civil
rights to other agencies. The Department of Justice will take on
enforcement of civil rights in education, while the Department of Health
and Human Services will oversee special education. The Trump
administration made the announcement on Tuesday." Bianca Quilantan, Mackenzie Wilkes and Rebecca Carballo (POLITICO) add:
The
shift of special education in particular is likely to garner some
pushback on Capitol Hill, including among Republican lawmakers who want
to ensure that the federal government is meeting its legal obligations
to students with disabilities.
Advocates for
children with disabilities have warned that moving special education out
of the Education Department could derail progress made in educating
students with disabilities and splitting its responsibilities between
multiple agencies could dampen coordination among offices responsible
for enforcing civil rights laws and carrying out K-12 programs. The
special education office is also responsible for ensuring states are in
compliance with the federal disability education law.
As
of last June, over 30 states and territories need assistance with
meeting IDEA requirements for students with disabilities ages 3-21. And
roughly 20 states and territories need assistance meeting federal
mandates for early intervention services for infants and toddlers,
according to an analysis of Education Department information. A handful
of states “need intervention” which could mean a state has to create an
improvement plan or strike a compliance deal with the federal
government.
Zachary Schermele (USA TODAY) points out, "The
announcement is also the latest attempt by the Trump administration to
use so-called "interagency agreements" to, effectively, kill the
Education Department without congressional action. Over the past year,
the Education Department has initiated more than a half dozen
partnerships with other federal agencies, including the Labor and
Interior Departments, to outsource much of its work." He's dismantling
the entire cabinet. Arthur Jones II (ABC NEWS) notes, "President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on closing the agency."
For
years, federal health officials have warned about the risks associated
with a supplement derived from the leaves of kratom trees that adherents
say can kill pain or boost energy. Sold in gas stations across America,
kratom has been linked to liver toxicity, seizures and thousands of
deaths.
Powerful figures close to President
Trump, including Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, pushed to
downplay those concerns.
Mr. Mullin, until
recently a Republican senator from Oklahoma, played a key role in a
sprawling influence campaign spearheaded by the kratom industry that
courted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Vice President JD
Vance, among others in the Trump administration, an investigation by The
New York Times found.
Only when he was
nominated by Mr. Trump in March to lead the Homeland Security Department
did it become clear that Mr. Mullin had a financial connection to the
supplement. In a disclosure statement,
he listed an investment worth as much as $1 million in a kratom
company, Botanic Tonics, that could benefit from the changes he has
sought.
[. . .]
In
July, while still a senator, Mr. Mullin showed up at a Food and Drug
Administration news conference and endorsed proposed federal
restrictions on more powerful synthetic supplements that compete with
kratom for shelf space. In explaining his position, Mr. Mullin pointed
to a history of addiction in his family, though health experts say
kratom products have also been shown to be addictive.
His
disclosure form did not indicate when he acquired his stake in Botanic
Tonics, but he has not filed paperwork to indicate that he has divested
from it.
The Homeland Security Department did
not answer questions about the investment. In a statement, the
department said that Mr. Mullin “follows all ethics and conflict of
interest standards and has not lobbied for any individual or company.”
It's
been months since the Department of Homeland Security issued a press
release accusing a Rhode Island federal judge of knowingly ordering the
release of an international homicide suspect in a habeas corpus case. The falsehood is still online
in its original form to this day, "despite the government's knowledge
that it is false," and the suspect remains at large, according to the
court. And now, a DOJ lawyer has been called on the carpet for making
the equivalent of an "affirmative false statement" to protect his
client.
On Tuesday, the
U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island provided
Law&Crime with a statement and the outcome of an investigation into
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan. Law&Crime previously reported
that U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, in late April, granted the release
of Bryan Rafael Gomez. In response, DHS posted a press release calling
the ruling "yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart
President Trump's mandate from the American people to remove criminal
illegal aliens from our communities."
The
problem then and the problem now is that the government claimed DuBose
knew Gomez had a homicide warrant out for his arrest in the Dominican
Republic, but that the Joe Biden-appointed judge ordered his release
anyway to endanger the American public. Once the judge forced Bolan to
testify in court, however, it became clear that DuBose had no such
knowledge about the warrant.
Bolan said that he
"sincerely" apologized for the "consequences" of his "lack of
disclosure," claiming he was following ICE's guidance that he was not
allowed to "disclose that information," not knowing that ICE "had
previously disclosed that same information on April 16, 2026," and
publicly, though not directly to DuBose.
In case that representation wasn't clear enough, acting Attorney
General Todd Blanche's name appeared on a filing that clarified DuBose
"did not have knowledge at the time of her ruling that Gomez was wanted
by authorities in the Dominican Republic."
When
DuBose questioned Bolan during a show-cause hearing, he said he reached
out to anyone capable of getting the DHS post taken down, but those
efforts were in vain. The judge heard the apology and explanation but
nonetheless referred the matter for potential disciplinary action,
considering the government's withholding of "highly relevant information
and their lack of candor to this Court[.]"
The
statement Tuesday comes after a special counsel he appointed to
investigate alleged misconduct by a Justice Department attorney
concluded that the lawyer had made a serious ethical violation, but that
he should not face formal disciplinary proceedings.
Chief
Judge John McConnell said that that a special counsel “found sufficient
evidence to conclude” that Kevin Bolan, a top lawyer in the Rhode
Island US attorney’s office, hadn’t followed his obligation to be honest
and transparent in court when he deliberately withheld information
about a years-old homicide arrest warrant for a migrant. District Judge
Melissa DuBose later ordered officials to release the migrant from ICE
custody.
[. . .]
The
situation in Rhode Island is among a series of professional mishaps by
Justice Department lawyers over the past 16 months that have frustrated
federal judges sifting through thousands of cases stemming from
President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation push and other
controversial moves that have been challenged in court.
Earlier
this month, a different judge in the Ocean State referred several other
government attorneys for disciplinary proceedings after their conduct
in a case over the administration’s probe into the provision of
gender-affirming care for minors raised questions about whether they
were acting improperly in court.
Miss Sassy JD
Vance has a book to sell and with his personality? It's a stretch.
But he's going around to anyone who will have him. Monday it was FOX
AND FRIENDS. Kathleen O'Boyle (THE MIRROR) notes the reaction to that appearance:
But
while the vice president spoke about the alleged threat, social media
was zoned in on what some viewers believed was his eyeliner.
One
person wrote, “JD Vance [went] heavy on the eyeliner this morning.”
“Guess the Senate’s new makeup includes a touch of glam, because even
politicians need a good winged liner for those filibuster selfies,”
someone else responded.
A third
person joked, “JD: I’m sorry, but My Chemical Romance is not going to
hire you as their rhythm guitarist.” “Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe
it’s Maybelline,” one person quipped.
Another
added, “The more stress he’s under the more eyeliner JD applies,” and
one more saying, ““This is very, very dark stuff.” Clearly referring to
his guyliner.”
“What’s up with JD Vance using heavy eyeliner this morning on Fox and Friends?” a final person asked.
This
is not the first time Vance’s appearance has sparked conversation
online. He has long faced speculation about whether he wears eye makeup
or has enhanced lashes. During the 2024 election debates, viewers, both
familiar and unfamiliar with Vance, questioned his appearance, with some
suggesting he appeared to be wearing makeup around his eyes.
Sunny Hostin then brought up the Epstein files, asking why the administration has yet to release the entirety of the documents.
“I
wanted to have full transparency. What I disagree with is the idea the
White House wasn’t committed to full transparency,” Vance said. He
added, “I have to defend my boss,” noting that “Epstein hated Donald
Trump” because “Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police.”
(According to a recently released FBI interview summary, Trump
reportedly told police officers in Florida “thank goodness you’re
stopping him” in relation to Epstein in 2006.)
Behar
pushed back on Vance, saying of Trump and Epstein, “They were best
friends for a decade.” And Navarro argued that Trump and Epstein’s
fallout had nothing to do with the latter’s sex crimes but rather a
“real estate deal they got into a fight over.” “Let’s be truthful and
transparent. They didn’t just know each other. They were close friends,”
she said.
On
the topic of Epstein, he confirmed reporting in Maggie Haberman and
Jonathan Swan’s forthcoming book “Regime Change” that says White House
chief of staff Susie Wiles privately described Vance as a conspiracy
theorist.
“I love Susie, but absolutely, she
thinks I’m a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff,” he said,
“because I think that it’s crazy that you had this guy who is clearly a
sex predator who was hanging out with a lot of very wealthy and powerful
people. Like, that really bothered me. I don’t know what’s there, of
course, nobody knows exactly what happened unless you were there, but
that really bothered me, and I wanted to have full transparency.”
Vance
repeatedly pushed back when the co-hosts pointed out Trump’s past ties
to Epstein. He falsely suggested that the friendship was “back in the
1980s,” when in fact the close relationship was documented throughout
the 1990s.
According to an FBI document, Trump called
the Palm Beach Police Department when the police opened an
investigation into Epstein in the mid-2000s and said, “Thank goodness
you’re stopping him. Everyone has known he’s been doing this.”
Vance
depicted the call this way: Trump “narced on him to the police and led
ultimately to Jeffrey Epstein’s downfall.” But an investigation was
already underway at the time.
Vance
told the show that “I have to defend my boss,” and in doing so, he
cited how Trump kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago resort and reported
Epstein to police, according to the files.
He
also signed the Epstein Transparency Act, Vance said, only to be told by
Ana Navarro that this was done “under duress” after a MAGA backlash and
dissent within his own ranks.
Vance rejected this. “I was there, he called the senators and said, you know what, pass this bill, I’ll sign it,” he insisted.
“Why haven’t we seen the release of over 2.5 million additional Epstein final documents?” asked Sunny Hosten.
“I’m
going to check on this to make sure, but my understanding is that a lot
of those are duplicates of things that have already been released,”
Vance replied.
“We’re not holding anything back.”
What
I disagree with is the idea that the White House wasn't committed to
full transparency. We need to remember, like, I was inside the room when
some of these decisions were made.
Yes, he was. And last week, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan (NEW YORK TIMES) reported on
the Situation Room meetings of Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi, Susie Wiles, JD
Vance and other members of the administration to plot on how to deceive
the American people about Epstein and specifically Chump's closeness to
Epstein. That would have been a strong topic to address.
Ghislaine
Maxwell has reportedly assembled a "highly secretive" prison group
behind bars as more details behind her incarceration at a minimum
security facility have been revealed, The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.
The
former partner and co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein has befriended
three women and allegedly sees them as the "finest and best educated"
among the population at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, according to
The Mail. These friends include Bethany Cataldi, 54, "a disgraced
doctor serving eight years for charging the government for non-existent
procedures." Another is former CFO Antonietta Nguyen, 58, "who plundered
$9 million from company funds to splurge on purses and luxury
vacations."
Maxwell's reported
best friend is Jennifer Bengston Cook, 58, a former bookkeeper who
"wrote checks worth $1.6 million to herself."
"They
are highly secretive. They whisper to one another and cover their
mouths so nobody can understand what they are saying," a source told The
Mail.
There are also reports of special privileges
for Maxwell behind bars, including the decision over who she bunks with
at the location. She has also only had one roommate, while most other
prisoners have to bunk with two other people.
"The
cozy arrangement caused a stink because it's normally up to prison
counsellors to decide who sleeps where inside the 37-acre compound that
accommodates 635 women," The Mail reported.
Yesterday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued the following:
Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia,
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on
the Judiciary, issued the following statement after Todd Blanche’s
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) failed to answer basic questions relating the
Committees’ investigation into Ghislaine Maxwell’s unprecedented prison
transfer and preferential treatment at Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan,
following a Committee staff visit to the facility.
“Today, investigators from our Committees traveled to FPC Bryan,
where Ghislaine Maxwell is serving her sentence, despite BOP policies
barring sex offenders from this minimum-security facility absent a
special waver. We went to Camp Bryan seeking answers about Ms. Maxwell’s
unprecedented transfer and VIP treatment.
“While the Camp Bryan staff provided an extensive tour of the grounds
and programming of the facility, Bureau of Prisons leadership
repeatedly shut down our lines of questioning or could not provide basic
information about our central concerns, including Ms. Maxwell’s
extraordinary treatment, allegations of sexual assault at the facility,
and retaliation against inmates who tried to blow the whistle. We also
have serious concerns about the accuracy and veracity of information
received by our investigative staff.
“The American people are tired of seeing the Trump Administration
pamper a sex trafficker and obstruct Congress’s investigation into
Attorney General Blanche’s role in ensuring Ms. Maxwell remains
comfortable and quiet.
In
a note written on July 22, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein appeared to portray
himself “as a victim of the #MeToo movement,” and also compared his
situation to the 19th century antisemitic persecution of a French Army
officer, The New York Times revealed Tuesday after obtaining a collection of “never seen before” notes from the convicted child sex offender.
The
note in question was written four days after Epstein had been denied
bail, and scrawled across the top was the phrase “J’ACCUSE,” which
roughly translates to “I accuse” in English. The phrase, the Times
notes, is a likely reference to the 1898 open letter of the same name
accusing the French government of antisemitism for the persecution of
Alfred Dreyfus, a military officer who was falsely accused of espionage
and imprisoned on a brutal prison island.
“‘Jewish
– Rich – Politics,’ he wrote, seemingly comparing himself to Dreyfus,”
the Times’ report reads. “‘Believe the victim = Believe the Accuser’ he
wrote, adding, ‘CRAZY!’”
It would also be just
hours later after the note was written that Epstein would be discovered
in his cell semi-conscious with a noose around his neck in what was
reported to be a suicide attempt, though Epstein initially claimed his cellmate had attacked him before walking the allegation back.
Of
course, many people attempted to help him make and form that argument
over the years. Intellectual Noem Chomsky was one. Kathy Ruemmler was
another.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:
Murray slams the Inter-Agency
Agreements inked today by the Education Department to offload the
responsibilities of the Office for Civil Rights to Todd Blanche’s DOJ
and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
to RFK Jr.’s HHS
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the
following statement on Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s announcement
today that the Department of Education is illegally transferring the
responsibilities of the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to
the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) through Inter-Agency Agreements (IAA).
“The Trump administration is abandoning kids with
disabilities and its most basic legal responsibility to protect the
rights of every student in the classroom.
“After spending the last year smashing the Office for Civil
Rights to pieces, President Trump and Secretary McMahon are now turning
to Todd Blanche to deliver the final blow. And after spending months
vowing she would protect students with disabilities, Secretary McMahon
is ignoring the families of students with disabilities who pleaded with
her not to entrust RFK Jr. with the responsibility of ensuring their
kids get the education they deserve. It makes zero sense to scatter
federal education programs all over the government—with different
agencies managing different educational programs and each of them
lacking the expertise to do it.
“Instead of helping kids get a great education, this
administration is spending its time, energy, and taxpayer resources
fixated on where employees sit and illegally trying to shutter the
Department of Education. It’s an outrageous betrayal that undoes decades
of hard-won progress for students. More kids with disabilities will be
denied the education they are entitled to by law, and more college
students who were harassed or assaulted will go without the justice they
are owed.
“Democrats tried hard to block these illegal arrangements in
our most recent funding bill, but Republicans refused. It’s past time
Republicans join us to say enough is enough. I’m going to keep fighting
to force this administration to help students get the education they are
entitled to under law.”
OCR is charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws to protect
students’ rights in the classroom, and the Department of Education
Organization Act of 1979 mandates the existence of the Office for Civil
Rights at the Education Department to carry out these responsibilities.
Last year, the Trump administration thoughtlessly eliminated more
than half of the staff in the Office for Civil Rights and closed half of
the regional field offices, and in the time since, there has been a precipitous drop-off in the resolution of students’ cases. In 2025, the Department reached
the lowest number of resolutions in 12 years and reached zero
resolutions for students facing serious incidents including sexual
harassment, sexual violence, seclusion, restraint, racial harassment,
and discriminatory school discipline. Senator Murray has mobilized against the administration’s efforts to hollow out OCR, called out how it’s hurt students and families, and she’s repeatedlypressed Secretary McMahon on the issue.
OSERS is charged with implementing and enforcing the Rehabilitation
Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which
mandate that students with disabilities get the free appropriate public
education and independence they deserve. In April, Senator Murray pressed
Secretary McMahon on her plans to potentially offload OSERS’
responsibilities and told McMahon: “That is exactly why these parents
and advocates are spitting mad because what they want to make sure is
that their child with a disability has an education.”
Senator Murray hasaggressivelypushedbackagainst
Secretary McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department, including
through the illegal use of IAAs, and she fought to insert ironclad
language in the fiscal year 2026 funding bill for the Department that
would bar Secretary McMahon from using IAAs to dismantle the
Department—but Republicans refused to include new, binding language that
would block arrangements like the ones announced today.
Sally Field is looking back at her relationship with Burt Reynolds.
The
actress, 79, opened up about working with her late partner, as well as
their personal relationship, during her appearance on Turner Classic
Movies' Talking Pictures podcast.
Field
explained that she first connected with Reynolds when the late actor got
wind that she might potentially be his Smokey and the Bandit co-star,
which was a surprise to the actress. After searching for the perfect
project after the conclusion of The Flying Nun, she had just wrapped her
breakthrough television film, Sybil.
“I
was so shocked that he would call me, and I thought, ‘He couldn't have
seen Sybil, because boy, I look really like a very mentally ill person
in it.' And he said, ‘No, I hadn't seen it. I just always liked you in
Gidget,' " she recalled.
I noted the TCM interview yesterday but I'll note it again.
Award-winning
actor Shirley MacLaine is perhaps best known for her starring breakout
role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film "The Trouble with Harry," as well
as roles in "The Apartment," "Terms of Endearment," and "Steel
Magnolias." But as it turns out, she's something of a lifestyle
connoisseur and longevity expert, as well. "I have what I consider just a
perfect life... I eat what I want, I sleep when I want," the "Sage-ing
While Age-ing" author told People in 2019, ahead of her 85th birthday.
Fast forward to her 90th birthday on April 24, 2024, and she was still
singing the same tune. "I have my friends and I am really healthy," she
declared during an interview with People.
In
March 2017, MacLaine revealed to The Florida Times-Union that she had
given up smoking the previous year. (In case you're wondering, here's what happens to your lungs when you give up smoking.)
Ironically, however, it appears the longevity aficionado draws the line
at her beloved cocktail. As reported by the New York Post, in December
2025, she was spotted enjoying a casual lunch with her male assistant,
noshing on a sandwich and sipping an ice-cold martini. Cheers?
Julia
Roberts was also in STEEL MAGNOLIAS and she took part in Jane Fonda's
recent Rise Up action on Saturday so let me note this.
Tuesday, June 16, 2026. Chump's 'deal' with Iran remains shrouded in
secrecy, news of JD Vance advocating to implement the Insurrection Act
hits the news cycle just as he was presenting a kinder and gentler fake
JD in his new book, the administration considered suspending habeas
corpus and much more.
The 'deal' that
we were told would be reached over last weekend hasn't been. It's said
now that it will be released on Friday at which point, We The People
will know what our government agreed to. Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS) covers
it in the video below.
Several high-ranking U.S. officials are privately skeptical of the
memorandum of understanding with Iran signed by the Trump
administration, Axios reported on Monday.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance
signed the memo with Iranian officials to put the countries on a
pathway to end the war. Details of the arrangement are sparse, but it
reportedly involves Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and agreeing to
nuclear inspections. In exchange, the U.S. will end the naval blockade
of Iran, unfreeze Iranian assets, and allow the country access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund. The latter provision has been both floated by Vance and denied by Trump.
Politicians and pundits have called on the administration to release the text of the memo.
On Monday, Axios reported
that top officials in Trump’s circle have serious doubts about the
deal. These include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense
Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
President
Donald Trump isn’t likely to admit he shares a penchant for dealmaking
with one of his predecessors, Bill Clinton, that’s become more evident
with the opaque agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran.
The
deal, which has lifted Asian and European stocks to record highs and
looks set to power U.S. stocks back towards their record peaks of early
June, takes a page out of Clinton’s Middle East playbook by unveiling a
sweeping agreement on a key principal, but leaving the more
difficult—and potentially deal-breaking—discussions for another day.
Further
details will be sorted out in the next phase of negotiations, which is
expected to last for roughly 60 days. That includes ironing out the
process for destroying and disposing of Iran’s highly enriched uranium
stockpile.
“Our
expectation is that the strait is going to be opened in a toll-free way
for the long term, and that’s the sort of thing that we’re going to
figure out in these technical negotiations,” Vance said, adding that the
U.S. has “all the cards” in the talks.
Trump
muddied matters Sunday by saying that Iran could immediately resume oil
exports and that the U.S. would lift its blockade of Iranian ports once
the agreement was signed. For weeks, administration officials asserted
Iran would get no financial lifeline or relief from the blockade until
it had followed through on dismantling its nuclear work. Iran insisted
it would first get at least $12 billion from its frozen assets abroad
before fresh nuclear talks begin, a statement U.S. officials quickly
denied.
American
lawmakers are already angling to have their say in approving or
scuttling the accord. Democrats who opposed the war met Trump’s
announcement with tepid support in hopes of reopening the strait. But
some Republicans, largely supportive of Trump, still signaled their
reservations.
“Under
our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review
and a vote,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a prominent Iran hawk
and Trump ally, said in a social-media post Sunday. “I look forward to
reviewing the final product and I believe it is imperative that the
architect of the deal, Vice President Vance and his negotiating
partners, be part of the process in presenting the final deal to
Congress.”
On the heels of his disappointing nonsense on Sunday,
Chump is now planning a July 4th event -- a rally at the Lincoln
Memorial entitled "Tribute to America." Riya Misra (POLITICO) notes:
It’s
his latest effort to cast the nation’s marquee anniversary in his own
likeness. On his 80th birthday Sunday, Trump transformed the White House
lawn into a fighting ring, officially kicking off the birthday
celebrations — both America’s and his — with one of his favorite sports.
(Trump has been a decades-long fixture at Ultimate Fighting
Championship matches, and CEO Dana White is a close friend).
“More
than 300 Members of our strong and talented Military Bands, Orchestras,
and Ceremonial Units, will perform Patriotic Melodies and American
Classics,” he wrote, “and my Playlist (We will have none of those people
that put you to sleep and constantly complain!) ....”
“Do not miss it,” he continued.
His
face will be stamped on America 250-themed passports and coinage. And
he’ll personally headline the Great American State Fair, a two-week
showcase on the National Mall, after half of the event’s performers
withdrew, citing concerns about the fair’s ties to Trump. Meanwhile, the
fair will feature a slate of conservative outlets, including
evangelical and religious groups, political advocacy organizations and
an anti-LGBTQ+ ministry.
Only
some people, please note, are invited to celebrate. Leave it to Chump
and his posse of hatred to bring in anti-LGBTQ+ ministry. Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes:
One
day after celebrating his 80th birthday with a UFC spectacle on the
White House lawn, President Trump looked like he was feeling every bit
his age while visiting France for the G7 summit.
Speaking
with the media with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday, Trump was
struggling to keep his eyes open as Macron praised the developments on
peace with Iran, even as Macron often turned to Trump to acknowledge his
efforts.
Later, appearing outdoors with Macron and his
wife Brigitte, Trump looked tired and his right hand appeared swollen
and discolored.
Donald
Trump has received an unwanted birthday present—a new poll showing his
approval rating has hit a new low in his second term as president.
Trump, who turned 80 on Sunday, crashed out in the latest NBC News poll, awkwardly released on his birthday.
The
polling found his approval rating among all American adults currently
sits at 39 percent. Trump’s approval rating among registered voters
dropped to 42 percent, matching his lowest point from July 2020, during
the COVID-19 pandemic and the reaction to the murder of George Floyd.
Almost
two-thirds of independent voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing
as president, and there has been a slight fall in his support from
Republicans.
Meanwhile
Miss Sassy JD Vance is out promoting his latest book. He talks about
his "cat lady" remarks and calls it a mistake he's learned from. He
says nothing similar about the lie that Haitian immigrants were eating
cats in Ohio. More to the point, he says nothing about the Insurrection
Act. Something he called for invoking months ago.
Top
White House officials reportedly debated whether Donald Trump should
invoke the Insurrection Act after federal agents killed two protesters
in Minnesota, but feared the political and public relations blowback
over images of U.S. troops on American streets.
The
president repeatedly threatened to invoke the law in his nationwide
campaign to rapidly deport tens of thousands of people from
Democratic-led cities patrolled by hundreds of masked and heavily armed
officers.
But discussions
reportedly came to a head after federal immigration agents fatally shot
Renee Good and Alex Pretti during January’s demonstrations in
Minneapolis, according to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times for their forthcoming book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.
Days
after Pretti was killed, Vice President JD Vance reportedly walked into
the office of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to make the case
that the president should send a message to protesters by invoking the
Insurrection Act.
Trump’s opponents warned for
months that a surge of militarized Homeland Security officers would only
stir up more unrest, giving the president an opening to invoke the
Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops into cities run by his
political enemies.
A previously unreported
confidential memo was circulated among White House officials in October
2025 as the president publicly declared his right to invoke the
Insurrection Act to crush protests against his mass deportation efforts.
Last spring, Will Scharf, an
arch-conservative lawyer serving as the White House staff secretary,
wrote a secret memo to the chief of staff that reflected growing unease
in the West Wing about one of the extreme measures being weighed by
Stephen Miller, the powerful adviser driving President Trump’s
deportation campaign.
Dated April 29, 2025, and stamped “confidential,” the memo
was careful and lawyerly but amounted to a warning against end-running
the rule of law. The subject line read: “THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS.”
Habeas corpus
— the centuries-old right to force the government to justify, before a
judge, why it has locked a person up — is enshrined in Article I of the
Constitution. Mr. Scharf’s memo, in its unassuming way, was a blinking
red warning light. The second Trump White House was deliberating an
explosive new claim of presidential power: the suspension of habeas
rights for unauthorized immigrants.
The
suspension of habeas corpus has occurred just a handful of times in
U.S. history, and always under the most dire circumstances of war or
invasion. Yet to a greater degree than previously known, administration
officials, encouraged by Mr. Trump, actively weighed taking that step in
the early months of his second term — this time to accelerate the mass
deportation of immigrants in the country illegally.
[. . .]
The Constitution, Mr. Scharf wrote in
his memo to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, permits
suspension of habeas corpus only in cases of rebellion or invasion.
Courts have almost uniformly held that only Congress can do it.
He
added: “Even where Congress has explicitly suspended habeas corpus
rights, the Supreme Court has held that some alternative process must be
provided to defendants, with procedural safeguards akin to a habeas
corpus action.”
Some members of the
administration were angling to throw out the Constitution. So when one
of them says that -- "thorw out the Constitution" -- in a live interview
on TV, we need to be alarmed. Sunday, a Cabinet Secretary did just
that. In other news, Alex Galbraith (SALON) notes:
The Republican senator from Oklahoma told CNN‘s Dana Bash that he’s ready to “throw out the Constitution” to make sure “only citizens of the United States are voting.”
“What we want to make sure is that every vote actually counts, that
we’re not having games like you might see in sanctuary cities. I’m not
saying they are,” he said. “Democrats always want to throw out the
Constitution all the time. Well, great, let’s throw out the
Constitution.”
When Bash gave Mullin a questioning look, he immediately backpedaled.
“I mean, not throw it out. Throw it out as an argument,” he said. “I’m glad you had that look on your face.”
No,
he meant throw out the Constitution. He's an idiot. He took an oath
to the Constitution when he was sworn in the US Senate and he took an
oath to it when he became Secretary of Homeland Security. Someone
doesn't appear smart enough to grasp what taking an oath means.
The next time he appears before Congress, he needs to be asked about those remarks.
President
Donald Trump’s efforts to turn his second term into a big vanity
project largely focused on himself are looking increasingly messy.
It
would be one thing for him to go to such great lengths to build an
elaborate White House ballroom and slap his name on buildings in the
best of times; but Trump’s timing would seem exceedingly tone deaf,
given most Americans are more concerned about their own pocketbooks than
honoring a historically unpopular president.
And
repeatedly in recent days and weeks, the administration’s initiatives
have run into roadblocks and its efforts to embellish Washington, DC,
(often by skirting the law) have looked rather haphazard.
Perhaps most striking was Trump’s setback at the Kennedy Center.
After
he effectively hijacked the center’s board by installing loyalists, the
board moved to — surprise! — put Trump’s name on the building late last
year. They added it alongside the deceased president whose name was on
the building as a matter of federal law.
But
after the courts predictably ruled that was illegal, the administration
has had to confront the optics of taking Trump’s name off the building. As I wrote earlier this month, that removal threatened to be “an indelible — and telling — image.”
And
lo, when the Kennedy Center was compelled to take Trump’s name off the
building this weekend, it was conveniently done in the middle of the
night. Scaffolding was constructed and tarps were hung to obstruct those
assembled from viewing it.
By Monday, the face of the building was still covered up.
Speaking
of things not exactly going according to plan: Trump and many allies
have celebrated his administration’s legally dubious effort to paint the
bottom of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool dark blue.
While
perhaps a commendable idea, the cost of the project ballooned from
Trump’s initial estimate of $1.8 million to more than $14 million. The
contractor was also given a no-bid contract, which is generally reserved for special circumstances. The New York Times also reported that the company was allowed a profit margin much higher than normal, according to a National Park Service analysis.
And now, less than a week after Trump announced the project was
finished, the Reflecting Pool has been overrun with algae, turning the
water a familiar shade of green.
This
weekend, two formerly lauded public institutions humiliated themselves
in spectacular fashion. By Sunday, one was shrouded in thousands of
yards of tarpaulin — a translucent prophylactic, hiding an old man’s
flaccid defeat. The other dangled limply in the breeze, its useless
degradation on full display.
The occasion of
this display of onanism was the courts’ refusal to let Trump rechristen
the Kennedy Center in honor of himself. After booting the prior board,
he filled out the roster with cronies and wives of cronies, led by
“an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” His henchmen, including
sentient s[**]tpost Ric Grenell, as executive director, set about
alienating every artist to the left of Lee Greenwood. By happenstance,
the patriotic pop singer is the only artist currently on the Kennedy
Center’s Board.
In December, the Board
announced that it had agreed to rename the institution “The Donald J.
Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The
decision was “unanimous,” thanks to the recently amended bylaws, which
purported to strip voting rights from ex officio trustees. The steady
trickle of artist cancellations increased to a tsunami. Faced with the
evaporation of the 2026 season, the Board voted to shut the Center down
entirely for two years, accelerating a planned renovation that had been
scheduled to take place in stages to allow performances to continue.
Rep. Joyce Beatty, one of those disenfranchised ex officio board members, sued to block the changes, and on May 29, she won. Judge Christopher Cooper granted
summary judgment on the name change and the voting issue, ruling that
the Board’s actions violated the plain language of the Kennedy Center’s
organic statute. He issued a preliminary injunction voiding the vote to
shut the place down, finding that the Trump trustees violated their
fiduciary duty consider the long-term health of the institution when
they simply obeyed Trump’s demand to close up shop.
The
judge ordered the Center to reverse the name change and remove all
signage within 14 days, and initially it looked like the Board intended
to comply. On June 4, management sent a memo
to the remaining staff instructing them to immediately remove all
references to the “Trump” Kennedy Center from the website and their
email signatures. But then on June 11, just hours before the deadline,
the Board noticed its appeal to the DC Circuit and requested that Judge Cooper stay his ruling.
That
motion was pretty desultory, even by the low standards of the current
DOJ — just five mumbled pages, rehashing rejected arguments and
asserting without evidence that taking Trump’s name off the building
would decimate fundraising. Judge Cooper rejected it in a cursory minute
order citing “both the de minimis resources that would be required to
restore the Center’s current name in the event of a successful appeal
and the lack of record evidence linking increased donations to the
current name.”
As this was going on, workers
began constructing scaffolding in front of the building, and a crowd
gathered to watch Trump’s name come down — our own little toppling of
the Saddam statue. Construction stopped mid-afternoon, putatively
because of a brief rain shower, but more likely because the Justice
Department had filed an emergency request for a stay from the DC Circuit.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
New Trustees Report reveals
Trump’s policies accelerate Social Security Trust Fund insolvency as top
Republicans threaten Social Security benefit cuts
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
pressed President Donald Trump on Republican threats to Social Security
after a new Trustees Report revealed that Republican policies are
accelerating Social Security’s insolvency. The letter also follows a
series of comments from Trump administration officials and Republican
leaders in Congress suggesting that they support benefit cuts.
“[T]hese comments cast fresh doubt on your ‘sacred pledge’ to ‘always
protect Social Security’ – and your failure to respond to our previous
requests for assurances – we urge you to clarify the administration’s
stance on raising the retirement age,” wrote the senators.
The Social Security Administration's 2026 Trustees Report revealed that Trump and Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will worsen the trust fund's finances and accelerate its insolvency.
Republicans have long supported increasing the retirement age,
privatizing Social Security, or otherwise cutting Social Security
benefits — and some have continued to make explicit threats even after
Trump promised not to ‘touch’ Social Security. Just last week, House
Speaker Mike Johnson indicated that Republicans intend to cut Social
Security, along with Medicare and Medicaid, if they are in a position to
do so next Congress. Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano
previously indicated that raising the retirement age — a critical cut to
Americans’ benefits — is under consideration.
A Senate Republican in a March Budget Committee hearing also
suggested raising the retirement age — which would, in practice, reduce
the median retiree’s monthly benefits and disproportionately harm
low-income seniors. And Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Administrator Mehmet Oz called for Americans to delay their retirement
and work longer in order to pay for the federal deficit, which Trump’s
OBBBA increased.
“The new estimates showing that your OBBBA will hasten the demise of
the Social Security trust fund, the ongoing pattern of comments
suggesting that Republicans will seek to increase the retirement age or
otherwise cut Social Security benefits, and the SSA customer service
chaos that is occurring under your watch and making it more difficult
for older Americans to interact with the agency when they need
assistance raise new questions about whether you will break – or are
already – breaking your promise to ‘not touch’ Social Security,” wrote the senators.
"Raising the retirement age – or otherwise cutting benefits – only
worsens the looming retirement income crisis, and, as we outlined in our
initial letter to you, doing so hurts older Americans, cutting monthly
benefits and forcing millions into poverty," continued the senators.
The senators pressed President Trump for answers to a series of
questions regarding the administration's plans for Social Security,
including whether he supports raising the retirement age, whether he
would veto legislation that increases the age of eligibility for Social
Security, and whether White House officials have discussed raising the
retirement age with Administrator Oz. The senators requested a response
by June 27, 2026.
Senator Warren has introduced legislation that would expand Social
Security benefits by $2,400 a year and ensure Social Security is fully
funded for the next 75 years while not raising taxes on over 91 percent
of American households.
Senate Democrats’ Social Security War Room
coordinates Democrats’ fight to defend Social Security, encourages
grassroots engagement by providing opportunities for Americans to share
what Social Security means to them, and educates Senate staff, the
American public, and stakeholders about Republicans’ agenda and their
continued cuts to Americans’ Social Security services and benefits:
In June 2026, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a Member of
the Senate Finance Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ranking
Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), pressed Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano
and three former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffers on
an alarming new whistleblower account detailing Trump administration
plans to mark 2.7 million people as dead in a Social Security database
as part of its immigration enforcement agenda.
In April 2026, Senate Democrats’ Social Security War Room, led by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), published a new report highlighting how, in its first year, it has fought to protect Americans’ Social Security benefits.
In March 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks
(D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy
Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen
(D-Md.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.), and Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) launched a new investigation
into the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ongoing customer
service crisis reaching new extremes, the latest from Senate Democrats’
Social Security War Room.
In March 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and
Representatives Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and
James Moylan (R-GU) led over 30 lawmakers in introducing the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Restoration Act, a bipartisan bill to strengthen critical SSI benefits that support nearly 8 million seniors and Americans with disabilities.
In December 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senator
Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, and U.S.
Representative Gabe Amo (D-RI-01) introduced the Social Security Survivor Benefits Equity Act,
bicameral legislation to increase the Social Security Administration’s
(SSA) lump-sum death benefit, which covers costs associated with
cremation or burials for surviving family members, to account for
inflation.
In December 2025, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee; Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.),
Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, wrote to Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano, pressing him on reports that the agency has a new goal of slashing field office visits by nearly 15 million annually.
In November 2025, Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth
Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.), both leading members of the Senate Democrats’ Social Security
War Room, launched a probe into Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano’s tenure as chief executive officer at Fiserv.
In October 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Finance Committee Ranking
Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Senators Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angela
Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand
(D-N.Y.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Alex
Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in
introducing the Social Security Emergency Inflation Relief Act.
In September 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on
Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, and Senate Democrats’
Social Security War Room leaders today introduced the Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act.
In July 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leader of the Senate Democrats’ Social Security War Room, secured key commitments and admissions from Social Security Administration (SSA) Commissioner Frank Bisignano during a private meeting.
In June 2025, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, pressed top Trump administration officials
on how President Trump’s chaotic tariffs — paired with his efforts to
dismantle the Social Security Administration — are harming America’s
seniors.
In May 2025, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member
of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member on the Senate Aging Committee, pressed new Commissioner of the Social Security Administration Frank Bisignano on reported plans to recategorize thousands of workers as Schedule F “policy-making” employees.
In May 2025, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member
of the Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Ranking Member of the Senate Aging Committee
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) welcomed newly-confirmed Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) Frank Bisignano
to the agency with copies of 17 letters — containing nearly 200
unanswered questions — the lawmakers had previously sent to the SSA
under Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek.
In April 2026, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking
Member on the Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Ranking Member on the Senate Special
Committee on Aging Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) led a coalition of over
100 Congressional Democrats in writing to the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), Leland Dudek, to demand that he keep Social Security field offices open.
